Smoke Signals is something of a ground breaking film in the category of Westerns, in that it has been written, directed, produced by and starred in by American Indians. The film itself is adaptation of a short story collection by Sherman Alexie "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven". Director Chris Eyre turns this into a fantastic, funny and intimate film which won both the Audience Award and the Filmmakers' Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival 1998.

Smoke Signals tells the story of two very different young men, brought up in a small town on the "Rez". When Victor is called away urgently to Phoenix, the two young men are thrown together when Thomas offers to pay for his trip. The remainder of the film looks at how the characters deal with themselves, each other and their shared histories as both struggle to come to terms with their relationship with Victor's drunken father. 

The road movie theme is really something of an aside. What makes this a brilliant and darkly funny movie, is that it offers an honest insight into the lives of Indians on the Reservations in the late 1990s, without resorting to the kind of exploitation so common in white-directed films of the period. Indeed, Dances with Wolves is lampooned in a conversation where Victor tires to teach Thomas how to be a real Indian. As film critic Roger Ebert notes in his own analysis of the film "There's a particular satisfaction in listening to people talk about what they know well and care about. The subject isn't as important as the feeling. Listen to them discuss the ins and outs of an Indian specialty known as "frybread,'' and you will sense what they know about the world." 

At the very least, this might be something of an antidote to Johnny' Depp in the Lone Ranger.
Indeed at one point in the film, a woman remarks to the odd duo "Hey, you two were just like the Lone Ranger and Tonto."
"No" replies Thomas, "We are more like Tonto and Tonto."
Try it - you might just love it

Mr F

The Guardian has compiled a list of the 10 best Westerns of all time. It is well worth a look. Even if you can only watch one or two of these, it will help you access the idea of the myth of the West which is so central to the USA's understanding of itself. 

Can I highly recommend Stagecoach (no. 10) as a brilliant Western, I am not too sure about the Man from Laramie however...

Highly disappointingly, George Steven's Shane (1953) has not made the list. This is by far and away the best Western I have seen. If you have not seen Shane, what are you waiting for - go get a slice of American history!

The full list is HERE. 

Comment if you have any other good recommendations.

What exactly is the West? What on earth are Comparative Wests? And why on earth should you care? Historians Brian Codding, Douglas Bird, Ethan Blue, Jon Christensen & Richard White introduce you to the newest way of thinking about the history of the American West.

Read the introduction and key essays on what the West means today by following the link HERE

Can I particularly recommend the introduction HERE and Darren Jorgensen's comparison of the myth of the cowboy in the US and Australia HERE.

How did the lone cowboy hero become such a potent figure in American culture? 

A great little feature from the Guardian, which is also an extract from "Fractured Times", Hobsbawm's last book. Here Hobsbawm follows a trail from cheap novels and B-westerns to Ronald Reagan...


Finally a proper Marxist take on the West!!!


Thanks to Miss Devey for this find


Link: HERE

A fantastic documentary from comedian Rich Hall looking at the decline of the Western as a genre. Be warned there is some strong language but a great watch none-the-less. Also check out Rich's other documentary on Native Americans.

A fantastic series by Ken Burns and Steven Ives which explores the West through the writings of New Western Historians such as Patty Limerick and Richard White. If you have the time this is a brilliant watch from start to finish!! If not, I have put a guide on so you can pick specific parts which might be useful. There is an accompanying website which you will find HERE too.

Click READ MORE to see the videos

I have attached a copy of the latest newsletter from the Western History Association. Some great little articles in this quarter including:

• “Teaching the West On the Conservative-Liberal Divide,” by Andrea Radke-Moss
• “Cowboys, Aliens, and Other Folks: Teaching the West in Popular Culture,” by Richard Aquila
• “Confronting the Mythic West in U.S. High School History Classes,” by Christi Carlson, Katie Piehl, Heather Walker, Lori Wright, and Paula Wright
• “Establishing a Baseline in Western Historiography: The Graduate Reading Seminar,” by Durwood Ball
• “Forty Years with Bob Hine and the Textbook, The American West: An Interpretive History,” by John Mack Faragher
• “Teaching the Environmental History of the North American West,” by Jay Taylor
• “Yes, Virginia, Indians Are Still Here: Teaching Native American History,” by Andrew Fisher
• “Both Sides Now: Teaching the West North of the 49th Parallel,” by Betsy Jameson
• “Teaching Borderlands History for a New Generation,” by Samuel Truett