Representations Of Native Americans Research Articles

The Divine Mandate of Colonialism: Orientalism in Wilkie Collins’s 'The Black Robe'

In postcolonial studies, the missionary is inevitably associated with colonialism. This is explained by the fact that the missionaries’ main task was to spread Christianity by preaching the “blessings of civilisation” and implementing “the white man's burden”. This study adopts Edward W. Said's Orientalist discourse to critique the construct of the representation of indigenous peoples in Wilkie Collins's (1824-1889) The Black Robe (1881). Said's ideas are particularly instrumental in critically analysing the Western (mis)representation of Native Americans as savages who need to be civilised. The Black Robe is a partly epistolary novel revolving around a series of unfortunate events by Lewis Romayne, whose remorse for the accidental murder of a young man haunts him for the rest of his life. This research reveals inconsistencies regarding the author's religious views in the novel. It is argued that while Collins's anti-Catholic sarcasm aims to expose the corruption of religious orders, this attitude does not apply to colonial discourse. Rather, Catholicism is purposefully used as a divisive imperialist tool in the novel, and therefore the missionaries serve as colonial agents who “bless” discriminatory acts of British imperial policy, hence the image of the black robe that represents the colonial legacy consolidating the influence of British imperial power through religion. In The Black Robe, indigenous peoples are described as “bloodthirsty savages” and it is believed that their souls can be saved under the influence of Christianity. This enforcement also represents colonial hegemony, through which American Indians are subjected to social and cultural assimilation. The ideology of white racial supremacy manifests itself in the justification of the colonial missions, which claim that they have legitimate and religious rights over the land and culture of the natives.

Decolonizing Museums: Toward a Paradigm Shift

This review examines the discourses and practices that have produced a lively literature on museum decolonization created by scholars of museum practices and curators. We consider the trajectory of decolonization efforts in museums, focusing especially on the care of Native North American heritage, with comparison to similar trajectories internationally. We begin with a discussion of decolonizing moments in theory and practice, with particular attention to 1990s critique of ethnographic museums and developments after the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Following this discussion is a review of works on concerns regarding Native American representation and public displays, involvement in collections care, and the varied collaborations that are changing museum practices. The final section foregrounds the fluorescence of tribal museums and their contributions to the decolonization and indigenization of museums, as well as emerging paradigm shifts in both the anthropology of museums and anthropology in museums.

Standing Rock and its Ancestors

This article considers the documentary film, Taking Alcatraz (John Ferry, 2015), in the context of US-Indigenous history. The documentary form presents alternative ideas and futures beyond those dominant in the US imagination and run counter to stereotypical representations of Native Americans found in the Western genre. The 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz can be seen as part of a history of political dissent by Indigenous peoples whilst the (mediated) nature of film reinvigorate and reanimate ideas such as those employed at Alcatraz – perceived dormant since the closure of the prison, save for the eighteen months of Indigenous occupation, commencing in 1969. At the heart of this analysis is the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty which returned all unused land to Native peoples, prompting the Occupation, and how this event is offered continued context and urgency whilst opening previously closed dialogues of Indigenous history; stressing the power of the (moving) image.

Forum Introduction: Promoting Equity in Speech-Language Services With Indigenous Children.

Forum Introduction: Promoting Equity in Speech-Language Services With Indigenous Children.

Liza Black. Picturing Indians: Native Americans in Film, 1941–1960.

The success of FX’s new series Reservation Dogs has drawn much-needed attention to the issue of Native American representation in film and television. Critics have widely praised the show’s Native actors and noted what a difference it makes to have an all-Indigenous writing team as well. When an interviewer asked co-producer Sterlin Harjo (Seminole-Muscogee) if it had been hard to recruit such a talented cast, his reply referenced the film industry’s poor track record in portraying American Indians. “The thing is,” he said, “Hollywood makes a western every few years where Native actors get to come and get killed in front of a camp. It’s just not the most exciting work. So, they’re not in L.A. beating down the door, trying to get these parts” (“‘Reservation Dogs’ Showrunner Shoots Down Notion of Indigenous Actor Shortage: ‘They’re Not on Hollywood Boulevard,’” The Wrap, 2021). As Cherokee historian Liza Black shows in Picturing Indians, however, Native people were present on the streets and sets of Hollywood even during the darkest days of Hollywood’s “Golden Age.” Focusing on the period from 1941 to 1960—arguably “the high point of racism and what would have seemed to be a hopeless moment for Native people in film”—Black goes behind the scenes to examine their roles “both as fictional characters and as workers in the film industry” (xiv). The result is a refreshing take on an old story, one that has too often emphasized settler colonial tropes at the expense of Indigenous experiences.

