American Indians Stereotypes

Native Americans are typically stereotyped in two ways. They are either portrayed as tree-huggers or as blood-thirsty savages. These stereotypes do not hold up for the Plains Indians since like any other civilization they are a diverse group of people.

We believe that all men were created equal, and you have not shown us that. We believe that we should be treated with the same respect you treat your friends and kin. We are the same. We were created equal in God's eye. We are exactly like you, spite a few minute differences. We value you, why can your not value us?

From the first mention of Native Americans in American history, they are characterized as “savages” and “less intelligent” human beings. This characterization has remained predominate throughout American history, however in colonial times, this characterization had a larger emphasis in how Americans view Indians. Although this the way in which Americans viewed Native Americans, Native Americans, on the other hand, viewed Americans as “white [racially superior]” (Svingen). In today’s modern day and age, we understand the complexity when it comes to stereotyping certain ethnic groups. In regards to Native Americans in a post-World War II setting, labeling and stereotyping such ethnic group emphasizes the importance to integrate individuals of

The stereotype is by no means harmless; it actually hurts an entire race of people. They are not savage beast like the English settlers thought, and they shouldn’t be treated as such. Native Americans actually have a very interesting culture, and like most other cultures it should be respected. Though some may find it to be harmless, the Native American community regularly suffers from the negative effects of stereotyping and is not represented properly within society, and this must be rectified in order to show appropriate respect for a culture that is often

I believe that there are still a lot of stereotypes out there about Native Americans. I think that many people get these stereotypes from what they hear and see on TV. People tend to hear something that is negative to a certain group off people and run with that information even if they aren't 100% sure if it is true or not. Many people will often bash Native Americans for the various things that they get and we don't as Americans such as

For over thirty years, schools and national sports teams have used Native American names as their mascots, nicknames, and logos. There has been a lot of controversy over it since the 1940’s. According to the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, there are two conflicting viewpoints; ¨keeping this imagery honors Native American people, supports nostalgic feelings, and saves funding.¨ On the other hand, ¨keeping this imagery is offensive and degrading because it is sacred to Native American people, and perpetuates negative stereotypes.¨ Those who are for Native American names say that they are ¨complementary,¨ and that they are not meant to be hurtful. Those who are against it say that statistics show that it promotes a negative self- esteem.

When most people think of "Indians," they think of the common stereotyped of the wild, yelling, half-naked "savages" seen on the television movies. With more modern movies like Dances with Wolves and some of the documentaries like How the West was Lost, some of these attitudes have changed. But the American public as a whole is still very ignorant of what it means to be a Native American-today, or historically.

Associated with wearing skins, living in teepees, and riding horses Native Americans are viewed as ‘country’ and lack of knowledge. Shown as dumb and have a lack of formal education, most of them live in poverty invested areas. Because of this, they feel that “one representation is better than no representation.” When a group feels underrepresented their psychological relevance and has a toil on the overall ethnic group and can make a difference in lives. Inaccurate and negative representations of Native Americans can be detrimental to the overall perception to the race in general.

Until fairly recently the popular culture of American literature and film did not attempt to study the true representations of Indians in North America. Instead they chose to concentrate on the romanticized/savage version of Native people: which is an idealistic view of a Native with long, beautiful flowing hair riding on a horse obsessed with chanting and praying to the savageness of a rowdy, wild Native causing unnecessary mayhem to the white people. This portrayal of Native people in mass media had led to the stereotyping of Natives, which in turn had ricocheted into real life. Not only do non-natives succumb to these ideals, but Natives do as well.

1. Being a Native American, and being a woman. Would create some employment problems in the future. Lots of companies would rather hire a non-Indian instead of a Native American. The Native American people have always been stereotype as being unreliable, un-educated, lazy and a drunk.

Native Americans as a whole have been typecast as drunks ever since the coming of the white man’s “fire water.” TS Naimi, MD et al. reports that alcohol is responsible for 11.7% of all American Indian and Alaska Native deaths, compared to 3.3% for the U.S. general population (939). This disturbing discrepancy reinforces the age old notion of the “drunk Indian.” Generalizations aside, is there some truth to this stereotype? Are Indians more likely than other races to be drunks? Of all the races, “Native Americans have the highest prevalence (12.1%) of heavy drinking…A larger percentage of Native Americans (29.6%) also are binge drinkers” (Chartier and Caetano 153). Although some research has been done on genetic causes, little is

Many races are unjustly victimized, but Native American cultures are more misunderstood and degraded than any other race. College and high school mascots sometimes depict images of Native Americans and have names loosely based on Native American descent, but these are often not based on actual Native American history, so instead of honoring Native Americans, they are being ridiculed. According to the article Warriors Survive Attack, by Cathy Murillo (2009) some “members of the Carpentaria community defended Native American mascot icons as honoring Chumash tradition and the spirit of American Indian Warriors in U.S. history and others claimed that the images were racist stereotypes” (Murillo, 2009). If people do not attempt to understand

This is their home, the first people in the great country known as Canada. Yet they were called the savages in a place that is home for them; called names by the people who were new to this place. These people were named Indian, mistaken for Indians from India. Over the centuries Aboriginal people have faced a lot of difficulties in their daily life, each day full of new challenges including drug Issues, personal identity problems, and proper education.

Racism towards Native American tribes and individuals have been found throughout mainstream media. From nationally broadcasted sports games to popular Hollywood movies, Native Americans people have been stereotyped and/or culturally appropriated. Many examples of these stereotypes are blatant and have been portrayed for in the media for decades.

Stereotypes have been around since the start of humankind. They have crossed all people and all time frames, but appear to target and negatively impact the minority. In the history of America, Native Americans have been stereotyped into a few images. These images to the majority of the public, give a glimpse of what a Native American is. The reality is; however, that those images do not represent all tribes and all aspects of the Native American culture. Instead, society has mashed together what they believe Native Americans should be and who they are. This problem of stereotyping has not gone away, and will not go away until people choose to be educated on the matter. The fact is that there are many individuals who believe these stereotypes and do not know any differently. There has been many common stereotypes over the years. Hollywood has a played a major role in influencing these thoughts about Natives. There are stereotypes that have withstood time and are still found in today’s world. Lastly, Natives are still dealing with effects of being seen as something they are not. Throughout history, Native Americans have been negatively impacted by stereotyping and prejudice, and are still impacted by this today.