the metaphors and cultures of Dances with Wolves

Two Socks is a wolf that the main character John Dunbar is befriending in the film Dances with Wolves. Above all, Two Socks represents several different metaphors in the movie. First of all, Dunbar's relationship with the Sioux Indians parallels his relationship with Two Socks. As Dunbar is creating a bond with this creature throughout the movie, he is also creating a bond with a Sioux tribe. These two bonds are very similar. For example, the first time Mr. Dunbar see's the wolf he immediately gets his gun and takes aim, but when he realizes it is only a wolf, he does not shoot. This shows a lot about his character. Mr. Dunbar is not only aware of his environment but cares about it. The same type of situation happens when he encounters the Sioux for the first time.  One of the first times Mr. Dunbar sees the Indian man, his first thought is to kill him.  However, he cannot bring himself to do it because of a rush of emotions flowing through him as the mysterious Indian man stands in front of him.  Instead he lowers his gun as the Indian screams and rides off into the distance on his horse. Dunbar is instantly intrigued.  Both characters are not yet sure why they didn't kill each other. Interestingly, the wolf comes around more often, because he is realizing that Dunbar is not a threat.  Dunbar offers the wolf a piece of food from his hand, and he takes it, then runs off. In order to offer food from his bare hand, Dunbar has to completely trust the wolf. In addition, as Dunbar grows closer and closer with the Suix tribe, the tribe had to completely trust him, in order to survive.  Sadly, the wolf is eventually killed by the American military while Dunbar is being held captive.  The tribe comes to rescue Dunbar, and he goes and lives with the tribe.  Just as the wolf would have always come back to him.



John Dunbar goes through a great transformation throughout the film. He slowly becomes one of the Sioux people, but at first he is very satisfied with his way of life. He is also very clueless about other cultures, as subtly shown in the movie, when he is getting ready to go to a Sioux village for the first time. Dunbar wears his formal soldier uniform to try to impress them. In reality, this only makes him look worse to the tribe because they're in conflict, if not warring with the soldiers.  Most of the soldiers don't just want to talk to the Sioux, they want to kill them. Although the tribe is weary of Dunbar, they decide to talk. As the tribe and Dunbar become closer, they show each other many new things about their ways of life. For instance, the tribe eventually teaches Dunbar how to speak their native language, and Dunbar teaches the Sioux people how to use a rifle. Although this may not be historically accurate, it is a good way to express what the two different cultures have to give to one another. Ultimately there is no "superior culture".   But the movie portrayed the white culture to be more brutal.  That is most likely why Mr. Dunbar decides to join the Sioux people. They are more peaceful people than the American military by far. For example, as the American soldiers were riding back to the camp to execute Dunbar, because they viewed him as a trader, the soldiers saw Two Socks and shot him in cold blood without thinking twice about it. The Sioux people would have had more of a respectful connection to the wolf and would not have killed it. In the end, Dunbar's beliefs are completely changed due to all his experiences with these people. In fact he is willing to sacrifice everything for them.

Dancing With Wolves

One could say that Dancing with Wolves is a strong display of post dramatic stress, stratification of power and a lack of communication and understanding. The film shows many creative ways to depict these things. For example, Lieutenant Dunbar is on his horse looking into the distance as inspirational music plays. This happened multiple times throughout the film. It doesn't just happen with Dunbar either, there have been scenes of pathos on the Native American side as well. However, throughout scattered pathos scenes of Native Americans there are scenes of fear mis-communication and misunderstanding between cultures. For instance, there is a scene where Lieutenant Dunbar encounters a  Native American. It is obvious they are both scared of each other  most likely because of what each of there cultures have done to the other. Dunbar most likely sees the Native American to be a mysterious and deadly character. When in reality, he is just the same type of person as Dunbar. One thing that makes the two cultures different is their stratification of power. For the most part, the Native American warriors and elders are the leaders in their society.  This is shown in the scene when they were talking about what they should do with Dunbar. Interestingly, in the American military, the creators of this film decided to depict the leader to be a drunk, strange man who seemed unfit for his duty, however the Native Americans were depicted as wise. All these factors helped this film become a great visual tool to help people understand both sides of the story.

