What Is An Indian? Stereotypes

This is the second part of a six part series on the question, “What Is an Indian?” This piece will address the issue of stereotypes:  what they are (definition), some typical stereotypes about Native people, the damage stereotyping causes, and some ideas about how to refrain from stereotyping with an eye toward building better relationships.

Growing up in a midsized city in South Dakota you didn’t want to be two things: poor and Indian. These made for endless hours of ridicule and numerous fights based upon people’s erroneous assumptions like all poor people had fleas or other kinds of bugs and Indians were all drunkards. I remember one classmate, who happened to be non-Indian, was constantly chased after or fled from other students taunting him mercilessly. There was also a female classmate of mine who, being Indian, was constantly fighting with other girls who were no match for her (and she could take most of the boys as well). There are stereotypes that are perpetuated by the media about Native people such as we have no language but instead we speak in grunts like, “ugh.” These stereotypes serve to embarrass, shame, and dehumanize Native people.

The belief that many Indian people still live in tipis seems to be popular among non-Indian tourists. There are in fact many different tribes who did not live in Tipis but rather lived in complex adobe apartment complexes, hogans, or wiciups, etc. We did not (nor do we still) all live in tipis, that’s for certain. Tipis have become so expensive that very few Natives even own one.

Perhaps the capacity to generalize was probably a good thing in the past so that we knew who to be allies with and whom to be wary of… These were good things. Thankfully, we have the intellect and higher principles of understanding to change our destructive patterns these days. We’re no longer strapped by the need to discriminate based upon stereotypes as human beings. Stereotyping only keeps us isolated from one another because of the fear associated with our assumptions about each other. 

The Center for Assessment & Policy Development and MP Associates puts stereotyping like this:

• A simplified and fixed image of all members of a culture or group (based on race, religion, ethnicity, age, gender, national origins). Generalizations about people that are based on limited, sometimes inaccurate, information (from such sources as television, cartoons or comic books, minimal contact with one or more members of the group, second-hand information). Initial predictions about strangers based on incomplete information about their culture, race, religion, or ethnicity. A single statement or attitude about a group of people that does not recognize the complex, multidimensional nature of human beings. Broad categories about people that fail to differentiate among individuals, peoples, and societies. Identification of easily observable characteristics of groups of people.
• Stereotypes can be either positive or negative, but they are all unfair and misleading. In general, stereotypes reduce individuals to a rigid, inflexible image; they do not account for the fact that human beings are complex and multidimensional, with unique attributes. Stereotypes suggest that people or groups of people are the same, when in fact they are quite different. Stereotypes about human beings tend to dehumanize people, placing all members of a group into one, simple category.

So there you have it; a working definition. Of course there must be others, perhaps, more comprehensive definitions included in the popular literature but I have not yet found it.  We need to stand shoulder to shoulder as brothers and sisters for the common good, which challenges us all to be better people. Stereotypes divide us when we need to be sharing our common vision with each other and working toward that future which is promised to no one.

And now you know the rez of the story,

Doksha (later). . .