Colonial Representations of Natives - the "Indian"

Colonial Representations of Natives - the "Indian"

At the outset, it should be noted here that the use of the term "Indian" to describe the aboriginal peoples of North America is somewhat contentious. As is well known, its use derives from Columbus's mistaken belief that he had arrived in the East Indies; and this situating of Natives within an already existent European discourse is in many ways paradigmatic of what was to follow during the centuries of colonisation and settlement. For it should be made clear that the "Indian" is a European invention, and that there has always been a great deal of slippage between the representations of this figure and the realities of the lives of Native North Americans. In fact, the Indian has always represented as much about European fears and concerns as it has about actual Natives. Add to this the fact that the popular image of the Indian has in large part been shaped by commercial considerations - give the audience what it wants to see - and it becomes clear that we are dealing with a very complex set of relationships. For this reason, the purpose of this page is principally to outline some of the characteristics of the Indian as he has been created by Europeans, and not to consider the lives of real Natives.

Now, the most obvious problem with the term should be that it lumps together all the various nations, ignoring the wide differences which exist between the diverse cultures which originally inhabited the continent. But the masking effect of the stereotype runs deeper than this. As is often the case with Western encounters with alien peoples, the representation bifurcates. What we tend to find is either the "noble savage" or the barbarous, bloodthirsty primitive. The first term here was coined by John Dryden, and conveys the idea of man in a state of nature, untainted by the perceived evils of civilisation, such as avarice or ambition. It is a projection of the fear that somehow the Western way of life has become corrupt, and is in need of redemption. Traces of this view of the Indian are still apparent in the twentieth century, when many people believe Natives to have a kind of spirituality connected to a universal harmony and a balance with the natural world. In the nineteenth century the Canadian poet Charles Mair wrote a long poem called Tecumseh, which included the lines: