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Native american today struggles and benefits
Native american today struggles and benefits
The concept of identity
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Native Americans in pop culture have been very misunderstood in many ways. The stereotypical Indian that lives on a reservation doesn’t look like he lives in the 1600s. Indians have evolved to fit more into pop culture, but this isn’t always the case. For example, in a movie called “Smoke Signals” a boy named Victor and Thomas set out on a journey of self-discovery and they head all the way from their Indian reservation to Phoenix Arizona. Indians have an easy way to pass down old tradition to the newer generations that follow behind.
In the documentary, Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian, directed by Neil Diamond, he investigates the progression of how cinema has portrayed the Native American. They begin with the early classic films that first were made up until recent times. The image of the Indian has been portrayed in several ways and films had typically created misleading depictions of the Indians. What was created in these films are often stereotypical and what many people today believe to be true. Throughout the documentary, we see many themes being presented and these are themes of how the image of Native Americans were viewed as the “bad guys” during some early films and how they evolved to show how they were really just human beings.
Struggles as an Immigrant Indigenous cultures place a high value on identity formation. For many Indigenous peoples, identity is deeply connected to their relationship with the land, their cultural traditions, and their language. Indigenous communities frequently have distinct cultural practices, beliefs and values passed down from generation to generation. These practices and beliefs are an important part of Indigenous identity because they shape how people see themselves and their place in the world. Despite the difficulties they face, many Indigenous people have worked to reclaim their cultural heritage and restore their traditional practices and beliefs.
Native Americans are the indigenous people of the United States, they have an extensive rich history, and stories of sorrow and bravery. Within the lower 48 states are the Great Plains American tribes, these tribes live in a region where there are few trees with valleys and rolling hills. This is where the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma as well as many other tribes resides in. With quite a dearth tribe, their highest population being 3,522 present day, but although they weren’t large they are known for their abounding cultural tradition and past. The Ponca tribe of Oklahoma had a mixed culture of the Middle Mississippi and Plains people.
This idea “the homogenization of American Indian cultures. Native Americans are portrayed uniformly, disregarding the sometimes enormous differences among the tribes. Thus, through the use of Indian names and mascots, society defines who Native Americans are instead of allowing them to determine how society thinks of them” (McClure, 2014, 114) Growing up with this romantic notion is that it was completely unrealistic. I unknowingly accepted the fact that all Native Americans as spiritual and therefore peaceful. My prejudice only allowed me to see that they were all “most elevated of all humanity”(Burns, 2004) and not fallible as
Regardless of the passage of time, typically speaking, people’s vision of Native Americans remains wrapped up in powerful stereotypes. This is why some images we see of Indians can be surprising and perhaps confusing. What would Geronimo be doing sitting in a Cadillac? Why is an Indian woman in traditional native wear, in a salon, getting her hair done? Images such as this cause us to think and challenge our outdated visions, even as the latter continues to dominate relations between non-Native Americans and Native Americans.
The Native American Culture and history isn’t to be used as a form of entertainment. This is where stereotypes about the Native American Culture originate. This can cause a decrease in many areas for Native Americans. A decrease in areas such as: self-esteem, mood and the belief in their community. These stereotypes limit an individual’s view on culture, helping to hide the Native American realities.
Native Americans were assimilated into the American culture through strict reeducation, which they could neither avoid nor escape. This reeducation was brutal and unnecessary to achieve the desired effect. Unfortunately, the assimilation of Native Americans through reeducation was unfair and caused a lot of
Perceptions of Native Americans 1. The French did not know what is tobacco; and they could not speak to the Indians. On the other hand, the Indians never used axes, knives, or guns, and were scared of them. The Europeans and Native Americans traded furs but European disease affected a lot.
Progressing from middle school, to high school, to college, to eventually a job, is one of the major ways that the universal idea of upward progress affects our lives. Upward progress is the idea that we as humans need to continue to better ourselves, look towards the future, and move forward in life. This idea is mainly seen in modern American life, not typically associated with those of Native Americans. The cultural circle of Native American life has been broken by destruction of the traditional ways.
Between 1785 and 1829, the cultures of Native Americans were greatly changed by American territorial expansion. In particular, the loss of land, trust, and attempted reforms made by whites to "civilize" the Native Americans greatly affected them. American western expansion was the cause of many of the Native Americans' great sorrows. In 1790, most of the land west of the Appalachian Mountains was unsettled. After the War of 1812, the population in the West doubled.
Even though America has become quite the diverse place with diverse cultures, the cultural appropriation found within the American society contributes to the loss of multiple minority culture’s identity. Native Americans are one of the minority groups most heavily impacted by cultural appropriation. From offensive sports, many American Indians feel as though their cultural identities are lost in the mass of stereotypes and false representations of them in popular culture. In literature and film, Indians are too often portrayed as some variation of “the Noble or Ignoble Savage” (Gordon, 30), violent and uneducated, and it is easy to imagine how this negative representation inspires resentment in the Native American community, who have no interest in having their cultures and peoples being reduced to mere savages,
Adam Sorenson Prof. Riggs COMP 01112 2/12/18 Misrepresentation of Native Americans Native American’s for many years now have been viewed as lone warriors or squaw, some people don’t even know that they still exist! People just think of the Native American people in storybook tales and nothing more then that. The Native Americans have been living in the United States for awhile now and were the first ones on the country’s soil. They were here way before Christopher Columbus and the other European Colonists even discovered America and they are still present in the U.S.
They are often labeled as uncivilized barbarians, which is a solely false accusation against them. This paper aims to address the similarities between Native American beliefs and the beliefs of other cultures based on The Iroquois Creation Story in order to defeat the stereotype that Natives are regularly defined by. Native Americans are commonly considered uncivilized, savage, and barbarian. Nevertheless, in reality the Natives are not characterized by any of those negative traits, but rather they inhabit positive characteristics such as being wise, polite, tolerant, civilized, harmonious with nature, etc. They have had a prodigious impact on the Puritans
Post-Reflection 1) What did I learn from this assignment? From reading Chelsey Vowel's novel, I learned plenty about myself as an Indigenous person living in "Canada". The greatest thing I took away from this assignment is that I need to embrace my Indigenous culture more and be proud to be who I am.
