1. Native American Stereotypes
American Literature

2. Perhaps no culture has been more misrepresented and stereotyped than the Native American culture. When we think of Native Americans, the term Indian comes to mind as well as an image of a warrior on horseback, with a feathered headdress flowing in the wind. In reality, Native Americans and their cultures are just as diverse as all other cultures.

3. Common Stereotypes
Here are some facts to help dispel common stereotypes:
Native Americans speak different languages and have uniquely different cultures
More than 2000 different languages, cultures, and value systems existed within the Native American tribes before the settlers arived

4. Native Americans have been stereotyped since the first immigrants
Early settlers wrote about Native Americans as one, not a diverse group
Early settlers saw Native Americans as primitive and savage due to cultural differences
Early settlers tried to convert Native Americans to Anglo culture and Christianity. When this failed, they deemed them as a barrier to civilization

5. Early Literature
Early American writers developed a frontier writing formula that depicted Native Americans as “savages” in order to justify their elimination from their native lands, a sacrifice to Western expansion.
Literature during this time is loaded with stories of Native Americans burning, looting, raping, and scalping the pioneers who were pursuing "manifest destiny."
Actual and exaggerated stories of atrocities by Native Americans upon white settlers (with no mention of the reverse) established a strong hatred of them as the impediment to the advancement of white civilization in the west.

6. Media Stereotypes American media continues to perpetuate
Native American stereotypes.
Tonto (which suspiciously means "stupid" in Spanish), the Lone Ranger's "faithful" Indian companion, was one of early TV's favorite characters on the show The Lone Ranger.
Westerns, which still air today, portray Native Americans as flat, interchangeable characters without depth.

7. Media Stereotypes Cont’d
The noble, stoic stereotype of the Native American. Not all Native Americans fit this description, just as not all Americans fit the idea of a Southerner.
The “warrior.” Mascots perpetuate this stereotype. Native Americans never were and are not the bloodthirsty savages early settlers portrayed them to be.
When is the last time you saw a Native American as a positive, dynamic character in a major movie or T.V. show?