Stereotypes of Native Americans - Essay Example

Stereotypes of Native American’s: Possible Origins with the First Settlers Stereotyping of the image of Native Americans has been prevalent since Western society first began to invade the American territories and interact with the tribes. In the 20th century, the imagery was still stereotypical even to the diminishing of their ethnicity through the use of caricaturized concepts for school mascots (Healey and O’Brien 263). The ways in which the early settlers interacted with the indigenous people and the images that were taken from their point of view have created stereotypes, some of which were accurate, while others were not accurate. The way in which the conceptualized image of the Native American was developed was from the misunderstandings of their culture as represented by early explorers and settlers through interactions that were biased by European social concepts. The Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands included the Massachusetts, the Delawares, the Seneca, the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Cayuga, Hurons, Fox and Sauk (Ward 20). Before they developed agricultural technologies, the people of the territories that would become Louisiana developed a congregated living center with about 5000 people with a political system. In the areas of Poverty Point, Adena, and Hopewell, mound cultures developed between 1200 and 1400 BCE. The cultures flourished, but after about 300 years a decline was seen in their development. The reason for this decline is unknown. In the 5th century BCE Adena mound cultures developed that were limited to no more than about 400 people in any one area, but by 100 BCE they were developing into a widespread influence of cultures that had large gathering centers for ceremonies. These groups, known as the Hopewell culture were as far spread as Wisconsin and to the East to New York. These societies were primarily hunter/gatherer societies (Boyer et al 8). The first farmers of the Eastern woodland Native Americans were found in about 700 AD within the flood plains of the Mississippi where they combined cultural traditions of the Hopewell and the Mesoamericans. By the tenth century AD, large confederations were common, with the most powerful one, Cahokia, existing in what is modern day St. Louis. In 1200 AD, food shortages spread the people out into the plains and into less populated densities creating a spread of the technologies of the Mississippian agriculture for beans and corn to be spread throughout the territories. Slash and burn techniques helped to maintain the fertility of the soil, creating a ecologically sound system of sustaining their agriculturally founded societies. The Great Plains culture is commonly defined by anthropologists as defined from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River Valley, running north and south from southern Texas to central Canada. The terrain of these areas was primarily treeless grasslands with some brief interruptions of forest areas. The area created miles and miles of bison grazing areas, thus providing the main sustaining resource for the Great Plains Native American people. A unique feature of the culture is that it was defined by contact with the Europeans who brought the first horses to the Americas. Agriculturally based societies moved into the Great Plains areas creating a whole new nomadic culture that was based upon hunting from horseback (Waldman 59). While the Eastern woodland tribes mostly lived in wigwam type structures that were built to stand in one place for a sustained period (Ward 20), the nomadic Great Plains Native Americans created portable structures based on a conical shape and commonly known as tipis, although there were some exceptions to this nomadic life where semi-nomads lived in earth lodges and grass lodges that were permanent structures (Waldman 59). The influence of European culture upon the Native American tribes had a primarily negative effect. While the introduction of horses, which had been native to the Americas, but had died out thousands of years before hand, provided a benefit to the recreation of a nomadic lifestyle, the interpersonal relationships between the Europeans and the Native Americans created a great deal of difficulties for the tribes in maintaining their cultural identity (Feldmeth et al 4). Illnesses such as measles, typhus, and smallpox were introduced into tribes from European contact, wiping out entire tribes. Feldmeth et al claims that there is some belief that as much as 95% of the Native American population was decimated by disease that was the result of European contact with the tribes (5). The type of language that was created by early European settlers to describe the indigenous people of the Americas created the first stereotypical misconceptions about the tribes. While there were well over 2000 different cultures within the territories, the Europeans generalized and condensed them all under the title of savage. They would have never considered the idea that Europeans were all the same, as they distinguished the French from the English and the Norwegian from the German, but the Native Americans all became one group when they wrote and described them to people back in Europe. By the 16th and 17th centuries, stories of wild adventure which included villainous ‘Indians’ that were subdued by the introduction of God into their lives were a common, their villainy the excuse that was used to support the usurpation of their culture (Kilpatrick 2). One of the more influential writers was James Fenimore Cooper who wrote The Last of the Mohicans, published in 1826. While his work is generally considered to be sympathetic to the cultures of the Native Americans, Kilpatrick suggests that the noble characters that he creates are singular and dying out, suggesting that the nobility of the tribal races were leaving, making way for the righteousness of the European settling their territories. The discourse that is created about the nature of the noble indigenous people is that they are singular and sparse. The way in which the people were characterized suggests that they were not a consideration in moving to the New World. Kilpatrick states “Cooper effectively threw into the melting pot a number of tribes and cultures and then separated them into two groups - good and bad” (3). She goes on to state that “Cooper created his Indians in the guise of relating the Native story”, just as she suggests that it is the creation of the American mythology of the Native Americans. The ‘manly realist view’ made a biological assumption that there was a genetic inferiority in Native Americans that gave Europeans ‘rights’ to influence and dominate their populations (Kilpatrick 4). There was a prevailing attitude that the Native Americans were savages, without the civilized culture of Europe. However, the agricultural advantages that were brought back to Europe and that saved many of the American settlers was handed to them through the innovation of the Native American nations. While the concept of the horse riding Great Plains ‘Indian’ created a romanticized villain or noble ‘creature’ from whom fiction could be created, the homogenized identity was inaccurate and without sustainable historic value. The idea that the indigenous population was ‘savage’ and genetically inferior provided a framework for the mythology that allowed for the stereotypes that still exist. The homogenate of the cultures creates a profound diminished profile from which indications of humanity can be extracted to create representations that are without the sophistication of the political, cultural, and sociological depth that was within the highly developed civilizations. Despite superiority in hunting and agricultural skills that were passed to the Europeans, the denial of a sophisticated culture allowed for the domination of the indigenous people without any guilt concerning the value of the societies. Works Cited Boyer, Paul S., Clifford E. Clark Jr., Sandra McNair Hawley, Joseph F. Kett, and Andrew Rieser. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2010. Print. Feldmeth, Gregory, Jerome A. McDuffie, Gary W. Piggrem, and Steven E. Woodworth. The Best Test Preparation for the Ap United States History Exam: With Reas Testware on Cd- Rom. Piscataway, NJ: Research & Education Association, 2006. Print. Healey, Joseph F, and Eileen OBrien. Race, Ethnicity, and Gender: Selected Readings. Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press, 2007. Print. Kilpatrick, Jacquelyn. Celluloid Indians: Native Americans and Film. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1999. Print. Waldman, Carl. Atlas of the North American Indian. New York: Facts on File, 2009. Ward, Kyle R. Not Written in Stone: Learning and Unlearning American History Through 200 Years of Textbooks. New York: New Press, 2010. Print. Read More