Native American Stereotypes Essay

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

media such as films that these stereotypes and misconceptions have formed destroying many Indian tribes traditional cultural practices and traditions.
Before we go into the bulk of this paper I want to look closer into the term of cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation typically involves members of a dominant group exploiting the culture of a less privileged group, often with little understanding of the minority’s history, experience, and traditions. It can include things such as the taking of intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else’s culture without permission. When it comes to the Native Americans in particular this includes the unauthorized use of their cultures dance, dress, music, language, and religious symbols to name a few. This can cause great harm to the oppressed group especially when sacred objects are used in the manners they were not meant for. While cultural appropriation is not always used in a destructive or harmful manner of ones culture it has lasting effects on the individuals that identify to that specific culture.
One part of this past week that I found very interesting was the copyright and intellectual property right laws that have been created to help protect Native American artwork and other items that are unique to their cultures. While it does not protect against ideas it does protect against the material manifestation of those ideas. These laws were created to help protect against the knock-off artwork and other items that are created and then sold by people outside of that particular culture. This harms the Native Americans as these items can be mass-produced and sold for a lot cheaper, this in turn devalues the original works created by the Indians and causes a decline in true Native American production. As well it comes back to the principle of the matter in regards to cultural knowledge. Non-Indians develop this craft with little to no knowledge of the customs, traditions, and culture based meanings that come along with the creation and making of this item. Mass productions of these sacred or religious items can cause serious harm and disrespect to the traditions of many Indian tribes as they may be produced by whites with a meaning that is far from the truth. These trademark laws in the end help protect consumers from fraud but most importantly helps protect the Native Americans identity and livelihood.
The next area that I want to focus on is that of the public display of many sacred Indian artifacts and in particular the display of artwork.

Museums are the most common place where these images can be seen, but sometimes they do not reflect the truth behind the events being displayed. Once again non-native people are exploiting the history and traditions of Native Americans in the hopes of making a profit off of their trials and tribulations. “Native American art has long been mined as a resource by non-native artists and for commercial enterprises, just as Native American land was mined as the first act of dispossession and appropriation” (Berman 392). Again these non-native artists don’t fully understand the history of how an event took place and instead are creating the art in a way that will help better sell their piece. This damages the traditions and cultures of Native Americans as these events and people are being portrayed in a manner that is false and deceiving. This artwork is then sold on a global scale and artists who have no understanding of the truth behind and event being recreated are falsely portraying

Indians.
There are even greater steps being taken to help preserve the Native Indians cultures and traditions and that comes from the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, known as NAGPRA. This law provides a process for having federally funded museums and other federal agencies repatriate certain Native American cultural objects. Things such as human remains, objects from burial sites, sacred objects, and many other objects from a tribe’s culture that are considered culturally important. This law in particular has helped preserve and return many ancient and sacred artifacts and remains back to the tribes where they belonged. As many of these items or remains were on display at museums or in peoples homes who did not truly understand the meaning or purpose behind the these cultural artifacts. So all of these copyright and trademark laws and NAGPRA included have all been created to help preserve and eliminate the many stereotypes and false beliefs that come along with the recreation and illegal selling and trading of Indian artifacts and traditions. While art has had a great impact on the way Indians are portrayed it is in my belief that movies and films have had the greatest influence on how Indian traditions and culture have been portrayed to society.
The film “Real Injun” directed by Neil Diamond truly opened my eyes into exactly how over many years Indians have been generalized and stereotyped creating this false image on how they lived and practiced their various cultures and traditions. The film starts out by discussing how Hollywood cinema has shaped Native Americans into aliens, non-existing humans, and mythological creatures that are extinct. In the beginning these Native Indians were portrayed as “The Noble Indian”. They were seen as being very wise and stoic as well as being peaceful and one with nature. These early films usually showed them dancing and practicing their religious customs in a manner that showed them harmless. As well they were seen as being helpful to white settlers and causing no harm. It wasn’t until after the Great Depression that this image of Natives changed. Then came the vision of “The Savage Indian” which portrayed all Indians as violent, ruthless, and barbaric warriors. These film’s themes commonly played upon the idea that Native American’s were ignorant and savage creatures. They were seen as being bloodthirsty and had little to no humanity. They were shown as always coming after the white man to kill him and take whatever he had. It wasn’t only the way they portrayed Indians acting that had it all wrong, but these films created an image of Indians that became the national symbol for all Indians. This was an Indian who wore buckskin garments, a feather hat, war paint, and could ride a horse with ease. This was the Indian that all of America identified with and created the many stereotypes that follow. One Indian interviewed in the movie said that “Up here we don’t wear feathers or ride horses, but because of the movies, a lot of the world still thinks we do.” So it was because of these films that this generalized Indian was created and therefore all groups of Indians were seen as looking exactly like this typical movie Indian. In fact there were thousands of tribes of Indians across America and Canada that practiced very unique traditions that typically only related to their own tribe and not many others. The next thing that struck me as shocking was that the lead Indian role was rarely if ever played by a true Indian and was usually a white male in red face. So, many Americans during the time these films were being released were identifying an Indian as looking and acting like these actors playing these parts when in fact these actors have no true understanding of the traditions and beliefs that many of the Indians believed in. Through this film it showed that Native Americans in todays time just want to be recognized as a people not just “the Indian” or “noble chief”. They are people that have feelings, customs, and traditions just like every other culture and they have made it clear that they want those to be respected. It is clear that in order for this to be done mainstream media needs to eliminate these stereotypes and as a society we must improve our education to help accurately and respectfully depict these cultures.
Through all of these examples it is clear that the Indian culture and their traditions have been stereotyped and taken advantage of far to long. Their ancient artifacts and other religious items have been sold in markets without the approval of the tribes that they come from. This has caused the loss of historic traditions in many of these tribes, as these items are unique and vital to the practice of their ancestors and those that follow them. As well many non-natives are depicting historic native events as well as the way many tribes carried out their day-to-day lives, when in fact they are not accurately representing the struggle that many of these tribes endured from white settlers. On top of that whites are creating false relics and artifacts to be sold claiming that they are from Indian tribes. This not only puts true Native American craftsman out of business but also takes away form the uniqueness of these items. If this wasn’t enough, films from the late 19th century all the way up to present times have successfully stereotyped thousands of Indian tribes into one generalized Indian. Films have taken away the uniqueness of many of these Indians tribes’ culture and depicted them as savage warriors always looking to kill whites. It is through this myth of “the Injun” portrayed in art and films that has influenced the world’s understanding and misunderstanding of Natives and created many stereotypes that have haunted Native Americans throughout history. As stated before improving education and accurately depicting the cultures and beliefs of these very diverse Indian tribes is the only way to eliminate these stereotypes that have been tagged on the Native American people.