Stereotypes In Native American Art

Native American people have a unique struggle in society. This stems from cultural epidemics like drug addiction, alcoholism, obesity, and rampant suicide, but also systemic racism and a sort of cultural lag. This is not meant to be a critique of culture, simply an observation of the condition of the families I have helped serve over the course of this internship. To be “Native” has become a slew of stereotypical representations. Stereotypes do not represent reality, but they do affect how individuals view themselves, and limit their ability to become anything but what they are expected to be. This is called the self-fulfilling prophecy. If Native American children grow up in a closed network, such as a reservation or a boundary, they are presented

The lack of accurate representation of Native Americans in our everyday lives has left members of society without more than a stereotype to draw from when thinking about characteristics of Native Americans. Native Americans have “relative invisibility” in mainstream media and this lets the few inaccurate portrayals, such as a sports team’s mascot, have an overwhelming amount of power in forming stereotypes (Fryberg, Markus, Oyserman, Stone, 2008, pg. 208). Many members of society have a very narrow view of what they understand a Native American to look, dress, and act. These ideas mostly come from what they see in media through the caricatures used as mascots, childhood cartoons, and similar

If people took the opportunity to learn about Native American cultures in school or in his or free time, then people can avoid insulting another person’s culture.

For most of my life, the word “Native American” had immediately made me think of feathers, powwows, and a society uncorrupted by civilization. However, in watching the movie Smoke Signals, a movie that depicts the modern Native American culture, I learned many other things. For one, I learned that many of the customs that modern Native Americans have are very similar to my own. I also saw that the family life of the Native Americans in the film had many of the same problems that my family had undergone in the past years. This film was unlike any that I have ever seen; therefore, it reached me on a very personal level.

People of all ethnicities and races are stereotyped; everyone has stereotyped at one point or another. A few I have heard include "all Indians eat curry," and the dreaded "all Indians are smart." Such misconceptions affect me socially, as some people befriend me to copy work, therefore, having close friends is a challenge. Furthermore, I have become the perfect target for unsubstantial expectations, which increase my emotional stress. Assumptions of intelligence are extremely burdensome because one has to live up to those standards. Consequently, Cognitively, I avoid generalizations and using them. Judging something truthfully requires first-hand experience. My race physically affects me in that I have never had a sunburn. Growing up, I could

A situation where I was stereotyped negatively was when people found out that I was Native American. Once they hear that I am, they automatically assume that I get a check from my tribe. Unfortunately, this stereotype is not true. Although, some tribes receive money but since my tribe is the biggest one, I get no funding. Meaning that most people that are Native American do not get funding. People just assume that because I am Native American, that I get money. From what I have learned, I can cause more flexible stereotyping by helping others not just automatically assume something about an individual. Although, I know it is hard to not automatically make judgements about someone whether it is good or bad. A situation where I negatively stereotyped

Since the 1970s, Congress and the Supreme Court have supported tribal sovereignty but in media representations, Indians are being portrayed as lazy and greedy as they pursued these rights. Indian communities’ efforts, for example to open casinos, or attain treaty rights to fish in certain places, have often been met with ridicule or hostility. This stereotype of Native Americans in media have been perpetuated by years of hostility. Originated from the interactions from colonists from the beginning and the view colonists had of them. Modern television shows, movies, and sport mascots with contemporary Native characters will demonstrate the stereotypes of Native people in non-Native media. The denial of Indian identity, mockery and racism has

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.

