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Philip J. Deloria's Indians In Unexpected Places

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In Philip J. Deloria’s book, Indians In Unexpected Places readers are provoked with questions. Why is there an Indian on an automobile? Why is she getting a manicure? Why is the young man in football apparel? Indians have been secluded into a stereotype of untamable and wild animals. However, Indians break the barriers of their traditional lives by being in more modern and “white” activities. They partake in “normal” activities to not only change their future, but to make their ancestors proud of their accomplishments. Through a variety of events in the early 1900’s, Deloria expands on what it means to be Native American by retelling their lives of, men grew from their reservation life, into competitive sports, the auto industry transformed how Native Americans traveled, and they also gained relevance in the fight to make themselves known in film, not always as a savage warrior, but also capable of love moving pictures. Marking the anniversary of Wounded Knee, Buffalo Bill Cody wanted the shooting of the film The Indian Wars to be a historical reenactment of the events, by using the battleground for the film. The battle would have included a courageous fight, rather than a one sided massacre …show more content…

Native Americans have been stereotyped for centuries, and will still be, due to how pop culture portrays them. It may seem odd, that one would see an Indian at a salon, or playing football at first, but it is a transaction to the integration into American culture. Indians have for the most part, been treated as second class citizens, and were boosted to become more “white”. They were used by scammers, represented in early moving pictures as savage men and traded around by recruiters. Although these unfortunate detours happened to Native Americans, it paved a path for further development. Their quality of life transformed, as they had easier modes of transportation, many young men grew to be educated and masters of their sports, and changes in how whites viewed them in

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The white society treated the Indians as if they were not equal to them. They were trained and were servants for the whites. The White's gave them a place to stay but for a cost of labor. The Indians were made to feel like a lesser

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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.

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In the book The Absolutely True Diaries of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie tells the story of Arnold, a boy who grows up on a reservation and changes schools to go to a school off the rez. He left the reservation to have a better chance at life. These are the similarities and differences between Arnolds life on the reservation and his life at reardan high school First there are many similarities between the rez and rearden. At both schools he was a basketball player.

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Although in this case, she means the stereotyping of Native Americans. She does extend this to other variables as well some of which include sex, gender, class, age or even disability. Waters confronts the issue that media the plays on these assumptions and generalizations (p.78). Waters (2004) primary objective of this chapter is to inform readers on the basic setup and stricter of classes that she teaches to help facilitate towards becoming Native-centric along with Euro-centric. She does this by explaining the methodology in her curriculum which helps provide the Native-centric insight.

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Native American Indians have been portrayed in the media, movies and stories very negatively. The media, in today’s society barely recognizes Native Americans. It is like they disappeared. They are perceived as people of the past. When they are featured on a news channel, it is usually due to protests subjected around their territory.

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I try to remain stoic for the photographers as I look toward the future,” (Indian 110) Alexie writes. Alexie was an Indian, and expectations were very low towards him, although he didn’t let that stop him from continuing life. Alexie continued to be very successful, and even as that happened, he looked towards the future and didn’t let past, historic experiences modify his decisions. Through the stories “Every Little Hurricane” and “Indian Education,” historic events from history should not contradict a person 's current situational state is a conclusive theme for these

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In “Indians in Unexpected Places” by Philip J. Deloria, Deloria makes a very large point to emphasize many different stereotypes that are still present in our society against Native Americans is made. Deloria exposes the issue that as modern non- “Indians” move into the future, society’s idea of a classic Indian is unwavering. The majority of modern society still imagine Indians to be primitive, border-line barbaric, and savage. Focusing on the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Deloria suggests that as non-Indians streamline modernization of society, Indians are also actively taking part in these improvements on both themselves and all of society. Throughout the points that Deloria is making, he focuses on convincing his audience

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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,

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The Native Americans have been living in America longer than anyone. The Indians have made a big impact on America. But how? European Immigration, sharing lands, the French and Indian War, the Indian Removal Act, and Manifest Destiny all worked towards getting rid of them. How has the Native American’s culture, history and daily life been affected by European Immigration into the Americas?

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We dwell on the dichotomy between American and Indian culture, with a cultivated respect for both. We go through phases where being Indian is easier, but usually the American phase predominates. Maybe some can sit on the bridge between the two, but such cases are regarded as rare. At the end one has to choose one between the two and its usually the one that dominates

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The land that our feet bear upon was not at first in our grasp. Natives patrolled the land far before pioneers became an existence on the so-called American soil. What was once seen as a way of life for the Natives has been refaced into to the “American dream” of Manifest Destiny. In context, Manifest Destiny is the view of moving forth in the planting of one’s cultural reckless footprints into the metaphorical soil that embodies economic opportunity instead of what was portrayed on the Hollywood screen. On the contrary, the “Old West” also known as the “Wild West,” was not only portrayed inaccurately by Hollywood in the representation of the actual events that occurred in the West, but also the ill-advised actions the pioneers had once brought over in an attempt for individuals to improve one’s own condition in life.

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