Native American Stereotypes and Realities

1
Native AmericanStereotypes and Realities

• Introduction to Native American Cultures
• Religious Studies 283 A

2
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians are all alike.
• In American alone, there are approximately
  2,752,158 Indians, belonging to 562 culturally
  distinct federally recognized tribes or
  additional 200 or so unrecognized tribes. They
  live in a variety of environments, either on 286
  US reservations, or off reservation in rural
  areas or cities.
• 2000 U.S. Census Report

3
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians were conquered because they were
  inferior.
• Indians were conquered because of their lack of
  immunity to European diseases as well as other
  factorsnone of which reflected cultural or
  genetic inferiority.

4
Stereotype and Reality

• If Indians had united, they could have prevented
  the European invasion.
• Tribes were too different culturally and lived
  too far apart to fight together as a cohesive
  unit. Further, there was no singular event known
  as the European Invasion. European migration
  occurred over a period of 500 years (and counting)

5
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians had no civilization until Europeans
  brought it to them.
• Indians were civilized. Their cultures were
  different from those of Europeansand in some
  ways more advanced (e.g. agriculture, medicine,
  architecture)

6
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians arrived in this hemisphere via the
  Siberian Land Bridge.
• Indians believe that they were created in this
  hemisphere. Siberian Land Bridge myth viewed as
  a racist Anglo-European construction to impose
  Asian stereotypes on Native persons and to
  dismiss cosmological myth of Native communities
  as mere fictions.

7
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians were warlike and treacherous.
• Indians fought to defend their lands, sovereignty
  and way of life from invaders, both domestic and
  international. In this regard, one would be hard
  pressed to describe Native Americans as either
  more or less violent than other human
  collectivities.

8
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians had nothing to contribute to Europeans or
  to the growth of America.
• The contributions of American Indians have
  changed and enriched the world. 15 of the
  first settlers from Spain, France and England
  actually became part of native communities.
  Further, the new settlers would have probably
  died the first winter without assistance from
  Natives.

9
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians did not value or empower women.
• Indian women often wielded considerable power
  within their tribes. (Gender and sexuality often
  viewed differently than Anglo-Europeans often
  based on something other than productive/reproduct
  ive roles)

10
Stereotype and Reality

• lndians have no religion.
• Indians are deeply religious. Each tribe has its
  own religion. There is not such thing as the
  Native American Religion. Again, a destructive
  stereotype promoted by oftentimes well-meaning
  Anglos who wish to legitimize their own
  ecological and political positions at the expense
  of other human beings.

11
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians welcome outsiders to study and
  participate in their religious ceremonies.
• Indians often practice their religions secretly
  and want outsiders to respect their desire for
  privacy. What possible motivation would
  indigenous persons have to share with an
  outsider? Most persons who proclaim such
  adoption narratives, sadly, fabricate their
  experiences.

12
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians are a vanished race.
• Again, another racist myth generated in the early
  19th century Native Americans began to vanish
  because of their evolutionary inferiority to the
  White Man. Could it have anything to do with
  massive genocide? Currently, there are 2.7
  million United States Indians today, representing
  more than 562 federally recognized tribes and
  over 200 non-recognized traditions.

13
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians are confined to reservations, live in
  tipis, wear braids, and ride horses.
• A handful may live in tipis for part of the year
  because they want to, but tipis are not the norm.
  The Native American Church use tipis for
  religious ceremonies. And while some Indians do
  use horses to herd cattle and sheep, or ride for
  recreation, most Indians do not own horses.

14
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians are confined to reservations, live in
  tipis, wear braids, and ride horses.
• There are approximately 950,000 Indians and
  non-Indians living on 286 reservations. A good
  number of Indians, at least one million, do not
  live on a reservation and never have.Today, some
  individuals on reservations live in houses of
  different sizes with all the amenities of modern
  living while others live in poverty.

15
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians have no reason to be unpatriotic.
• Most American patriotism is the celebration of
  Euro-American history and interest.
  EuroAmericans' behavior and policies towards
  Indians have been brutal throughout American
  history.

16
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians have no reason to be unpatriotic.
• This said, Native Americans have fought in every
  Anglo-American since the American Revolutionary
  War. More than 12,000 American Indians served in
  the United States military in World War I. More
  than 44,000 American Indians served with
  distinction between 1941 and 1945 in both
  European and Pacific theaters of war while 4,000
  served in Desert Storm. One in four Indian males
  are veterans.

