Native American Representation in Advertising, Cinema, Boarding Schools, and Museums
In the second part of our course, we examined the arc of representation for Native Americans in four primary areas: advertising, cinema, boarding schools, and museums. In each of these four areas, the primary theme is one of “erasure” in which white colonists aimed to erase Native culture, but each of these areas also revealed profound development and change. In this process of transformation, Amerindians and their allies struggled to overcome efforts to erase Indian culture and as a result succeeded in helping establish a much different picture of Amerindian culture and society while improving the conditions of life for Native peoples. These changes were by no means perfect, but there was a shift and it is still ongoing.
In an essay of 5-7 pages, explain how the legacy of conquest shaped the representation and fortunes of Native Americans in these four areas, and how did these representations along with the fortunes of Native Americans shift over time? What emerged as a decisive inflection point that changed how white society perceived Native people, and how did these changes in perception shape new understandings of Indigenous groups such that the trajectory of representation for Native Americans in these four areas also changed? What were some of the common themes in the early representations of Amerindians, and how did these themes gradually give way to very different kinds of representations in our own time? What were some of the landmark pieces of legislation that altered the context for representation of Native Americans?
Ideally, your essay should not simply be short-answer responses to the questions above. Strong essays but should instead frame an “argument” in the form of a claim, backed by reasoning and evidence, about the baseline of cultural erasure in the representation and fortunes of Native people, and the arc of change in the areas of advertising, cinema, boarding schools and museums. Your essay should also contain properly cited sources – lectures, readings, video clips, and films, etc.
Native American Representation in Advertising, Cinema, Boarding Schools, and Museums
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Native American Representation in Advertising, Cinema, Boarding Schools, and Museums
The representation of Native Americans in advertising, cinema, boarding schools, and museums has changed throughout the years. Native Americans have been the subject of various inaccurate representations since their first contact with white settlers ranging from the stock images of the savage heathens to noble savages to pipe-smoking warriors. These images have a long history in early European perceptions about Amerindians and the Americas. This essay will argue that Native American representations in advertising, cinema, boarding schools, and museums have followed both divergent and convergent paths throughout the years up to the present time.
The representation of Native Americans in museums started out as an archeological interest of the age of humanity in the Western Hemisphere. Most of the methods used by anthropologists in the late 19th century facilitated the collection of Amerindian material in natural history (Archambault, 1993). When the settlers first arrived in America, relations between the Europeans and the settlers were relatively peaceful. There was enough land for both groups and the settlers even attempted at establishing a mutual relationship with the natives. This mutual relationship was based on trade: the natives traded skins, food, and other supplies for European tools made from metal and guns. During this period of relative peace and cordiality, the Native Americans were exoticized as beautiful, authentic, and proud people. This perspective of American Indians was unrealistic and based on cultural fantasy. The early settlers had never encountered the indigenous people of America before and their first impressions were steeped in cultural voyeurism. This exoticization of Native Americans seemed well-meaning but was founded on white supremacist imaginations.
The stereotypes of Amerindians as beautiful, proud, and authentic people were rooted in the settler’s problematic objectification of a culture different from their own. This misrepresentation of Amerindians took a more hostile turn as the population of the settlers increased and land hunger started taking a centerstage in the relationship between the two groups. The Europeans needed more land to support their growing populations, something the Native Americans resisted since it meant giving up their ancestral lands to accommodate the settlers. The cultural voyeurism that characterized interactions between the settlers and Amerindians was replaced by demeaning and derisive representations of the latter (Fuller & Fabricius, 1992). As mentioned before, this new attitude towards the natives was founded on the growing antagonism between the settlers and natives. For instance, in his second inaugural address, then President James Monroe opposed any possibility of a peaceful coexistence between the two populations. He believed that respecting natives’ land rights flattered their pride and retarded the economic development of the country.
Although the Amerindians were initially diplomatic and ceded large portions of their ancestral lands to keep the peace, they could not keep up with the settler’s insatiable hunger for more land. For instance, the Dakota Sioux gave up most of their fertile land to the State of Minnesota and were left with just a 20-mile strip of land that was insufficient to support their members. The government refused to offer any help and faced with the risk of starvation, the Dakota Sioux went to war with the government in 1862. Unfortunately, they were defeated in just over a month, and more than 300 Indian combatants were captured and imprisoned in Fort Snelling (Class Text, 2023d). During this struggle for land between the US government and Amerindians, most cultural institutions including the museums and cinemas were derisive in their portrayal of the natives. This bias was part of the broader struggle between the natives and the European settler population. The representation of Native American peoples shifted from romantic depictions to wholly negative and disparaging accounts. Museums and cinemas focused on painting natives as blood-thirsty, uncultured, and heathen savages who were incompatible with European values of respectability and manners.
Native peoples and their traditional crafts were associated with heathen practices like cannibalism and human sacrifice to legitimize the colonial conquest by European settlers. Amerindian culture was portrayed in museums and films as primitive and an example of earlier times of human social evolution. Indianness was equated with savagery and all media presentations focused on showing the natives as unenlightened and unchanging. The most pervasive stereotype of Amerindians depicted them as vicious animalistic beasts who preyed on hardworking settlers as well as defenseless women and children. For instance, a sensationalist tabloid published the story of the kidnapping of two teenage girls and a young gentleman by bloodthirsty and barbaric Indians. These negative representations reinforced wider calls by government officials to cease the independence of Native Americans and ensure complete and undisputed government control of their lands. These media depictions of American natives as rabid, untamable, and heathen characters also served as outlets for violence against indigenous populations. The settler population prided in their European customs and values, which were represented as superior to the uncivilized norms of the natives (Class Text, 2023c). These misrepresentations told the audiences nothing about real indigenous culture and were more geared towards inciting hatred towards the Amerindians.
Some settlers set about converting Indians and assimilating them into American culture in order to ease relations between the domi...