These misconceptions derived mainly because the Native Americans were not like the Europeans. Of course the Native American

The most basic misconception of Native Americans that the Europeans had was that they were simple-minded barbarians with no rules or orderly way of life. This of course was not true. The Native Americans had established forms of government and there were definite authority figures. Just because the system of ruling and government may not have been the same as the settlers they thought that it was wrong and primitive, however, the tribes were surviving and flourishing many years before the settlers arrived so therefore they must have been doing something right. There is no wrong or right form of government, but the Europeans saw the Native Americans form as wrong and tried to set their rules and ways of governing on them. This misinterpretation of the Native American government led to the belief that the Native Americans ran around wild and lawless without any sense of laws, and led to the expression, “acting like a bunch of wild Indians.”

s were different from the Europeans in many ways, from physical appearance to language and culture, but the way that the settlers perceived these differences led to stereotypes and misconceptions that were often times negative and degrading to the Native American heritage. The things set the Native Americans apart from the white man, not only socially, but also physically. The white man saw that the Native Americans were different from them, and they wanted to change them and make them look, act, and live differently. This also led to problems and even more negativity toward Native Americans.

Views and first impressions that early white settlers had about Native Americans became defining components of how some non- Native American people today characterize Native Americans; grouping them together as all one people, feathers and headbands, uncivilized, and uneducated. These stereotypes, no matter how many times proven wrong, were passed on from generation to generation. The Native American or “Indian” that most people know became an “invention” or Anglo-construction (Berkhofer, 67). There was never really a complete and non-bias understanding of the Native American people because of ignorance and indifference toward the matter. Today, if a child was asked to draw a picture of an “Indian”, some of the characteristics one might see would be headbands, feathers, moccasins, clothes made from deer, dark or red skin and teepees, but in reality not all Native Americans wear those types of things and have the same physical characteristics. This is partially due to lack of education on the truth about Native Americans, and it is also due to the way that Native Americans are projected in movies, films, and television. They put a living picture of the creation that centuries of white man have created of the image of an “Indian.”

Aside from movies and television, a large part of the representation that people use to identity a Native American comes from simple childhood stories and folklore that is passed on. For instance the Thanksgiving story, the story of Pocohantes, and the story of Sacajewa all contain stereotypical Native Americans and Native American white relations. The stories portray the Native Americans dressed in clichéd “Indian” attire and they make it seem as though the Native Americans were waiting with open-arms for the white people. Growing up I saw nothing wrong with these stories, but now that I am older I see that stories like these do not get across the truth

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