Last year dc1 and I ended up watching midway through about 30 minutes of some old black and white western/cowboys and Indians/imposing structure somewhere type film. We googled at the time and the lead actress was famous for her time (blonde and white). Probably the lead male was.
Basically, as far as we could tell all the main ethnic characters were actually played by white actors, including a child.
There was some man who seemed important, and had a hired help but the wife got jealous of her and sent her home, then did some dramatic sadness about her love for him.
The important man was, I think, meant to be kind and a bridge between the native population and whatever the white people were up to.
It was kind of horrifyingly compelling and I really want to watch it to see what was actually going on.