Intercultural Communication Barriers in Film: Dances with Wolves

Early in our nation's history, white settlement of the Americas began a long-standing tradition of misunderstanding and hostility between Native American tribes and United States society. Intercultural communication barriers lent themselves to assumptions and intolerance, which led to warfare, bloodshed, and the eventual destruction of an entire culture's traditional ways of life. Today, stereotypical representations of the "cowboys and Indians" of the 1800s continue to perpetuate hurtful misconceptions that further thwart attempts at understanding between the cultures. One motion picture, released almost two decades ago, served to demonstrate how a thoughtful, respectful approach across cultural boundaries might have resulted in a more peaceful exchange of understanding and appreciation for differences among peoples.

Dances With Wolves (Wilson & Costner, 1990) portrays a troubled Civil War-era lieutenant of the U.S. Army named John Dunbar, played by actor and director Kevin Costner, who asks to be stationed at a post in the remote Great Plains frontier before encroaching white settlement makes its mark on the land. Arriving at his post, Dunbar discovers its prior soldiers have gone AWOL, leaving the abandoned structures in disrepair. Accompanied only by his cavalry horse, Cisco, Dunbar works alone to repair the post while studying the wilderness around him. Soon, Dunbar attracts the attention and curiosity of a neighboring Lakota tribe, some members of which feel that Dunbar's presence represents the coming of more white men who will threaten their way of life. Upon discovering a woman in the wilderness who has critically injured herself through mourning rituals for her lost husband, Dunbar returns the woman, named Stands With a Fist, to her tribe and learns she was taken from her white family as a child and raised among the Lakota.

With the encouragement of Kicking Bird, a holy man of the tribe, Stands With a Fist works to remember her forgotten English so that the Lakota people can speak with Dunbar to determine if more white men are coming to their lands. Alone in the wilderness and isolated from his U.S. Army brethren, Dunbar grows more and more entrenched in the Lakota way of life, learning the tribe's language and living among its people, taking the name Dances With Wolves, and finally taking Stands With a Fist as his wife. With the inevitable coming of soldiers and settlers into the Great Plains, Dunbar views white civilization through the eyes of the Lakota people he has come to love and sees the impending ignorance and destruction his people represent for the frontier.

As its main character strives to understand a new people he has never before encountered, Dances With Wolves (Wilson & Costner, 1990) leads viewers on an ongoing exploration of intercultural communication and the overcoming of communication barriers. During one of Dunbar's early encounters with the Lakota, he engages in an experimental exchange at his fort in which Kicking Bird and a hotheaded young warrior named Wind In His Hair, among others, join him to initiate communication. Experiencing what Beebe, Beebe, and Redmond (2008) call "different communication codes" (p. 103), Dunbar and his visitors find themselves unable to understand each other's languages. Because Wind In His Hair carries feelings of suspicion and scorn toward the white man at the fort, he displays feelings of cultural superiority toward Dunbar-what Beebe, Beebe, and Redmond refer to as "ethnocentrism" (p.103)-through his derogatory comments to his Lakota companions, which Dunbar cannot understand.

Differing languages prevent Dunbar from speaking directly to his visitors to determine their motives, and Wind In His Hair's sense of superiority over what he sees as a foolish white man prevents him from readily responding to Dunbar's good intentions. While their different communication codes prevent the members of the group from asking questions of each other to obtain information, as Beebe, Beebe, and Redmond (2008) suggest, Dunbar and Kicking Bird gain initial understanding of one another's desire to communicate by observing one another's gestures, facial expressions, and reactions. Their mutual patience and willingness to "tolerate ambiguity" (p. 113) allow them to work through the language block to learn about one another by watching and clarifying through nonverbal means until they reach an unspoken understanding. For instance, vexed by the language barrier, Dunbar begins to demonstrate items from his fort, such as a coffee grinder, that catch his visitors' interest and allow him to appeal to their senses of humor as he engages in some silly behavior. Even the hostile Wind In His Hair is won over by the discovery of fresh coffee and sugar to go with it.

Another pivotal scene in Dances With Wolves (Wilson & Costner, 1990) depicts Dunbar, Kicking Bird, and Stands With a Fist as the three meet together for the first time in the Lakota village, after Stands With a Fist has recovered from her injuries. Earlier exchanges inform the viewer that Kicking Bird is fascinated with Dunbar and has pressured Stands With a Fist to act as an interpreter to learn what she can from the white man in their midst. Stands With a Fist is reluctant to do so because she fears a return to the white world, and she clearly approaches Dunbar while "assuming differences" (p. 107), or believing she has nothing in common with him, as Beebe, Beebe, and Redmond (2008) explain. In addition, Beebe, Beebe, and Redmond's concept of different communication codes also plays into this scene due to Stands With a Fist's limited memory of the English language and Dunbar's inability to understand the Lakota exchanges between Stands With a Fist and Kicking Bird.

These factors combine to add a great deal of tension to the exchange because Stands With a Fist's fear of Dunbar's differences is explicitly demonstrated through her reserved behavior toward him, and Dunbar infers that she is uncomfortable but not the reasons why. Dunbar and Kicking Bird attempt to seek information about one another by asking questions and listening carefully to the answers. However, their efforts are thwarted by Stands With a Fist's initial reluctance to create what Beebe, Beebe, and Redmond (2008) refer to as a "third culture" (p. 111), in which the three could create an atmosphere of acceptance and find common ground upon which to learn about each other. Stands With a Fist could have acted as a more effective facilitator by using her prior knowledge of white culture to "develop mindfulness" (p. 113) of both Dunbar's and Kicking Bird's backgrounds to help them understand one another and answer each other's questions.

Although the motion picture ends with a sense of certain doom for the Lakota people at the hands of white civilization, Dances With Wolves (Wilson & Costner, 1990) served to illustrate for millions of viewers the roles sensitivity and mutual respect can play in matters of intercultural communication. The film not only expounded on the joys and affirmations to be found in exploring other cultures but also demonstrated the dreadful consequences of intolerance and prejudice. Dances With Wolves lives on as a cinematic commentary on the nation's gross mishandling of an era that could have ended in friendship and understanding, rather than bloodshed and death. All that could have made the difference is the concept of patient, mutual effort toward intercultural communication.

References

Wilson, J. (Producer), & Costner, K. (Director) (1990). Dances With Wolves [Motion picture]. United States: Orion Pictures.

Beebe, S., Beebe, S., and Redmond, M. (2008). Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others (5th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.