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• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B00192B0R0
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Editorial Reviews

In 1875, Captain Richard Pratt escorted 72 Indian warriors suspected of murdering white settlers to Fort Marion in Florida, removed their shackles, hired teachers, and made them into what Harriet Beecher Stowe called "docile and eager students." In the White Man's Image follows Capt. Pratt's founding of the Carlisle School in Pennsylvania, and his philosophy of "kill the Indian and save the man" which became the basis of the Indian schools across America. In this film, native Americans tell the story of a humanist experiment gone badReviews "...sad and affecting tale..." - The Seattle Times "...includes many fascinating photographs..." - The Seattle Times "...poignant..." - Walter Goodman, The New York Times "Striking before-and-after photographs..." - Walter Goodman, The New York Times "...strongest when it lets the story tell itself, in photographs and drawings from the period, and in the contributions of Prof. Henrietta Mann, a Cheyenne historian, and of Sid Byrd, who attended an Indian school in Nebraska." - Walter Goodman, The New York Times "...a cautionary hour." - Walter Goodman, The New York Time

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Killing Culture, Not People (Supposedly), April 9, 2009

By 

Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: American Experience: In the White Man's Image (DVD)

Even though it's half a world away, I think many viewers would benefit from seeing this before or after seeing Australia's "Rabbit-Proof Fence." This documentary was about institutions that forced Native American men and children to drop their culture and made them accept Western culture.
This was informative to me as I had heard of the Carlisle School and attempts to brainwash Native children, but I never knew about the previous attempt to do so with Native men.
This work had few interviewees, but they were diverse: Native and white, men and women, historians and alumnae. The photographs and paintings in the work do a great job of illustrating the past. Thus the work did not rely upon cheesy reenactments.
I wonder if a college student could write a paper comparing this work to documentaries about the Navajo Code Talkers. The phenomena are diametrically opposite in that one movement sought to annihilate Native culture and one movement depended upon it for their victory in a World War.
Too many people dismiss works on Natives as "politically correct." This documentary tried to be well-rounded. Whereas modern viewers may see the leaders of these Indian schools as racist, in their context, they were trying to be helpful. One must remember that many Americans of the time just wished that death would solve "the Indian problem." The work did say that some Native children liked the schools; the schools were not as poor or as disease-laden as many reservations were.
The work does speak of punishment for Native children who tried to run away from the schools. However, I thought more could be said. The work said few white teachers wanted to work in these schools. I would add that many of those teachers were abusive and got away with their abuse easily. Something tells me that if the abuse these students faced were detailed more than viewers would really be upset.
Besides abuse, miscegenation is a huge item not really covered in this work. The work shows a photograph of a Native alumnus and his white wife; that can be contrast with an account of a Native male who committed suicide after a white host family would not allow him to marry their daughter who wanted to be married. Still, please read "Taking Assimilation to Heart." In that book, the author stated that while Black Hampton graduates were forced not to marry white partners; Native students were encouraged to do so as policy makers feared that they would give up white waves if they had to marry on the reservation. Perhaps this had a gender politic in which white men could take Native wives but Native men could not take white ones. Though this work reminded me of "Rabbit-Proof," in Australian policy miscegenation would "get rid" of Aborigines, but no American policy maker states such a thing in this work.
I have no idea why this work is not on DVD. It is one of the best installments of the American Experience series. I would recommend for numerous audiences.