Carolkitty's US History : September 2012

Native Americans values are very different then people make them out to be. Native Americans often feel like they are losing parts of their past to the modern American world. Things like their images, their values, and their landmarks are portrayed as something completely American. These days everything seems to be all American, even though half of the stuff our country "produces" is made in China. One portrayal of an native american losing something close to him, in this case, his land, is seen on many YouTube videos. It is a Native American chief watching with a tear in his eye while the land, or what portrays as his land, is being polluted. Not only are Indians values being lost through polluting land, but also through the representation of Indians on products, clothing lines, and in movies.

American products today all have logos. We often know that product not by its name, but by remembering its logo from commercials, or billboards. Many products portray Indians in a good light, or what we as Americans think is a good light. This could upset many Indians who may not think the same of these images. For example Land O'Lakes butter has a young native american girl sitting on the cover of the box of butter. Using a young Indian girl for this logo shows that the butter must be natural because it is coming from the Indians, or the Native Americans, who many American may think still live on reservations and who are also said to be one with nature. Another product, not known by its logo but by its name is said to be a natural ride. This product is the Jeep Cherokee, Cherokee being an Indian tribe. This product is portrayed to be ragged, natural, and adaptable to getting with the land, with its open roof and big tires. Finally, Luden's cough drops are supposed to be the "Natural" type of cough drop unlike Halls. These cough drops have been described to have helped many Native American with their sicknesses. The idea of Native American words used as Product names is conveyed to be more of a Noble Savage.

Jeep Cherokee

Land O'lakes Butter

Another issue with Native American products is clothing controversies. Urban Outfitters, a modern and fashionable clothing stores came out with a collection of clothes titled "Navajo." These clothes were tribal styled that look similar to actually Navajo attire, with Urban's brand on it which allowed them to make money. Sasha Houston Brown, a Navajo Indian, came to Urban and saw what they were doing to her tribes name. She emailed the CEO of Urban calling the clothing line, "cheap, vulgar, and culturally offensive." This became known as the Navajo Controversy. This is an example of how one person, or one tribe can create and idea first without copy righting it, but then a store can find it and make it popular by selling it for money.

Finally the representations of Native Americans in movies something that Hollywood, and Disney especially like to do. They often talk about Indians or tell stories of Indians from history, but rearrange everything about the story and don't tell the real story. Disney's Pocahontas is a great kids movie, but it isn't totally fictional. In this movie a real Indian is used as the voice of Pocahontas, which is also another thing that has begun to happen recently in history. The actress in Pocahontas is Irene Bendard. She is a native Inupait Inuit and Metis. Another Disney movie where Indians aren't portrayed in a good light is Peter Pan. In the movie Peter Pan and the Lost Boys meet Indians, and they sing a song called Red Skin Man, which is offense to Native Americans.That can be considered the stereotype for Indians. A lady by the name of Kellie Cunningham Bliss, who is an Alaskan Native of the Haida. Her sons school was doing the play Peter Pan and her son automatically got chosen for the part of one of the Indians, due to his skin color. This angered Kellie. She emailed the school, but not on the behalf of her own sons part getting changed, but about what the other kids were learning. She was worried that they may automatically think that her kid has to be Indian because he is of that culture. She was worried that they may never learn anything different then if you are a certain, race, culture, or religion, you have to play that part and you don't have a chance to play another.