The Danger of Relegating Native Americans to the History
The last time you saw a Native person in movies, TV shows, books, or video games, how was that Native person depicted? That character very likely donned feather headdresses, buckskin clothing, war paints, and/or held tomahawks, bows, and arrows. Although over 5 million Native people live in the US, when looking into the world, we almost exclusively see such historical depictions of Native people and rarely see any modern ones. For example, only 0%~0.4% of characters on any media platform are Native, mostly historical figures. Out of the first 100 Google images for the terms “Native Americans” and “American Indians,” 95 are historical portraits. One might ask: Aren’t most of these historical depictions as innocent as the Disney movie Pocahontas? First, we need to recognize that most historical Natives depictions are inaccurate. For example, Disney changed Pocahontas’ age and forced a romantic relationship between her and John Smith. Beyond mere inaccuracy, the abundance of historical Native depictions, combined with the absence of contemporary ones, has negative consequences.
Growing up in this cultural environment has profound long-term effects on Native people. Remember how you found your hero back in the day? Maybe from a poster, a book chapter, or a TV interview, you saw an accomplished scientist, politician, or poet who looked just like you, sharing with you the same skin tone, cultural and/or family background. You think: “if they can succeed in this role, I can as well.” However, when Native children look for people resembling themselves, they see no accomplished role models but just outdated depictions. Consequently, it is difficult for Native children to see themselves fit in any high-achieving role in the future, resulting in a lack of confidence and motivation to reach goals.
Historical Native depictions also have societal-level consequences. Considering our society is replete with historical Native depictions while lacking contemporary ones, average Americans almost inevitably misperceive Native people as only existing in the past and vanished from today’s world. This misperception allows people to deny the fact that Native people experience inequalities. A basic premise of recognizing racism is knowing there is a target of racism. If Natives don’t exist, injustices can no longer occur to them. This reasoning explains the discrepancy between the actual inequalities that Native people go through today and what non-Native people believe. For example, Native people experience disproportionately high rates of incarceration, police brutality, and sexual assault (see Figure 1 for statistics on sexual assault). Reflecting this glooming reality, 75% of Native people say that they experience a great deal of discrimination. In contrast, only one-third of non-Native individuals believe so. Without seeing Native people and their adversity, people in power and the public simply cannot sense any responsibility or urgency to ally with a seemingly nonexistent group or help address any nonexistent issues.
U.S. National statistics of missing and murdered Native women and girls (Image from National Criminal Justice Training Center)
It is impossible to list all the harms caused by the abundance of historical Native depictions combined with a lack of modern ones. Still, the takeaway is that such depictions not only hurt Native individuals but also jeopardize the ongoing efforts to cultivate a more just society. Native people have survived a long history of mistreatments and continue to thrive today in the face of ongoing injustices. The onus for change, however, doesn’t solely fall on Native communities. If you want to make some changes, the first step is as easy as streaming a TV episode by and about Native people (e.g., Reservation Dogs).
Doris Dai is a fifth-year PhD student in social psychology at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on how historical representations of Native Americans shape non-Native individuals’ (mis)perceptions of Native Americans, and how such (mis)perceptions have downstream negative consequences on Native Americans’ well-being and lived experiences.