SOURCE: "Same Old Others: The Western, Lonesome Dove, and the Lingering Difficulty of Difference," in The Velvet Light Trap, Vol. 27, Spring, 1991, pp. 49-62.

In the following essay, Fore examines the ways in which the television adaptation of Larry McMurtry's novel Lonesome Dove perpetuates racist and sexist stereotypes and endorses the myth of manifest destiny.

The Red Indians who have been fortunate enough to secure permanent engagements with the several Western film companies are paid a salary that keeps them well provided with tobacco and their worshipped "firewater". . . . They put their heart and soul in the work, especially in battles with the whites, and it is necessary to have armed guards watch over their movements for the least sign of treachery. They naturally object to acting in pictures where they are defeated, and it requires a good deal of coaxing to induce them to take on such objectionable parts...