Th_Portrayal_of_Native_American_in_Today's_Mainstream_Society

Society has portrayed an incorrect image of the history and lives of the Native Americans. History textbooks have given Christopher Columbus credit for Discovering America yet; they don’t claim that the Native Americans were already here. History textbooks have also made us ethnocentric by giving credit to the Europeans for having established a civilization, recalling that the Natives were savages. Native Americans were civilized in a different way. They were so civilized that they maintained their own government and established their own way of life. After having thousands of years of a peace (excluding the wars they had between themselves), European settlers came over to take their land, their culture and tradition, claiming that the natives needed to civilize themselves. The Europeans established a frontier which separated them from the Indians. They executed treaties with the Indians promising not to touch their sacred land, yet, every single treaty ever made with the Indians was broken. Today many historians agree with the Europeans. Frederick Jackson Turner, the writer of the article “The Significance of The Frontier in American History”, argues that as a result of the frontier that the Europeans established with the Indians, American is what it is today. Similarly, movie makers and the people that give sport teams their names support Turners argument. In contrast, Plenty coups, the Native American chief of the mountain crow, disagree with the settlers taking the land from his people. The representations of Native Americans in popular culture pushed them away from mainstream society. The history of the Native Americans and the Europeans has established today’s American culture. James W. Loewen, the writer of Lies My Teacher Told Me, explains that the synthesis of Native American Culture and European culture established a new America. Loewen state; “Just as the American societies changed when they encountered whites, so Europeans societies changed when they encountered Natives” ( Loewen 106). When two cultures mix together a new culture is formed. Today’s society still continues to have some elements of the Native culture. It is stated that “Our regional cuisines—the dishes that make American food distinctive – often combine Indian with European and African elements” (Loewen 111). Our restaurants continue to supply the delicious Indian foods that were added into our culture hundreds of years ago. Loewen argues that students are taught false history to make them patriotic, proud of their country’s leaders and to continue eurocentrism. Students have created a false view of the Native Americans. Textbook have taught that Native Americans are savages and because of them many “Heroes” of our country died. The Disney Movie, Pocahontas II exemplifies the portrayal that the Europeans have against the Native Americans. In the Disney Movie Pocahontas II Journey to a New World directed by Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg was based on historical facts. This Disney movie give a false portrayal of the Native Indians. Pocahontas the main character is an Indian female who travels to London to convince the king that there is no gold in her land and that they should leave her tribe alone. When Pocahontas arrives in London she arrives dressed as an Indian (to the Europeans she was barely wearing clothes). Therefore the men stared at her like if she was in underclothes. In the beginning of the movie a ship arrived full of white men. John Ralf, one of the white men, gets off the boat on horseback. His horse sees Pocahontas’s raccoon and gets scared. The horse starts galloping towards an old man. Pocahontas runs and throws the old man to the side so that he won’t get hurt by the horse. In return the old man stands up and stares at the Pocahontas and shouts “You bloody savage”. This demonstrates that Native American tried to help the settlers yet in return they were humiliated, because they were different. Also in part five of this movie, John Ralf goes to talk to the king in order to convince him to personally see Pocahontas. The king ends up inviting Pocahontas to the ball so that she can prove herself to be civilized. The king states “If she is civilized, she will fit in”. Pocahontas determined to save her tribe learns the Europeans ways in one day in order to fit in, in the ball. At the beginning of the ball first everything was going well, but at dinner governor Ratcliffe has planned to torture a bear, knowing that Pocahontas will interfere. To the Europeans torturing a bear was a form of entertainment, but the Indians protect all animals because they believed that all animals had a spirit. Pocahontas stands up against the crowd and calls them barbarians and savages. The King becomes furious with Pocahontas and sends his guards to arrest her. Governor Ratcliffe knew that Pocahontas was not going to allow the bear to be cruelly treated. Pocahontas is represented as being a savage yet, she is the one that is trying to bring peace to both the settlers and her tribe. Another movie that portrays Indians as savages and inhuman is Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. Another example of a movie that gives a false portrayal of the Native Indians is the movie Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. The setting of this movie is in Dakota and Canada in the late 1800s. This movie exemplifies how cruel the settlers were to the Indians. In the first part of the movie the Indians are peacefully going throughout their day, performing their chores when about 100 settlers arrives shooting at them for no reason at all. In the next scene general Custer is