Native American Stereotypes

Negative Stereotypes

Four Main Stereotypes

(from Iroquois Corn, Carol Cornelius) – All of these are used to rationalize non-native treatment of Natives

  • The Noble Savage – a romantic vision of the proud, aloof Indian – entwined with Manifest Destiny and the concept of the "wide open spaces" in the West
  • The Savage
  • A Vanishing Race – on the way to extinction, the Indian is seen as expendable and not able to compete with the European
  • Living Fossils – Indian culture is "trapped in time" and unchanging – this view rejects selective cultural adoption and supports inferiority in all ways

How Indians live:

Indians live in small tipis/teepees/tepees, in dry, empty places - or they live on the coast in a place with a lot of pine and deciduous trees (like Maine)

  • Life is uncomplicated; they live simply
  • Villages are in circles, around which they often dance
  • Celebrations involve whooping and crazy circle dancing
  • The Chief lives in the biggest teepee and is all-powerful in the tribe
  • They have no sense of time

They don't live in large settlements, practice agriculture, raise animals, or have indoor fires.

  • They are all hunters and gatherers
  • They use few tools
  • They ride horses everywhere
  • They have no economy
  • They are not organized or political

Miscellaneous:

  • There never were many Indians in North America.
  • They are a thing of the past – they are just an idea or a spirit now
  • Indians have not changed since before Columbus came – they don't understand modern technology
  • Indians carve totem poles
  • Indians travel in too-small canoes made of skins or birch bark
  • Indians dance by jumping up and down and whooping
  • Indians communicate by smoke signals, by saying "How" & "Ugh" with a raised palm, or in "broken English"
  • Indian names are silly, made of several words linked together (containing names of animals, actions, adjectives)
  • The cowboys beat the Indians
  • Indians did things (war, trapping…) because the white man made them, led them on, or tricked them
  • You can become like an Indian by putting on an Indian costume
  • The Pilgrims were so happy to be helped by the Indians that they lived in peace and thanks

Appearance:

  • Indians look alike
  • Indians have dark/reddish skin, large noses and painted faces (except for the women)
  • Indians wear feather headdresses, buckskin, necklaces, moccasins
  • They wear "Indian clothes" and feathers even when doing contemporary jobs

Indian men:

  • if young or not chiefs - ride horses a lot, carry knife, tomahawk, bow & arrow (or all three), sometimes have a rifle, wear a hair band with a single feather, wear buckskin pants and often a vest with no shirt, sometimes wear nothing but a kind of loincloth, often have long braids or a pigtail, hunt and make war a lot, dance and whoop, hang around the desert or the tipi
  • if old or chief, wear feather headdress (everywhere!), carry peace pipe, wear fringed buckskin pants and long shirt & necklace of beads or teeth, meet with cavalry (Custer), stern-faced or smirking

Indian children:

  • don't go to school
  • wear smaller versions of parents' clothing
  • babies are always wrapped up
  • have big brown eyes and small noses
  • have a magical connection to horses and the spirits of dead Chiefs
  • can talk to animals
  • take things as they come
  • are often orphans raised by a grandparent or outside person

Indian women:

  • have long braids, wear a head band, necklace, buckskin dress, may have a shawl
  • cook & make baskets, pots or clothes all day (outside)
  • if young - they are beautiful, sexy, have large dark eyes, flirt, wear short dresses
  • if not young – they are dumpy, hard-working, critical of men/husbands
  • don't know enough to be good mothers
  • are not respected by Indian men and boys

What Indians are like:

  • Indians are sneaky – they walk silently
  • Indians are not as smart as white people
  • Indians are savage; they take lots of scalps and don't fight fairly
  • Indians attacked without reason
  • Indians are dirty – they don't bathe often
  • They have no sense of time or they have an "inborn" sense of time
  • Indians are poor, or halting, communicators – language is simple
  • Indians have enormous self-control of emotional responses – they don't feel positive emotions as readily as white people
  • Indian men:
  • are lazy or shiftless
  • don't have modern employment
  • have lots of free time
  • smoke & drink a lot and like to gamble
  • are oversexed – always "on the make" (this is not on the Student listing)
  • are stoic and stern (don't show emotions)
"Positive Stereotypes" – Indians are:
  • Good trackers & hunters
  • Conservationists – in harmony with the environment
  • Spiritual
  • Respectful
  • Adaptable
  • Resourceful
  • Knowledgeable about animals, plants – true scientists – plant breeders, pharmacists
  • Brave – will fight to defend lands, families, values
  • Excellent horse trainers
  • Patient but strict teachers of children
  • Resourceful users of nature
  • Excellent makers of pottery, rugs, baskets
  • Storytellers
  • Stoic

This handout in its entirety was found at,