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home > diversity > native > popular american music > part 3
Stereotypes of Native Americans: Essays & Images
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Imagery & Stereotyping Explained
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How some people try to distance themselves from these images
Native Americans in Popular American Music
Part 3: Comedy Songs
 
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)
Big Chief Smoke (1908)lyricssound
 Little Arrow & Big Chief Greasepaint (1909)
Little Arrow & Big Chief Greasepaint (1909)lyricssound		 Oh That Navajo Rag (1911)
Oh That Navajo Rag (1911)lyricssound		 Indianola (1918)
Indianola (1918)lyricssound		 Big Chief Killahun (1918)
Big Chief Killahun (1918)lyricssound
Big Chief Wally Ho Woo (1921)
Big Chief Wally Ho Woo (1921)lyrics		 Heap Big Injun (1935)
Heap Big Injun (1935)		      
 
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Last modified May 29, 2008
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