“La Cinémathèque francaise holds a collection of American westerns made between 1910 and 1914 which are unknown to the public and rarely studied by film historians. Fourteen of these films were restored in 1997. The only reliable information that we have about this collection is that it comes from Pathé film productions which were made in the USA by American directors and actors. (…) When the last of these films were released in 1914, cinema had not yet moved west and the countryside of New Jersey and New York State was still being used for locations. Once out of the large cities, the production companies found wild, unspoiled areas of great grandeur, which were easily accessible. Cinema was able to depict these spaces and their first inhabitants, the Indians.

The choice of the subjects for these films was not based upon any theoretical study or upon the wish to give an account of different themes. The originality of this arrangement becomes apparent film after film. The Indian is not treated in the same way as white men but is seen as having virtues which are often regarded by the latter as defects. His rehabilitation did not begin until the 1950s, contrary to what film lovers commonly believed. Already, by the beginning of this century, the Indian appears in the cinema as the fearless unblemished hero of numerous unpretentious popular productions. It is also quite possible that many members of the audience who are fascinated by the battle scenes and vast open horizons have themselves fought in Indian wars, which were fought until barely twenty years ago”.

(Claudine Kaufman, Le silence sied à l’Indien, Cinémathèque, no. 12, 1997).