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ISU Portfolio

Anthony Wilson

ENG4UV / Galt

July 25th, 2019

Native Americans in Pop Culture

The historical narrative “The Inconvenient Indian”, written by ​Cherokee/Greek author

Thomas King, discusses North American history from the perspective of an Aboriginal. He

opens the novel with the chapter, “Forgetting Columbus”, where King voices his thoughts on the

manner of how North American history has been told and glorified. King uses many facts and

humour throughout the novel in an attempt to bring insight into how North American culture has

been affected by the relationship between whites and natives. Specifically, his aim is to clear the

misrepresentation of Native Americans being brutal, vicious and unreasonable that has been

painted throughout North American history. King also focuses on how Natives have been treated

and how the truth of their stories have been avoided or forgotten. The decline of Native

American integrity throughout history can be attributed to North Americans’ gratification over

pop culture misrepresentations of past events.

In the first Chapter, King talks about the explorers who are famously responsible for

discovering North America and how these explorers were ruthless. He then goes on to explain

that in order for North Americans to discover the truth about indigenous history, they first have

to forget all the stories they have been told in the past. This idea brings highlight to the title

“Forgetting Columbus”. Many stories, movies, games and other pop culture have either

portrayed a wrong image of Natives or strongly hid the truth. King states that Native history is
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portrayed in Hollywood as “an imaginative cobbling together of fears and loathings, romances

and reverences, facts and fantasies” (King 20). He admits that most of the rich history of Natives

in North America has been forgotten by white people and all that is left in the mind of the

general population is a “series of entertainments” (King 20). King then brings up the conspiracy

that many people have heard of which insinuates Columbus mass murdered Natives in order to

gain his glory. Although Columbus is well known for how he treated the Natives, there are many

others guilty for the carnage of Natives. Other men mentioned for being guilty of genocide

include General Henry Atkinson and John Underhill who unjustifiably killed hundreds of

Natives. Furthermore, King brings forward the idea that whites felt honoured to have massacred

such a large number of Natives. The portrayal of Native Americans in the general population

mind’s are overall negative due to how information is being taught and how the truth has been

misrepresented throughout history.

Residential schools were just one more way the whites tried to destroy Native history and

culture. Along with the misrepresentation and loss of truth of past events, residential schools

contributed to destroying the past by attempting to change everyone who had insight on how

Natives really were and how they were treated. From the residential schools to the reservations,

it could be argued that these events caused fear in the Native Americans and further lead them to

keep their different stories to themselves. In 1910, the Superintendent of the Department of

Indian Affairs called residential schools “the final solution of our Indian Problem” (King 114).

Residential schools did awful things to Native children in an attempt to assimilate them into

white culture. The natives were often physically, verbally and sexually abused, malnourished

which often lead to many catching diseases and kept in overcrowded schools. Even with Natives
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who endured this treatment coming forward and telling their story, white people have denied lots

of this mistreatment in these schools in the past. In 2018 “a radio ad paid for by the Frontier

Centre for Public Policy aired in rural Saskatchewan. It claimed that ‘Indian Residential Schools’

had not caused any harm to Indigenous communities or children. It claimed that they were, in

fact, good for Indigenous kids and were a place where Indigenous language and culture were

celebrated” (FineDay, 2018). Unfortunately, not many Indigenous organizations have the budget

to counter mainstream North American media. Ultimately, this results in a lack of a voice from

Indigenous people and allows mainstream American media to control the portrayal of Natives

through pop culture.

North American pop culture and media has destroyed how Native American culture and

traditions are portrayed. Even throughout North American education, either false information is

taught or the truth is simply concealed. This mixed with the current status of pop culture often

results as Natives being painted as the villain. An example of this is North American pop culture

is the game Cowboys and Indians where the Indians are often portrayed in a negative light and

with stereotypical overtones. This negative light is shown when King is talking about his

experiences with this game and how he doesn’t “remember anyone who wanted to be an Indian“

(King 21). Throughout the media, there are many white people who play the role of Native

Americans without proper costume representation, this further deteriorates their culture.

Halloween in another timer in which Native Americans are often misrepresented when North

Americans dress up as Natives either in a vulgar way or use ceremonial accessories as part of

their costumes that they are portraying in a bad way. Even outside of media, North American pop

culture shows Native Americans as negatives and the as being the antagonists.
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Thomas King brings up a point about history near the beginning of the book when he

says “most of us think that history is the past. It’s not. History is the stories we tell about the

past” (King 3). No one can officially verify specifics from the past, that leaves history up to the

passing on of stories that can be altered to become untrue over time. Thomas King attempts to

spread awareness of the false details of these stories that have spread over time due to how pop

culture has developed in North Americ. As someone learning about these other perspectives, one

should keep an open mind and consider alternative information compared to when the majority

of people have learnt to believe.

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Works Cited

King, Thomas. The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America.

Anchor Canada, 2012.

FineDay, Max. “'I Do Not Want to Fight about This Anymore': Residential School Denial Is

Poisonous'.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 30 Sept. 2018,

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/opinion-orange-shirt-day-radio-ad-residential-sch

ools-1.4843779.