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• 1 2017-03-23T12:55:02-07:00 Native Americans in 19th Century America 4 plain 2017-03-23T13:08:49-07:00 Native Americans aren't Indians. As their true name suggests they were the native occupants of North America before white Europeans began to settle in the region. At its start, the relationships between natives and colonists were amicable more often than not. As the colonists populations grew, so too did their needs. They began to encroach farther and farther into Native American land and before long, Native American culture in its entirety had been largely wiped away by the dominant class of whites. Its important to recognize that visual representations were important tools for reference when it came to politicians enacting legislation that directly dealt with the Native population. Removal of tribes, distribution of reservations, and a type of forced assimilation were all by-products of a more general idea among the white settlers that Natives could be easily defined and subjugated. The notion of savagery was the most frequently deployed stereotype used to depict native Americans. On one end of this spectrum of savagery stands a honorable, and noble native with spiritual ties while on the other end, a brute, unreasonable, blood-thirsty native who will stop at nothing to destroy his enemies.
  Any nobility, honor or principality whites saw in native Americans, they co-opted and applied to advertising in order to sell their products. Comics depicted their savagery with obscene images in order to instill fear and alienate sympathetic whites from defending the natives. The reasoning behind the mistreatment of natives was that 'savagery' was irrefutably a lesser state of society compared to civilization, or even barbarianism. Therefore, natives were inferior because of perceived customs and attitudes stemming from their culture. There was a major push among colonists to assimilate the natives into their piece of society as to avoid any future conflicts. Unfortunately, attempts to assimilate were less than successful. There were too many inconsistencies between the two cultures for lasting stability. In fact, it was often depicted that natives forced into a white society would hold onto their less desirable "savage" qualities and go onto adopt a new set of vices that were present in the "civilized" society, such as alcoholism. The comic displayed depicts a Native American in disheveled and torn garments. He looks like he's been through the ringer, yet face appears happy and complacent; as if to suggest the natives fate is inevitable and there's nothing that the native can do to counteract the societal forces that are destroying his culture. He has a gun and a bottle of liquor which suggests the whites infiltration into Native culture; a key culprit in its gradual erosion.
  Many whites also adopted the idea that Natives could simply not be assimilated into their society. They had tried, mostly never reaching the outcomes they had hoped, and now it was expected that the more advanced culture would uproot and sideline the less powerful society. In this case, due to their technical achievements, white society would forcibly take over the lands and rights of the savage society. The notion of manifest destiny, or America's god-given right to explore and conquer the surrounding territory, was a powerful idea that further displaced Native populations. Artists and average men, alike could see that the natives fate was less than fortuitous. Resigned to a kind of inevitable doom, natives faced new sentiments at the turn of the century from colonists who felt pity for them. The new idea of natives took shape as sculptures and paintings began to depict a fearful, or downtrodden native at the mercy of white society.