The Indian of the North: Western Traditions and Finnish Indians

Film £ History, Vol. XXIII, No's. 1-4, 199327 Indian chief Tapio (played by Tapio Rautavaara) with two Lappishlooking Indian girls (Elina Salo, left and Pirkko Mannola, right) in the film Secret Valley of the Wild North (1963). Photos courtesy of the Finnish Film Archive. 28 Salmi / Indian of the North THE INDIAN OF THE NORTH Western Traditions and Finnish Indians Hannu Salmi "American social development has been continually beginning over again on the frontier," wrote Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893; "this expansion westward with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnishes the forces dominating American character."1 According to Turner, the frontier was "the meeting point between savagery and civilization." "American character" was, in other words, born out of a contradiction or a duality. "Primitive society" and its "savagery," although not parts of this character, were essential raw material, or "forces," for its rebirth. The encounter between "civilized men" and "savages" was therefore a key question for the American identity. These ideas are relevant not only to the American western but to western fiction in general, including Finnish westerns which set out to examine films as cultural interaction, where modes of narration and filmic traditions meet ethnic problems and national challenges. In order to accomplish this task, however, it is necessary to take a closer look at the ideology and structure of both American and European westerns. Since Turner, our view on the American west has been strongly based on polarities. It can even be argued that Turner's ideas of American history have formed an ideological basis also for the representation of Indians, since the "savages" were only raw material for construction of the American "character. " "At the frontier the environment is at first too strong for the man," Turner continues, "he must accept the conditions which it furnishes, or perish, and so he fits himself into the Indian clearings and follows the Indian trails." As we see, the opposition must be overcome in order to find the way to "effective Americanization."4 But from an ethnic viewpoint, Turner concludes with a dilemma: the following of "the Indian trails" may lead to a regenerated identity, but only after violent confrontation. Self-evidently, this encounter has been one of the central themes of western fiction as well. As Jean Wagner has pointed out, there seems to be a close connection between the Turnerian conception of American history and western fiction. Wagner has seen westerns as cultural artifacts through which American society has sought its identity in the spirit of Turner's thesis. Westerns repeatedly address the crucial Turnerian questions.6 Western scholars, such as Jim Kitses and Will Wright, have regarded Turner's conflict between civilization and savagery as the Hannu Salmi, Ph. D. , Ts I docent In general history at the University of Turku and a reseacher at the Academy of Finland. He has written on German cultural history, on the history of Finnish cinema as well as on the methodology of film history. Film & History, Vol. XXIII, No's. 1-4, 199329 primary dichotomy of the western.7 This central opposition can also be interpreted geographically: east and west; Turner pays almost no attention to the north-south dimension. We may argue that the tension between north and south was a historical trauma that Turner tries to minimize. The same seems to be valid for westerns too, which are typically constructed around a movement from east to west.8 Western Expansion Western movies have often been characterized as American cinema par excellence, and as stories about the history of the American west.10 Will Wright has estimated: "Although western novels reach a large and faithful audience, it is through the movies that the myth has become part of the cultural language by which America understands itself."11 Yet this myth has not only spoken to Americans, but also to millions of other people around the world. And this is due not to their interest in American history, but rather to the fact that westerns carry elements that evoke emotions and reflections from other local perspectives as well. Westerns have also provided a milieu for national storytelling in France and Italy, in...