1.John Borneman writes in his article that, "In the American context the constructed category Indian occupied the space of the quintessentially "foreign" (665). He then suggests that in order for European's to define themselves as American, they had to liquidate the American Indians. Do you agree with Borenman's thinking that one of the main forces for American Indian expulsion was Identity issues?
2. In the Celluloid Indian, Kilpatrick mentioned that one of the ways that the Euro-Americans challenged themselves was through the frontier (6). We see this theme presented in many Westerns, including the stereotypes of American Indians. Why do you think these stereotypes persisted in film, despite fact that most no longer perceived
Native Americans as threat??
Brandon Eason
Response to Question 2
As a general statement, beliefs and ideas are heavily engrained into a culture’s ideology and therefore are difficult to replace and alter what has been widely accepted as true. The image most Americans have of the new frontier, the Wild West is one that has been constructed through media, the media being the early peep shows, Wild West Shows, or later films. These media outlets reached masses that would never actually see the West and moving pictures were, as Kilpatrick describes, persuasive. People as a general rule of thumb believe what they see no matter how false the image may be, just look at today’s tabloids.
In order to debunk the image of the Indian that is portrayed in mainstream you almost have to alter the image of the cowboy as the images of the two in mainstream culture go hand in hand as they have from the early years of mass media. People still glorify the Wild West cowboy, particularly in the south, and therefore subconsciously perpetuate the savage Indian image as the cowboy’s great rival. Kilpatrick addresses how this is how it was in the old Wild West Show as well as films. So with no option to go back to the past and change the images shown to the masses it would be beneficial to understand how people view Indians today and slowly alter the image in media. Kilpatrick address how people have begun this process by having Native portray their own culture in leading roles and show the non Indians in a less positive light but then goes on to say that “While an applaudable notion, this is not really new.” (18)
The image of the Indian is permanently engrained into the minds of the masses passed down through culture and beliefs, perpetuated by reinvented versions of the childhood game Cowboys and Indians. To alter the image of the Natives as being savage even though most no longer view them as such it might be beneficial to first deconstruct the Wild West Cowboy and Indian pairing.
Katharine Oppeneer