Graduate Medical Education Training and the Health of Indigenous Peoples.

Graduate Medical Education Training and the Health of Indigenous Peoples.

Representative Voices: Native American Representation, Political Power, and COVID-19 in U.S. States

We examine predictors of COVID-19 cases in Native nations during the early months of the pandemic. We find that where Native American representation and Native American political power in state politics were greater, COVID-19 cases on tribal lands were fewer. We expand the literatures on descriptive representation and on tribal-state relations by demonstrating consequences of powerful Native American voices in the statehouse. We find that Native American voices on tribal lands are also vital. Tribal lands that had extensive networks of community-based health facilities and tribally controlled health facilities recorded fewer COVID-19 cases. The broader lesson here is that if Native nations are to protect their citizens, they need outside governments that support, not thwart. Our findings draw on unique, original quantitative analysis.

Primitive or empowered: representations of Native Americans and COVID-19 in news media

ABSTRACT Historically, representations of Native Americans in media have tended toward a narrative of a people who are savage at worst, primitive and helpless at best. During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Native Americans were often featured in news coverage about the viral outbreak. Using close textual analysis, this study differentiates between COVID-19 themed news stories featuring Native Americans as told by Native media sources and those offered by non-Native media sources. Though the representations of Native people offered in the reports from non-Native news agencies were generally sympathetic, they upheld longstanding and negative visual tropes of primitiveness and helplessness. Native news sources, however, portrayed Native people as empowered and community oriented. We conclude that when Native people construct their own stories, even in the midst of a devastating pandemic, their narratives further efforts toward Native self-determination and rearticulate the archetypal framing of Native identity in US news coverage.

Teaching Charlotte Lennoxs Harriot Stuart: Romance, the Eighteenth-Century Novel, and Transatlantic Fictions

Harriot Stuart is well worth teaching because it offers rich possibilities both for discussing literary forms such as heroic romance, epistolary form, and womens narrative voices, and for investigating topics such the transatlantic experience, colonialism, and representations of Native Americans. Whether in a course focused specifically on Charlotte Lennoxs works or in a more broadly focused course in eighteenth-century fiction, Harriot Stuart can help students learn about the possibilities for womens empowerment and about transatlantic and racial ideas during the period.

Are Pivotal Trials for Drugs Approved for Leukemia, Myelodysplastic Syndromes, and Multiple Myeloma Representative of the Population Demographics Affected By These Diseases?

