Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump: Stereotypes Of Native Americans

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.

In At Last I kill A Buffalo explains one of many daily activities that Natives participated in their natural state of survival. The Lakota, and many other tribes relied heavily on the buffalo for their everyday needs. Not only was the buffalo prepared for food, tools, and clothing, hunting them served as significant turning point, in Standing Bears case of a trial of “the strength of my manhood and honesty.” In their culture the order of nature, was vastly respected and was understood that there was an order that nature followed, and in this they are one with the land and creatures walking on it. “Ever since I could remember my father had been teaching me the things that I should know and

After President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act of 1862, everyone was eager for the construction to begin. The railroad was needed to connect California to the eastern and midwestern large cities in order to ship valuables and natural resources. The problem for the Indians was that the tracks would be set right through their ancestral land. Unfortunately, The United States could care less about the native’s wants because the construction of the railroad was seen beneficial to them. One of the many reasons was because it provided Americans and immigrants with jobs. The decline in buffalo began when they would stampede across the tracks. White workers decided that they were getting “in the way” and would kill massive herds at a time. This leads in to the most important reason for the decline of the Plains culture and their ultimate defeat, the Buffalo.

In 1874 the US Army sent a force under Colonel Custer into South Dakota. When gold was discovered in the area, the federal government declared that all Sioux Indians not in reservations would have to be subjugated by Custer’s troops. Many Sioux refused to cooperate, and Custer began to attack. At the battle of Little Bighorn, in June 1876, Custer split his troops, and a larger force of Indians wiped out all of his men. After this defeat, the army took a different course by harassing the Sioux in attrition. Indians eventually lost the will to resist as these strategies were commonly successful against the Sioux. In the December of 1890, approximately 300 Indians were killed by US troops at Wounded Knee. This massacre was the indication to the end of Indian opposition. The Plains Indians were eventually conquered and forced into reservations.

Before the arrival of white people to the continent, Native Americans still engaged in war between the various different tribes. Their reasons for fighting each other were drastically different than the reasons they had when fighting non-Indians. Some Native American battles were fought for revenge. The most common cause of war between Native American groups was probably to defend or enlarge tribal territory. Later, their conflicts with white people were fought for trying to prevent the theft of their land, or in raids for food and supplies they were denied. There have been many famous clashes between Indians and the United States government. On November 4th 1791, In what is considered the worst ever defeat administered by Indians to U. S. troops more than 600 soldiers were killed by a force of mostly Shawnees and other Indians. The cause of the conflict was settlers moving into the Indian’s land in large numbers, ignoring Indians rights and demanding military protection if the Indians opposed them. This kind of situation was the cause for many of the largest fights with Native Americans, for example the battle of little big horn (otherwise known as Custer’s last stand) in which Indians that were ready for the arrival of the Calvary killed every soldier under General Custer’s command. A battle which United States

The government tried to make the Indians happy by signing treaties at Fort Laramie in 1851 and Fort Atkinson in 1853 with Chiefs of Tribes, so that they would retreat, and let the whites have their lands. The problem with this was the whites thought that the chiefs represented all the Indians in that tribe, but most of the Native Americans didn’t recognize authorities outside of their families. In the treaties, they promised Indians they wouldn’t be bothered if they moved into small reservations, such as Dakota Territory. They were also promised food, clothing, and other supplies, if they would surrender their lands. The problems Indians had after moving into the reservations, were some of the Indian agents were corrupt, and would only give them moth eaten blankets, spoiled beef, and other defective provisions. One of the acts of cruelty against Indians happened, “In 1864, at Sand Creek, Colorado, Colonial J. M. Chivington’s militia massacred in cold blood some four hundred Indians who apparently thought they had been promised unity” (576). In other words, J.M Chivington’s militia brutally murdered and tortured about four hundred peaceful Indians, just to make sure they wouldn’t cause any trouble. Another act of cruelty against Indians happened at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The Battle of Little Bighorn, began because Colonel George Custer, found gold in Black Hills of South

The military doctrine at the time of Western expansion and the Indian Wars is hard to isolate and condense into a succinct statement. This is due to the fact the United States government wanted to treat the Native Americans with decency while also herding them into smaller areas of land and confining them onto reservations. This “peace policy” was complicated by an excitable populace that was keen on seeking revenge against any suspected provocation from a Native American tribe. Altercations often resulted in the United States military intervening to restore what was being defined at that time as “peace”. Once the military became involved in the pursuit of any tribe, human decency was often pushed to the side in multiple demonstrative manners of ineffective, immoral, and otherwise negative leadership. For example, there were countless murders of innocent Native American noncombatants during the late 19th century; referencing to the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 in Colorado or the Wounded Knee Massacre of

Native American names and symbols can be seen in many different facets of North American society from the “Mohawk” Carpet Company, to the women on the “Land-O-Lakes” butter container, and sports teams like the Washington “Redskins” all have an American Indian rendering incorporated in their brands. The history of the NFL (National Football League) dates back to the early 1920s, where the league was started in Canton Ohio. Teams like the Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, New York Giants and Washington Redskins are considered charter members, because of their early inception into the professional sports league. The Washington Redskins, located in Washington D.C., are known for their distinctive burgundy and gold colors and Native American head

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

Some would fight for their land, but most of the time it resulted in defeat because of the lack of advancement of weapons they had compared to the US people. Due to the amount of cattle ranching going on and the booming business of it, the Indians had no choice but to move away from their ways of hunting. The US cattle ranchers would create barb wire fences so that the cattle could only go so far. The buffalo population nearly went extinct because of the amount of cattle ranching going on. Before the cattle ranching there was nearly 60 million buffalo and by the end of the 19th century there were less than 1,000 buffalo.

Even in the case of Native Americans, our American culture creates stereotypes based upon what we

Native American Perceptions A perception is a way of regarding something. Many Native Americans are perceived as savages and cruel rebels. After reading accounts of Spanish explorers and Native Americans, my perception of natives concludes to the idea that natives were treated wrong, reacted out of fear, and should not be referred to as savages.

After several chapters in Dunbar Ortiz and observing the movie “Reel Injun”, it continue to expand my knowledge and give me a better understanding of Native Americans during early colonization of America as well as the impact they played in early Hollywood. It also talks about how different stereotypes began to rise, although not all were true or actually came from Native Americans majority of the stereotypes stuck on to the Native people. As well as the challenges the Cherokee people faced for siding with Great Britain during the Revolutionary War, as they were considered traitors to America because they wanted protection from scalping bonds that were out on Native American men, women, and children. But once America took over independence this

Native American culture is one that is misunderstood and stereotyped in many different ways. After Europeans colonized North America they began to make assumptions and opinions on Native American culture, many of which were misconcenceptions. Since Native American culture was so different then western culture, many Europeans treated it as if it was not a legitimate way of life, instead something that was of the past. With this point of view, many began to build stereotypes for Native American people. These varied from them only being guides for Europeans as they explored North America, to them being sexual beings since Native American culture gave men and woman a more equal distribution of power. Whatever impression the Europeans had, they were unable to widely understand what Native American life was really like and how it was affected by westward expansion. The artist Kent Monkman comments on this falsified reality in his painting The Trappers of Men, where he alludes to many different stereotypes that are associated with Native

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.