Native Americans and Censorship

Definition: Descendants of the original inhabitants of the Americas prior to European contact

Significance: The attitude, values, and activities of dominant non-native cultures have sometimes led to the suppression of Native American freedoms of expression.

The European and European-derived cultures that came to dominate the Americas in the centuries following the voyages of Christopher Columbus had an oppressive effect on Native American cultures. The acculturative forces unleashed by Eurocentric cultures ranged from extermination of native peoples and cultures to more subtle repressions of cultural expression.

Overt Repression: The Potlatch

In the 1880’s, the Canadian government outlawed the potlatch, a ceremony central to the life of the Pacific Northwest coast Indians. At a potlatch ceremony, a chief would bestow lavish gifts upon his guests in exchange for their recognition of his claims to new titles, privileges, or prerogatives for himself and his family. A newly carved cedar totem pole would sometimes be erected as part of the event, during which religious and social histories would be retold, acted out, and passed on to the next generation. The potlatch was thus a driving force for artistic production and performance and was vital to the continuity of the Northwest Indians’ identity as a people.

Government bureaucrats viewed the potlatch as wasteful, however, and missionaries saw it as pagan; these and other forces conspired against it. Active enforcement of the prohibition began in 1913, culminating in the arrest of twenty-nine participants in a Kwakiutl potlatch ceremony held on Village Island, British Columbia, in 1921. The government confiscated more than 450 ceremonial artworks ranging from masks to copper shields. After decades of lobbying, the prohibition was dropped in 1951. A cultural revitalization ensued, with a renaissance in Northwest Coast arts and crafts. Many of the confiscated items were finally returned to the Kwakiutl beginning in 1979.

Repression by Incidental Activities: Sacred Grounds

At the heart of many Native American religions is the relationship between people and the earth. Numerous private and governmental activities have infringed on this equation. In 1978, for example, the U.S. Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA). Its preamble noted that the United States was not founded on any notion of religious freedom for Native Americans and that the nation had, deliberately or through ignorance or inadvertence, infringed on the free expression of Native American religions. The act directed government agencies to review their operations to reverse this history of insensitivity. Yet because it contained no sanctions, AIRFA had little practical impact.

For example, even after AIRFA’s adoption, the U.S. Forest Service went to court to support development of a ski area in the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff, Arizona. To the Hopi, these peaks are considered the home of the gods, the residence of the sacred Kachina spirits. The Forest Service also endorsed a project to build an observatory on Mount Graham in Arizona, a joint venture of the University of Arizona and the Vatican. The project was approved by the courts despite testimony that the site was a holy place to Apaches.

In one of the biggest setbacks to AIRFA goals, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988) that the Forest Service could build a logging road through territory sacred to the Yurok, Karok, and Tolowa tribes of northwestern California. The road traversed high country sites that were sacred in part precisely because of their privacy, silence, and undisturbed natural setting. In a strong dissenting opinion, Justice William J. Brennan Jr., joined by Harry Blackmun and Thurgood Marshall, wrote: “I find it difficult . . . to imagine conduct more insensitive to religious needs than the Government’s determination to build a marginally useful road in the face of uncontradicted evidence that the road will render the practice of respondents’ religion impossible.” In 1993, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) estimated that there were at least forty-four sacred sites threatened by tourism, development, and resource exploitation.

In Employment Division v. Smith (1990), the Supreme Court agreed with the state of Oregon that the religious use of the hallucinogenic cactus peyote was not constitutionally protected. Peyote is a sacrament of the Native American Church. Despite this, in the majority opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the court found that such religious concerns are of no consequence when they conflict with “neutral” laws passed by the state against “criminal” activities. The U.S. Congress, attempting to curtail bureaucratic abuses of AIRFA, passed the Native American Free Exercise of Religion Act (NAFERA) in 1993 and an amendment in 1994. NAFERA specifically addressed peyote use in an attempt to reverse the effects of the Smith ruling.

Political Repression

A government-aided campaign to suppress political dissent by Native Americans took place on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota from 1972 to 1976. Opposition to the policies of Bureau of Indian Affairs-backed tribal chairman Richard Wilson led to formation of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO), which invited members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) to the reservation to defend the rights of free speech. AIM members occupied the hamlet of Wounded Knee on February 27, 1973, and a seventy-one day siege ensued. The takeover was followed by a concerted effort by government agencies to crush OSCRO and AIM.

Charges were filed against 562 occupiers of Wounded Knee; only fifteen were ever convicted of anything. AIM leaders Dennis Banks and Russell Means were freed in 1974 by a federal judge who found gross misconduct by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Still, between mid-1973 and mid-1976, nearly seventy AIM members and supporters were killed on Pine Ridge. Many suspected that members of an armed gang funded by Wilson and known as the “Goon Squad” were responsible. In 1975, a gun battle on the reservation left two FBI agents and one AIM member dead. Leonard Peltier, an AIM activist, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to two life terms for the agents’ deaths.

