Indian Stereotypes

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.

The Indigenous Peoples were not all Plains Peoples. Many of the indigenous people were from the southwest United States, with many splinter groups and many more different cultures (Text 5). With hollywood's portrayal of the Plains people they lost all the culture of the many groups of people who were very different. With the loss of the culture and only one culture of the Indigenous peoples represented the reality of the representation was sorely inaccurate. The Iroquois were a group of people in the Central New York region who had a largely different culture from the Plains People. Their society was a matriarchal society, in which the women would own the land and head the family (Text 1). The Plains People were not portrayed in such a fashion making an even bigger gap in the representation of each culture.

Just like this century actually runs longer thematically than just 1800 to 1900, the story of the Indians extends backward before the first shots of the Civil War were fired and stretches forward past Reconstruction. Throughout this elongated era, different tribes had different experiences. Some, like the nations of the Iroquois, started their travails with warfare of white Americans as far back as choosing between the French and British during the French and Indian War. Others, like the Seminole, had fought many independent wars against America (or Spain or Britain) in their homelands long before they faced the Civil War. Still others, like the Cherokee, had attempted to assimilate into white culture, were forced off their lands, thought they were “safe” on guaranteed reservation lands, and then were forced again to participate when the Civil War bled westward into Indian Territory. The concepts of racism and “whiteness” that flowed like a river through themes of religion, progress, immigration, territory, slavery, and Reconstruction during the “long nineteenth century” also affected Native Americans; the “war of a thousand deserts” fought by the native tribes of the Southwest was both a unique experience and a shared experience as almost every tribe fought their own wars against whites and sometimes against other tribes

Another de-humanizing example of Native Americans is the way they are depicted in movies and films, especially old Westerns. The way they are portrayed in these movies is the same way many people unaware of Native culture still view them. Their dress is one inaccurate portrayal of Native Americans. Every Native American in a movie is either wearing a full tribal headdress, or some other sort of feather attire. Basically it all amounts to all tribes being considered to dress the same, when they actually had different attire and forms of dress including forms of presentation, and different types of jewelry. Another stereotype used in these movies is the assumption that all Native Americans live in teepees. This again points to the fact that all Native cultures were grouped together and viewed as the same. Yet another example of

Before I saw this movie I had some stereotypes, they mainly resided on the Indian side as in my eyes I always viewed them as savages who simply wouldn’t work with white settlers so they simply attacked the settlers. My idea was reinforced even more through the first day of watching the movie in which they didn't even want to consider talking to the white man and simply thought of one thing and that was eliminating the white settlers, they have no remorse for what they do as they find joy in “scalping” white settlers.The first day of watching would be unlike the rest though as I would soon see their is still good amidst all the hate the Indians harbor for the whites.

Uses of icons, symbols, and illustrations of Native Americans have changed ever since Europeans have made contact with the new world. Between various types of media such as art and eventually theater, film, and other forms of entertainment, depictions of Native Americans in the U.S. have seen an evolution over many centuries. Past the beginning of the 20th century, illustrations of Native Americans have seen an evolution in behavior, becoming more culturally aware and sensitive throughout multiple forms of media, but while some depictions may still harbor offensive and insensitive depictions, there are still some forms of popular culture that have either changed their use of Native American illustrations or have become more aware of their motives.

Evidence of these perceptions was found in writings and artistic representations sent to European leaders by European artists of Native Americans. In their art they showcased Indians sacrificing humans in large bowls of fire and walking with human heads. Their pictures were gruesome and depicted Indians as wild animals versus human beings. Native Americans perceived Europeans just as cruelly as they did them.

Some of the stereotype of The Native Americans in the film were, Pawnee people being savages and Lakota people being the more calm and family people. I understand why the filmmakers showed both sides of the Native Americans, the good and the bad. Which they also did the same with the white people. The Pawnee people acted like savages in the film, they killed with no remorse and took what they wanted from the white people and Lakota people. The most positive Native American character in the film was Kicking Bird.

Typically referred to as ‘Indians’ in popular culture, Native Americans were traditionally seen in Westerns as the antagonists. The Western genre typically tells the story of the colonisation and discovery of America, which saw the major Hollywood studios revive the interest in the Western. Westerns draw on “historical actuality, a romantic philosophy of nature, and the concept of the […] savage” (Saunders, 2001, p. 3). Westerns often split the “depiction of the Indian, with the cruel and treacherous [Indian] balanced by the faithful [Indian]” (Saunders, 2001, p. 3) which resulted in the portrayals of Native Americans witnessed in films today.

Dharavi produces one million dollars in goods per day. Considering what a small area this tiny piece of Mumbai, this is an impressive fact. This is a fact that resonated with me yet astounded me because of my own preconceived stereotypes of a slum. Thinking of a slum I immediately assuming this also meant this was a community with a lack of jobs, unemployable people, and lazy unwilling individuals. I couldn’t have been proven more wrong. As shown in the film, Dharavi is a tiny one square mile packed with factories and businesses. Employment opportunities are plentiful and the residents are very hardworking and dedicated to their trades. Eighty five percent of residents are employed. A wide range of jobs are found along the failing brick roads. Bread bakers, seamstresses, ragpickers, Rickshaw drivers, factory workers all exist in such a small poverty stricken community.

Through the use and portrayal of Native Americans within film, the message carried out was that any way of life carried out by a group or state of peoples that threatened the worth of their civilization and the ways of preserving it from impairment were the enemy. Western movies produced in the early 20th century only served to justify and reinforce manifest destiny; it was the whites’ right to conquer the American continent. Too often were Natives portrayed as aggressors and barbaric by ‘western’ films. This justified the violence pursued by whites against Native Americans because it was self-defense. Later films came to acknowledge native victims of white violence, but the responsibility often fell short only placing the blame on a few bad individuals instead of acknowledging the systemic discrimination and persecution of Native peoples (Larson 2006, as cited in as cited in YouTube Indian, 2011, page 333). When we look at films such as the The Last of the

If this isn’t misrepresentation of Native Americans, then I don’t know what is. From just the first image we see how the creators of GUN had no intentions at all of showcasing Indians as human beings; the face

The second main weakness that is found in Global Americans is that it does not elaborate on how the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show wrongfully portrayed Native Americans as dangerous or the impact it had on the viewers. Global Americans makes a brief mention that Cody portrayed Indians as victorious, but does not explain in what sense; primary sources, on the other side, illustrate that in the show Indians were portrayed as savages that needed to be civilized. Although the roles that Natives played were dramatized, they were concurrent with the perception American society and the government perpetuated. This is illustrated by the article “Plenty of ‘Wild West’ Enthusiasm,” from the Washington Post, that describes how Indians ambushed a carriage

The term “Indian” originated with Christopher Columbus who thought he had landed in the East Indies. He called the indigenous people “Indians.” “The Coyote”, “The Origin of The Buffalo and The Corn”, and “The First False Face.” have many similarities and differences.

Native American representations in film is particularly important in influencing public opinion regarding depictions and beliefs of what Native people are like. Often associated with popular film in the United States is an Anglo constructed representation of a dated, drunken, and traditionally dressed Native person that seems to perpetuate these stereotypes. Because some shows are so popular in the United States, the effects can be powerful. The influence of these pictures comes from the large viewing audience, the cultural majority of the audience, and a failure to accept modernity of Natives. Still in the twenty-first century, there are several representations like this that imitate stereotypes, impact the majority culture, and negatively impact Native American communities. In this essay, I will analyze a case of this stereotyping of Natives in a modern comedy television show called Family Guy.