Stereotypes: 5
Hi Friends!
Welcome to Issue 32 of this newsletter! It’s the fifth week of our Stereotypes series, and this week we focus on the Indigenous or Native community. Constantly, we see the oversimplification of Indigenous cultures into one homogenous group. The stereotyping of American Indians must be understood in the context of history which includes conquest, forced displacement, and organized efforts to eradicate native cultures. Though there are indigenous cultures across the globe from Inuit people to First Nations people to Aboriginals, today we’re going to keep the focus on the USA. Let’s get into it!
Key Terms
American Indian, Native, Native American, Indigenous American: All of these terms are considered acceptable. In the United States, Native American has been widely used but is falling out of favor with some groups, and the terms American Indian or Indigenous American are preferred by many Native people. The consensus, however, is that whenever possible, Native people prefer to be called by their specific tribal name. All global terminology must be used with an awareness of the stereotype that "Indians" are a single people, when in fact there are hundreds of individual ethnic groups, who are all native to the Americas. This type of awareness is obvious when European Americans refer to Europeans with an understanding that there are some similarities, but many differences between the peoples of an entire continent.
Let’s Get Into It
Check out my past newsletter on Mental Health in the Indigenous Community for more history and background.
First and foremost, there are many historical misconceptions when it comes to Natives. From the earliest period of European colonization, images of Natives found expression in drawings, engravings, portraiture, political prints, maps and cartouches, tobacconist figures, weather vanes, coins and medals, and books and prints, and these depictions have shaped a lot of the public’s perception of them. There is the myth that they are nearly extinct, when there are 6.79 million in the United States as of 2021, making up over 2% of the population. From the story of Pocahontas to, the tale of the first Thanksgiving, to the purchase of Manhattan by European settlers—many of the most common tales that we are taught in school and showed in pop culture are lies. We also almost always see Natives in historical settings, as if they don’t continue to live and change today, but are just fixtures of the past. Let’s dive into some of the most common stereotypes.
The Drunk: Few images of Native peoples have been as damaging as the trope of the “drunken Indian”. It has been used to support the claims of Indian inferiority that have resulted in loss of culture, land, and sovereignty. The drunken Indian male is often seen as morally deficient because of his inability to control himself, making him a menace to society. Or he has become alcoholic because of his tragic inability to adjust to the modern world and he is pitied. In contrast to enduring stories about extraordinarily high rates of alcohol misuse among Native Americans, University of Arizona researchers have found that Native Americans’ binge and heavy drinking rates actually match those of whites. The groups differed regarding abstinence: Native Americans were more likely to abstain from alcohol use.
The Warrior: American Indians are represented as barbarous, with tomahawk and scalping knife in hand while European Americans are depicted as innocent victims of savagery. Meanwhile, it was the Europeans who decimated their lands, infected them with diseases, commited genocide, captured their children and tried to eradicate Native culture completely. William “Buffalo Bill” Cody and other showmen, including Plains Indians, drew huge audiences. These shows, and related influences, inspired filmmakers to produce Westerns depicting hordes of Natives attacking European settlers.
Braves/ Chiefs: We most commonly hear these names and see these symbols as mascots. Much like blackface, such inventions and imaginings, meant to represent a racial other, tell us much more about European Americans than they do about Natives. Teams with “Indian” names come with a variety of practices, among them the adoption of “red-face” mascots costumed as Plains Indians, ersatz Indian dances and rituals at halftime, face paint and feathered headdresses, and the antics of war whooping, tomahawk chopping fans. See an updated list on current teams with Native mascots here. There are still hundreds.
The Indian Princess: The term "princess" was often mistakenly applied to the daughters of tribal chiefs or other community leaders by early American colonists who mistakenly believed that Indigenous people shared the European system of royalty. Frequently, the "Indian Princess" stereotype is paired with the "Pocahontas theme" in which the princess offers herself to a captive Christian knight, a prisoner of her father, and after rescuing him, she is converted to Christianity and live with him in his native land. In this way, Native women are objectified and sexualized.This objectification of Indigenous women has lead to a human rights crisis known as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). Statistics show that Indigenous women and girls are ten times more likely to be murdered than any other ethnicity.
The Costume: “While minstrel shows have long been criticized as racist, American children are still socialized into playing Indian. Columbus Day celebrations, Halloween costumes and Thanksgiving reenactments stereotype Indigenous Peoples as one big distorted culture. We are relegated to racist stereotypes and cultural caricatures.”
In a study by Children NOW, a child advocacy organization examining children’s perceptions of race and class in the media, Native youngsters said they see themselves as “poor,” “drunk,” “living on reservations,” and “an invisible race.” These stereotypes are seen in everything from cartoons to sporting events, and it’s no wonder why Indigenous people feel invisible, especially when it is America’s best interest to do so.
Next week, I’m celebrating one year of having this newsletter! The following I’ll be talking about Juneteenth, and the last week of June I’ll write about LGBTQ+ Pride Month and “rainbow washing”. We’ll resume the stereotype series with a focus on the stereotyping of the Jewish community in July. I’ll see you there!
