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Squaws And Nobel Maidens

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American Indians have been stereotyped in different forms of media for entertainment purposes for centuries. The male stereotypes, such as the Nobel Savage, are widely known in literature. American Indian women have also fallen victim to their own set of stereotypes. Two common labels regarding American Indian women are Squaws, and Nobel Maidens. European-Americans have done their best to pigeonhole American Indians into these stereotypes, however, American Indian women are more complex than that. History dictates that these women had many roles in their respective tribes to include prominent positions.
Since Europeans first arrived in the Americas in the late 1400s, they viewed American Indian relationships through their own cultural biases. Women were observed working alongside men, each contributing to the good of the tribe. Through the lens of cultural bias, Europeans immediately labeled these women as slaves, who were no better than animals. The early settlers failed to recognize that women were seen as equal to their male counterparts. Each sex had their own set of tasks, but all tasks were valued without one out weighing another (Lajimodiere, 2013). The slave stereotype continued to be perpetuated for centuries and became synonymous with the term Squaw. It infected the way American Indian women were treated by white men not only in the media, but in real life as well. In the media the Indian Squaw was routinely portrayed as a household servant, or a hyper

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