When some people think of Native American and American Indian history they may think of them as fierce merciless killers, scalping people, and people who revolted. However, when I think of Native American and American Indian history I think of the pain they suffered, the injustice they had to deal with, the mass killings of tribes and the never-ending cycle of dealing with prideful people who were never satisfied. Some may think their culture and customs are strange and make no sense. Even though I may not understand why they may do certain things I admire how they stressed the importance of family. I also admire the clothes and think that they look quite comfy. I enjoy watching American dances as well as learning what each dance meant. …show more content…
I am not too familiar with certain beliefs or traditions, but I do know that depending on what tribe and where the tribe depended on what they believed. Some believed in “The Great Sprit”, which is a supreme being watching over everyone. I am not good at understanding and knowing specific traditions or beliefs since there are so many, but I know in general what they believed. For instance, they believed in and worshiped spirits. They also believed that certain animals and plants in nature represented something. I am also aware of certain rituals that boys and girls had to go through to be considered adults. There were also marriage customs and birth and death rituals. I am aware of these things because I have learned about them in school in past grades. Also, because my family has Native American roots and I have done research out of curiosity. Sadly Native Americans have been stereotyped for how they are believed to look and act.
Some said that Native Americans are all savages, merciless killers, and uneducated. Many people believed that Native Americans were all supposed to look the same. Common stereotypes have been that all Native Americans live in tipis, wear braids, carry bows and arrows, and ride horses. It has also been believed that Indians have no respect for women. These accusations are not true they are indeed stereotypes. I think that Hollywood filmmakers or the white people from the west created these stereotypes to either get ratings or talk down to the Native Americans. Native Americans did not want to go to war with the white men but rather tried to make peace helping them, Native Americans were advanced in farming techniques and had well-developed communities. Not all Native Americans looked the same; there were some of lighter skin and some of darker skin. Some Native American lived in tipis, but there are no recordings or them having braids or riding horses. Horses were used after the white men came and tomahawks were the most common weapon of choice. Women were probably the most valued and valuable person in the family she cooked and cleaned took care of the family packed and so
forth. Yes, I am fully aware of the harsh injustices the Native Americans went through. They welcomed the white men to their land only to have some of their men captured. Then these strange men start to come into the land uninvited and claim the Indians as their property. They make treaties promising peace but never keep them. The white men take more and more land and force the Indians into slavery. Then when the Indians revolt the white men are furious and surprised. The white men are in a sense hypocrites promising peace and security but giving them the total opposite in exchange of nothing. Now for 523 years Native Americans have faced the effects of greedy power and money hunger men, and all they did was be nice, and yet they suffer the consequences of other men selfish actions. The American government is trying to ‘fix’ what was messed up, but a Band-Aid will not fix a bullet hole. I am not too familiar with oral traditions, but I am very familiar with the art of storytelling. Ever since I was little my family would every night tell me a story it was usually one that they would make up, or it would be out of my favorite book. I still remember some of the stories they used to tell and even though I knew them by heart I wanted to hear them over and over. I know that storytelling in certain cultures is a big part of their lives. The stories told express a warning a lesson or for humor. The story could be real or make-believe, but it is always told from the heart. There are no real oral traditions that I know of, but I can imagine how these traditions could be useful. If a culture had no written language or no means to write the language repeating the history of the tribe, stories, lessons, teachings, sacred rituals and so forth would most likely have to be repeated orally. I enjoy looking at nature and animals, I absolutely love the outdoors and being in nature and experiencing the full effect. However, I do not worship nature or animals. I by all means appreciate that our loving creator provided these beautiful sights for us, but I prefer to worship the maker rather than the product. I have a high respect and try my best to leave them to their natural beauty not causing any harm or disturbance because they by no means need humans. Many people have traditions that they do as a family around the time of the holiday seasons. Since my family and I are Jehovah’s Witnesses we do celebrate of participating in holidays, we have different types of traditions. For instance, every year on Nissan 14 according to the Jewish calendar we join others worldwide in order to observe the memorial of Jesus Christ. We attend this sacred night as a family and we always look forward to it. Another tradition would be that of traveling to either another state or country at least once a year. All of the family is involved in the planning process. This year we went to Alabama and Georgia, last year was Ecuador, Idaho, and Wyoming. Next year I am hoping to go to Finland, the Netherlands, Chile, New York or another state. When we visit these places we help go for an educational purpose