Image and portrayal of Native Indians.

Image and portrayal of Native Indians.

Tony.

Tony’s Business Series.

Abstract.

This paper focuses on how the native-Indians have been portrayed in literature and visual arts. The paper explores the history, function and impact of the images(s) projected by these portraits and literature. Moreover, the paper discusses how imagery has constructed stereotypes. Also, the paper discusses the intentions of such stereotypes, and how such stereotypes have influenced the written history of native-Indians.

Image of the Native American Indian.

Visual art provides an understanding of how the native-Indians were viewed in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Usually, visual arts and literature are used to create a public image of a particular group of people. These public images are thereafter used to construct stereotypes. A stereotype is an oversimplified conception about a particular person or group of people. Stereotyping elicits negative emotions, especially from the stereotyped person or group of people (for example, the native American-Indians). This is because, stereotypes do entrench themselves in the psyche of the general population. Stereotypes are self-serving, since they promote the interests of the group that propagates such stereotypes. This is because stereotypes do form the fundamental (virtual) reality about the stereotyped group. Stereotypes of the native-Indians formed the basis of the ideas that was used in the formulation of the Indian policy in the 1800s. The Indian policy facilitated the confiscation of Eastern native-Indian lands in 1830, and the 1850 reservation isolationism (which allocated land on the reserves depending on the level of acculturation of the native-Indian tribes) (Dippie, 2012).

In the 1800s, the Indians were categorized as either contemptible savages or nobles. Thus, the native-Indian female was either a drudge or a noble woman; and, the native American-Indian male was either an admirable warrior or a diabolic savage. These images of the native-American found literary expression in the Last of the Mohicans, a novel written in 1826 by James Fenimore Cooper. This novel characterized each Indian tribe depending on their virtues and vices. The visual expressions of these attributes were brought out clearly in the film Last of the Mohicans, which was produced in 1992 by Daniel Day-Lewis. In this film, the good Indians are portrayed as westernized Indians (since they believe in Christianity), and the bad Indians are portrayed as traditional superstitious Indians dressed in their traditional garbs and have their faces painted. Normally, acculturated native-Indians are portrayed as noble Indians, while traditional Indians are portrayed as savages in classical American literature. Hence, it can be concluded that American literature in the nineteenth century considered native-Indian culture as a culture whose basis is savagery. Savagery refers to barbarism that cannot be compatible with any form of human civilization. Adoption of Christianity enabled a native-Indian to be viewed (by the white people) as a noble savage who can be tolerated in the society. The reason for this is that most white Americans thought that the law of progress will enable such noble savages to completely abandon their savage cultures. Dances with Wolves explores the fact that advanced civilizations have the capability to eliminate inferior cultures or backward civilizations. This literature work explores how the protestant culture supersedes and causes the extinction of the native-Indian culture (Dippie, 2012).

During the early twentieth century, American elementary school pupils were assessed on their views of native-American Indians. The aim of this assessment was to show the pupils that Indians were uncivilized savages who cannot comprehend the basic precepts of the superior civilization introduced by European protestant Christians. The response of the pupils was that Indians were strange people, because they differed from the white man in the following three major ways: native-Indians practiced polytheism, and that native-Indians believed in spirits as mediators between human beings and the gods; and moreover, the native-Indians used witchcraft during exorcisms (Dippie, 2012).

In 1992, a book titled Fluffs and Feathers: An Exhibit on the Symbols of Indianness by Deborah Doxator did explore the symbols that were used to represent the native-Indian in literature. Deborah Doxator is a curator of a museum, and as such, she was able to identify stereotyping of native-Indians in the nineteenth century literature and the portraits of native-Indians. Cultural theorists assisted the author to differentiate between stereotypes and authentic native-Indian cultural values. The exhibits provided in the book are used to symbolize “Indianness”. For instance, the feathered headdress is a universal symbol used to represent all native-Indian cultures. This is exemplified by the fact that all the visual arts depicting a native-Indian show a male native-Indian wearing a headdress. There were different types of headdresses depending on the social status of the person, and thus not all male native-Indians wore the headdress, for instance the outcasts of the society never wore such headdress. Doxator states in that Victorian white Christians constructed a stereotype of the exotic native-Indian based on oral anecdotes. These oral anecdotes were used extensively in the literature. Visual artists who came in contact with native-Indians did draw pictures that exaggerated certain aspects of the native-Indian culture. They did this intentionally so as to conform to the prevailing stereotypes about native-Indians. Hence, some portrait painters were not objective in their depictions of native-Indians. Doxator states that the native-Indian culture was neither monolithic nor homogenous, since each native-Indian tribe lived in a unique locality which had a unique climatic pattern which affected the respective culture. For instance, native-Indian tribes who lived in the tropical marshes of Louisiana had their own unique necklaces, beaded mittens and baskets, which were different from similar items found among the nomadic native-Indian tribes of Arizona. Thus, it follows that each native-Indian had its own culture modeled depending on its needs and wants. The first contact between whites and native-Indians enabled the whites to identify and evaluate the virtues and vices of each native-Indian tribe. Thereafter, the white colonizers collected and collated all vices from different native-Indian people, and then used these vices to synthesize a new perception of a native-Indian as a person who was a savage. This stereotype enabled the colonizers to justify the eviction and mass-murder of native-Indians. The colonizers stated that such actions provided space for the colonizers to use their advanced civilization to develop the land. Moreover, puritans used such stereotype to justify their actions as a purification of the land from polytheistic beliefs.

