Confronting Stereotypes
What Are Stereotypes, and Why Do They Matter?
ster·e·o·type
/ˈsterēəˌtīp/
noun
-
a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.
"the stereotype of the woman as the carer"
synonyms: standard/conventional image, received idea, cliché, hackneyed idea, formula
"the stereotype of the alcoholic as a down-and-out vagrant"
verb
-
view or represent as a stereotype.
"the city is too easily stereotyped as an industrial wasteland"
synonyms: typecast, pigeonhole, conventionalize, standardize, categorize, compartmentalize, label
Stereotypes about Indigenous people have existed since the first European colonizers stepped foot on land in the western hemisphere—and arguably even before. Early colonizers depicted Native people conversely as animalistic savages and cannibals, but also as childlike, docile, and timid. Neither of these depictions accounted for the complexity of Indigenous cultures or the agency of Indigenous peoples. As colonization continued, so did these stereotypes, and others also emerged. Indigenous people were seen as inherently inferior for a number of reasons, all of which were based on a manufactured sense of European superiority. Many of these stereotypes were used to justify enslaving or killing Native people, taking their homelands, and using force to assimilate them into Euro-descendant culture—all actions defined by the United Nations as genocide.
These views of Native people are more than just misleading; they cause direct harm in Native communities. Indigenous youth have higher rates of suicide than among any other ethnic group in the Nation. Native women are 2.5 times more likely than non-Native women to experience sexual violence in their lifetimes. The number of Native people per capita confined in state and federal prisons is approximately 38 percent above the national average. [Sources: https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/maze-of-injustice/; http://www.ncai.org/about-tribes/demographics; https://www.psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Cultural-Competency/Mental-Health-Disparities/Mental-Health-Facts-for-American-Indian-Alaska-Natives.pdf; http://www.nccdglobal.org/sites/default/files/publication_pdf/created-equal.pdf; https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/lakota-peoples-law/uploads/Native-Lives-Matter-PDF.pdf]
Where Do Stereotypes Turn Up, and What Is Their Real-World Effect?
Many of the ongoing issues within Native communities can be traced to colonial stereotypes that have persisted for generations. The sources below discuss the impact of stereotypes on Indigenous communities; the use of Native mascots for sports teams and other brand logos; the fashion industry's appropriation of Indigenous cultural practices; and other related topics.
Video: "'Native Re-Appropriations:' Interview with Adrienne Keene," YouTube video, Brown University, published September 21, 2015. Adrienne Keene, Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University (at the time of recording, she was a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in CSREA and Anthropology at Brown) discusses stereotypes about Indigenous people. Keene discusses the "politics of Native representations, cultural appropriation, stereotypes, and invisibility" of Native people in mainstream media, introducing the Indigenous artists featured in a 2015 exhibit at the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LHhzgSmc6k
Video: "America is a Stolen Country," YouTube video, BBC News, January 2, 2015. "Alcoholism, unemployment and suicide are problems associated with Native American reservations in the US. But a new generation of young activists are dedicating themselves to a brighter future. Benjamin Zand from the BBC's Pop-Up team is on a reservation in South Dakota—in the heart of America's midwest." In this video, interviews with Native youth reveal the impact of stereotypes on their daily lives on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM8WZ0ztMuc
Video: "Tarzan to Tonto—Adrienne Keene," YouTube video, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, published February 15, 2017. Adrienne Keene presents her work, titled "Navajo Flasks, Hipster Headdresses, and 'Magic in North America': Native Representations in Fashion, Media, and Popular Culture" at the NMAI. "Keene questions and problematizes the ways Indigenous peoples are represented, asking for celebrities, large corporations, and designers to consider the ways they incorporate 'Native' elements into their work. She is interested in the way Native peoples are using social and new media to challenge misrepresentations and present counter-narratives that showcase true Native cultures and identities." She especially discusses the role stereotypes played in police violence against the Water Protectors during the #NoDAPL movement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSYrtXzLVv8
Article: "Busting Stereotypes: Native Women are More Than Princesses and S[***]ws," Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Bitch Media, September 19, 2017. [Excerpt from "All the Real Indians Died Off" and 20 Other Myths About Native Americans, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker, (Beacon Press: 2016).] CW: Sexual violence. This article lays out the connections between stereotypes of Native women—particularly the invented dichotomy of "princess" or "sq[**]w"—and violence against them. The authors interrogate this damaging narrative and its impact, while also highlighting the vital work done by Native women in justice movements over the last several decades. https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/whats-problem-thinking-indian-women-princesses-or-squaws
Paper: "Race, Colonialism, and the Politics of Indian Sports Names and Mascots: The Washington Football Team Case," Kevin Bruyneel, Professor of Politics, Babson College. "The present debate and politics regarding Indian sports names and mascots, such as with the case of the Washington football team’s name, provides an excellent opportunity to politicize and center settler colonialism as a historical and contemporary structuring force of the United States. The sports names and mascot issue is a persistent and public practice of U.S. settler colonial rule. It is a mnemonic device that disavows the dispossession of Indigenous territory and the violent and aggressive assimilatory practices against Indigenous peoples. Paying attention to the political functioning of memory matters here because understanding and intervening in this and other issues requires more than just getting the historical facts straight. Facts matter, but an awareness of facts will not do enough politically to generate change, and this is where we need to see and directly engage with collective memory, specifically settler memory." https://nycstandswithstandingrock.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/bruyneel-nd.pdf
Blog: "American Indians in Children's Literature," by Debbie Reese. "A primary purpose of American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) is to help you know who we are. Knowing who we are can help you understand why we strenuously object to being misrepresented. Though I am certain that no author ever sets out to deliberately misrepresent who we are in his or her writing, it happens over and over again. Information is the only way to counter those misrepresentations. On American Indians in Children's Literature, I publish analyses of children's books, lesson plans, films, and other items related to the topic of American Indians and/or how we this topic is taught in school." https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/