Video Guide
BBC Horizons, 1992,
color, running time 55 minutes.
Summary:
American Indians have been profoundly stereotyped, to the point that one might not be able to tell much about what the "real" Indian was like. These stereotypes tend to reflect the dominant society's needs, not the actual groups being stereotyped. The video looks at Rousseau's concept of the noble savage, and how it has changed to reflect dominant society concerns with the environment and its own relationship to it. The video first examines the concepts of stereotypes, talking with Rayna Green of the Smithsonian, then the idea of noble savage and its origins. Looking at views of Indians as the first "ecologists," the video examines both the archaeological and historical records with particular emphasis on the ideas of Pleistocene overkill and of Calvin Martin's Keepers of the Game. The video concludes in looking at a good example of Lakota ecological practice on Pine Ridge.
Questions:
What does Rayna Green say about where images of Indians come from?
What are some popular images of the ecological Indian?
What are the main ideas of the Pleistocene overkill model and what objections are there to it?
Larry Todd's work at the Hudson-Meng site in Nebraska demonstrates how even the sciences reflect the dominant's society's views about Indians and ecology. How have interpretations of Hudson-Meng changed?
What do approaches like Calvin Martin's work on attitudes toward the beaver in the fur trade say about actual Indian views of environment? Is his interpretation trustworthy, that is, does it also reflect the dominant society?