Are the Indiana Jones movies really pro-colonialist/imperialist?
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/i0x99m/what_are_dumb_interpretations_about_popular_or/
In Raiders, Indy tries to steal the golden idol belonging to the Hovitos in the opening scene, but he fails. He ends up barely escaping with his life while the Natives chase him. With the Ark of the Covenant, we are constantly told throughout the film that the ark should remain undisturbed, and that looking for it is the wrong idea. The Nazi's are punished for the arrogance and suffer terrible deaths, after which Indy recovers the ark. It's then when the US government, aka the bigger colonialists, take it away for safekeeping. The film is telling us that government keeping the ark is a bad thing, as Indy angrily exclaims "Bureaucratic fools. They don't know what they've got there."share
In Temple of Doom, Indy's whole character arc is going from someone who's motivated by "Fortune and Glory" to returning the sacred stones to the people it belongs too. Something similar happens in Crystal Skull, where he ends up returning the Skull back to the Aliens where it belongs.
In Last Crusade, we get the one time where Indy actually succeeds in retrieving an artifact back in his museum, which is the Cross of Coronado in the opening scene. Unlike the previous artifacts, this was buried on American soil in Utah, so as to which museum the Cross would be put into is unclear (the film also makes it known that Coronado's descendants are dead). Indy's actions in retrieving the Cross are heroic because the bad guy who stole it only wants it for himself. Indy understands that the Cross is a historical artifact, not a piece of trophy belonging in someone's private collection.