Native American Negative Image Essay

Superior Essays
The American Indian has been represented in a negative manner for years. From the offensive depictions in old history books, to the terrible movies of the 1950’s. I recall watching a special on Ronald Reagan and he played the role of an Indian. That to me was very offensive to Native Americans and his role was that of a silly Native American.
American for years have hated Native Americans and what they stood for as a people. When the first settlers arrived their first contact was peaceful when it came to Native Americans. The Native people shared their ideas and skills with the settlers. The settlers repaid them by murdering them and stealing their vital lands. These actions have made for a challenging relationship with our federal government.
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My immediate reaction was one that was offended by these mascots. I being from Cleveland, Ohio our mascot was changed a couple of years ago, because it offended Native Americans. The Indians organization was nice enough to change the logo to a letter C. Many Clevelanders were against this change and fought against this change.
This is not the only offensive image of Native Americans the Washington Redskins is another one. Negative images are symbols of racism and can be worse than actually saying a negative statement. As an African American negative images have come in, many forms many of them are religious in nature. One example is the image of Jesus did not look like the image portrayed on paintings. Jesus was a black man and instead of the Catholic Church showing it in a positive light.
They used a false depiction and used it as a form of white power. This image and the religion was used as vehicle to lynch and murder blacks. The same goes for the Indian mascots these negative mascots, fuels acts of oppression against these people. If individuals truly understood the history of Native Americans they would have got rid of these mascot years

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