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Isaac Youngblood

Cooper 4​th

AP Lang III

21​st​ May 2019

Breaking Free

Junior year has been full of blood, sweat, and tears, all leading me to an end goal of being

one step closer to college, a new life ahead of me, and out of the comforts of my home. Much

like my junior year, Native American history has been full of hardships forced upon them that

they have had to accept and endure, ever since Columbus arrived, all in hopes of an end goal:

separation from white settlers. Sadly, just like in my life where I have thought that leaving my

home and going to college would free me from the onlooking glare and judgement of my parents

and peers, which, as I get closer to making decisions about my future after high school, I have

realized is flawed, Natives have been fed an optimistically false idea of what they would yield

from agreeing to treaties and shallow promises. In the past, Native Americans were treated as

outsiders, seemingly savage and uncivilized, due to their culture that was different than the white

settlers coming from Europe. Natives were portrayed negatively in this time period. Through

reading and researching over the school year on Native Americans, I began to question the

stereotypes I had of Native Americans. I have learned that much of the deeply ingrained

perceptions and lack of awareness of Native Americans stem from the popular media and lack of

accurate education. In contrast, I have also seen, through Native experiences such as the

PowWow at the Gathering of Nations in New Mexico, the cultural dances at the Bob Bullock
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Museum, and current events this year, that Native Americans, through the popularization of these

specific traditions, have re-enforced some of these stereotypes.

Stereotypes have been formed across American life through a range of topics such as

ethnicities, genders, and races. We have all most likely been the victim of stereotyping from

others. Whether or not these assumed traits about ourselves or another seem to be good or bad,

the thought of applying a set of certain characteristics, assumptions, and expectations to someone

else before knowing their history is ignorant and potentially hurtful. I have seen through my

research on the summer assignments, my IBL project, and through visiting the students of the

To’hajiilee Community School that most stereotypes are inaccurate. In my first focused time

researching Native Americans, through both my English and History class summer assignments,

I learned the profound hardships that Natives were put through during the arrival of Europeans,

and the impact it had on their communities, their land, and their traditions. Both assignments

caused me to snap out of my ignorant understanding of Native American history. I used to only

view it from the side of the conquerors: Europeans and the United States. Because I grew up in

the US, my knowledge of Natives came from my elementary school teachers, where I re-enacted

Thanksgiving with Pilgrims and Native Americans or watched movies like Pocahontas. All of

what I knew was focusing on Native Americans in the past, still practicing traditions such as

shooting bow and arrows, horseback riding and painting their faces. I continued to research how

the media has given false labels to Native Americans through my Inquiry Based Learning Project

(IBL) earlier this year. In my project, I researched how stereotypes from the media of Native

Americans inhibited progression and adaptation of their national perception. Negative opinions

about Native Americans have been present since the settlement of the United States. Through the
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use of political art and biased news in the 18th and 19th centuries, Natives were portrayed as

savages and to be feared. By creating this image, the United States Government, with the support

of the new settlers, were able to forcibly take their land, relocate tribes, and massacre millions of

Indigenous peoples. The stereotypes did not stop in the 20th century, they changed to reflect the

poor living conditions of Natives on government reservations, with the prevalence of alcoholism

and poverty, as well as harmful imagery and generalizations of Native Americans that can be

seen across sports teams, movies, news coverage, and mass produced consumer products. All of

this making it easy for Americans to confine their ideas about Indigenous Americans to these

improper representations. Even after doing my project, I was still assuming that the native kids I

was going to meet in New Mexico were going to be deficient, poor, and depressed because of the

oppression they have felt and we weren’t going to be able to relate. However, after spending time

with a small group of guys and connecting over us having the common interest of basketball, I

was quickly aware that we were more similar than we were different. Because of what I had been

shown about these people through the media as a kid and the surface level understanding of their

history that was taught to me, I had been unaware and stereotyping.

Despite stereotypes about Native Americans in the media presenting inaccurate

information, they can, when viewed from a lens that has little experience with Natives, seem to

be accurate in the media. For example, tribal dances such as the PowWow at the Gathering of

Nations in New Mexico and the American Indian Heritage presentation performed at the Bob

Bullock Museum in Austin, can both confirm the commonly known stereotypes of Native

Americans. When I saw the Gathering of Nations PowWow in New Mexico, my gut reaction,

that stemmed from my stereotypical American viewpoint, was that these Natives, who were
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yelling into microphones, banging drums, and covered in feathers, were playing right into their

stereotype that is echoed to American children from birth. I also had this same reaction to the

American Indian Heritage presentation at the Bob Bullock Museum, where I saw a scene similar

to that of the PowWow. At that presentation, I remember a classmate of mine telling me, “the

Natives must know that this is only hurting the perception of themselves from the public”. Even

with all the research I had been doing, I too was stereotyping. So, how does the stereotype

change? In comparing other people groups, African Americans have also been the victim of

horrible stereotyping. However, in the media today, African Americans are seen commonly. Our

president was African American. Famous actors, actresses, athletes, musicians, and business men

and women are role models and household names. These new images are changing stereotypes

portrayed in the media. I do not know how to change the stereotypes of Native Americans and I

simultaneously do not think that Natives need to change their traditions or culture to progress

with the rest of society. What I do know is that we need change and a way for this change to

occur is by getting to know what the Natives want in the present day and finding resources to

support their requests.

I know how much I have grown this year in my academics, but more specifically, I have

expanded my understanding of how I view the world and those around me. Through Native

American studies, I have seen firsthand how their present lives have been affected by the past. I

feel that I have completed this year as a better person, one who is able to recognize the situations

that others are coming from, and treat them respectfully by understanding and acknowledging

their background and that their personal story is different than mine. Having a better

understanding of the reasons behind their cultural traditions reminds me to not be quick to judge
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or make assumptions. I had a personal experience with this exact topic while on our trip in New

Mexico. While visiting the To’Hajiilee Community School in New Mexico, I was approached by

a teacher, who asked whether or not I felt intimidated because of my skin color by the Native

students, who outnumbered myself and the student I was walking with. My initial thought was if

I had overstepped or overlooked an incident that occurred, and then I wondered if this man was

trying to scare or threaten me. Regardless of either scenario, I told the man that I was sorry if

there was anything I had done to offend him. After I responded, the man told me that he was just

giving me a hard time, which helped me understand that my original thoughts of offending him

by something I did or him being angry towards me was inaccurate. We continued on and I did

not discuss the subject any further with him so I am unsure of his exact intentions for why he

stopped me. Upon further reflection, this interaction acknowledged a known tension between me,

as a white male, and the Native American students on the reservation. Although I felt I was being

respectful of the students and teachers of To’Hajiilee, I was more aware of what this might look

like from their perspective, letting us come on to their land and allowing for us to partake in a

small part of their life and their culture. My initial thoughts on the man’s intentions have proven

that the stereotypes I have learned about Natives from the media, pop culture, and entertainment

are wrong, and that not all Natives have the tendencies described by their stereotypical personas.