either to help people understand the bible or be taught ourselves we also make time for recreational activities. These are recent traditions that we have implemented no traditions were really passed from my great-grandparents to my grandparent to my parents to me so we are making out own for our little family. These are being passed by example and with love. There are many stories told in my family. Anyone and everyone told them, some nights it would be my mom and other nights it would be my grandpa. There would always be two stories read the first one would be from a book called “My Book of Bible Stories”. This book has so many pictures asks questions has descriptive words and is still one of my favorite books. After that story whoever was telling the story would make up a silly story usually about a blue or green man with a giraffe that went traveling and exploring, (I have no clue why). The person telling the story would get me good and tired from laughing. As I got older they would tell me about funny childhood memories that they had and experienced. I always liked hearing about what my dad did when growing up. I am not sure what stories that I will tell to my children or even grandchildren, but it will probably be out of the “My Book of Bible Stories”. I also think that I have some pretty funny stories to tell them about already, about the adventures I have had the bloopers I have heard the embarrassing photos I took of my friends and explaining what social media was and what a lawn mower is
It seems that in the 21st century and even during the colonizing of America, the interpretation of Native Americans is and had been that they were savages and live a barbaric lifestyle. That they had no order or way of life. When presented with the topic of Native Americans and Colonists in the New World, it is easy to assume warfare and bloodshed amongst the two parties. That the Colonists were constantly in mini battles with the Native Americans. It is also easy to assume that the land in the New World was unsettling to the eyes. This is due to records from the colonist times, calling the lands “wild” or “wildlands”. In Robbie Ethridge’s book Creek Country, she tries to debunk these interpretations mentioned above. She does so by using an
In The White Man’s Indian, Robert Berkhoffer analyzes how Native Americans have maintained a negative stereotype because of Whites. As a matter of fact, this book examines the evolution of Native Americans throughout American history by explaining the origin of the Indian stereotype, the change from religious justification to scientific racism to a modern anthropological viewpoint of Native Americans, the White portrayal of Native Americans through art, and the policies enacted to keep Native Americans as Whites perceive them to be. In the hope that Native Americans will be able to overcome how Whites have portrayed them, Berkhoffer is presenting
Cowboys and Indians is the popular game played by many children played as a game of heroes and villains. Natives are villainized in American pop culture due to the history being told by educational institutions across the nation. There are not many positive roles popular in the media about Native Americans. Many roles are even played by white people. The costume representation is not accurate either. The disrespect towards them is especially seem on Halloween, when people dress as Natives in cute and sexy ways that they think represent their culture. War paint, beads, feathers and headdresses are ceremonial accessories that represent their culture, it not a fun costume to wear. Only if they are being criticized and ridiculed, like they have been in the past. Racism has also been a huge problem when it comes to using creative names for sports teams, like the Redskins for example. Redskin is a derogatory and offensive term towards Native Americans and many white people do not see it as wrong due to the privilege they inherited throughout history. The disrespect towards them has grown and today it seems that if Natives were not getting ridiculed, they are for the most part ignored. The concerns that King describes in his book explains how the past has wired Americans to believing everything they have once learned. White people
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.
Stereotypes dictate a certain group in either a good or bad way, however more than not they give others a false interpretation of a group. They focus on one factor a certain group has and emphasize it drastically to the point that any other aspect of that group becomes lost. Media is one of the largest factors to but on blame for the misinterpretation of groups in society. In Ten Little Indians, there are many stereotypes of Native Americans in the short story “What You Pawn I Will Redeem”. The story as a whole brings about stereotypes of how a Native American in general lives and what activities they partake in. By doing so the author, Alexie Sherman, shows that although stereotypes maybe true in certain situations, that stereotype is only
There are many stereotypes about Native Americans which are promoted in today's films. Since the beginnings of the westward settlement people have been saying things about the Native Americans that are not necessarily true. They were depicted as savages and thieves. Like all peoples this is true about some, but not for all. In fact, it was the Native Americans which helped the pilgrims settle in this country in the first place. This never stopped whites from stereotyping the way we have. Early films and TV shows gave Native Americans a bad image. Old western films are a good example of this. In these the cowboys were always the good guys and the Native Americans were the bad guys. More recent films and TV shows give a different picture of the Native American. Since the start of television the Americans view of the culture of the Native American has slowly changed from being a ruthless savage to an honored race of people.
