I do not believe Indians were portrayed as savages in the movies in 1972.
In fact, Chief Dan George had about cornered the market on the “wise, nature loving, good red man” franchise by that time.
I agree. I’m currently watching reruns of the TV series “High Chaparral” which ran from about 1968 to 1971. All of the main groups featured (Whites, Mexican, and Indians) are portrayed evenhandedly. Some individual characters were good and some were bad, but no group was represented as uniformly bad or as savages.
Ole Chief Dan George was Chief Dan Georgio, a wop!