How Whites Viewed Native Americans

The way whites viewed Native Americans is very similar to the way they viewed blacks, and it makes me understand the whites actions better. The whites viewed Native Americans as lower class people and as much less sophisticated than themselves. This is a common theme in American history as the whites pretty much felt that they were the best of any race and because of this they felt a sense of entitlement. With the blacks they felt a sense of entitlement to physically own the blacks and take them in as slaves. With the Native Americans they felt a sense of entitlement to take whatever they wanted from the Native Americans including their land. There were many cultural representations showing "Native Americans to be evil, redeemable only through the grace of whites and conversion to Christianity" ("Cultural Depictions of Native Americans"). This made the whites feel superior to the evil Native Americans and because they viewed them as evil, they felt it was okay to take away their land. The second part of the quote is extremely significant to the culture of the Native Americans as the Native Americans had "their political and social systems decimated by encroaching white settlers" ("Cultural Depictions of Native Americans"). The white settlers felt they should try and convert the Native Americans to christianity to save them and also tried to change their culture because they felt it was wrong. The whites felt superior to the Native Americans so they did not care if the Native Americans were happy or not, they just did whatever they thought was right without truly considering what was best for the Native Americans.

A large part of the Native Americans being viewed as lower class was the way the media depicted them. Some writers did show the Native Americans to be a kind and gentle race, but the majority of the media portrayed them as savages. One such example was the show "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" which "most often depicted "savage" Indians attacking "civilized" white Americans" ("Cultural Depictions of Native Americans"). This contributed to the average American looking at Native Americans as savages who were dangerous to whites who did not do anything, thus encouraging racism. This reminds me a lot of the Jim Crow shows in which blacks were shown to be stupid and inferior to whites, which contributed to this idea in white society. Most of the media made the Native Americans out to be savages, so that is the way they were seen by the whites.

"Cultural Depictions of Native Americans" American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Sun. 31 Jan. 2010 .