Native American Representation in Advertising, Cinema, Boarding Schools, and Museums

Native American Representation in Advertising, Cinema, Boarding Schools, and Museums
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Native American Representation in Advertising, Cinema, Boarding Schools, and Museums
The representation of Native Americans in advertising, cinema, boarding schools, and museums has changed throughout the years. Native Americans have been the subject of various inaccurate representations since their first contact with white settlers ranging from the stock images of the savage heathens to noble savages to pipe-smoking warriors. These images have a long history in early European perceptions about Amerindians and the Americas. This essay will argue that Native American representations in advertising, cinema, boarding schools, and museums have followed both divergent and convergent paths throughout the years up to the present time.
The representation of Native Americans in museums started out as an archeological interest of the age of humanity in the Western Hemisphere. Most of the methods used by anthropologists in the late 19th century facilitated the collection of Amerindian material in natural history (Archambault, 1993). When the settlers first arrived in America, relations between the Europeans and the settlers were relatively peaceful. There was enough land for both groups and the settlers even attempted at establishing a mutual relationship with the natives. This mutual relationship was based on trade: the natives traded skins, food, and other supplies for European tools made from metal and guns. During this period of relative peace and cordiality, the Native Americans were exoticized as beautiful, authentic, and proud people. This perspective of American Indians was unrealistic and based on cultural fantasy. The early settlers had never encountered the indigenous people of America before and their first impressions were steeped in cultural voyeurism. This exoticization of Native Americans seemed well-meaning but was founded on white supremacist imaginations.
The stereotypes of Amerindians as beautiful, proud, and authentic people were rooted in the settler’s problematic objectification of a culture different from their own. This misrepresentation of Amerindians took a more hostile turn as the population of the settlers increased and land hunger started taking a centerstage in the relationship between the two groups. The Europeans needed more land to support their growing populations, something the Native Americans resisted since it meant giving up their ancestral lands to accommodate the settlers. The cultural voyeurism that characterized interactions between the settlers and Amerindians was replaced by demeaning and derisive representations of the latter (Fuller & Fabricius, 1992). As mentioned before, this new attitude towards the natives was founded on the growing antagonism between the settlers and natives. For instance, in his second inaugural address, then President James Monroe opposed any possibility of a peaceful coexistence between the two populations. He believed that respecting natives’ land rights flattered their pride and retarded the economic development of the country.
Although the Amerindians wer...