A new report from Professor Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative examines Native American representation across 1,600 of the top-earning films from 2007 to 2022.
The results are not encouraging. Less than one-quarter of one percent (<0.25%) of all speaking roles were Native American characters. While Native Americans represent 1.3% of the U.S. population, none of the 16 years studied did the percentage cross 1%. There was just a single film with a Native actor in the leading role. 65% of all Native American-speaking roles were all but irrelevant to the plot. Just 34.6% featured Native characters in secondary roles.
The study evaluates every speaking or named character—more than 62,000 roles—to understand how many Native American roles appeared on screen. The authors stipulated that Native characters must have U.S. origins to be included in the analysis. Additionally, the study assessed how often Native actors worked across the sample of movies.
Most of the pre-release chatter around “Killers of the Flower Moon” has focused on director Martin Scorsese painting the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a symptom of a pop culture dominated by corporately owned four-quadrant IP.
However, the 3.5-hour true-life historical crime drama, opening in theaters this Friday, is noteworthy for starring a Native American actress. The picture, detailing efforts to push Native families off oil-rich reservation land, features Lily Gladstone in what could be a breakout, Oscar-nominated, starring role.
“Lily Gladstone’s role in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is quite literally an anomaly in Hollywood,” said Dr. Smith, the study’s lead author. “This data shows that filmmakers simply do not tell stories that put Native women at the center. Moreover, when a cast features Native men and women it is clearly a departure from the patterns of erasure and invisibility that are often the norm when it comes to this community.”
As such, most films entirely erased Native girls and women from the narrative and thus mainstream pop culture. 99%, or 1,581 of the films examined, featured not even one female-identified Native character who had lines or a name.
“Audiences would have to watch thousands of movies to see even one Native woman on screen, and very likely in a minor role,” said Dr. Smith. “This is a failure of imagination on the part of writers, directors, and casting directors to see Native women and men as key participants in society and thus in storytelling.”
The USC Annenberg report also evaluated the actors who filled the 133 speaking roles held by Native characters across the sample. Of those 133 roles, 99 characters were played by Native actors. After accounting for actors who worked more than once across the time frame, there were only 64 Native actors who worked on the most popular movies over the past 16 years. A mere 19 of those actors were women. Most of both men and women worked only once across the 16-year sample.
“Put simply, there is no career sustainability for Native actors in Hollywood,” said Dr. Smith. “Working once in 16 years does not pay the bills or allow for creative and fulfilling work that builds a resume or reel. By limiting the number of roles for Native actors, Hollywood is closing the door to the careers that these talented actors want to have.”
The report offers solutions to increase Native representation both in front of and behind the camera. Drawing on the work of other organizations that support Native filmmakers and actors, the authors reinforce the need for project funding, development programs, and even Native critics to increase the prevalence of Native characters and improve the portrayal of Native roles in mainstream cinema.
“The Hollywood community has the chance to recognize the extraordinary talent and bravery of Lily Gladstone this awards season,” said Dr. Smith. “This is [a] chance to make history. We want to applaud Apple, Martin Scorsese, and the film’s producers. A film like ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is not something we see regularly, and Gladstone’s performance is worthy of Oscar gold.”
Readers can find the full report here.
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