Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
2022
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Communication Studies
First Advisor
Jill Tyler
Abstract
Thirty years after Dances with Wolves won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and ten years after the 20/20 special “Hidden America: Children of the Plains” recycled ‘90’s Hollywood tropes to report on poverty on the Pine Ridge Reservation, the 2021 comedy series Reservation Dogs marks a watershed moment in Native representation. Led by an Indigenous cast and Indigenous creative team, it features contemporary aspects of Native life through a particular niche humor that doesn’t explain itself to audiences not in the know. The as-yet unique series has been well-received by Native and non-Native audiences, but in order to appreciate the magnitude of its subversion and success, it’s warranted to examine it in the context of both pop-culture and journalistic coverage of Native communities over the past thirty years.
Subject Categories
Journalism Studies
Keywords
Dances with Wolves, journalism, Native Americans, representation, Reservation Dogs
Number of Pages
58
Publisher
University of South Dakota
Recommended Citation
Hendry, Jacqueline, "Representations of Native Americans in Contemporary Media: Dances with Wolves, Diane Sawyer, and Reservation Dogs" (2022). Dissertations and Theses. 316.
https://red.library.usd.edu/diss-thesis/316
