Stereotypes of Native Americans

Stereotypes about Indigenous peoples of North America are a particular kind of ethnic stereotypes found both in North America, as well as elsewhere. Indigenous people of the Americas are commonly called Native Americans, Alaska Natives or First Nations (in Canada). The indigenous peoples of the Arctic, known as Eskimo peoples (which include but are not limited to the Inuit) and Aleuts, are included; only the terms "Native Americans" and "American Indians" traditionally exclude them. This article primarily discusses stereotypes present in Canadian and American culture. There are more numerous and varied stereotypes about Indigenous peoples than about any other ethnic group in the Americas. It is believed that some portrayals of natives such as bloodthirsty savages have disappeared. However, most portrayals are oversimplified and inaccurate,these stereotypes are found particularly in popular media which is the main source of mainstream images of Indigenous peoples world-wide.

The stereotyping of Native Americans must be understood in the context of history which includes conquest, forced relocation, and organized efforts to eradicate native cultures, such as the boarding schools of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which separated young Native Americans from their families in order educate and to assimilate them as Euro-Americans. "Since the first Europeans made landfall in North America, native peoples have suffered under a weltering array of stereotypes, misconceptions and caricatures. Whether portrayed as noble savages, ignoble savages, teary-eyed environmentalists, drunken, living off the Government, Indian princess/Squaw most recently, simply as casino-rich, native peoples find their efforts to be treated with a measure of respect and integrity undermined by images that flatten complex tribal, historical and personal experience into one-dimensional representations that tells us more about the depicters than about the depicted." - Carter Meland (Anishinaabe heritage) and David E. Wilkins (Lumbee), professors of Native American Studies at the University of Minnesota.

...
Wikipedia