As a person with Native American heritage, I am particularly interested in how the media has portrayed natives, especially in movies. Hollywood continues to shape the public's perception of Native Americans, but not always in favorable ways.
For example, Pocahontas depicts natives as the Indian princess, and most Westerns typically have Native Americans in a violent, savage role.
And who can forget the classic Cowboy/Indians game? Cowboys, of course, were the good guys, while Indians were the bad guys. Young boys idolize cowboys, and this influence of Native Americans is stereotypical.
Even in some movies and films about Native Americans, the native roles themselves were played by white or other foreign actors. This puts the idea of a Native American culture as a spectacle. Natives were given a few different roles: the Indian princess, the warrior and the noble savage, just to name a few. Though filmmakers did begin to feel somewhat guilty about the Native American situation, I feel that natives still have to fight against stereotypes such as the alcoholic or trusty sidekick.
In contemporary times, the biggest way I feel that Native Americans continue to be stereotyped is through sports mascots.
To me, I think the use of Indian mascots is demeaning. I don't think a lot of people see it this way, though, because non-Native American people usually see it as an honor. But would we ever use a Black or Hispanic person as a mascot? I think not.
Our discussion about minorities in films and movies has caused me to take a deeper look into the movies I have always enjoyed to see what kind of minority stereotypes I've been missing. I've always felt strongly about Native American portrayals, but our discussion makes me think to look a little deeper.
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