The stereotype of Native Americans has been concocted by long history. As any stereotype constructed by physical appearance, the early Europeans settlers were no different and utilized this method. Strangers to the New World, they realized the land was not uninhabited. The Native Americans were a strange people that didn't dress like them, didn't speak like them, and didn't believe like them. So they scribed what they observed. They observed a primitive people with an unorthodox religion and way of life. These observations made the transatlantic waves. Not knowingly, the early settlers had transmitted the earliest cases of stereotyped Native Americans to the masses. This perpetuated t...
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 and respect Native American culture, then Native American stereotypes will become irreparable, discrimination will remain unresolved, and ethnocentrism will not be reprimanded.
Native Americans, sometimes referred to as American Indians, have continually faced hardships. Native Americans history is Often overlooked and misunderstood which can lead to stereotyping or discrimination They have fought for many years to be accepted and given their rights to continuities practicing the beliefs that were practiced long before the Europeans came upon the Americas long ago. Throughout history, Native Americans have been presented with many obstacles and even now they continue to fight to over these hardships. hey still are continuing to fight to overcome their hardships.
Native Americans have an interesting backstory and culture. No matter what the Caucasians did to them, they never lost their unique culture. There were many different organisms and objects that are included in that culture. A great amount of them centered around nature and the Earth. Three major influences on the Native American culture would be the plants, animals, and the spirits they worshipped.
They are shown as dangerous, violent people who only care about killing white people and getting revenge for all of the killings that the white people have done to them. However, you could portray white people the same way because after all the white people did kill a huge chunk of the Native American population in the early years of the country. The audience at this time however did not see that the white people were really just as if not more violent than the Comanche people because we see Uncle Ethan as a hero for killing many Comanche people. The viewers of this movie only see the natives in times of violence and desperation they are never portrayed on a common ground. The director is trying to show that natives are very inhumane people and they are not civilized at all when really the audience should be focused on the lack of civilization that we see from Uncle
Negative stereotypes about Aboriginal people may influence the attitudes and relationships of nonindigenous workers towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients and co-workers.
Many Native American Mascots are racist and outdated such as the Cleveland Indians and people are starting to notice how racist a red Indian ‘Chief Wahoo’ is. A stereotyped Indian with a red face and excessively large nose horribly portrays Native Americans in a cultural stereotype. The history of Native Americans is often presented in a reductive and simplistic way. For example, modern media shows Native Americans in a racist perspective such as Peter Pan, which has songs like What makes the red man red, calls Native American bad names, and shows them in the past as if they don't exist anymore. Many Americans become more aware about the inaccurate images of Native Americans we may be able to change cultural stereotype. The Absolutely True
Over the past week we have seen how Native Americans face the never-ending barrage of racial stereotypes and misconceptions. As well we have seen their cultures and traditions used and misinterpreted by people outside of their culture in an attempt to make a profit from these unique practices. Native Americans have been persecuted ever since White men stepped on to their land. As we will see in this paper Native Americans have been misconstrued as a savage group of feather wearing and horse riding Indians. In the end this paper will look into how Native American culture and identity have been taken advantage of by whites and transformed the many different tribes and their uniqueness into one large group full of many different stereotypes. It is through the false replication of art and artifacts as well as how Indians have been portrayed in
Teachers can avoid ethnocentrism and racism first by understanding American Indian groups are similar. These groups have similar celebrations or traditions. Secondly, each group is different. They speak different languages. The groups are diverse and unique. Lastly, American Indian groups are on-going social realities. Amongst American Indian tribes there are three stereotypical images they're associated to. The first image is the noble savage. A noble savage shows American Indians as good people and as savages. An example of a noble savage comes from the Iroquois tribe. Then there's the conquered savage. The Cherokee tribe appeared as conquered savages due to them assimilating. The last stereotype is the savage. According to Reyhner, “The