Native American women in Film: a semiotic analysis of Skinwalkers and Coyote Waits

Abstract

The research is focused on analyzing the representations of Native American women in the two films Skinwalkers and Coyote Waits, fairly new phenomena in today's media. Both films introduce innovative images of this minority group as the entire casting of the main characters consist of Native American actors, the setting shows contemporary life on the Navajo reservation and, most importantly for this research, Native women play important roles in both films. This research addresses several questions, such as 'How can these new images of Native American women be placed into the history of earlier representations that have occurred in media?' and 'How do the different cinematic elements, such as the producer, the genre of the films and the audience, influence the images that are being represented in both films?'