Native American Stereotypes

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Native American Stereotypes

• Mr. Glisch
• American Literature

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• Perhaps no culture has been more misrepresented
  and stereotyped than the Native American culture.
  When we think of Native Americans, the term
  Indian comes to mind as well as an image of a
  warrior on horseback, with a feathered headdress
  flowing in the wind. In reality, Native
  Americans and their cultures are just as diverse
  as all other cultures.

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Common Stereotypes

• Here are some facts to help dispel common
  stereotypes
• Native Americans speak different languages and
  have uniquely different cultures
• More than 2000 different languages, cultures, and
  value systems existed within the Native American
  tribes before the settlers arived

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• Native Americans have been stereotyped since the
  first immigrants
• Early settles wrote about Native Americans as
  one, not a diverse group
• Early settlers saw Native Americans as primitive
  and savage due to cultural differences
• Early settlers tried to convert Native Americans
  to Anglo culture and Christianity. When this
  failed, they deemed them as a barrier to
  civilization

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• Early American writers developed a frontier
  writing formula that depicted Native Americans as
  savages in order to justify their elimination
  from their native lands, a sacrifice to Western
  expansion.
• Literature during this time is loaded with
  stories of Native Americans burning, looting,
  raping, and scalping the pioneers who were
  pursuing "manifest destiny."
• Actual and exaggerated stories of atrocities by
  Native Americans upon white settlers (with no
  mention of the reverse) established a strong
  hatred of them as the impediment to the
  advancement of white civilization in the west.

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• American media continues to perpetuate Native
  American stereotypes.
• Tonto (which suspiciously means "stupid" in
  Spanish), the Lone Ranger's "faithful" Indian
  companion, was one of early TV's favorite
  characters on the show The Lone Ranger.
• Westerns, which still air today, portray Native
  Americans as flat, interchangeable characters
  without depth.
• The noble, stoic stereotype of the Native
  American. Not all Native Americans fit this
  description, just as not all Americans fit the
  idea of a Southerner.
• The warrior. Mascots perpetuate this
  stereotype. Native Americans never were and are
  not the bloodthirsty savages early settlers
  portrayed them to be.
• When is the last time you saw a Native American
  as a positive, dynamic character in a major movie
  or T.V. show?