Identity Politics in Pow Wow Highway
In comparison to other movies, where the giver of mobility is flashy and phallic, or just plain impractical-Pow Wow Highway has a car that is a clunker. Bad gas mileage, no radio- until Red Bow comes along, it’s just a car to get Philbert out of town, and wherever his spirit takes him.
He sees the car as much more than it is, which is part of his personality. He sees it as a protector of his being, and as “a pony�. Philbert’s interest in the metaphysical takes him to culturally important spiritual places. These places are not what Redbow was hoping for, and rightly so because Redbow is not the driver.
Redbow gets frustrated with Philbert many times but he sticks with him. This is probably part of being Cheyenne. The two both have very different interpretations of the phrase “ we are Cheyenne�. Other students have touched upon this enough.
I found it interesting that only their culture, as it is in the 1990’s, is shown to the viewer. Even though it is constructed with the camera having power over what we see-it seems fairly accurate. I took a trip out to Wyoming a few years back, to paint their tiny houses, and talk with the children. We were told, many of them were safer with us;strangers, than with their family. The Natives as a whole are an oppressed people. As an employee of Loring Park, I see how a lot of Native folk deal with their day-to-day lives. Homeless, drunk, unhappy, but those are the ones who have ended up in my view. They escape their life just like Philbert does. Anglo-Americans have created an oppressed group of people who need escapes. Philbert chose the road, and others choose the bottle. Some still, don’t fall into either category. In general, Pow Wow Highway constructed a sense of Native culture and what it would be like to travel as a Native American.