Background: There are significant disparities in cancer care and outcomes. Many new drugs have been recently approved for hematologic malignancies through randomized clinical trials (RCTs). Equitable population participation in RCTs is important to ensure proper representation of the populations suffering from the malignancies being targeted. It is uncertain whether patients enrolled in clinical trials represent the demographics of a given malignancy. In this study, we evaluate the extent to which trials match disease burden and how trial methods and results differ across racial/ethnicity/minority disparities in participation of clinical trials.Methods: We performed a retrospective review of RCTs published from 2017 to May 2021 that led to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of hematological malignancy drugs (Leukemias, Multiple Myeloma (MM), Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), and Myeloproliferative Neoplasm (MPN)). We excluded drugs approved for Amyloidosis, pediatric studies, Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm, and Erdheim-Chester Disease (Non-Langerhans Histiocytosis). The drugs investigated were selected using FDA Databases, ‘Oncology (Cancer) / Hematologic Malignancies Approval Notifications’ and ‘Novel Drug Approvals’. A Pubmed search was conducted using the drug name and/or clinical trial number as key terms to identify manuscripts related to the approved drugs. The manuscripts were verified with respective FDA drug approval announcement to ensure that this was the appropriate study. 34 drugs were found using the inclusion/exclusion criteria, only 12 drugs had primary manuscripts with demographics including race. Data was then extracted from NIH Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) for prevalence on 1/2018 by race for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), MM, chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and MDS that the 12 drugs were approved for. SEER data is collected over 13 US locations.Results: The study characteristics for the 12 drugs and demographics are found in Table 1. These included 4 drugs approved for MM, 3 for AML, 2 for ALL, and one each for CML, MDS, and hairy cell leukemia with a total of 3839 patients. The study with the largest sample included 176 sites in 14 countries, and the smallest 15 sites in 2 countries. MM studies enrolled 1757 patients, with 123 (7%) Asian/Pacific Islander patients, 50 (2.8%) Black/African American, 1452 (82.6%) Whites (including Hispanics), 1(<0.1%) Native American patient, and 131 (7.4%) did not report. AML studies enrolled 812, with 112 (13.8) were Asian/Pacific Islander, 35 (4.3%) Black/African American, 616 (75.9%) Whites (including Hispanics), and 49 (6.0%) did not report. ALL studies enrolled 623, with 62 (10%) Asian/Pacific Islander, 11(1.8%) Black/African American, 495 (79.5%) Whites (including Hispanics), and 55 (8.8%) did not report. The one MDS study enrolled 80, with 0 Asian/Pacific Islander, 2 (2.5%) Black/African American, 74 (92.5%) Whites (including Hispanics), and 4 (5.0%) did not report. The one CML study enrolled 487, with 60 (12.32%) Asian/Pacific Islander, 20 (4.11%) Black/African American, 377 (77.41%) Whites (including Hispanics), and 30 (6.16%) did not report. The one hairy cell leukemia enrolled 80: with 1 (1.3%) Asian/Pacific Islander, 1 (1.3%) Black/African American, 70 (87.5%) Whites (including Hispanics), and 8 (10%) did not report. Two studies reported ethnicity, Hispanics and Non-Hispanics. Sex was not differentiated by race in the studies. All but one study showed sex overall, with 1648 Women and 2148 Men across the 12 studies. Figure 1. shows in all diseases that Black/African-Americans are underrepresented. African Americans had an 86.5% (MM), 68.% (AML), 75.8% (ALL), and 64.2% (CML) percent lower representation compared to SEER demographics. In contrast, Asian/Pacific Islanders had a percent increase from the SEER population by 58.6% (MM), 75.3% (AML), 52.1% (ALL), and 68.3% (CML). There were significant differences in all racial categories for the four disease with the exception of Native American representation in AML and CML, and White representation in ALL and CML when compared using Z-statistics.Conclusion: The misrepresentation of minorities in pivotal clinical trials may lead to results that may not fully translate to such populations. These disparities in enrollment should be corrected in future studies. [Display omitted] DisclosuresCortes: Novartis: Consultancy, Research Funding; Sun Pharma: Consultancy, Research Funding; Bristol Myers Squibb, Daiichi Sankyo, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Astellas, Novartis, Pfizer, Takeda, BioPath Holdings, Incyte: Consultancy, Research Funding; Bio-Path Holdings, Inc.: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy, Research Funding.

Representations of Native Americans in U.S. culture? A case of omissions and commissions

ABSTRACT In settler colonial societies, colonizers often omit contemporary Indigenous Peoples from representations, while controlling signifiers of indigeneity to legitimate their interests (e.g., stereotypes). Both omissions and commissions, including stereotyping, are central to oppression experienced by contemporary Native Americans. We employ a sample of over 5,500 non-Native survey participants to examine the extent of omissions and commissions in recalled representations of films and television shows with Native American characters and famous living and deceased Native Americans. Then, we analyze the content of the most commonly recalled representations. We find that many participants are unable to recall representations of Native Americans, especially contemporary representations. The most commonly experienced representations involve stereotyping, as well as little content that is not stereotypical. We discuss the implications of our findings, and situate them in the context of settler colonialism in the United States.

Cover Image

Ecological ApplicationsVolume 31, Issue 6 e02171 Cover ImageFree Access Cover Image First published: 01 September 2021 https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2171AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Graphical Abstract COVER PHOTO: “The Diversity Challenge Confronts Ecology” Forum published in this issue of Ecological Applications presents perspectives on structural and cultural problems within institutions, mentorship practices, professional development programs, and research experiences which have caused and perpetuated low representation of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders in the environmental workforce and in academia. The papers in the collection emphasize the need for building cultural competency and implementing interventions to better support a sense of belonging among minority ecologists. Pictured is Cristal Dominguez Vasquez, a recent graduate of Colorado State University’s Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Program and a student from the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, looking out at Phelps Lake in Grand Teton National Park, USA in summer 2020. Dominguez Vasquez participated in the Pollinator Hotshot Program, a field ecology project sponsored by the National Science Foundation looking at pollinator diversity in U.S. National Parks. Photo credit: Gillian Bowser. Volume31, Issue6September 2021e02171 RelatedInformation

VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF NATIVE AMERICANS IN COLONIAL AMERICA

The article presents some of the most common visual representations of Native Americans from the colonial period and the Age of Exploration of the Americas. Visual representations were a part of a broader colonial discourse and were based on the representational practices applied by the dominant Western European culture. After establishing a broader theoretical framework based on the post-colonial and cultural studies insights, the author singles out and analyzes several visual representations of Native Americans. The emphasis is on the Noble vs. Ignoble Savage stereotypes and tropes and how they are reflected in visual arts.

