The Portrayal Of Native Americans In James Fennimore Cooper's The Last Of The Mohicans

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Since the beginning of America’s history; the portrayal of Native Americans and their culture has often been misunderstood, and therefore misrepresented by European Americans. Considering, that during early times European Americans held almighty egocentric views of themselves (conviction that one’s own ethnic group, culture, nation is superior simply because you are a part of it” (Early Images of Native Americans: The Origins of the Stereotypes). Often, their collective personal opinions became popular belief. This trend of supreme influence became widely apparent in their reports on Native Americans. Native Americans have been portrayed throughout America’s history in oppressive ways especially through early written accounts, paintings, photographs, …show more content…

For example, James Fennimore Cooper’s book The Last of the Mohicans introduced the all American hero, and three types of Indians; noble, savage, or vanishing. In the story, Magua is considered the savage Indian because he is violent and is looking to seek revenge on the gray hairs (white people). Both Uncas and Chingachgook represent the noble Indian because they are mostly nonviolent and only use violence when provoked. They also demonstrate the vanishing Indian because they are the last two living members of their tribe. Lastly, Hawkeye is characterized as the all American frontier hero represents the notion that whites are better at being Indian than actual Indians. Owing to the fact that during Cooper’s time books were a more popular form of entertainment his novels played huge part in reinforcing the Negative Stereotypes against Native Americans and embellishing the white man’s ego. Later, his books became the most popular template for Western films (Kiltpatrick pg. …show more content…

For example in the movie In Whose Honor a Native American gives her account on what it was like for her attending University of Illinois that had a Native American theme mascot. The documentary showed how even in current day time that Native Americans are not respected and are still working fighting against stubborn forces. For example, although many trustees and member of the board at the University of Illinois knew that their current mascot was offensive they did not officially retire the mascot until 2007. Being portrayed as a prop and not considered as a human is the final way in which Native Americans have been stereotyped in our

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