21st Annual Student Research Conference
Stereotypical Imagery and Contemporary Native American Art and Identity
Allison M. Meadows
Dr. Sara Orel, Dr. Julia DeLancey, and Dr. Michael Davis, Faculty Mentors
Since the 1970s, Native American artists and communities of the American Prairie Plains have incorporated stereotypical "Indian" images popularized by American art and visual culture into their own visual culture in an attempt to establish and express a contemporary Native American identity. This paper examines the portrayal of Native Americans in American visual culture and the creation of the stereotypical "Indian." This stereotype was created through everything from eighteenth-century prints to nineteenth and twentieth-century paintings, photography, advertising, film, children’s toys, and more. I look at how native communities and artists have incorporated this stereotypical imagery into contemporary visual culture to express "being Indian" in the present. Due to the common American and European stereotypical idea that "real Indians are Plains Indians," I have focused on the Native American nations who traditionally occupy the American Prairie Plains as well as those who currently do so because of forced removal.
Keywords: Art, Native American, Stereotypes, Contemporary Art, Identity
Topic(s):Art History
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 1-4
Location: OP 2210
Time: 9:00