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The White Man's Indian by Robert Berkhofer

Despite their widely diverse cultures, in The White Man's Indian Robert F. Berkhofer (7) argues that white euro-Americans (i.e. white Americans) tended to homogenize Indian tribal groups into images of "The Indian," and along a dichotomy of good/bad that existed since Amerigo Vespucci first described them in these two categories. The wholly constructed image of "The Indian" by white Americans ranged from the classic images of either noble savage or bloodthirsty savage. Whatever image was constructed, Berkhofer argues they always served the needs, both intellectually and materially, of white Americans. This analysis will reflect on the persistence of these ethnocentrically constructed images of "The Indian" and how they play out in popular culture and artistic expression.

We see ample evidence of Berkhofer's contention that images of "The Indian" still play out in popular culture and artistic expression. In Oregon, the noble savage Indian is portrayed in commercials describing how his reservation's casino profits are benefitting the environment. A similar separation is used from the Indian and his tribe, as he is shown in nature, alone, wearing Western clothes in a manner similar to the description of Iron Eyes Cody in the "it's a crying shame" pollution advertisement (Berkhofer 19). Highly popular, the advertisement also conveyed the bathos of the Indian, that of a doomed civilization.

Despite the noble savage image persisting in films like Dances with Wolves, many images and signifiers of Indians in modern culture show the "bad" Indian. From Chief Osceola, the Florida State Seminoles' mascot, who rides a horse onto the field before each game in full Indian headdress and war paint, to the names of football teams like the Washington Redskins, the image of the bloodthirsty savage still exists. From war chants and tom-a-hawks to fans dressed in war paint, negative images of "The Indian" abound. War...

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The White Man's Indian by Robert Berkhofer. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 08:59, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/2000628.html