also honest hearts leans far more into the great white saviour trope than savages with its native depiction

it also deconstructs it a bit because Joshua Graham is clearly unbalanced and just likes killing and has picked this cause because it squares that with his conscience.

Meaningfully Graham is the only character of honest hearts. All the plot points are only really there for the narrative purpose of developing Graham's character and representing aspects of him. Daniel representing his conscience, and the white legs representing his past misdeads

it's a story that works far better read symbolically and as metaphor than as literal