Methods and motivations: iconography of the Native Americans by Euro-Americans

Abstract

The Native American image is often used in the United States today in such areas as film, marketing, art and literature. This use can be seen as a result of a Euro-American history of claiming ownership to a person, and the subsequent appropriation of a symbolic image or person, which then becomes iconographic in its representation of an American spirit. The problem rest in the continued use of a symbolic Native American. The history of this creation is so much entrenched in Euro-American history and has been a part of the Euro-American identity for so long that many Euro-Americans refuse to give up this icon or their ownership of it, because by doing so they feel perhaps, as if they are giving up part of themselves. The collective ownership of the Native American icon, and the perception of a vanishing race, combined with a long history of use and misuse helps to reinforce the icon’s continued use.