The character exhibits the issues that many Native American characters do in the Hollywood imagination. According to Angela Aleiss – the author of “Making the White Man’s Indian: Native Americans and Hollywood Movies” and an instructor at California State University, Long Beach – whether the Native Americans are depicted as savage villains or sympathetic victims, they almost always are connected to the imagery of old Hollywood Westerns.
“While ‘Peter Pan’ is not the Old West, it’s drawn off the imagery of the Old West and it’s a boy’s fantasy. It’s not Indians today, as people,” she says.
Read the full article: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/03/20/rooney-mara-and-peter-pans-lily-white-tiger-lily-problem