The Pros And Cons Of Misrepresentation Of Native Americans

When the subject of Native American characters comes up in conversation, most picture Tonto from the film The Lone Ranger. However, many don’t realize how the film industry has created a stereotype that has affected generations of Native Americans. From mascots to logos of tobacco and other products, the early westerns have help mold minds into placing Native Americans into something they are not. The documentary Reel Injun help shed light on the subject as well as raise awareness to how these films have not only created a stereotype, but in a way allowed the Native American culture to become nothing but a myth.

The constructive portrayals of Native Americans exist in the same way as the negatives and can be equally as damaging. Positive tropes tend to set a higher standard for a race and can lead to vacuous

Portrayal of Native Americans in Pop Culture Native Americans have long been featured negatively in media. From barbaric savages to drugged hippies who live without worry, these portrayal of Native Americans are not only false but also shy away from truth about modern Native Americans. Smoke Signals, based on the bestselling book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, breaks these misconceptions and hits the viewer with cold hard truths. That Native Americans who live on reservations are often poor. That they suffer from rampant alcoholism and domestic abuse.

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

In society today there are many stereotypes, including those surrounding Native Americans. The largest of these stereotypes is caused by the misrepresentation of Native Americans as sports mascots. Today, most Native Americans are depicted as, “Objects, cartoon characters, and savages” (Cummings, 2008). Often in the American

But yet in the early years of Hollywood Native Americans in movies were not even Native American they were just your average white actor with red paint all over his body, this was able to pass as movies were still black and white. Also Hollywood is where stereotypes began to rise for Native Americans as they were all seen as Plains Indians, all wore headdresses and headbands, hunted buffalo, lived in teepees, was this cause the Sioux/ Lakota was the toughest enemy the Americans had to defeat? But as years went and movies became more advanced it began to provide more stereotypes for Native Americans. As movies would consider Native Americans people who were afraid to leave the reservation, just live off the government money, and are just seen as alcoholics as the movie would usually show how life would be when an individual leaves the reservation and enter the “White Man World”. Usually ending in how it was too tough of a lifestyle resulting them to moving back to the reservation to live an average reservation

Because the bourgeoisie has control of production, they are the ones who decide what is in their best benefit to produce and show. Media is a carrier of propaganda, biases, information and ideas that influence the public’s way of thinking. Depending on the era, Native Americans were depicted differently. There was a point when many felt that Americans needed a hero, so filmmakers portrayed the cowboys as the ideal American hero and the Indian as the savage enemy. It

Since the arrival of the Europeans in 1492 the Native American has systematically been dehumanized, decivilized and redefined into terms that typify a subordinate or minority role, restricted life opportunities persist today as a result.

On Thursday September 22, I attended a common reading event with a classmate. Dr. Adrienne Keene, Native scholar, writer, blogger, and activist, was the guest speaker for the particular event. She is known to be a part of the Cherokee Nation. Dr. Keene gave a presentation on how people in today’s society tend to misrepresent Native Americans through pop culture and media. She mainly talked about stereotyping and cultural appropriation. Classmates told her that she did not appear to be an Indian and they thought all Native Americans were extinct. Even her faculty said hurtful things to her.

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.

Another issue is how Native Americans internalize the stereotypes that are forced upon them. In a study conducted by Fryberg, Markus, Oyserman, and Stone (2008), they found three common stereotypes of Native Americans in mass media: Spiritual people who are in tune with nature, warriors, or people with stereotypically bad outcomes, such as alcoholism. It is important to note that not all of these stereotypes are negative, and in fact a few of them are positive. What Fryberg et al. (2008) found, however, was that regardless if the stereotype was seen as positive or negative, all three of those variations caused harm in the form of “students’ feelings of personal and community worth, and achievement-related possible selves” (p. 216). It did

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.

Racism towards Native American tribes and individuals have been found throughout mainstream media. From nationally broadcasted sports games to popular Hollywood movies, Native Americans people have been stereotyped and/or culturally appropriated. Many examples of these stereotypes are blatant and have been portrayed for in the media for decades.

For centuries the Native American people have been portrayed and stereotyped through different media sources some are from the past and some are present ideas that people in our society still hold to be true. They were and or are seen as savages, doomed warriors, princesses, and wise elders. American Indian men are often eroticized and portrayed as the object of white women’s Illicit lust and Native American Women are seen as beautiful, erotic, noble, and fully dedicated to her white lover. Both have the primary focus of serving white interests-by providing sexual satisfaction. The impact of the media through the 18th, 19th, and 20th century helped create the stereotype of these qualities today. Media such as movies and television shows were major contributors to the impact of race on Native Americans. With the majority of the population consuming films on a regular basis, it is likely that the stereotypes portrayed in films also

Stereotypes have been around since the start of humankind. They have crossed all people and all time frames, but appear to target and negatively impact the minority. In the history of America, Native Americans have been stereotyped into a few images. These images to the majority of the public, give a glimpse of what a Native American is. The reality is; however, that those images do not represent all tribes and all aspects of the Native American culture. Instead, society has mashed together what they believe Native Americans should be and who they are. This problem of stereotyping has not gone away, and will not go away until people choose to be educated on the matter. The fact is that there are many individuals who believe these stereotypes and do not know any differently. There has been many common stereotypes over the years. Hollywood has a played a major role in influencing these thoughts about Natives. There are stereotypes that have withstood time and are still found in today’s world. Lastly, Natives are still dealing with effects of being seen as something they are not. Throughout history, Native Americans have been negatively impacted by stereotyping and prejudice, and are still impacted by this today.