Throughout American history, Native Americans have been targeted for persecution.They have been forced off their lands and robbed of their culture. American media has a moral obligation to portray Native Americans through an honest lens. For the most part, however, it has a long history of rationalizing European conquest by portraying Native Americans as uncivilized. When a “kinder” view is offered, in film, it is highly simplified. By the end of a movie the viewer might be sad but by no means feel responsible or guilty.
During settlement of America, White European settlers succeeded in completely decimating the Native American population. Xenophobia and Ethnocentrism infused the belief that violence was the only way to acculturate this new land. From the 16th to the 19th century, Native Americans were subjected to genocide, enslavement, displacement and epidemic diseases. These conditions wiped out the better part of their population.
After the American Revolution, Native American territories were subdivided, without any discussion with its inhabitants. As European settlements flourished, Native American livelihoods were increasingly threatened. In the 1800’s, the U.S.Government (not so gently) pushed the Native American people further West.
In 1830, the Indian Removal Act forced Native Americans to relocate from the east side of the Mississippi River to the west. Native Americans who resisted were killed. The rest were forced to relocate. This mass exodus of hunger, disease and exhaustion is now known as the “Trail of Tears.” In the course of this march, over 4,000 out of 15,000 Cherokees died.
President Andrew Jackson had a very different perception of the event. In order to encourage a positive attitude about the Indian Removal Act, he described the treaty as such: “[The Indian Removal Act] will place a dense and civilized population in a large tract of country now occupied by few savage hunters.” No tears for Andrew. What he didn’t acknowledge was that 90% of the “savage” Cherokee were literate. Many could read and write English, as well as the Native Cherokee dialect. Regardless, Native Americans continued to be pushed off their land and forced into increasingly “colonized” areas in which it was impossible to keep their traditional lifestyles.
Later in the 19th century, the U.S. Government established their “moral groundings” and began “re-educating” Native Americans to a more European way of life. Boarding schools and Christian missionaries created a framework for Native American families to discard their way of life and conform to a “white culture.”Anything remotely “native” was viewed as “broken.” This manifest destiny mission would not be complete until Native American culture was gone.
A man named James Amasa created the reservation system in the 1870’s. Previously, James had only encountered a Native American tribe once. Through this brief encounter and the book Last of the Mohicans, he developed the reservation system. James Amasa described Native populations as “childlike.” They simply didn’t know any better and should be taught slowly that the European way of life is best. Reservations were looked upon as an intermediary step for Native American to assimilate into European ways.
Reservations became extremely problematic for various reasons. Nomadic tribes were confined to set locations. Agricultural based tribes were given land unsuitable for farming without knowledge of how to build irrigation systems, an impossible situation. The U.S. Government clustered hostile tribes together as a form of punishment. The result on the Native culture was devastating. Having a self-sufficient environment taken away, Native Americans faced increasing poverty and dependence on the federal government to survive.
Silent films in the early 1900’s utilized the conquest of the Native Americans as a popular plotline. The nature of silent films was to dramatize and exaggerate the story and characters to compensate for words. Many of these silent pictures displayed “Custer-ism,” which is Manifest destiny” played as the emotional climax of the films. These movies portrayed Native Americans as blood thirsty savages hungry for White blood.
There were, however, exceptions. Silent pictures such as The Indian Massacre (1914) showed the tragedy of White settlers killing both buffalo and Native American people. Native Americans were showcased as sympathetic human beings, mourning the loss of their people. As sound overtook the world of film, however, this empathy disappeared in a sea of Cowboy vs. Indian movies.
The 1940’s and 50’s were an exciting time for the world of media.Language was available through more than text on the screen. The Hollywood film industry did little to create an accurate representation of Native American history. On the contrary, early movies rationalize the treatment of Native Americans by portraying them as bloodthirsty savages.
Movies featuring a white protagonist prevailing over evil Indians savages became extremely popular. These movies followed a predictable pattern. The “good guys” were the white males and the “bad guys” were the savage Indians. There was no differentiation from one tribe to another. An Indian was an Indian and the only good Indian was a dead one. The Anti Defamation League has since set the stereotype straight, “While warfare did exist among Native Americans the majority of tribes were peaceful and only attacked in self defense.”
