Essay on Stereotypes and Stereotyping of Native Americans

The Stereotyping of Native Americans Until fairly recently the popular culture of American literature and film did not attempt to study the true representations of Indians in North America. Instead they chose to concentrate on the romanticized/savage version of Native people: which is an idealistic view of a Native with long, beautiful flowing hair riding on a horse obsessed with chanting and praying to the savageness of a rowdy, wild Native causing unnecessary mayhem to the white people. This portrayal of Native people in mass media had led to the stereotyping of Natives, which in turn had ricocheted into real life. Not only do non-natives succumb to these ideals, but Natives do as well. For the last century these†¦show more content†¦They are Indians unlike anything we are used to seeing or reading about(Egan 19). Some of the stereotypes that have become typical in popular culture are reiterated in the book Reservation Blues written by Sherman Alexie: ? Arnold came to the reservation in his yellow VW van, expecting tipis and buffalo, since he had never been told otherwise. He was genuily shocked when the Indians in his congregation spoke English (Alexie 36). ? A tall, good-looking buck with hair like Indians in the movies, long, purple-black, and straight (Alexie 13) ? Indians were supposed to have visions and receive messages from their dreams. All the Indians on television had visions that told them exactly what to do (Alexie 18). ? In Thomass dreams, the Indians argue among themselves, whooped like Indians always do in movies and dreams, waved their bows and arrows wildly. Three Indian warriors dismounted and grabbed hold of the telegraph wire (Alexie 76). These are only a handful of stereotypes that are made in the book. Alexie points out the romanticized/savage portrayal of Indians in the past century. Not only are the stereotypes made by the white Catholic Priest, but by the Natives people themselves. This illustrates that the representations have ricocheted onto the Natives themselves. They also believe they are supposed to represent the Hollywood version of Indians. With the help of many others suchShow MoreRelatedStereotypes and Stereotyping of Native American in The Pioneers1950 Words   |  8 PagesThe Native American Behind the Stereotype in The Pioneers      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Throughout the history of American literature, the Native American is rarely presented as a fully developed character; instead, he is degraded to a mere caricature, one deeply rooted in traditional racial prejudices. 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