17
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians get a free ride from the government.
• The benefits Indians receive from the government
  derive from treaty agreements, which purport to
  compensate them for the surrender of some or all
  of their lands. An examination of these
  documentsand the United States lack of
  adherence to many of these treatiesstands as a
  major area of contention.

18
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians' affairs are managed for them by the
  B.I.A. (Bureau of Indian Affairs)
• Each tribe has its own governmental structure
  possessing a variety of self-governing powers.
  The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) responsibility
  is the administration and management of 55.7
  million acres of land held in trust by the United
  States for American Indians, Indian tribes, and
  Alaska Natives.

19
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians' affairs are managed for them by the
  B.I.A. (Bureau of Indian Affairs)
• There are 562 federal recognized tribal
  governments in the United States. Developing
  forestlands, leasing assets on these lands,
  directing agricultural programs, protecting water
  and land rights, developing and maintaining
  infrastructure and economic development are all
  part of the agency's responsibility. In addition,
  the Bureau of Indian Affairs provides education
  services to approximately 48,000 Indian students.

20
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians are not capable of completing school.
• Hundreds of Indians graduate from universities
  every year.

21
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians cannot vote or hold office.
• Indians represent a powerful voting bloc in
  elections numerous Indians hold tribal, state
  and national offices. The Native electorate rises
  above 5 in Districts 1 and 7 in Nevada
  Districts 1,2, and 3 in New Mexico Districts 2,
  3, and 4 in Oklahoma and in the At Large
  Districts in South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota
  and Alaska. In selected districts, eligible
  American Indian voters account for more than 20
  of the voting population, making them a valuable
  asset as a voting bloc to politicians in the
  area.

22
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians have a tendency toward alcoholism.
• Indians are no more predisposed to alcoholism
  than members of any other ethnic group.
  Alcoholic consumption may have a greater positive
  correlation to joblessness, poverty and poor
  living conditions than ethnicity.

23
Stereotype and Reality

• "My great grandmother was a Cherokee Princess.
• So wrong on so many counts. Cherokees have never
  functioned as a monarchy, so no royalty. When
  was the last time you heard, My great
  grandfather was a Cherokee Prince? Never.

24
Stereotype and Reality

• "My great grandmother was a Cherokee Princess.
• Probably this myth generated when Anglos
  overheard men calling their wives, daughters and
  lovers a term of endearment that vaguely
  translates into English as Princess. Actually
  this phrase quite the joke among Native Americans
  (just not Cherokee). Perhapsin the kindest of
  termssuch claims by Anglos represent a
  combination of historical White guilt and a
  disenfranchisement with ones own life within
  dominant culture.

25
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians are all full bloods or I am 1/8
  Cherokee
• The majority of Indianslike most human
  collectivitiesare mixed blood. Few communities
  in the world practice tribal or linear endogamy
  (to marry as close to the blood line as
  possible). Again, the stereotype appears
  clearly how many Cherokee announce I am 1/8
  Anglo?

26
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians are all full bloods or I am 1/8
  Cherokee
• Further, how much blood does it take to be
  considered Native American? Recent court cases
  have rules such measures non-scientific and
  meaningless. Whatever it means to be Native
  American and Anglo for that matter must be
  based on something other than these mythological
  mixes.

27
Stereotype and Reality

• All Indians have an "Indian name."
• Most Indians have only a Euro-American name a
  minority of Indians also have "Indian names
  their name pronounced in their indigenous
  language.

28
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians know the histories, languages, and
  cultural aspects of their own tribe and all other
  tribes.
• Few Indians know all cultural aspects of their
  own tribe, much less those of the other 561
  officially recognized tribes and 200
  non-recognized communities. 19-20th century
  practices of genocide and assimilation has
  destroyed much of these cultures.

29
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians are stoic and have no sense of humor.
• Indians are as endowed with as rich a sense of
  humor as anyone elseprobably more.

30
Stereotype and Reality

• Indians like having their picture taken.
• Indians find photographers intrusive. How would
  you like somebody shove a video camera in your
  faceor the faces of your offspringmake sounds
  of Ah and Oooh and behave as if they had just
  recorded the missing link of humankind? Worse
  still persons who want to have their picture
  taken with Indians.

31
Stereotype and Reality

• This presentation adapted from American Indians
  Stereotypes and Realities by Devon Mihesuah,
  1996, Clarity Press.