Excusable Violence?

After realizing the actual violence against Native Americans that John Wayne takes, it's almost hard to swallow. He is an American hero in most people's eyes. He's the truest cowboy. But after taking a closer look at some of the films he stars in and the actions he takes against Native Americans, it is obvious that there is harsh violence that occurs. Unfortunately I think that this violence is excused because John Wayne is our hero, he's the good guy, so anything he does is going to be right in the audience's eyes.Native Americans always get the short end of the stick when it comes to their representation in films. They always seem to be the people that are getting killed off first and misrepresented. They are represented as warriors and savages, people who want to pillage the white people. I think that this is why it is easy for John Wayne and other characters in old westerns to get away with killing so many Native Americans ruthlessly.
It almost seemed as though Native American representation was improving in recent films but there are so many stereotypes that they must fight against, that it is hard to erase all of them at once. I believe that it will take some time for the false representation of Native Americans to disappear in films because of America's love for the western, but I think that the more that we are informed about the truth, the better off we can be to show the true Native American in film.