Some films promoted Native Americans to noble “sidekicks.” In the Lone Ranger, an old western show aired in 1933, Tonto is the uneducated Indian character that speaks in broken English. As a “noble savage,” he helps the White protagonist on his way to glory. The significance of language comes from the messages we associate with it. The lack of language in Native American characters takes away their power of self-identification and marginalizes them. These Native American characters spoke in a broken English “command” voice, indicating either violence or stupidity. When White men exerted power over the Native American voice, they oftentimes had no voice at all.
Even in the 21st-century, there is a decidedly mixed representation of Native Americans in film. Some movies aim at cultural authenticity, while others have completely stereotypical representations brought back from the 1950’s. Movies like the most recent Lone Ranger (2013) featured Johnny Depp depicting the classic Native American sidekick. His character is almost in tandem mirrors the original Tonto’s broken speech and subservience. Not to mention that the Native American character is play by a white man.
During 1968, the Sioux Chief expressed his concerns regarding the Native American population. Most Native Americans were losing their traditional way of life life and no longer possessed the skills needed to live off the land. Those who did had limited resources. Native American children were pressured into the U.S. educational systems. These schools did their best to ignore the culture of these children and treated them either as inferiors or as if they were White.
In a White dominated system, with White history and White culture, the Native American youth felt confused. With increasing dependence on the modernized world, they began to identify its markers for success. There was shame in being Native American both because it was deemed as old fashion and because it was associated with the impoverished reservations. Acts such as cutting the long male braids and buying western clothes were signs of “progress.”
By the late 1960-70’s the Civil Rights Movement took hold and both the rights of Blacks and Native American were reevaluated. The reservations were in bad shape. They were places with a high rate of violence, alcoholism, poverty, and abuse. In short, reservations were slums. A group of Native Americans took the cue from the Civil Rights Movement and channeled their energies into their own group called the American Indian Movement (AIM).
Founded in the early 1970’s, AIM focused on protecting Native Americans both culturally and politically. They worked to create better jobs, homes and education for Native American families. They used funding from President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. The group participated in political demonstrations and protested in Washington D.C. to advocate for an improvement in Native Americans and U.S. Government relations.
Although AIM succeeded in many of the goals they established, they also had major setbacks. The U.S. FBI had AIM classified as an extremist organization and took away government funding. From the 1960’s through the 1980’s, there were also cases of police brutality toward reservation inhabitants and other police enforcement injustice. When cases of murder on the reservations surfaced, groups such as AIM focused on creating an awareness of racism behind these violent acts.
The Media reached a turning point during an era of racial pride. Instead of demonizing Native Americans they were glorified. The early 60’s and 70’s featured many groundbreaking pro-Native American Movies. In the 1970’s, movies such as Little Man Big Man showed a more sympathetic Native American, as well as exposing on screen the atrocities of White conquest. This style of movie continued into the 1990’s with films such as Dances With the Wolves.
The problem with these movies was that in the process of apotheosizing the Native American culture, filmmakers managed to abridge their lives into something a little too picturesque. Even though Native Americans were featured in a positive light, they were not the main characters. The principal characters were always White. The character development of Native Americans was rarely matured. Through this glorification there were several stereotypes that took hold of the media.
A preoccupation with “Stoic” Native American dates back to the 1800’s when Edward Curtis took the traditional garments and objects of the Native Americans and had them pose, unsmiling, in sets he created. He presented them as inspiring, wise people of his imagination. In movies, this “stoic”Indian was usually a one-dimensional, emotionless elder who rarely spoke. When scripted to speak his words would be a cacophony of broken English and wisdom.
The other character whose presence became common on the television screen was “the Medicine Man.” This more talkative Native American male was a wealth of philosophy and wisdom. The problem with both the stoic Indian and the Medicine Man is they only exist in the context of a White man. The guidance of these men is always for the benefit of the White protagonist. Once the hero is gone both the Stoic Indian and Medicine Man fade away into irrelevance. The repetition of these characters also sent a strong message regarding Native American Culture. “Positive stereotypes” are still stereotypes and if Native American men oscillate between war hungry monster and men of wisdom, their culture becomes simplified into its crudest form.
