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Imagery & Stereotyping Explained
Indian Caricatures
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How some people try to distance themselves from these images |
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Essays and Images: |
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King Philip's War, waged
between American colonists and Eastern
Indians, brought both the noble and ignoble
stereotypes into the public imagination.
Artistic depiction of the Wampanoag leader
Metacom, particularly as played on stage
by Edwin Forrest in the Jacksonian Era,
show how the romanticized Indian evolved
at a time when the Indian threat in the
East had ended and White Americans began
creating a mythic past. |
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The Civil War (1861-1865)
impacted Native Americans in several ways.
Westward expansion was delayed by the hostilities, and some tribes
were punished for having allied themselves with the Confederacy.
With the war's end came the completion
of the Transcontinental Railroads and
increased pressure on the Plains Indians. White encroachment and the
direct threat to the Native way of life
on the Plains resulted in several decades
of hostilities, and a government policy
aimed at solving the "Indian problem"
by breaking up the reservation. The Indian
Wars on the Great Plains culminated in
the massacre at Wounded Knee on December
29, 1890. This section presents a timeline
of the key events from 1861-1890 as a
transition to the next essay.
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Ever since Sitting Bull's surrender in 1881,
every American generation has recreated
the historic conflict with the Plains
Indians dramatically; in photographs,
Wild West Shows, Victorian Adversing,
dime novels, paintings, early cinema,
pulps, literature, comic books, movies,
radio, and on television. That the Western
genre of entertainment still thrives reflects
the dominant culture's need to dramatize
its history and to believe in the righteousness
of that history's outcome. This section
emphasizes the critical time period from
1881-1913, when the mythic American West
became firmly entrenched in the popular
imagination and the Indian became firmly
stuck in time. Discussed here are the
series of published photographs of Sitting
Bull's surrender, Buffalo Bill's Wild
West Show, and the Indian as advertisement
in the Victorian era. |
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As the Nineteenth Century
gave way to the Twentieth, the American
music industry, centered in Manhattan's
Tin Pan Alley, began to further romanticize
the Native American in sheet music and
recorded song. The Noble Savage, particularly
the Indian Princess, was commonly featured
in "Indian Intermezzo" pieces
and in other instrumentals. Indian romance
was also held in mythical esteem, and
a few writers even dabbled in the topic
of miscegenation (Indian-White sexual
relationships). The Ignoble Savage was
still around, reduced to a comic device
in early novelty songs, including a few
about the role of the Native American
in World War I. |
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[planned for the future]
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The Native American has
a long history in the American comic book,
appearing most frequently when Western-themed
comics were popular during the post-WWII
years of the Golden Age (1946-1958). The
Indian male was typically cast as the
ignoble savage, while the Indian woman
was virtually nowhere to be seen. There
were a few examples of the noble savage
as well, most notably with the beautiful
painted covers of the Indian Chief series and in the character of Tonto,
the Lone Ranger's loyal sidekick. Also
notable were several "White Indians",
Caucasians who had gone native. Present-day
Indian characters also existed, especially
in the 1980s, with powers that emphasized
the mystical characteristic of the noble
savage. The AHC is currently collecting
sources for an eventual thorough essay
on the history of Native Americans in
comic books. For now, a gallery of Golden
Age covers is presented.
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The perfection of mass
production techniques brought the noble
and ignoble savage stereotypes into modern
the era. This section includes images
of consumer products and advertising from
the 1920s to the present day. Imagery
of Indians created for the child consumer
is also explored. |
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A brief history of alcohol
in Native American culture is used to
introduce a gallery of modern-day artifacts
connecting Indians with alcohol, most
often using the ignoble drunken Indian
stereotype. Some artifacts were even mass-produced
and sold in national park gift shops around
the country. |
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[planned for the future] |
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