A detailed account of these events was published by Peter Matthiessen in his book In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (1983), which argued that Peltier was innocent. Soon thereafter, separate libel suits were filed against Matthiessen and his publisher, Viking Press, by South Dakota governor William Janklow and by FBI agent David Price. Threatening calls were received by bookstores and the publisher, which decided to recall the book. Viking destroyed its stockpiles and canceled plans for paperback or foreign editions. The lawsuits were dismissed in 1990, and Viking re-released the book in 1991. Still, Matthiessen’s account had been kept from the public for seven years.

Stereotypes

Native Americans often feel that their portrayal in popular media breeds insensitivity to their rights and culture. The use of Indian names and images by athletic team mascots is one highly publicized area of debate. This issue peaked during the “politically incorrect” baseball World Series of 1995, which pitted the Cleveland Indians against the Atlanta Braves. Many Cleveland supporters pointed out that the team’s nickname was chosen in a 1915 fan contest to honor Lewis M. Sockalexis, a Penobscot who had been the first Native American professional athlete. Detractors pointed out that Cleveland’s cartoon image of the grinning “Chief Wahoo” could hardly be considered a tribute. Atlanta’s “tomahawk chop” and onetime employment of a mascot known as “Chief Knockahoma” (who cavorted near a tipi after home runs), came under similar criticism.

Popular culture is replete with such images. In the early 1990s, there was Cherikee Red Soda, Pow Wow Cheese Puffs, and Native American Barbie, which was the best-selling component of Mattel’s 1993 “Dolls of the World” series. Halloween costumes and children's dolls continue to perpetuate “savage” stereotypes of Native people. A Native American Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle was added to that popular children’s television series. The Hopi protested a Kachina-shaped liquor decanter and a 1992 Marvel Comics publication in which Kachina figures were portrayed as criminals; both products were withdrawn. The Hopi also protested a 1991 film version of Tony Hillerman’s Dark Wind, claiming it inaccurately portrayed Hopi culture; the film experienced a short release in video stores.

Activists had less success in stopping the sale of Original Crazy Horse Malt Liquor. The product’s name was outlawed by Congress in 1992 as offensive to Native Americans, but a federal judge overturned the ban as a violation of the free-speech rights of the marketer. AIM began a national boycott of the product in July 1995; moreover, some states continued to ban the product—not because of the name, but because its forty-ounce bottle was judged to be too big.

In 1995, when the Disney Company released its animated film Pocahontas, loosely based on the historical colony of Jamestown and the legend of John Smith, the movie met with opposition from several American Indian spokespersons, who objected to the film’s use of the term “savage” to refer to Indians.

A film based on the midcentury television show The Lone Ranger came out in 2013, with actor Johnny Depp playing Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s guide. Many were displeased with the casting choice, arguing that a Native person should have gotten the part, and found the character’s dialogue, costuming, and relationship to animals stereotypical. By contrast, Comanche chair Wallace Coffey applauded the portrayal as realistic of the period and humorous.

Artistic Expression

Stereotypes create an image in the popular mind that many Native American artists have found difficult to break. They are expected to conform or be labeled “nontraditional.” Some successful exceptions include White Eagle in classic opera, Cherokee rap artist Litefoot, and Mohican singer-composer Bill Miller, whose music combines blues with native themes.

In 1990, Congress passed the Act to Promote Development of Indian Arts and Crafts, which criminalized the presentation of anything as “Indian-made” unless the maker was of at least one-quarter Indian descent or was federally recognized on tribal roll. The legislation created problems for many bona fide Indian artists who never formally enrolled or who otherwise failed to meet criteria. Cherokee artist Willard Stone, whose sculpture “Trail of Tears” is included in the Great Seal of the Cherokee Nation, never enrolled; the Muskogee museum in which it was displayed closed its doors the day after the act was passed. Stone’s descendant Jeanne Walker Rorex was excluded from the American Indian Heritage Exhibition at the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1992 for the same reason. Ironically, the act created a “purity police” and stifled the creative expression of many artists.

In 2014, Spokane/Coeur d’Alene member Sherman Alexie’s young-adult novel Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which won a 2007 National Book Award, was the most frequently challenged book, according to the American Library Association. It has been banned from various school districts in Oregon, Mississippi, Washington, Idaho, and New York. The challenges were reportedly brought against the book for containing inappropriate language, referring to masturbation, depicting bullying, and being “anti-Christian” for questioning religion.

The attempt to retain and freely express Native American culture has been challenged by conflicting and even hostile values of the dominant white majority. This tension has been occurring for more than five hundred years, and the struggle continues.

Bibliography

Cole, Douglas. Captured Heritage. Seattle: U of Washington P, 1985. Print.

Flood, Alison. “Sherman Alexie Novel Tops List of Books Americans Want Censored.” Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 13 Apr. 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.

Garbus, Martin. Afterword. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen. New York: Viking Penguin, 1991. Print.

Matthiessen, Peter. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. New York: Viking Press, 1983. Print.

Rothman, Lily. “Johnny Depp as Tonto: Is The Lone Ranger Racist?” Time. Time, 3 July 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.

Vecsey, Christopher, ed. Handbook of American Indian Religious Freedom. New York: Crossroad, 1991. Print.

Wiener, Jon. “Murdered Ink.” Nation 31 May 1993: 743–50. Print.