Imagining The Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting

That Aviva Kempner and Ben West feel the need to preface their documentary with a short history of the violence committed against indigenous Americans by European settlers and their descendants speaks volumes about the climate in which this film is being released. Whilst the Black Lives Matter movement makes international news and that aspect of the country’s fraught racial history is taught in every federally funded school, indigenous issues are often ignored altogether, or addressed in crude and misleading terms. One contributor here remembers putting her hand up in class and explaining that she was Native only to have her teacher claim that she was wrong and that her people were all extinct. In the face of such ignorance, it’s difficult to know where to begin.

For the average US citizen, images of Native people come from two places: westerns, which are gradually improving but spent decades misrepresenting them and casting them as bad guys; and the cartoonish images used to sell groceries, fast food or sports teams. It’s on this latter issue that the campaigners interviewed in this film are focusing, because it’s not only an insulting and highly visible form of misrepresentation, it’s also one which they have, in some cases, succeeded in ending. The subject has been explored briefly in film before, as in 2015’s Dodging Bullets, but here it gets more focused treatment, with the German-born Kempner, who specialises in exploring historical issues in the US, lending it eight.

If the idea of people like you being caricatured and used as mascots doesn’t seem like a big deal, it’s important to see it in context. Firstly, Native Americans face widespread discrimination, and it’s so rare to see them accurately represented in media that a lot of people still really believe that they are savages who live in tepees and have no coherent language. This has a very real effect on day to day issues like access education, housing and employment, as well as making them vulnerable to violence. Secondly, a lot of those mascots draw directly on dehumanising imagery and terminology with its origins in genocide. As contributors here explain, the term ‘redskin’ doesn’t simply refer to appearance, but to the practice of skinning murdered Native people – including children – so that bounties could be collected.

There’s a good number of contributors. From a variety of tribes, they automatically serve to counter the notion that all Native people share a single set of traditions, whilst also countering stereotypes just with their appearance. They range from seasoned campaigners to academic experts and people who have successfully negotiated change. Rather than just commenting, they shape the film’s narrative; and rather than just explaining the issues to non-natives, they frame them in a way which will be useful to up-and-coming Native activists interested in learning how it’s done.

Other voices in the film includes sports fans interviewed outside stadiums. Their opinions vary, with some seeming open to the arguments, others feeling that their own traditions, no matter how short-lived and easily compartmentalised, are of far greater value. There is also footage of a certain former US president (no prizes for guessing which) replicating a racist gesture, probably more out of a desire to shock than any particular allegiance to a team. This reminder of the forces arrayed against campaigners is disheartening, but overall the story is one of gradual progress. On top of the improvements already secured, demonstrations outside events are making it increasingly difficult for team supporters to claim ignorance of the fact that their mascots offend people, and this film may contribute to getting them to understand why.