Stereotypes of Native Americans: Essays & Images: Popular American Music

Imagery & Stereotyping Explained

How some people try to distance themselves from these images

As with every other aspect of American popular culture, the Noble Savage stereotype coexisted with the Ignoble Savage in early days of recorded American music. In the songs below, Indianness is negatively compared with the Euro-American notion of civilization as it was in the the early Twentieth Century. Most interesting are two World War One songs, "Indianola," and "Big Chief Killahun," which ridicule the contributions being made to the war effort by Native Americans.

Big Chief Smoke (1908)	Little Arrow & Big Chief Greasepaint (1909)	Oh That Navajo Rag (1911)	Indianola (1918)	Big Chief Killahun (1918)
Big Chief Wally Ho Woo (1921)	Heap Big Injun (1935)

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