seeing convincing the president to allow him to take the land away from the Sioux Indians in Dakota to search for gold. Custer lies to the president explaining that the Indians had killed his men and that he had never seeing “how brutal” the Indians were killing his men. Also, the whites took the land away from another tribe of Indians. They force the Indians to pray the Christian way. The chief leader, Red Cloud states “I want to know which god the whites are praying to, the same ones that you deceive when you made treaties with us and broke them'”. Custer then forces the chief to sign a treaty giving up their land threatening him to kill his people if he does not sign it. This movie portrays Indians as if it was their fault that the whites took their land since there is a scene in where the whites are negotiating with the Indians and the Indians do not accept to give their land. Therefore revealing that if the Indians would have cooperated with the whites there would not have been wars between them. Part three show the way that Indians had to adjust to the white men’s world. They had to cut their long hair, give themselves a Christian name and dress like the whites. Bury my heart at Wounded Knee represents Indians as people who got what they deserve rather than people that were just defending what they owned. Pocahontas II and Bury Heart at Wounded My Knee are two examples of movies that represent Indians as savage and uncivilized. Movies similar to these give a false representation on what happened in the frontier. The plot of these movies make us Eurocentric, by showing the Europeans as heroes and not as people who took the land from the Indians. Many of the actors that narrate Indian or act like Indians are of no Indian background. Why is it that Native Indians do not participate in acting as an Indian when they could win a lot of money' Native Indians understand that their ancestors are portrayed as deceitful, and that the white men are viewed as heroes in the American culture. Rob Schmidt the writer of the article “Indians Hold Steady at 0.3%: Native American Still at the Bottom In Hollywood” argues that native Americans are not willing to portray their ancestors as something that they were not. He argues that society don’t want to know the truth about the Indians. He states “The public only wants to see Native Americans in "buckskins" and "loincloth””. In his article Rob explains that the only interest that Hollywood’s has in the money that they make. Nothing else is to their interest. The author of the article also states “Because Hollywood, like much of America, is culturally conservative. Which is another way of saying it's prejudiced against minorities”. Not only is American “ culturally conservative”, it is focused as a nation of being a perfect nation in where all we have are heroes in our history, not people who came to take the land of the innocent. Another writer with a similar point of view is Jennifer Lori Lackner. Jennifer Lori Lackner is the writer of the article “Pocahontas: Cartoon Character or Historical Figure”. She argues that Disney movie makers of Pocahontas do not portray the truth about who and what was Pocahontas. She describes how in the movie, Pocahontas marries John Smith while the historical fact is that Pocahontas married John Ralf. In the article Lackner explains how Disney movie makers argue that Pocahontas was made to teach children “racial tolerance”. She cites the senior vice president of Disney’s animation, Thomas Schmucher who stated that Pocahontas “Is a story that it is fundamentally about racism and intolerance and we hope that people will gain greater understanding of themselves and of the world around them. It is also about having respect for other cultures” (Lackner). Lackner also explains that Disney movie makers purposely changed the historical facts about Pocahontas to show the Native Americans as savages. Jennifer Lori Lackner agrees that movies like Pocahontas give a false portrayal of the Native Americans, yet Thomas schmucher agrees that Disney movie Pocahontas teach children to understand and “tolerate” other cultures. Native Americans are characterized as an uncivilized and savage race. Even Disney movies teach children false facts about the history of the Native Americans. Rob Schmidt and Jennifer Lori Lackner both agree with me about the false characterizations that Native American movies give the public. In contrast Disney movie makers such as Thomas schmucher disagree with us. He believes that Disney movies show children the difference between them and other cultures. He agrees that Disney movies were not made to show the historical verifiable truth about Native Americans. Movies like Pocahontas II and Bury My heart at Wounded Knee give a false portrayal of the lives of native Americans. Therefore, the Native American of today are pushed away from the mainstream culture since they do not want their ancestors to be portrayed as they are. History textbooks have taught students the wrong things about what happened in the frontier, yet movies like Pocahontas reinforce the wrong facts that history textbook have taught students. Therefore, the writers of the history textbooks are to blame for giving America false stories about the minorities in this country. Jennifer Lori Lackner and Rob Schmidt agree with me that these movies portray a false image of Native American. In contrast, Thomas Schmucher, the senior vice president of Disney’s animation believes that Disney is giving children a lesson on interacting with other cultures different to themselves. Stereotypes that have been created thought the media is pushing the Native American’s of today away from America’s mainstream culture.