MovieChat Forums > The Revenant (2016) Discussion > Did the Native American nations really a...

Did the Native American nations really act that way?

posted 9 years ago by billanubis
39 replies | jump to latest

Just butchering people left right and center, scalping people and stealing from people they were doing business with?
There's a great many misconceptions about them, I know that, like those who call them uneducated rustics who "sold New York for a few beans" because they had no concept of property. But doesn't this film go a bit too far the other way? Why would anyone deal with these people if that they that sanctimonious and bloodthirsty?

I mean, the NA nations existed for centuries and centuries, many still do in various forms, they understood trade and diplomacy as well as any American or European.
Would they have really acted like this?

[–] Strazdamonas 8 years ago

If someone came and kidnapped your daughter, would you hunt the person that did it? The native american actions were a result of kidnapping and torturing if the cheifs daughter by the french trappers.

The real life however is as always complicated. There were peaceful tribes, there were agressive ones and there were ones that got provoked. However the original american immigrants considered them subhuman and resulted in provoking most of the conflicts.

Yes, the tribes understood trade and diplomacy, but they also understood war. wars betweent tribes existed before europeans came you know.

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The spirit of abysmal despair

[–] leybadana 8 years ago

If someone came and kidnapped your daughter, would you hunt the person that did it? The native american actions were a result of kidnapping and torturing if the cheifs daughter by the french trappers.

The real life however is as always complicated. There were peaceful tribes, there were agressive ones and there were ones that got provoked. However the original american immigrants considered them subhuman and resulted in provoking most of the conflicts.

Yes, the tribes understood trade and diplomacy, but they also understood war. wars betweent tribes existed before europeans came you know.

very well put!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I have never seen a vision, nor learned a secret, that would damn or save my soul"!

[–] Zaxzar 8 years ago

The Native Americans consisted of many tribes, all at a stone age level of society. You cannot really compare them on the same cultural level as the European/colonials. In many cases tribes practiced what would be considered barbaric by the Europeans (torture, cannabilism, etc.) So yes in short answer there are some tribes that would have acted like that.

Mr. Grady, you were the caretaker here.

[–] terrytsilvester 8 years ago

Yes, have you never read Blood Meridian?

[–] Jeorj Euler 8 years ago

We really don't know the full context of any of the group interactions in this movie.

Just butchering people left right and center, scalping people and stealing from people they were doing business with?

Did they? Like Fitzgerald did?

Why would anyone deal with these people if that they that sanctimonious and bloodthirsty?

Why does anybody deal with anybody that is "sanctimonious" and "bloodthirsty"? Have you ever watched The Walking Dead?

I mean, the NA nations existed for centuries and centuries, many still do in various forms, they understood trade and diplomacy as well as any American or European.

I'm pretty sure 1920s Germans understood trade and diplomacy too. It didn't stop the villains thereamong who also understood trade and diplomacy from overthrowing the lawful government, falling into a paranoid frenzy and proceeding to invade their neighbor to gain tactical access to an even worse regime (the one that arose out the butchering of an emperor and his entire family including the babies). It's a bipolar or otherwise fickle world.

And if it isn't obvious, looking at multiple intelligent replies, I don't think much of the OP.

[–] billanubis 8 years ago

Why?

[–] Jeorj Euler 8 years ago

Why?

Because it is as though the OP did not think out the question before posting it. That kind of behavior is annoying.

[–] billanubis 8 years ago

But I did think out the question. And I didn't once insult you. So why are you angry?

[–] billanubis 8 years ago

Answer me, please. Tell me how you, a complete stranger, feel qualified to tell me that I "did not think out" my words? Explain to me why that justifies your behaviour?
You insulted me with NO provocation. None. Literally none whatsoever.
I'd just like an explanation.

[–] Jeorj Euler 8 years ago

You insulted me

O, you're insulted, snowflake. That's unfortunate. I apologize. I must admit that I'm confused as to how you don't see the problems with the OP. You don't think that you're passing judgment on Native American nations the way you're prefaced things? Why would you even make a post like that? It's no big deal, though. I don't know how old you are. I don't know how erudite you are. I don't what you've experienced in life. Maybe you're just asking questions that look weird to the rest of us.

[–] billanubis 8 years ago

Insulting the Native Americans? No. I was saying that the film was portraying them as being more bloodthirsty than I had been led to believe.
There were many nations, trading, feuding, and setting up varying alliances. As I said, they had just as strong a political acumen as the Americans - but the film makes them look barbaric, and then gives them this sanctimonious speech about how the land has been stolen, which doesn't work because they've been portrayed so violently.

THAT is what I was saying. But you went out of your way to insult me. Why?

[–] Jeorj Euler 8 years ago

I was saying that the film was portraying them as being more bloodthirsty than I had been led to believe.

But why? There isn't a society on earth with factions that have never been "bloodthirsty" under certain circumstances. You don't see how it might be insulting to believe that Native Americans were so different from everybody else?

As I said, they had just as strong a political acumen as the Americans - but the film makes them look barbaric,

They really didn't seem all that barbaric, but you're entitled to your opinion.

THAT is what I was saying.

Whatever. Your tone is simply derisive.

But you went out of your way to insult me.

I didn't go out of my way. It's more like you were in everybody else's way. Now, you're going out of your way to demand answers that you don't even deserve.

[–] billanubis 8 years ago

I don't deserve answers when you come into my thread and needlessly insult me?
I will ask again - WHY did you feel entitled to treat me that way?

[–] bpollen 8 years ago

I don't think so, except when circumstances warranted it. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to wheel and deal. But remember that BOTH sides were at war with each other and couldn't be totally trusted. The NAs didn't steal and murder any more than the whites did, esp out in the wild, where there was no law and no protection.