Dances With Wolves

The film “Dances With Wolves” initiates with Lt. John Dunbar in fear of having his leg amputated by the doctors, he would rather die than to live without his leg. In his attempt to die, he decides to become a distraction to the enemy by riding in front of them and be the main target. While they were trying to shoot him, the rest of the union he belongs to overcome the enemy.

Consequently Dunbar is named a hero and is offered a station wherever he liked. He chooses the frontier, so he can see it before it is gone. When he finally arrives, he finds the place completely deserted. Right away he starts fixing the setting, but with less motivation as time goes by. He is alone and with no news from the army for over a month, his horse Cisco and a wolf he named Two Socks are his only companions. He is then found by the Sioux who decide to try to talk to him rather than to kill him.

With passions Dumbar and the Sioux start to learn each others language and commence to communicate with ease, after a while they became trusted friends and Dumbar is even offered to move in with the Sioux, an offer he accepts. Dunbar and Stands With A Fist, a white woman who lived with the Sioux since childhood, fall in love with each other and marry. Because of this, he is even more accepted as a good man, he is even given a name, Dances With Wolves. When moving to the winter camp with the Sioux, Dumbar goes back to his soddy to get his journal, but when he arrived he found that U.S. troops had already gotten there and mistook his for an Indian because of his clothing. He was mistreated and they killed both Cisco and Two Socks.

A group of Sioux men go to find Dumbar and find him, with the help of him, they killed the solders that had him cuffed. They then return with the rest of their people, but Dumbar knows that he is putting their lives in danger by being with them because he knows that the U.S. solders will hunt him down. Therefore he decides to leave with his wife in order to protect the Sioux. The best for this country is to expand and that is exactly what we have done. We fought to improve our country and we took out anyone who was standing in the way. Western expansion was the best way to head, but there was a problem, the Native Americans were living in the Great Plains, we had to take over this land. After all it is Gods will, our destiny, for our great country to expand west.

It is manifest destiny and it is inevitable. The more land we have, the more powerful our country will be. I do not feel any remorse what so ever for the Indians, they are nothing but thieves who are worth nothing more than the exodusters. Having all this land, the Homestead Act was passed, now any citizen or intended citizen who was head of the house hold was given 160 acres of land for free. I can predict our country will have a bright future. The only serious problem I can think of is for the farmers. Since the Railroad Industry has no competition, they can charge however much they want, and the farmers have to pay a ridiculous amount to transport their grain.

The United Staters are despicable people who take things without asking. The U.S. Government does not understand that land cannot be owned. We have lived in this land for many years and it was not right that we were forced out of our home. We had done nothing to the U.S. Government, yet they wanted war. Even worst, they do not understand the Importance of buffalo. Buffalo provides a lot more than just food, it is essential for survival. The buffalo was needed for clothing, tools, weapons and other gadgets. To make everything even worst, the Dawes Act was passed. They wanted to Americanize us, they wanted to force us to leave our culture.

Leaving my culture is like becoming someone I am not, leave my whole life behind, what a disgrace, I would rather die. The one person who I clash with all the time is my mother. Although she raised me, most of our views are different. I find her making many judgments in everyone’s actions, and even though I know that judgment is inevitable, I believe she takes it too far. Even if someone’s action were innocent, if it had a negative outcome, she said they were irresponsible and a bad person.

Although I do think people should think before they act, if they meant no harm then they are not bad people, because not everything turns out as expected. My mothers and I started arguing in the beginning of my 7th grade years, after I turned 12. At that age I started becoming more opinionated and defending my believes. My mother was outraged that I did not have her exact mentality and ever since that age it has been an on-going battle between us about everything we did not fully agree on, which is mostly everything.

This film was an excellent tool to connect to what we are studding in class. Watching this movie gave me an ever greater understanding of what had taken place, how, and how everyone felt about it. To be able to see actual people going through this helped me realize that it was all real and that it actually happened. Reminding me that it was real just made this learning experience more interesting.