Dean Rader’s critical reading of the films Naturally Native (1998) by Jennifer Wynne Farmer and Valerie Red-Horse and Skins (2002) by Chris Eyre aims to fill a dearth of progressive reception of contemporary American Indian film that goes beyond the mere question of representation.

Due to the lack of comprehensive American Indian film theory, he makes clear that reading the films through the projection of preceding films implies derivation that would be inaccurate. He agrees with Craig Womack, that Native literary texts “deserve to be judged by their own criteria, in their own terms, not merely in agreement with or reaction against European literature and theory.”

Rader reads the films first and foremost as cultural texts – paying attention to issues of identity, sovereignty and resistance. However, he also addresses their structure as cinematic texts as their cinematic language contributes to their architecture of resistance.