In My Native American Culture Analysis

In early films, Native Americans have historically been portrayed as uncivilized and dangerous. Many photographs from hundreds of years ago were staged – paying Natives to wear traditionally incorrect dress and costumes, like headdresses. Chiefs wore headdresses during special ceremonies and that was it. However, when someone dresses up as a Native, they wear a headdress because it’s their stereotypical image of a Native American. Most people don’t know the true history of the Native Americans (the removal or how harshly they were treated), only what we’re taught in our history classes, which is only the basic information.
With that being said, it sort of reminds me of the recent film we watched, The Birth of a Nation. No one can fathom
To me, it’s just referring to the color of someone’s skin. There’s a term for almost all ethnicities that can be traced back to a negative history. The “n” word for African Americans can be compared to “savages” for Native Americans. Although there are no NFL teams with the “savages” mascot, there are some high school teams. The NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, supposedly told players to stop using the “n” word, all while he’s profiting on a dictionary-defined slur. However, I think that if they were to make the Native American mascots into caricatures, then that would be as though they were making fun of them. The only issue I have is when fans use the tomahawk chop during a war chant, wear headdresses, say “skin the Indians” or anything related to
The term “savages” is derogatory and has a negative history. I’m a little torn between whether or not the Washington Redskin’s should change their name. In the video attached to this assignment, Ray Halbritter, the CEO of United Nations Enterprises says, “When racial slur is being used to make profit by a national football team at this level it only does damage to the self-esteem and self-image of our youth.” However, I feel as though some Native Americans take this to the extreme by saying these mascots are causing suicide rates to increase with the youth on reservations. As a Native American, I have never had suicidal thoughts because of a mascot or an NFL team being referred to as the redskins. If Native Americans put as much effort into preventing violence, alcoholism and low poverty rates as they do about mascots and protesting pipelines, then maybe there wouldn’t be so many issues to worry about. We should make sure our own people have the educational opportunities to graduate from college, so they can get a good job and provide for their families. Let’s help our own people fight the battles going on inside our tribes before we start worrying about the Washington Redskins and whether or not they should change their