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American Indians Myths

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Recommended: The negative portrayal of native Americans in movies and books

If you could close your eyes and create an image of what comes to your mind when you hear the words “Cowboys” and “American Indians”. The most common image that individuals create in their minds of a “cowboy” is one who wears a hat to cover the sun’s heat, wears chaps and rides his horse, carries a gun, and around his waist carries the ammunition he uses to kill the “bad” enemies. While on the other hand, a standard image of “American Indian” is probably one wearing a headdress full of colorful feathers, and his skin is painted with bright colors as he gallops on a horse shooting bows and arrows, and while the rest of the tribe rests in teepees. These and many more standard images of “cowboys” and “American Indians” is what has become to be accepted as one of the many myths of the Wild West. The Wild West is America’s myth. A myth basically epitomizes ideas, culture values, and aids individuals to know where they came from and assists us to develop our identities. The Wild West, as a myth is full of many stereotypes, but a popular myth is that of the frontier. We all know the story of how we arrived here from Europe into this violent nation, followed the idea of …show more content…

This is just a myth because everything we know about has been romanticized, because the idea is much more complicated and we as a society like to group everything and make thing exciting, because if they were dull it wouldn’t be packed with action. The reality of it all is a hard pill to swallow rather than having a sugar coated pill. Throughout the Wild West the cowboy had been an idol for American culture while on the other hand, the American Indian has been portrayed as the barbaric individual who has no heart for anyone. The Wild West is simply just a myth and is a legacy that will forever live on even though we really know how the Wild West really is, but we deny the dull part of the story and accept the side that is action

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