Essay Sample on How Racist Native American Tropes In Shows And Movies Affect People Of All Ages

Do you recognize tropes or racist stereotypes in movies you watch? Do you call out tropes in movies? If you do not even recognize these racist tropes then how are other people supposed to know what they are and then call them out? Tropes are planted into everybody’s head and used to stereotype Native Americans.

First the movie Pocahontas shows many tropes that stereotype Native Americans. The trope of Chief's Daughter appears throughout the whole movie as Pocahontas is the daughter of Chief Powhatan. Another trope appears in the scene “Founding Jamestown” where the shaman of the tribe, Kekata, shows the other Native Americans the horrid things the new people have done. This shows the trope of Magical Native American. These tropes put Native Americans into categories where in reality they depict them racistly.

Next, a trope that is in many old western movies is A Savage Indian. An example of this trope appears in the movie The Deserter when Viktor Kaleb’s family is brutally murdered by Apache Indians and he wages a one-man war to get revenge. This stereotypes the Apache Native Americans and all Native Americans because the audience may start thinking that Native Americans are ruthless and brutally murder people for no reason.

Lastly, Indian burial grounds are often thought of as haunted because of the trope Indian Burial grounds. An example of this trope in Jeremiah Johnson is when Jeremiah’s family is murdered after he leads a wagon train through a Native American Crow burial ground. This creates a thought in your head that burial grounds are cursed and the idea that burial grounds are cursed is expressed in the TV show The Office. It happens when Micheal Scott asks if anyone has done anything involving an Indian Burial ground. This shows that movies plant ideas of stereotypes into life 

These tropes are similar to systemic racism as the idea has been rooted in people's minds. This makes them believe that the racist movies tell how Native Americans act. This expresses the thoughts that old movies and shows plant racist stereotypes into peoples' brains.