Also in 1992, another book titled, The imaginary Indian: the image of the Indian in Canadian culture, written by Daniel Francis, analyzes the imagery of the native-Indian in the Canadian psyche. He utilizes the nineteenth century photographs and paintings to show that grand stereotyping of native-Indians was created by the early Canadian painters. The photographers influenced the newspaper articles about native-Indians. Moreover, Francis states that the sagas that involved the Royal mounted police and native-Indians facilitated the stereotyping of the native-Indian male as lawless savage whose aim is to destroy the existing civilization. Portrayal of the male native-Indian male as a savage enabled the royal Canadian mounted police to carry out brutal punitive expeditions against entire native-Indian tribes. According to Francis, the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show displays the extent of stereotyping of native-Indians in Canada. The show depicted the native-Indian male as a savage warrior, debased alcoholic or a noble wise (and westernized) person. Hence, it can be concluded that this book reveals how the non native-Indian created the stereotype of the exotic native-Indian.

Visual arts in the early nineteenth century depicted native-Indians as uncivilized people. The noble Indian was portrayed as a person, who syncretized Indian superstition and protestant Christianity. Moreover, the then law of virtues and vices stipulated that whenever an advanced civilization came into contact with a savage culture, the savage culture lost all its virtues while its vices were enhanced and strengthened. Hence, the native-Indians were either to be civilized or exterminated. George Catlin, an artist who lived from 1796–1872, based most of his paintings on the theory of the vanishing Indian-American, as it can be seen from the photograph below. 

 Figure 1: Pigeon’s Egg Head (The Light) going to, and returning from Washington
Courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Institute.

The picture contrasts a noble native-Indian to a white civilized male. A result of the contact between native-Indians and white people was the introduction of the vice of alcoholism into native-Indian communities. Alcoholism converted the once noble native-Indian into an uncivilized native who can never be integrated in the civilized society. Native-Indian culture could not adequately deal with the problem of alcoholism, and thus there was rampant alcoholism among various native-Indian communities. The literature at that time provided descriptions of how the native-Indian chiefs had turned into hopeless alcoholics who could not administer their tribes, and also how the young native-Indians had fallen into alcoholism to the extent that their local populations were experiencing a negative population growth rate. This information convinced the American government that the native-Indian culture must be destroyed, if the native-Indians were to survive in the modern world. However, the idea of race extinction was opposed by missionaries who opposed the idea of polygenesis, and they thus portrayed the native-Indians as wayward souls who were in need of redemption. George Catlin also favored the missionaries’ position, and even stated that a protective government would promote harmonious civilization of native-Indians. However, popular opinion as expressed in the print media, such as the New York Times, favored the extinction of native-Indian culture. This was compounded by the emergence of racial science which postulated theories that stated that races had different capacities of creating and sustaining advanced civilizations. Thus, in portraits, the native-Indians were depicted as individuals who had small craniums (and therefore small brains). Several American intellectuals were convinced that native-Indians could not be integrated into the advanced American society. Evolutionary theorists postulated the theory of survival for the fittest which was used to provide credence to the extinction of the native-Indians, since they were not fit for survival (Dippie, 2012).

Modernization and technological progress made the native-Indians outcasts in Canada. In the picture below (picture 2), the native-Indians are viewing the extent of development of the Whiteman’s society, and they are mesmerized by the development. However, they also feel depressed and left-out. Moreover, the native-Indians are depicted as semi-dressed in order to show their uncouthness and savagery (Rayna, 1988).

Figure 2: Colton’s American Atlas. JH Colton, New York, 1855.

In the early 1900s, there was still marked ambivalence towards Indian imagery. To begin with, the imagery of the savage Indians was used to justify the marked cruelty that American pioneers showed the native-Indians in the Wild West. Thus, picture 2 was used to justify the fact that native-Indians were always jealous of the development brought about by the white man, and that the native-Indian strived to destroy such development. However, the image of a noble Indian was used by missionaries to illustrate the fact that the native-Indians were normal people who could be receptive of Christianity, provided that they are treated as normal people. Picture 1 was used to show that a noble native-Indian could undergo a smooth transition into a westerner (Rayna, 1988).

In conclusion, visual arts and literature was used to create a public image of native-Indians. Images are thereafter used to construct stereotypes. Stereotypes do entrench themselves in the psyche of the general population. Stereotypes are self-serving, since they promote the interests of the group that propagates such stereotypes. This is because stereotypes do form the fundamental (virtual) reality about the stereotyped group. Stereotypes of the native-Indians formed the basis of the ideas that was used in the formulation of the Indian policy in the 1800s. Moreover, they facilitated the cultural war that has been waged against the native-Indian culture.

References.

Rayna G. (1988). The Tribe Called Wannabee: Playing Indian in America and Europe. Folklore

 99 (1), 30-55.

Dippie, B.W. (2012). American Indians: The Image of the Indian. Nature Transformed, National     Humanities Center.