Before I get to the film, I would like to mention something I noticed on television the other day. I've been a huge fan of the show Bizarre Foods for quite a while, and have seen that guy eat everything from fresh cow placenta to popped sorghum. He's visited just about every country on the map. As of yet though, I have not seen him do a fully Native American episode yet. There have been several from various places in the United States, but not 'Native American' cuisine. So far all I've seen is fry bread and various organ meats! He was doing an episode in Arizona and it appeared that many of the people he was talking to were of American Indian descent. The only foods of theirs that was mentioned though was the fry bread being sold from a food truck and one family's lamb barbecue. Andrew, the host, was given a piece of fry bread filled with meat, cheese, and fixings. He loved it and called it a Navajo taco. This makes me curious about the traditional food of various tribes. Did they ever have complex dishes unique to their cultural tradition or was the food always simple and not combined with many other ingredients?
Obviously Bizarre Foods is not the most reliable source because it focuses on the weird. The Navajo family in question was actually living in Monument Valley. Having familiarized myself somewhat with this location after watching both Reel Injun and seeing lots of western film information in my film genres class regarding John Ford and John Wayne movies, it's a bit surreal. All those movies feature lots of stereotypes getting shot and/or killed in unpleasant ways. I've now seen a clip of John Wayne shooting a dead Indian in the face. (You just never think of him doing that kind of thing) Meanwhile, these real Indians are living where they shot these movies. They're living where someone playing a member of the tribe was shot in the face by one of John Wayne's blanks.
As far as the non-fry bread portion of the segment... There was a lamb's head cooked whole, meat wrapped in intestines, and a blood, potato, and blue corn sausage sealed in the stomach. It makes me wonder how common these kinds of seemingly exotic cuts are with American Indians.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkUA4dETYwo (fry bread taco is about three and a half minutes in)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtGAvj13c1o (skip past the intro sequence)
The first thing I noticed in the film is how it is structured exactly like the Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven. It's a very nonlinear mix of scenes punctuated by traditional cultural images.
One thing I wondered about was the somewhat conflicting image of homosexuality between the book and the film. The one time it is mentioned in the book, there seems to be a unique kind of respect for them. I remember something about a special magic or medicine that they had over heterosexuals. meanwhile, in the film, the poet character is isolated from his old reservation by his new life. No one seems to care about his 'special medicine'. Do they just not even pay attention to it since the cultural separation is so much more important than any orientation issues or ideas? Does being Indian override being gay or straight? If it does you would think that it also overpowers where you live, whether or not it is in the reservation. In such a close knit community it seems weird to me that they would even consider turning away a fellow Indian when he comes back. Sure, he has 'sold out' in a sense, but it can also be viewed as an embracing one's heritage.
I found myself identifying with Seymour Polatkin because of his success. The guy made a career and a reputation out of the way he views his own life. he inspires people. he's not afraid to admit who he is. Aristotle on the other hand, really contrasted those feelings. He randomly assaults someone because they're white and he's seen sniffing at a gas tank like some fourteen year old suburban skateboard punk. The fact remains that both these people started with the same out-of-focus opportunities and in-focus community and only one of them acted responsibly and ethically whether or not they 'abandoned' their family, heritage, or duty.
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