Reel Injun Analysis

Jeffrey... For your consideration on the what you believe as mythical "marauding injuns" regarding America 's historical background, below is a quick short list of several reported major incidents of Indian attacks that have occurred against colonial and American western settlers. (I have plenty more info on lesser known Indian attacks, too, but this should reasonably do). Moreover, not every American pioneering settlement or individual settlers during westward expansion had the availability of nearby U.S. Army frontier posts or forts in which to escape to for some limited or moderate safety in an Indian uprising, or when small Indian bands made surprise sneak attacks on single settlers and small frontier community settlements. And of course,

Option 1 Tim Gautreaux used his flair for writing short story narratives to reflect Cajun culture in Louisiana. This essay explicitly focuses on analyzing his works: “Floyd’s Girl” and “Easy Pickings” and how they convey the same root message: cultural preservation. Gautreaux’s emphasis on religion, food, language, community cohesion, and devotion to the land of Louisiana all serve to endorse cultural preservation amongst Cajuns. In addition, his ability to present Cajuns and Southern-Americans as polar-opposites stresses an “us versus them” framework, which discourages assimilation into American culture. The polarization between the two is emphasized by his representation of Southern-American people as belligerent aggressors, who are prone to stealing due to their low appreciation for hard work, as opposed to Cajuns who are portrayed as non-threatening and value hard work.

In the documentary, Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian, directed by Neil Diamond, he investigates the progression of how cinema has portrayed the Native American. They begin with the early classic films that first were made up until recent times. The image of the Indian has been portrayed in several ways and films had typically created misleading depictions of the Indians. What was created in these films are often stereotypical and what many people today believe to be true. Throughout the documentary, we see many themes being presented and these are themes of how the image of Native Americans were viewed as the “bad guys” during some early films and how they evolved to show how they were really just human beings.

There are a lot of offensive mascots used for sports, and some people seem to think that they lack respect for their culture. The offensive

"The team and its leaders are so obsessed with clinging to a dictionary-defined racial slur that they are willing to abandon their hometown and local fans in order to continue degrading Native Americans," said Joel Barkin, spokesman for the grassroots campaign. "Now that Bruce Allen has been relieved of day-to-day responsibilities as general manager he must have a lot of free time on his hands to double down on this racist moniker and try to figure out what to do about Native Americans returning donations from the team. Unfortunately, Bruce Allen, team owner Dan Snyder and the Washington team fail to understand that you cannot buy acceptance of continued racism. The Washington Redskins football team through the years has been put under increasing pressure to change its name in order to stop causing offense to Native

These two girls had never seen what the Natives looked like before, or spoke to them, but instantly felt a sense of dread and what I believe to be an extreme prejudiced outlook on them just after one look. This same beliefs continues even to the present. Many consider Natives to look or behave a certain way, or still believe them to be “savage”. This

Not only is what they 're doing offensive it’s also disrespecting to the history of Native Americans. They have been suppressed for years and now with the Washington Football team name it causes the Native American people to be upset EVIDENCE: Racism and racial discrimination are attitudes and behavior that are learned and threaten human development. Which means that people should be taking proactive steps to prevent intolerant or racist acts. Indian mascots, symbols, images, and personalities establish an unwelcome hostile learning environment for American Indian Students.

Throughout the history of the film industry, Indians have been misread and attacked by racial stereotypes. Although many people only see indigenous peoples as one group there are in fact many different nations with many different values. In the film “Reel Injun” by Niel Diamond, he shows many various misrepresentations towards indigenous groups which are both shown as inferential and overt. When children begin to grow up, watching kids' movies, watching shows with their parents, and cartoons becomes a massive part of their life. All kids started to watch shows with their parents but for Indians, it was a bit different.

Recently, the use of controversial words has become a heavily debated topic and has gained international attention as seemingly truthful statements to some, cause insult to others. The Times article "Why 'Redskins' Is a Bad Word", by acclaimed linguist and professor John McWhortor, was published around the time the use of the word Redskin was being debated. In the article, McWhortor aims to clarify the condemnation of the word Redskin, by suggesting that the offence does not stem from the literal definition of such words, but instead the negative and often derogatory connotations the words have. McWhorter begins by introducing the recent discussions surrounding the use of the word Redskins, especially the actions taken by Californian schools

The film, Reel Injun reveals a distortion of the way Hollywood sees Native American life through comedy and the real way Native Americans live which changes according to the current times. Neil Diamond sets out on a journey across America to figure out where the incorrect image of Natives arose from, all signs pointing towards Hollywood. Dozens of films recreate the way Americans believe Natives live as savages and wear costumes and decorated headpieces with feathers, but Hollywood does not show the true spiritual side and the meaning of why they live the way they do as true to their own culture and assimilated to the American culture as well. US history negatively affects Native American live which lead to the image of Natives to be clouded by imagination through film, changed the way Natives viewed themselves and expect to live, and misshaped the view we now have for Natives.

The Indian mascot was originally designed to render tribute to Native Americans, not as a racial symbol. In the past forty years, changing the name backfired, and citizens began taking offense to the name because they felt like the name represented the color of Native American’s skin. Nevertheless, many fans, including Native Americans, do not consider the name or the mascot to be degrading or racial. Fans of the Washington Redskins participated in a poll that reveals, “77 percent reject changing the name” while in another poll “71 percent of NFL fans did not find the Redskins name offensive” (Lingebach 2). Clearly, from the results of the two polls, many fans would be unhappy if the Redskins’ name were to be changed.

There are many sports team names and mascots whose names reference Native Americans; this has become a public controversy due to the sports team names being interpreted as a racially offensive pursue. Most people do not take into consideration that these teams have an important meaning behind them, and how they contribute to the insightful history of Native Americans themselves. It would be a catastrophe having to lose all the history. Many claims toward this idea of "racism" are due to NFL and college team names such as the Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs, and the Florida State Seminoles are just a few.

Adam Sorenson Prof. Riggs COMP 01112 2/12/18 Misrepresentation of Native Americans Native American’s for many years now have been viewed as lone warriors or squaw, some people don’t even know that they still exist! People just think of the Native American people in storybook tales and nothing more then that. The Native Americans have been living in the United States for awhile now and were the first ones on the country’s soil. They were here way before Christopher Columbus and the other European Colonists even discovered America and they are still present in the U.S.

Couple teams that carry names that are very offensive to the natives are the Atlanta Braves, Chicago Blackhawks, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Chiefs, and arguably the most popular of them all, the Washington Redskins. These teams carrying such names bring offense to all the native

We played Cowboys and Indians, which was the same game as cops and robbers, where the Indians were always the bad guys. Sadly, it was not a time where cultural diversity of any type was celebrated and nobody was really in a rush to portray the Indians’ side of history. By