Native American Behind Stereotypes

One of the themes used in the book is of racism towards the Natives. An example used in the book is of Edward Sheriff Curtis who was a photographer of 1900s. Curtis was interested in taking pictures of Native people, but not just any Native person. “Curtis was looking for the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the imaginative construct” (King, 2003; pp. 34). He used many accessories to dress up people up “who did not look as the Indian was supposed to look” (King, 2003; pp.34). He judged people based on his own assumptions without any knowledge of the group and their practices. Curtis reduced the identity of the Native Americans to a single iconic quintessential image of what Native meant to white society. The idea related to the image of this group of people during the 1900s consisted of racism in terms of the “real looking Indian”. This is not

The most serious Native American stereotypes are clearly visible in films of the early twentieth century in Hollywood westerns. The big screen stories about western cowboys defeating Native tribes proved to be extremely popular and lucrative. Hollywood then started producing western tales in incredible quantities . In most Westerns, white cowboys represent courageous, brave, and quick witted men while the Indians are the dimming past. Cowboys are logical. “Indians” are irrational. Together, cowboys and Indians are the ego and the heart of the Anglo-Saxon identity. Native American characters in twentieth century films have ranged from stereotypes including the bloodthirsty, raging beast to the noble savage. Still other Indian characters, whether they are heroes, bad guys, or neutral, were the characters with little to no character development or range in their personalities. These stereotypes have their origins in popular American literature dating as far back as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Jacquelyn Kilpatrick, author of Celluloid Indians, notes that popular stories “centered on Native American savagery served as outlets for violence and pent up aggression in an early American society that prided manners and respectability.” (Kilpatrick 2) In these stories, the Native American population was seen as bad, though individual members could be represented as good. These stereotypes continued for years. One author, James Fenimore Cooper, began publishing a series of stories titled The Leatherstocking Tales in 1841. Kilpatrick emphasizes that Cooper

In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will

He also portrays the natives with lucid terms so as to shed an innocent light on them in an attempt to instill into his readers why it is so wrong for the Indians to be treated as they are by the Europeans.

Native Americans as a whole have been typecast as drunks ever since the coming of the white man’s “fire water.” TS Naimi, MD et al. reports that alcohol is responsible for 11.7% of all American Indian and Alaska Native deaths, compared to 3.3% for the U.S. general population (939). This disturbing discrepancy reinforces the age old notion of the “drunk Indian.” Generalizations aside, is there some truth to this stereotype? Are Indians more likely than other races to be drunks? Of all the races, “Native Americans have the highest prevalence (12.1%) of heavy drinking…A larger percentage of Native Americans (29.6%) also are binge drinkers” (Chartier and Caetano 153). Although some research has been done on genetic causes, little is

In the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, directed by Milos Forman, the portrayal of the only Native American called Chief Bromden starts off as stereotypical, but slowly unravels towards the end. However, despite including harmful stereotypes, the film succeeds overall in overshadowing any negative aspects. Despite not being the main character, Chief Bromden is able to leave a lasting impression that breaks down and discontinues many harmful stereotypes about Native Americans. Even though Chief Bromden is not given a chance to tell his own story from his point of view, as he is in the book version, he is still allowed to present himself as a complex human being instead of a just a stoic, noble Indian.

Our nation’s history has been deep rooted in the conflict involving Native Americans, ever since the beginning of America and it is one hard to get rid of even as the days go by. The impact of colonialism can be seen in Native American communities even today, and it can only be understood through a cultural perspective once you experience it. Aaron Huey, who is a photographer, went to Pine Ridge reservation and it led him to document the poverty and issues that the Sioux Indians go through as a result of the United States government’s long term actions and policies against them. One must question all sources regarding these topics because there is a lot of biased and misinformation about Native American struggles, and sometimes schools do not thoroughly teach the truth so students can get an insight. There are also different sociological perspectives in this conflict, along with many differing opinions on how to approach the problem and deal with it. This is where ideas clash because people believe their views are right regarding how to handle it.

Many races are unjustly victimized, but Native American cultures are more misunderstood and degraded than any other race. College and high school mascots sometimes depict images of Native Americans and have names loosely based on Native American descent, but these are often not based on actual Native American history, so instead of honoring Native Americans, they are being ridiculed. According to the article Warriors Survive Attack, by Cathy Murillo (2009) some “members of the Carpentaria community defended Native American mascot icons as honoring Chumash tradition and the spirit of American Indian Warriors in U.S. history and others claimed that the images were racist stereotypes” (Murillo, 2009). If people do not attempt to understand

     In Conclusion the author, Leslie Silko, displays the poverty and hopelessness that the Native Americans faced because of the white man. The Author elaborates this feeling of hopelessness in the Indians myth explaining the origin of the white man. As a result

The pioneer and all his train are now arrived safely in the realm of Romance. His prairie schooner drawn by oxen, his log cabin…his prairie of a thousand variable charms…his founding of government… all these, because they are long past and we are proud of the courage and hardihood of our fathers…and a little proud of ourselves for having descended from them – all these transmuted to the very stuff of fable, the very texture of myth. The glory of Lincoln is not unconnected with the pioneer’s proper glory, for Lincoln was subject to hardships of the early settlers.

Women of other categories like Asians, Latinas and Native Americans face similar stereotypes to Black women. The two Black women stereotypes that Asians, Latinas and Native Americans can be compared to are the Mammy and Jezebel stereotypes. These stereotypes are either a threat to masculinity or an ideal way to be feminine in the male thought.

James Fenimore Cooper’s book The Last of the Mohicans, takes place in the frontier of western New York during the French and Indian War. The book is about two daughters getting escorted to see their father, the hardships that come with it, and the events afterward. While telling the story, I will tell you about two characters and how they either changed or resisted change. The characters that I will discuss are David Gamut, who changed, and Cora Munro, who resisted change.

Racism. It runs rampant in today’s society, let alone early American literature. In most early American literature, the prospect of interracial relationships and people from races other than Caucasian were looked at through fear-tinted lenses and seen as undesirable and distasteful. In examining James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Last of the Mohicans, readers can discover that Cooper feels there are problems that can arise due to the mingling of races, while overcoming racial barriers and having interracial relationships can result in advantages. Examining his literature can give much insight into his mind and how he feels about people of color.

In the book, Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, the views of racial and gender bias are seen. Many articles and books discuss the topic at hand, such as Laura George’s The Native and the Fop: Primitivism and Fashion in Romantic Rhetoric, Lindsey Claire Smith’s Cross-Cultural Hybridity in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, Leonard Unger’s American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies, and James L. Coby’s Crisis-Dictated Gender Roles in James Fenimore Cooper’s THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS. These critics each take their own views on either race or gender in the book. Race and gender are two huge topics in this book and in real life. Hawkeye is a great example of the overcoming of racial bias.

The American writer Mark Twain wrote “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” in response and his own opinion about Cooper’s novels. In this essay, Twain criticizes the major mistakes and “rules” which Cooper violates in writing his series, The Leatherstocking Tales. A large portion of the rules which Twain writes about can be found in Cooper’s novel, The Last of the Mohicans. His self-made rules are very encompassing of Cooper's literary flaws which can easily be pointed out through his novel. With Cooper violating these basic set of rules, he makes his novel seem very rushed and undeveloped as the rules which do not follow encompass very crucial criteria which not only these kinds of novels must have, but any novel must do.