Indigenous Representation in the Media

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Indigenous Representation in the Media

Sports Teams/Logos

The first indigenous representation in media I chose was the Cleveland Indians. Throughout the years, the teams name has faced extreme backlash. The name and mascot of the team misrepresents and disrespectful towards the native communities. Eventually due to the controversy the team revealed their new name on July 23, 2021, The Cleveland Guardians. https://www.npr.org/2022/02/06/1078571919/washington-commanders-name-change-native-americans

My second indigenous representation in media that I chose is the Washington Redskins, who are 3 time Super Bowl winners. Although claimed the name of the team was no intended to be negative "redskin" is used as a slang term for native Americans. The word is labeled as offensive, disrespectful, and insulting. After the backlash and protest the team received the name finally changed in July, 2020 to the Washington Commanders. https://www.npr.org/2022/02/06/1078571919/washington-commanders-name-change-native-americans

Washington redskins

Chicago Blackhawks

My third indigenous representation in media that I chose was the Chicago Blackhawks, an NHL team. The team name and logo, like the other two representations, has had extreme backlash and controversy around it. The name and mascot for sports team uses it without the permission from the local indigenous communities and is viewed as disrespectful and uncultured. Unlike the other two teams Chicago Blackhawks continue to represent their name and have had no intention of changing it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Blackhawks_name_and_logo_controversy

Cleveland Indians

Keep America Beautiful, 1971. It gives a whole new look in indigenous culture of them being the caretakers of the earth and pushing to try to keep our earth safe and clean. This movie starred Iron Eyes Cody, he claims he was from native descent but was not in fact. He somewhat acted as a cultural ambassador for native Americans and he tried to seek out to correct common misconceptions about native americans that claimed to be his people. People loved that we were doing it, it shouldn’t mean that if you don’t have any part of you that is indingous you can’t be a part of it. It was welcoming culture and if anything you're opening your heart to help the earth that provides so much for us.

Avatar, one of the biggest movies ever created. Made in 2009 the movie is about how modernized people want to take over the Na’Vi peoples land because of their resources. Jake a paraplegic , gets sent out to help take over the land, even though his brother over-shadows him for his smarts, and his co-workers find that he won’t be able to help them research the land. When Jake is turned into the blue people he has found a new life, he gets legs and runs like he has always wanted too. Jake also found love with Neytiri. This all doesn’t last for long when Amaricans raid the land trying to kill everything but are saved by Jake helping defend the land. Jake decides to stay in his avatar form forever, and concludes his final entry log of his experiences on his birthday. Returning to the Tree of Souls, he undergoes the consciousness transfer from his human body to his avatar form, and awakens to a new life as a Na'vi.

Modern Media

The lone ranger, made in 2013, already this movie isn’t on the brightest side with the actors calling Johnny deep that plays the role Tonto, which means dumb as he’s playing an indigenous character. Johnny deep is dressed up in feathers, black and white face paint and fans have brought backlash again Johnny Deep for playing the character, because he isn’t even Natvie American. This character was played as a white male, which doesn’t help the Indigenous people giving them a voice for a big role like that.

“Wapos Bay.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Aug. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wapos_Bay.

Websites

Childrens Media

A rather positive representation of natives in children's media is “Wapos Bay”. Wapos Bay is a stop motion film about three indigenous Cree children, T-Bear, Raven, and Talon. They live in Northern Saskatchewan. The show is about their daily troubles and fun experiences. Furthermore, the show helps show a closeness in a family, and shows positive role models. An example of the show depicting closeness in family is in the episode “Journey Through Fear”. In this episode everyone comes together to help the youngest overcome his fear. This show is a refreshing change of bad stereotypes in children's media.

Another Disney depiction that can be perceived as misleading and stereotypical is the portrayal of the Indigneous in "Peter pan" (1955 animated version). Unlike Pocohontas, there was no “damsel in distress” and romanticized girl character. Rather, it focused more on the “savagery” of the natives. Firstly, the natives literally had red skin in the movie. One might first glance at this and think nothing, however red skin is a racist slur and term targeting Indigneous. Moreover, the chief was characterized as a fat, pipe loving man covered in presumably hawk feathers. Furthermore, the other natives were playing the drum, and although that isn’t racist or necessarily stereotypical, what followed suit was. After the drum playing and singing they let out a racist tribal scream. What makes this racist was the inaccuracy and the literal stereotype of it. All in all, Peter Pan's illustration of natives is in a negative light.

Subtopic

Over the time, Disney has portrayed Natives in a negative and stereotypical light, in children's movies. For example, one of Disney's infamous movies, "Pocohontas". One of the examples of the stereotypical portrayal in pocahontas is the Natives being “Savages”. The Natives being “Savages”, likely stemmed from the lack of covering on their bodies, tribal tattoos/paint, as well as the type of houses the Natives lived in. Furthermore, it also depicted Pocohontas, as a damsel in distress, and romanticized the relationship between her and John Smith. Additionally, Pocahontas’ depiction in the Disney movie was not an accurate one at all as the Indigenous never wanted war, and never challenged the Europeans to war. (As well as a plethora of other things)