Native
Americans
Writing Prompt:
• What do you know about Native
Americans? How do you know it?
Describe or list specific stories or
histories you have been exposed to
through movies, music, books,
cartoons, comics, etc.
• What do you want to know?
• Researchers estimate that there were 2, 000
independent people speaking 350 languages
across the North American Continent.
• Without a written language, many oral traditions
went undiscovered for years.
Local Link
Today there are no federally recognized tribes
in Missouri. Most Native Americans were
forced to leave during the Indian Removals of
the 1800's.
Native American’s were a popular draw at
the 1904 World’s Fair held in St. Louis.
Chiefs from the Sioux , Dakota, Cocopa,
Pawnees, Arapaho, Navajo, Hopi, Cheyenne
and Chippewa tribes lived in exhibits at the
Fair. None drew as much attention as
Apache chief, Geronimo did. By now the
chief was in his 70s, but everyone still
wanted a glimpse of the old warrior and
other “primitives”.
An Offer He Could Refuse…
In 1972 Marlon Brando won the
Academy Award for Best Actor for
his performance in The Godfather.
He turned down the Oscar,
becoming the second actor to
refuse a Best Actor award (the first
being George C. Scott for Patton).
Brando boycotted the award ceremony and sent American
Indian Rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather. She appeared in full
Apache dress and stated Brando's reasons for refusing the award
(his objection to the depiction of American Indians by Hollywood
and television).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QUacU0I4yU&feature=search
What’s to protest?
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Tonto from the Lone Ranger 1956
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Little Hiawatha 1937
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkl2iT0eS94
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MUuDFeoyvM&feature=rec-LGOUT-real_rn-1r-7-HM
Peter Pan 1953: The only criticism at the time was regarding the stories deviation from the
original. It was not until recently that the negative portrayal of Indians became an issue.
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Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam in "Horse Hare" 1960
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YurMTjV1384&feature=search
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq0CnGzIFBU&feature=search
Pocahontas 1995 : The film was harshly criticized by Chief Roy Crazy Horse as historically
inaccurate and offensive for glossing over more negative treatment of Pocahontas and her
tribe by the English. He claims that Roy Disney refused the tribe's offers to help create a more
culturally and historically accurate film
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1klLTb1rbE&feature=related
Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, a
Spokane Indian transfers from
the reservation school to the
rich, white school but soon
finds himself making friends
with both geeky and popular
students and starting on the
basketball team. Meeting his
old classmates on the court,
Junior grapples with questions
about what constitutes one's
community, identity, and tribe.
• In April 2010, the Stockton
School Board, located in
Missouri, USA, voted to
remove from the school
library after a parent
complained about its content
(sex, drugs, racial epitaphs).
• A teen convicted of
brutality spends a
year on a isolated
southwestern Alaska
island
• Warnings for violence
and emotional
distress
• The story takes place in
1757, during the French
and Indian
War (the Seven Years'
War), when France and
Great Britain battled for
control of the North
American colonies.
During this war, the
French called on
allied Native
American tribes to fight
against the more
numerous British
colonists.
What’s In a Name?
A Native American Perspective
• What do you say? Indian or Native American?
Why?
• What is the purpose of categorizing people
into groups?
Activity: New Name
Presentation
• From the provided list choose a Native
American name that represents you. Choose
carefully!
• Explain your choice by writing a journal or a
poem or by drawing an illustration. (“I just
like it” is not an acceptable answer.)
Vocabulary: Archetype
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ARCHETYPE: An original model or pattern from which other later copies are
made, especially a character, an action, or situation that seems to represent
common patterns of human life in an entire culture, or even the entire human
race. These images have particular emotional resonance and power. Archetypes
recur in different times and places in myth, literature, folklore, fairy tales,
dreams, artwork, and religious rituals. Examples of archetypes found crossculturally include the following:
(1) Recurring symbolic situations (such as the damsel in distress rescued from
monster by a handsome young man who later marries the girl. Also, the long
journey, the difficult quest or search, the pursuit of revenge, the descent into the
underworld, the great flood, the End of the World),
(2) Recurring themes (such as the Faustian bargain or selling soul to the devil;
pride preceding a fall; fate; madness; forbidden love)
(3) Recurring characters (such as witches, womanizing Don Juans, the hunted
man, the femme fatale, the wise old man as mentor or teacher, star-crossed
lovers, the caring mother-figure, the helpless little old lady, the bully, the villain
in black, the mad scientist, the underdog who emerges victorious)
(4) Symbolic colors (green represents life, vegetation, or summer; blue for water
or tranquility; white for purity; or red for blood, fire, or passion) .
(5) Recurring images (such as blood, water, the rose, the lion, the snake, the
eagle, the feast or banquet).
Other Common Literary Archetypes
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The Child
The Hero
The Great Mother
The Wise old
man or Sage
The Trickster or Fox
The Devil or Lucifer
The Scarecrow
The Mentor
Superhero
Antihero
Old man, probably
a miser
Young man in love,
possibly the miser's son,
who rebels against
authority
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Clever (or perhaps
cunning) slave
Stupid slave
Hanger-on (parasite)
or flatterer
Courtesan
Slave dealer or pimp
Braggart soldier
The Insincere Man
The Flatterer
The Garrulous Man
The Boor
The Complaisant Man
The Man without Moral
Feeling
The Talkative Man
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The Fabricator
The Shamelessly Greedy
Man
The Penny pincher
The Offensive Man
The Hapless Man
The Officious Man
The Absent-Minded Man
The Stingy Man
The Show-Off
The Arrogant Man
The Coward
The Late Learner
The Slanderer
The Lover of Bad
Company
The Basely Covetous
Man
The Trickster!
• Six Trickster Traits:
– fundamentally ambiguous and
anomalous
– deceiver and trick-player
– shape-shifter
– situation-inverter
– messenger and imitator of the gods
– sacred and lewd
Two Native American Stories
“The Sky Tree”
• What are the Archetypes?
• Identify Symbolism.
“Coyote Finishes His Work”
• Who is the trickster in this
story?
• What aspects does he
display?
Writing Prompt:
• Imagine the story of your life was being made into a
movie.
• What archetype would the writers use to portray you?
(It doesn’t have to match you exactly but represent you
generally. Script writers rarely get these things
perfect!)
• Who would play you in the film? Remember they don’t
need to be look like you but may be an actor who is
typecast and plays similar roles in different movies. (If
you can’t think of their name then describe it IMDB
style: the movie and role they played.)