Images of Urban Native Americans: The Border Zones of Mixed Identities

Abstract

Introduction The dominant photographic images of Native Americans, past and present, tend to focus on two geographical/culture areas, the Plains and the Southwest. These images become fixed in the American media as typical Native American physical/cultural characteristics. Native American images east of the Mississippi River are often ignored. This paper will focus on Native Americans of Eastern tribes with connections to Middle Atlantic and Northeastern Algonquin cultures and Southeastern tribes. Photographs and photo collages are from the author/artist's photo-documentation of Eastern, usually state recognized tribes. These images will show the unique physical characteristics of a people whose early contact led to interracial marriages with Europeans and later with free people of color. The tri-racial backgrounds of some Eastern native Americans created a physical blend that looks Caucasian, Native American, or Mulattoe, depending on familial racial marriage patterns. Unfortunately, in a racially conscious society like the United States, this hybridization has resulted in discrimination and legal identification problems on birth certificates for some Native American families. These visual images portray mixed Eastern tribes as a people who still possess a strong Native American identity, evident in their participation in Native American cultural events such as powwows, spiritual ceremonies, political activism, and the arts. Native Americans are still living in a society that cannot believe they are indigenous unless they are dressed in buckskin and feathers. That stereotype has been out of date on the east coast for two centuries. Americans in general have an inability to conceptualize historic change among Native Americans. This double standard is founded on an unrealistic concept of cultural identity in defining Native Americans and has placed a burden on modern descendants to prove that they are real Indians. Native Americans on the Atlantic Coast had been in contact with both Europeans and Africans for a long time and gradually absorbed some elements of their lifestyles. All three racial groups shared an emerging folk culture that included elements of African, European, and Native American lifestyles. After World War II, many Native Americans from the South looked for jobs in less segregated areas and migrated to northern cities to join the urban labor force. Interaction with urban Native Americans from other tribes (Northern and Southern) increased a PanIndian identification. The dominant American society has created an image of Native Americans that is a racial stereotype, an image that is a reflection of the problems of the dominant society (Strickland 1989). But Native Americans have their own self-images and do not need to be defined by others. Some modern Native Americans resemble their early ancestors; others show the results of intermixture with other races. It is up to persons of Native American descent to decide how we are to define ourselves racially and what aspect(s) of our heritage we wish to emphasize. Native American artists of mixed racial heritage who wish to explore that complexity in their artwork need to be encouraged and recognized. In my photo documentation of contemporary Native American art and culture, I try to show the diversity that is prevalent in the United States, as well as the Caribbean and Latin-America. I focus on groups such as the Powhatan, Lumbee, Shinnicock, Narragansett, Houma, Haliwa Saponi, Mohegan, and Taino that the government and even other Native Americans have tried to marginalize. State recognized tribes do not get the financial cultural backing that the more dominant federally recognized tribes receive. Exposure of neglected Eastern tribes through the visual arts and the mass media is one method of refuting our disappearance. The Politics of Mixed Identities In the literature concerned with Native American history there has been an abundance of information on the relationships between the indigenous inhabitants and the European immigrants, now the majority population. …