In an era of racial sensitivity, Disney has been criticised for appropriating Arabs in Aladdin and stereotyping Black and Hispanics with the hyenas in The Lion King. Pocahontas was a working effort to create a culturally acute character, whose presence could fill a racial quota. While Disney made an effort to hire Native American consultants and create an accurate representation of the culture, their overall representation lacked authenticity.
The decision for the final drawing of Pocahontas came from a board made up of exclusively White males. Pocahontas’ physiognomy was drawn from four templates: the historic Pocahontas, a traditional Native American woman, a Filipino model and a White supermodel. A person does not have to know the exact references to guess which inspiration had the most influence in the final result. The cartoon Pocahontas most definitely reflects the “White Man’s Indian.”
The perpetuation of the Native American woman as the “beautiful maiden” is laden with deeply racist and sexist undertones. Native American women have become associated in the media with young over-sexualized girls in very little clothing. At the end of a movie, this girl is often featured as a prize for the white male protagonist. This image does not come without consequences. Statistically, non-Native American males subject Native American women to high levels of sexual assault and harassment.
A breakthrough for Native Americans in the media was the movie, Smoke Signals (1998). The movie was not epic or a revision of history. Far from the action packed movies before it, Smoke Signals was a story about two Native American men on a quest to find their father and a sense of identity. Both the characters had emotional depth. Native American Culture surrounded the premise of the story and the heart of the story was in the journey of these two men.
Presently, Native American groups have been a part of critical social movements, including cultural preservation and environmentalism. These exceptional campaigns do not reflect the Native American struggle. The statistics illustrate a disturbing situation. There are 5.2 million Native Americans living in the U.S. 22% of them live on tribal land or reservations (2010 US census). The living conditions on these reservations are comparable to Third World Countries. All reservations have extraordinarily high rates of poverty, alcoholism, drug addiction and sexual assault.
On many reservations, 8 out of 10 adults are unemployed ( 2005 BIA American Indian Population & Labor Force Report). There is dense overcrowding and massive amounts of homelessness. Native Americans are dependent on the federal government for their healthcare needs, though very little is provided on the reservations. Life expectancy is diminished and the general health of Native American people has suffered.
While it would be nice to think that we have progressed in our portrayal of Native Americans in the Media, we still have a long way to go. Famous sports teams use the names of Indian tribes as costumes and associated aggressiveness with their “savage mascot.” This not only an example of cultural appropriation, it breeds an environment where insults to the “Indian” team express racism.
Derogative comments such as “Slay the squabs” portrays Native American culture as backwards. This brand of racism does not occur with any other culture in America. A sports team named “The Negroes” would surely lead to an uprising, but putting on face paint and calling yourself an Indian is acceptable in modern society.
The clothing of Native Americans are an integral part of their culture and some of their styles have become mainstream in American fashion such as moccasins and Native American patterns. There is a fine line, however, between taking inspiration from a culture and turning it into a costume. Music videos and Halloween costumes caricature and sexualize Native American clothing in offensive and provocative ways. Like sports mascots, racist representations are unacceptable for other races but not for Native American.
Most non-Native Americans have not met a Native American. Even people with a historical sympathy towards Native Americans fail to understand the extent to which racial inequality affects Native Americans today. Many minorities in America get the short end of the stick. Native Americans have not even gotten the stick. They have historically been targeted and attacked. The media has accepted this as acceptable and although there have been movements in the media to more accurately portray Native Americans, we keep taking steps backward. It is up to all Americans to challenge these stereotypes and demand the truth.
Works Cited
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Kilpatrick, Jacquelyn. Celluloid Indians. Nebraska: U of Nebraska, 1999. Print.
“Life on the Reservations.” Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 18Apr. 2015.
McLaurin, Virginia A. Stereotypes of Contemporary Native American Indian Characters in Recent Popular Media (n.d.): n. pag.Http://scholarworks.umass.edu/. UMass, May 2012. Web.
Nabokov, Peter. Native American Testimony: A Chronicle of Indian-white Relations from Prophecy to the Present, 1492-2000. New York, NY: Penguin, 1999. Print.
Nittle, Nadra Kareem. “Native American Stereotypes in Film and Television.” About.com. About News, n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2015.
Rosenstiel, Annette. Red & White: Indian Views of the White Man, 1492-1982. New York: Universe, 1983. Print.
“The Trail of Tears.” PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2015.
Putney Mediates the Media 