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Illusions and Deceptions: the Native American in Popular Culture Native Americans and their lifestyle have fascinated white people since Europeans arrived in the Americas more than five centuries ago. Over time that fascination has manifested itself in all media formats. Creators of art, literature, theater, film, television, and advertising have developed and popularized a tremendous amount of stereotypical imagey on the subject. That process of creating a popular culture where images like feathered headdresses and tomahawks tend to erase the individual and cultural identities of Native Americans assure everyone that all Native Americans are alike.
Top of Page Many portrayals of Native Americans are inaccurate. Some are negative, others are positive, but all express the dominant culture's attitudes and all have an impact. The ways that Native American stereotypical imagery conditions the broader culture's behavior becomes a profound reason for investigating the impact of popular culture on the subject. What makes you think of Native Americans? Are your visions of war bonnets, tomahawks, tipis, totem poles, fringed buckskins, and moccasins truly reflective of Native Americans? Does the presence of these symbols in everyday objects really tell you anything about Native people or do they tell you about yourself?
Top of Page "In those days not many Indians cared that they were rooting against themselves. The Indians in the film had been portrayed as the very embodiment of evil, and Hollywood had staked its existence on the notion that whipping the forces of evil (Indians) made people feel good, even Indians, who would pay their money and eat their popcorn in anticipation of the happy ending, and when it came it was like the satisfaction of whipping the boys in the next town in basketball."
Top of Page "250 American Indians held a pow-wow . . . in protest against Negroes and Mexicans representing themselves as Indians in motion picture work. [T]he Indians, representing 18 different tribes, assailed the practice, under the leadership of Jim Thorpe, famous one-time athlete. All signed a register which Thorpe will use to gain co-operation of casting bureaus in a plan to check the identity of those who apply for film jobs as Indians."
Top of Page "The reservation Indians of the West and Northwest are registering strenuous objections with the Indian Bureau at Washington regarding the portrayal of Indian life in the films. President Taft has been appealed to and urged to help the redmen in their fight against the moving picture theaters and the alleged misrepresentation of Indian life as shown in the moving picture films. Indian Commissioner Robert G. Valentine has also been displeased by the popular Indian pictures and has promised to aid the Indians in every way possible to eliminate the objectionable features of Indian life portrayals. Delegations from the Shoshone, Cheyenne and Arapaho reservations have gone to Washington to take the matter up with the government authorities."
Top of Page "What then happens to a culture whose symbols are chosen by outsiders, by those who do not understand its deepest beliefs, structures and ways of life? What kind of interpretation of a society can come from symbols designed not to elevate conscious understanding to the highest of that society's ideas but to reduce that understanding to categories which debase or ridicule. The opposite of empowering occurs. Feelings of rage, impotence and powerlessness are evoked. The symbols are not representations but caricatures."
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