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Kevin Costner addresses Native American representation in 'Horizon': 'I'm not interested in spoon-feeding people'

Kevin Costner's new film 'Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1' shows Native Americans murdering white settlers. He explains why he wasn't interested in sugarcoating the past.

But the Western genre has a long history of problematic portrayals of Indigenous people, often depicting them as the villains — nameless "savages" who attack innocent white settlers and wreak havoc on the lives of the film's heroes. After leading the massacre that opens the film, Pionsenay (Owen Crow Shoe) decides to break away from his Chief and create a new tribe of those who wish to fight to protect their land. Costner, who also famously starred in and directed Dances With Wolves with the cooperation and blessing of the Lakota people, also wanted to show the strife between tribes that arose due to Westward expansion.

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