Non Native American Culture

In the article, Racism American Style and Resistance to Change: Art Education’s Role in the Indian Mascot Issue, by Elizabeth M. De La Cruz, illustrates the negative effects of non-Native Americans organizations from using Indian mascots. She points out that such organizations that use Indian mascots place a negative label on the Native American reputation by imposing ignorance of their culture. She provides various examples in which Indian mascots leads to negative stereotyping and misrepresentation of the Native American culture. In full agreement to the author, I believe that Non-Native American organization that use Indian mascots have negative consequences. The use of Indian belongings or images without proper acknowledgement of their culture can lead to disrespect the Native American culture without meaning to, misrepresenting them, and creating a negative or false stereotyping.
Ignorance of understanding a culture can lead to disrespecting it unintentionally. This is seen in many places, including us, Americans, who are proud of our tolerance and diversity. Since the introduction to the Americas, Native Americans have always fascinated us with their culture. Their different languages, rituals, dances, songs, and traditions interested us profoundly. Amazed and baffled by these extraordinary and powerful civilizations, the first Europeans curiosity was amplified. However, many were only interested in the riches they could accumulate, while only a few made the effort to understand this new civilization that they have just discovered. Consequently, most Americans view Natives as something from the past. Even today we don’t have a full understanding of their culture due to early Europeans burning their documentation because they believed it was the “devil’s works.” This might be a reason why Americans might view Native Americans as a source from the past instead as a vast civilization with astrological intelligence. Even today, some Native American tribes are active, however, they are significantly less than the past. They express their culture by the usage of clothing, accessories, and rituals. For example, most Native Americans are known for their elegant headdress decorated with beautiful colorful feathers. However, these headdresses represent a symbolic and sacred object to Native Americans. Headdresses could only be worn by men who committed brave actions for the betterment of the tribe whom should be respected and made reverence to . Each headdress has a specific amount of feathers depending on how many courageous acts they have done . Even tough this object represents something sacred and serious, it has become an accessory for a party or costume among Americans. Americans are using headdresses while drinking or …show more content…
Displaying a movie where a representation of a Native American that is seen acting uncivil or dumb may cause several false stereotypes. Many viewers will come to believe that all Native Americans act such way when in reality it is the complete opposite. All Native Americans are civilized but are usually compared to uncivil because they had different traditions and cultures than early Europeans who met them. One stereotype that is most common about Native Americans is that they are dumb because they do not value education. However, many Native American do value education. Even in the past, most elders would teach orally to the youngster so they could conserve their culture. In other words, the display of Native American image or objects without context can lead to negative and false stereotyping of their culture and