Stereotypes
I reviewed a source called Native American Images Project created by the American Philosophical Society http://www.amphilsoc.org/exhibit/natamimages/stereotypes.
Unfortunately, Native Americans, like
any other race, are stereotyped. Most stereotypes are too often. never good.
But, these particular stereotypes that I read about on this website on
Native Americans really upset me. And of coarse the images were really disturbing
too. These stereotypes have come mostly from paintings and other images (from
non-native people). Non-native people paint these images and make the Indians
look like they were horrible people! For instance the image called the The Death Cry. “Color lithograph
of Sioux man, in native attire, holding scalp and knife, with fallen victim”(amphilsoc.org). They weren't
fighting the white for fun or because they were "bloodthirsty
savages" or "barbarians". They were fighting the white men
trying to protect their people, their land, their culture. They weren’t just
going around scalping people. I read a story told my Wooden Leg in the book Native American Testimony by Peter
Nabokov. He talked about the battle they had with the whites during the gold rush.
He scalped the beard of a white soldier. He tied it to the end of his arrow and
gave it to his grandmother. He told her “it will be good medicine for you”. I’m
assuming that the scalping that took place for the Indians all had some type of
meaning such as this. Wasn’t this also something that the Europeans did also? I
believe so. But, we never see images of this.
It's hard to be mad at someone for stereotyping when they don't see it as stereotyping. They see it as the truth because that's what they were taught. I think the only think that we can do is help educate them.
References:
Nabokov, P.
(1999). Native American Testimony. London:
Penguin Books
"Native American Images Project." Retrieved on October 02, 2012 from http://www.amphilsoc.org/exhibit/natamimages/stereotypes
.
I had also heard that scalping wasn't only perpetrated by native Americans on whites and after doing some research I found an interesting article that had originally been published in The Boston Globe in 2000 which discusses the history of scalping. I found it very informative, especially the part where the author says that "by 1723, Massachusetts was paying 100 pounds sterling for the scalps of male Indians aged 12 and over, and half that for women and children" (Foulds 2000)
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
Foulds, Diane. "Who Scalped Whom?" The Boston Globe, 2000. http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/ScholarsForum/MMD2263.html
I just read the article. Very interesting. It's nice to know some of the reasoning behind why they were actually scalping people. It still creeps me out though! In the article it says "the whorl of hair on the crown and especially male scalp locks, braided and decorated with jewelry, paint, and feathers, represented the person's `soul' or living spirit. To lose that hair to an enemy was to lose control over one's life, to become socially and spiritually `dead', whether biological death resulted or not." Even though this seems morally wrong to me, I'm sure some of the things we do in our culture are morally wrong to the Indians.
ReplyDeleteReference:
"Who Scalped Whom? - Historians Suggest Indians Were As Much Victims As Perpetrators." Retrieved on October 3, 2013 from http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/ScholarsForum/MMD2263.html.
Native Americans were not the only ones that scalped their victims; it was practiced in Europe and Asia as well. 1. Colonists would also retaliate against different Native American tribes by copying their practice of scalping. For instance, one time a group of colonists discovered several Native Americans camping. They killed the men and took ten scalps. The authorities offered one hundred pounds for each scalp. 2.
ReplyDeleteWork Cited:
1. History.com, “American colonists practice scalping,” http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/american-colonists-practice-scalping (accessed October 6, 2013).
2. Ibid.
Fraidy,
ReplyDeleteI was aware that Native Americans were not the only ones that scalped their victims but I do think that it was most common with Native Americans. I was unaware that some Native Americans practiced scalping on their victims when they were still alive until after I read your article. "In scalping, the skin around the crown of the head was cut and removed from the enemy's skull, usually causing death. In addition to its value as a war trophy, a scalp was often believed to bestow the possessor with the powers of the scalped enemy." (www.history.com)
"American Colonists Practice Scalping." History.com. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved on October 06, 2013 from .
Be careful Carrie...in popular US culture, scalping is most commonly discussed since we have native representatives within our cultures and we portray them in media. Here are a few interesting articles written by academics about this subject.
DeleteThis first article is excellent! https://blogs.stockton.edu/hist4690/files/2012/06/James-Axtell-The-Unkindest-Cut.pdf
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hns/scalpin/oldfolks.html
For some reason, part of my first sentence is missing "in popular US culture, scalping is portrayed as a native practices since we have marginalized native cultures in mainstream society, as seen in media representations.
DeleteDr. Rogers,
DeleteI keep reading these articles that go back and forth. Some say the Indians invented scalping and some say that the white man invented it. Your article states "Don't you know that the white man taught Indians that? It was practiced first in New England on the Penobscot
Indians. The General Court of the Province of Massachusetts offered
a bounty of forty pounds for every scalp of a male Indian brought in
as evidence of his being killed, and for every scalp of a female or male Indian under twelve years, twenty pounds." (Axtell, J). I found an article that states "It is described in Indian oral histories, and preserved scalps were found at archaeological sites. Colonists learned to scalp enemies from the Indians. (The European custom was to cut off people's heads for proof/trophies, originally, but scalps are easier to transport and preserve, so the colonists quickly switched to the Indian method.)" (http://www.native-languages.org). The only thing that seems to be consistent in my readings is that bounties were offered for the scalps.
Reference:
Axtell, J and Sturtevant, W. (1980). The Unkindest Cut, or Who Invented Scalping. Retrieved on October 11, 2013 from https://blogs.stockton.edu/hist4690/files/2012/06/James-Axtell-The-Unkindest-Cut.pdf
Setting the Record Straight: Who Invented Scalping?. Native Languages of the Americas, 2007. Retrieved on October 11, 2013 from http://www.native-languages.org/iaq12.htm.
Hi again Carrie,
ReplyDeleteYou are doing some great research! I am impressed. What you are seeing are two different schools of thought within academia. Some scholars still believe that this was a practice created by native peoples (this would be the traditionalist view of native history); progressivists tend to believe that Europeans brought the practice from Europe (Germanic tribes and the Romans practiced scalping and documented them in their mythologies). I think you are touching on a debate that will continue for some time until either one group changes its mind or more archaeological evidence contradicts the contradictory histories.