There is a false image of Native American culture ingrained in society today. From what I can remember the story I learned about the first Thanksgiving was incomplete, inaccurate, and misleading and it also missed some of the more interesting historical details about this important national holiday. I think it is unfair that we learn a different story regarding the relationship between the Pilgrims and Native Americans. I think in order to understand the first Thanksgiving, you need to have a good sense of the Thanksgiving historical context and the beliefs of the Pilgrims. I don't think that children should dress up as Pilgrims and Indians because I find it very offensive. I think that children are being taught a racist myth as

Sadly, I have often been on the receiving end of negative stereotyping due to my American Indian ethnicity. For example, there have been instances of overt racism masked in the form of a joke, “oh, you’re American Indian? Do you like to drink and gamble”? As well as implicit bias and ignorance, “All American Indians get money from the government”. Given these examples of completely inaccurate beliefs about our community, I feel a personal duty to be a champion for all Indigenous people and correct these assumptions. Although I have never lived on my tribe’s reservation as I was born and raised in California, it is still my duty to honorably represent the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, as well as all American Indians. Whenever I find myself

Perpetuation of Native American Stereotypes in Children's Literature Caution should be used when selecting books including Native Americans, due to the lasting images that books and pictures provide to children. This paper will examine the portrayal of Native Americans in children's literature. I will discuss specific stereotypes that are present and should be avoided, as well as positive examples. I will also highlight evaluative criteria that will be useful in selecting appropriate materials for children and provide examples of good and bad books. Children will read many books as they grow up.

[1] Native Americans were part of this country long before our founding forefathers. They were the people that Christopher Columbus found inhabiting this land. There is even evidence to show that they have been on the American continents for thousands and even tens of thousands of years. Yet, somehow the European powers dominated these people, forcing them from their land to make it “ours.” In the early part of the twentieth century, a new industry began to develop; we call it the film industry. Along with the industry came movies that were made and are still made for the amusement of a mass audience. Some flaws did come with this industry, and among them was the

The United States of America has over two-thousand sport organizations that portray the American Indian people as a mascot. Ninety-two percent of these sport organizations are high schools, which means roughly around eight percent of high schools have the American Indian mascot in some form (FiveThirtyEightSports). Frankly, this is an unacceptable statistic.This promotes racist mental images from a young age, and can lead many generations to recycle this outdated representation of Natives. One might ask if an American Indian mascot is really that harmful, but there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that supports the motion that such a mascot is disastrous to the Native community. The imagery that the American Indian mascot perpetuates is negative stereotyping, generalization of the race, and is inaccurate in its portrayal, which can lead to dangerous consequences for the American Indian population.

Indigenous Art and other manifestations of Indigenous culture were discovered during the process of the colonization of Australia. The first Europeans to arrive in Australia made note of the cultural artifacts they encountered. Artifacts such as weapons, drawings, sheets of bark and engravings were collected as colonized culture and housed in scientific and natural history museums where they shared the space with geological, plant and animal specimens. These objects were initially collected as curiosities and as sources of information about the “exotic” native and places. Later they were ordered in typological sequence to demonstrate the evolution of culture across different societies. These manifestations of Indigenous culture were regarded as objective information about the diversity of human culture. They were objects of the exotic worlds not seen as art, however, but as ethnographic facts. This classification reflected contemporary socio-evolutionary thinking of the time which regarded the Indigenous as people without art. In the mid-twentieth century the discourse surrounding Indigenous Art began to change when major collections were acquired by art galleries as opposed to ethnographic museums. These great collections of Indigenous objects, reaching back to 1770, provide an early record of encounters between first Australians and European settlers--encounters that have irrevocably changed Indigenous societies. The Encounters exhibition at the National Museum houses some

Stereotypes are a natural part of evolutions attempt to survive a constantly changing world. Originally, psychologists and sociologist believed stereotypes were used to navigate the dangerous world in order to survive. Stereotypes allowed people to make quick decisions about rival or threatening groups of people, objects, and animals without having to analyze the costs and benefits of the situation. As the world has evolved, stereotypes continue to aid the human race in making decisions, good or bad, about another social group swiftly and usually unconsciously. Many of the stereotypes used today are not crucial to survival but instead are used to represent social ideas and images about another group of people. However, as useful as stereotypes were for evolution, negativity tends to be associated with the stigmas in todays society.