It could argued that before this movie, the American military is mainly depicted as the good side or the protagonist. Numerous people will not even acknowledge Native Americans and see them as bad or dumb people because of how Hollywood, for the most part, portrays them.  In the first scene of the film where  Native Americans are introduced, they are portrayed as brutal and savage. The Shawnee see a traveler and automatically kill and scalp him. This is an interesting point of view for someone who is seeing a Native American for the first time in the film. However, the film does not depict them as dumb, only savage. In a later scene, there is a group of Native American leaders sitting and talking about how they should proceed with Lieutenant Dunbar. This shows Native Americans did not just kill for fun, they have a mis-understanding of white mans' culture. A very bloody mis-understanding, American military came into several villages around that time and scalped woman and children as well.  In this film, costume shows cultural differences between people. For example, the Pawnee warriors are dressed up with all sorts of leather armor, headgear, face paint and other extremities. On the other side, Dunbar is dressing up with his sleek blue jacket, hat sward and golden cuff links. Dunbar might think he looks more civilized but really it is just a matter of perception. While Native Americans costume looks scary to us, a human probably looks just as scary to a lion.

Lakota/Sioux

The traditional Lakota people lived mostly Wisconsin and the Dakotas. Some have moved to different places around the country, but there are many reservations still around that area. There are currently about 85,000 in the Lakota population, 20,000 of those people still speak the native language.  The Lakota people are known for being great hunters. the traditional way of hunting was on horseback. Their primary reason for hunting would be buffalo. for the propose of almost every thing. For instance a plethora of tools, shelter and of course food. However now, the american buffalo is almost extinct because of a combination of commercial hunting and slaughter in the 19th century.

Cheyenne/Arapahoe

The early Arapahoe indians lived in Colorado and cheyenne Wyoming. in the 1850s the Arapahoe divided up into two separate tribes; the Northern arapahoe and the southern arapahoe. Ever since then the Northern arapahoe have been living in Wyoming and the southern arapahoe now lie in Oklahoma.  Historically, these people were known for their agriculture and their warriors.  Although they did hunt buffalo, they were also corn farmers. This is something they became very good at. In the traditional Arapahoe culture, most young men would aim to become a warrior because they were the foundation their society. The warriors would usually paint their faces, mixing different plants to create different colors. this would give them the affect of looking more intimidating and it also showed prestige. 

Wichita tribe

The wichita people live mainly in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Currently they have made an economic feat of 4.5 million from a casino, restaurant and smoke shop they own which is located in Oklahoma. The ancestors of the wichita people lived in Nebraska and spoke the caddoen language. They had huge houses made of hay which were spread out to about 20 per village. In some of these villages were mysterious places called "council circles" which are a central patio like structure and several subterranean structures. Archeologists are unclear to exactly what the porpoise of these are, but they think it might have something to do with the solstices. Many of the original wichita people were skilled in trading and negotiation. They traded with many other southern indian tribes. They would trade things like had made jewelry, clothing, tools and weapons. 

shawnee tribe

The shawnee people during the early 1700s were somewhat migratory people. They traveled from place to place, which is why they created a somewhat temporary living quarters known as tipis. Horses would carry them on there back as they traveled from place to place. Some of the places they stayed were; Ohio, Virginia, south Carolina, and Illinois. The shawnee people had many early encounters with colonists. One of the earliest was a dutch map that shows records of a shawnee canoes in the Delaware river. intact, canoes were used quite often by the shawnee and several other tribes. They would make them by cutting out the inside of a tree, this would painstakingly take months, however some could fit up to 15 people! Canoes were very helpful to the shawnee because water was no longer an obstacle, they could go almost where ever they wanted. 

Cherokee Nation                                                        trail of tears

The cherokee refer to themselves as "the principle people", however the actual name "cherokee may mean "Those who live in the mountains". The cherokee were one of the tribes involved in the trail of tears which was a series of forced migrations to a indian reservations. The cherokee at first stood there ground. However Winfield Scott, a U.S. army general commanded his troops to enforce the moving even harder. Interestingly enough the cherokee have there own language and verbally and written. The origins of the cherokee people come from 2 different places. The great lakes region and around the appellation mountains. As colonists began to have relationships with the Cherokee  and other tribes, they started to teach them english.

the appellation mountains (where the Cherokee once lived)