Dynamics of indigenous identification and performance in the early twentieth century: The life and performances of Chief Caupolican as Mapuche and immigrant (1876–1968)

Chief Caupolican is Emile Barrangon, an early 20th-century performer in the US who was born in Chile to an indigenous Mapuche father and a French mother. Despite his fame, he has not yet been included in studies on indigenous agency in Native American representations, likely because of his immigrant origins. We situate his indigenous self-identification and media success within the broader context of ongoing pan-indigenous activism in the country and Native Americans’ efforts to engage indigenous representations in the media. The pan-indigenous movement that sought to unify indigenous political claims, regardless of tribal affiliation, enabled and encouraged foreign-born aborigines and persons of mixed ancestry to identify with indigeneity in ways that transcend nation-state borders. By presenting and examining his multi-faceted life, performance, and political views, this article contributes to better understanding the complex dynamics of the indigenous performance landscape in the early 20th century.

Review: Picturing Indians: Native Americans in Film, 1941–1960, by Liza Black

Review: <i>Picturing Indians: Native Americans in Film, 1941–1960</i>, by Liza Black

Unheeded history: screening savage native Americans in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds

ABSTRACT This article examines how historiographic metafiction challenges traditional narratives of history. The author argues that subverting conventions of narrating the past through irony and a plurality of truths, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009) can be regarded as historiographic metafiction. Its narratives of the past challenge the traditional History, provide alternate ways of telling history and invite a more meaningful cognitive engagement with history. To explore how the Americanization of the Holocaust sheds light on American racism, the author focuses on the figure of the savage Native American in the film and examines how Native Americans are brought into play through a plot that mixes up the histories of American settlers, African-Americans, Jews, Frenchmen, Germans and Italians and how the film screens Native Americans in the sight of psychoanalytic theorist Kaja Silverman’s terms of the look, the screen, and the gaze. I argue that the screening of savage Native Americans is in a constant process of renewal and the image of Native Americans is ironic rather than simply stereotypical, which contests dominant Hollywood representations of Native Americans either as ignoble savage or noble savage and reveals unheeded history.

On Second Thought

On Second Thought

Preparing genetic counselors to serve Native American communities.

As a medical specialty, genetic counseling (GC) espouses cultural sensitivity, a patient-centered approach, and an eye for the individual, familial, and community-wide implications of genetics and genomics in medicine. Within the past decades, the field of GC has recognized and attempted to address a need for the greater diversity of providers and practice settings that will help to address health inequities across underrepresented communities (Channaoui et al., 2020). Accreditation for GC training programs mandates equipping students with multicultural sensitivity and knowledge on health disparities. Currently however, there are limited published data about how GC programs are accomplishing these aims for Native American individuals and communities. Furthermore, there are limited published data on the unique needs and perspectives of Native Americans who may seek GC services. This disconnect may pose barriers for genetic counselors who aim to provide respectful and relevant care to Native American patients. Education of GC students is one important way to set the tone for a lifetime of practice and to inspire awareness and action toward alleviating disparities. Thus, we surveyed GC training programs in North America to investigate how they are working to (a) address disparities in Native American professional representation and student enrollment, (b) deliver culturally relevant curricula and clinical opportunities that serve the needs of Native Americans, and (c) positively engage Native American communities in North America. We found that reported recruitment efforts, curricula content, clinical opportunities, and community engagement efforts to address the needs of Native American are limited across GC training programs surveyed. By bringing awareness to current methods, success factors, and barriers in this space, we hope to open the door for meaningful partnerships between leaders of Native American communities and GC training programs in the pursuit of greater equity.

Messianic Fulfillments: Staging Indigenous Salvation in America

In Messianic Fulfillments, Hayes Peter Mauro combines art history, religious studies, and Native American history to examine four strains of evangelical Christian visual and textual representations of Native Americans, from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. Each chapter covers a particular group: Puritans, Quakers, Mormons, and progressive Social Gospel Christians. Mauro walks the reader through forty-six illustrations (paintings, lithographs, engravings, life masks, and photographs), explaining the artists’ training, backgrounds, and composition choices, along with the reception and provenance of their works. He discusses the visual languages of the artists and especially their “chromatic metaphors,” which not only helped solidify racial categories but also granted them spiritual meaning (213). Because the small illustrations are black and white, the reader must find larger color illustrations to do his explanations justice. The section on Mormons curiously relies on twenty-first century reproductions of nineteenth century works. Mauro focuses on the depictions of the conversion processes, arguing that “the ‘deviant’ Indian and the ‘normative’ Anglo were polarizing constructs that were metaphorically staged in image and text and especially in material culture” (2). These traditions all “advocate[d] forms of Christian American triumphalism” (5), and many within these traditions made “‘empirical’ claims that such physiological racial distinctions had a direct correlation with intellectual and moral capacities as well as a relative need for Christian salvation” (7).His definition of “evangelical Christianity” emphasizes evangelism—that is, conversion efforts—but not evangelicals’ privileging of biblical authority. Latter-Day Saints, due to their addition of the Book of Mormon to the body of scripture, would usually be excluded from most definitions of that phrase. While some Quakers took steps toward evangelicalism in the nineteenth century, many Quakers did not. While these denominations may fall under a very broad definition of “evangelical Christians,” the emphasis on these groups means that many prominent evangelical missionary groups are excluded from discussion. Within his description of Calvinism, some readers may find his close association of “works” with salvation among the Puritans unsettling. To most Puritans, fulfillment of the law and completing one’s calling through work were outward manifestations of a justification that an individual has little role in—salvation was the work of God alone. His analysis of New England’s visual compositions is more convincing, especially in terms of Puritans as inspirational subjects for Second Great Awakening artwork and its celebration and reinterpretation of John Eliot’s evangelism.The chapter on Quakers explores the art of Benjamin West, Edward Hicks, and others. Quaker artists idealized Native American–Quaker interactions but tended to “depict encounters between Quaker exemplars and racial Others” and tied their religious conversion to their full inclusion in the emerging market economy (63). Academically trained Mormon artists used their conventions to convey the subjugated place of racial Others, especially Lamanites (ancestors of Native Americans), in the Mormon worldview. To early Mormons, this helped justify violence against Utes and Paiutes who resisted the invaders of their Utah homelands. Mauro interprets Social Gospel Christianity as the inheritor of earlier evangelical trends and argues that the Hampton and Carlisle Institutes manifested Social Gospel evangelicalism. The transformation of “Others” into commercial and industrious people who would resemble Euro-Americans to the extent possible was all part of their salvation, though their racial distinctiveness was always emphasized in the institutions’ staged photographs.In his analysis of specific works, and the visual traditions they reflected, Mauro’s analysis of composition, chromatic metaphors, and artists’ racial assertions will be instructive to ethnohistorians, anthropologists, text-based historians, and art historians.

Settler colonialism and the violent geographies of tourism in the California redwoods

Hidden from view, underneath the tourism landscape of the California redwoods, is a genocidal settler colonial history of warfare, massacres, and forced removal of Native Americans from their ancestral lands. This history has been ignored in the touristic narrative of people and place presented by a redwoods attraction in northern California, which are rife with unacknowledged histories and geographies of violence. Framed by scholarship on violent geographies in tourism development, this study shows how redwoods tourism has erased Indigenous people and history from the landscape, and how new ‘power-laden’ tourism imaginaries have been created in their place. The new tourism narrative is found in the spatial layout, interpretive signage, exhibits, website, museum of Native American artifacts, and interpretive trails in a roadside attraction called Trees of Mystery. Secondary historical literature and maps of local Yurok ancestral territory and land ownership construct a counter-narrative of the site's geography and history. Findings reveal a fanciful settler colonial history highlighting heroic male loggers on the ‘frontier’, and representations of ingenious Native Americans as historic people who produced beautiful tools, clothing and artwork but are now defeated, dead, and exotic. In fact, white settlers, backed by the U.S. Army and local militias, appropriated and logged Native American redwood lands, and in doing so massacred resident Yurok People and forced the survivors from their traditional territories. Conversely, the Yurok People have been reclaiming ancestral lands, reviving cultural practices, and resisting settler colonialism from the early 1800s to the present-day. Across the Americas, countless other settler colonial tourism sites like these sit upon violent geographies. Unearthing the hidden geography of this particular site shows how decolonizing research might be undertaken at other tourism sites situated on stolen Indigenous lands in the U.S. and beyond.