Reconstructing the Indianin the Gilded Age Press

John CowardFaculty of CommunicationThe University of Tulsa

Constructing the Indian My thesis: --Native Americans were (and are)

people from varied and complex societies very different from Western European societies

--The “Indian” was (and remains) a creation of the Euro-American imagination, a narrow set of stereotypes endlessly repeated by the media and popular culture

Why were Indians constructed? Power and conquest:--Europeans used skin color and

cultural differences to make arbitrary racial distinctions

-- Observed differences were not seen as benign or neutral, but negative and inferior

--“Indian” identity was constituted in language and visual forms, both packed with meaning

How were Indians constructed?

European roots: --European ideas about the “other” can be

traced as far back as Aristotle, who believed that some men are born to be slaves.

--Medieval Europeans imagined mysterious lands populated by giants, dragons, griffins, and “monstrous races of men.”

--Columbus reported hearing about an island whose inhabitants were “very fierce and who eat human flesh.” Cannibalism=savagery

The Power of Language From Columbus onward, Native American

identity shaped in language & culture Indians were “savages,” “heathens,”

“infidels” “barbarians”—terms applied to religious “outsiders” with particular histories in European and American discourse

As a result, popular understandings of Indians and “Indianness” were narrowly conceived and largely predetermined

Cultural Determinism Over time, Indian identity and

imagery became thoroughly engrained in American popular consciousness

Thus: “Everybody knows” that Pocahontas was a beautiful Indian princess, that Squanto was kind to the Pilgrims, and that Sitting Bull was a fearsome warrior

Two Major Indian Stereotypes The Good: The unsullied child of

the forest, who is noble, free, docile, worthy, and capable of becoming civilized and Christian

The Bad: The bloodthirsty savage, who is evil, corrupt, heathen and incapable of civilized or Christian behavior

Media Makes the Indian In colonial and early American media

and popular culture, these stereotypes dominate

Newspapers, religious tracts, folk tales, poems, plays, captivity narratives and other popular forms emphasize competing stereotypes

Good or bad, the Indian served as an ethnic “other,” always different, usually inferior

Evidence from the Press “It is well known that the

pagan part of these [Six Nations], which compose a large majority of the whole, have always strenuously opposed any advance towards civilization.”

--Niles’ National Register, 1819

Evidence from the Press

“The North American Indian in his native state, is an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike, cruel, revengeful, relentless,—yet honourable, contemplative and religious being.”

--George Catlin, artist and writer, 1844

Catlin’s “Good” Indian

Evidence from the Press

“Squalid and conceited, proud and worthless, lazy and lousy, [Indian men] will strut out their existence, and at length afford the world a sensible relief by dying out of it.”

--Horace Greeley, New York Tribune , 1860

Evidence from the Press

“On the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, Indians is the cry on all sides. Yesterday Albert Lesenger was killed by the savage fiends; and they are burning railroad bridges and driving off the stock….”

--Chicago Tribune, 1874

An Indian Attack on a Stage

Evidence from the Press

“Let that christian philanthropy which weeps over the death of a lazy, lousy, lying, stealing red skin, whose hands are still reeking with the blood of defenceless women and children,…take a back seat.”

--Bismarck (N.D.) Tribune, 1876

Evidence from the Press The extermination of the Sioux and

the destruction of all that is theirs, is necessary for the future of the entire new west. For years we have had population and capital frightened away from us by fears of Indians, and we call upon the government for redress….

--Rocky Mountain News, 1876

Evidence from the Press

“To talk of civilizing and christianizing the Indian without first thrashing him into fear is the sheerest nonsense. He is a lout and must be made to fear before he can be made to respect.”

--Arizona Weekly Star, 1881

Reconstructing the Indian As the Indian Wars ended and

Indians became pacified (and impoverished), Americans needed new ways to think about Indians

The press sought new Indian representations for a new “enlightened” era

Gilded Age Indian Identities

Three new, but minor, themes in Indian representations and imagery

Beyond good and bad Indian stereotypes, Indians were depicted now as emblems of (1) social progress, (2) scientific exoticism and (3) classic humanism.

Old Myths Die Hard Despite these new representations,

Americans preferred the good/bad Indian stereotypes

Manifest Destiny and the myth of the West required a colorful and deviant Indian enemy

Romance and adventure trumped the harsh reality of genocide and conquest

Thomas Moran’s Glorious West

The Media We Deserve

In a capitalist communication system, media and popular culture give the public what it wants

Mythic glory and simple heroism sell better than complicated reality or moral ambiguity in the story of Western conquest and expansion