Stereotypes Of Native Americans In The Film Reel Injun

The article “American Native Studies Is For Everyone” by Duane Champagne, which is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. This article addresses about some various issue between Indian and Non Indian Scholars that who should be studying about Indians, how the media distribute the information about Indians and the importance of American Native Studies.

For hundreds of years, Native Americans have been persecuted by outsiders who invaded their lives and territories and subsequently robbed them of their lives. Through various readings from Tecumseh, Benjamin Franklin, and Andrew Jackson one can see how perception greatly affects interactions between Native Americans, interactions between whites, and interactions between Native Americans and whites. It is interesting to see how these different writers perceive issues of unity and civility.

Native Americans were once the only inhabitants of America, but today, while still technically around, they are really only a minority. Despite this, their influence is still evident in many of the values and overall culture that modern Americans have held, and continue to hold, close. In fact, a lot of the United States’ government systems are heavily inspired by, if not entirely based upon, the Iroquois in particular.

Native Americans were free spirited and tranquil; not many people saw them as a vicious population. These stereotypes helped the Native Americans while under deep scrutiny for being ‘vicious’. Prior to the Act, “U.S. officials urged the Cherokee to

Native Americans have had a long history of resistance to the social and cultural assimilation into white culture. By employing various creative strategies, Native Americans have attempted to cope with the changes stemming from the European colonial movement into the Americas. There are fundamental differences in world views and cultural and social orders between Indians and Europeans, which contributed to conservatism in Native American cultures. In this paper, two aspects of such cultural and institutional differences of Native American societies will be examined: holistic Native American beliefs versus dualistic world views and harmony versus domination. These two aspects are important in terms of explaining changes (or lack thereof) in

Stereotypes are a form of prejudice everyone will once experience in their lifetime. Stereotypes are centered around an individual's race, gender, social class, religion, and age. They have been known to be elements people use to make judgments and subjectify people to one key feature. As Gordon Allport states, “ To state the matter technically, a noun abstracts from a concrete reality some one features and assembles different concrete realities only with respect to this one feature”(364). Mr.Allport’s words can be summed up to say stereotypes have been used as key fundamentals to associate one feature or aspect of a person with a group that represents it, typically in an unfavorable way.

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.

New land meant new opportunity for the Europeans, but they soon discovered that they were not alone in the new world. The native inhabitants of what is now the modern day Americas had no idea what to expect from these strange people, but this marked the beginning of the rocky relationship between the Native Americans and the European explorers; This would have a big impact on the Native American’s way of life. The Native Americans are often generalized and put into one big group, but this could not be more wrong; each tribe had their own religions, and customs. Their diverse cultures are often overlooked in favor of the stereotypes that are usually placed on them.

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.

Native American, or American Indians, have a rich culture comprised of struggle, strife and success. For this paper, i will discuss the Native American Culture and it's history.

Stereotypes such as Halloween costumes and movie portrayals are among some of the inaccurate stereotypes. For instance, native American attire is just like any other American or person. They do not were feathered headdresses and body paint daily. Another thing she mentioned was the way native Americans were portrayed in movies. There is usually no accurate representation of native Americans and their culture in movies and when there it usually in includes body paint, feathered headdress, and minimal clothing.

What is a stereotype? In my definition it can be a term used to classify an object or thing, maybe even a person. A stereotype can be a person who has little knowledge of something or none at all. There are a lot of different stereotypes out there. For example, “White men can’t jump” is one used in sports such as basketball. This can be a stereotype to people who have never witnessed a white man dunk a basketball. Larry Bird was arguably one of the best basketball players in the history of the NBA with many awards and achievements to prove it. He was indeed a white man therefore, counterpointing the stereotypical phrase, “white men can't jump.” Just like this one, there are many stereotypes out there with a broad range of phrases or

Popular culture has shaped our understanding and perception of Native American culture. From Disney to literature has given the picture of the “blood thirsty savage” of the beginning colonialism in the new world to the “Noble Savage,” a trait painted by non-native the West (Landsman and Lewis 184) and this has influenced many non native perceptions. What many outsiders do not see is the struggle Native American have on day to day bases. Each generation of Native American is on a struggle to keep their traditions alive, but to function in school and ultimately graduate.

“A stereotype is a rigid, oversimplified, often exaggerated belief that is applied both to an entire social category of people and to each individual within it. Stereotypes form the basis for prejudice, which in turn is used to justify discrimination and attitudes. They can be positive as well as negative.” Stereotypes exist within any social group, and social group or cliques which are groups of people who share similar characteristics and interests such as the ones priorly said.

1) clearly describe/summarize the content of the reading and (2) offer a brief critique of the content of the essay/reading. The student should especially attempt to answer the following basic questions: