Contesting Constructed Indian-ness: The Intersection of the Frontier, Masculinity, and Whiteness in Native American Mascot Representations

by Michael Taylor

Native American sports team mascots represent a contemporary problem for modern Native American people. The ideas embedded in the mascot representations, however, are as old as the ideas constructed about the Indian since contact between the peoples of Western and the Eastern hemispheres. Such ideas conceived about Native Americans go hand-in-hand with the machinations of colonialism and conquest of these people. This research looks at how such ideas inform the construction of identity of white males from historic experiences with Native Americans. Notions of “playing Indian” and of “going Native” are precipitated from these historic contexts such that in the contemporary sense of considering Native Americans, popular culture ideas dress Native Americans in feathers and buckskin in order to satisfy stereotypic expectations of Indian-ness.

154 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Michael Taylor majored in English at Bloomsburg University, Pennsylvania, and also earned his Master’s degree in Education from the same university.

Reviews

[Patrick Bassett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taylor brings up some important points, legacies of the frontier, stereotypical representations of “others”, and prevailing notions of “whiteness” ingrained in our culture.

Some quotes and examples are repetitive, and some ideas seem like a bit of a reach. His most interesting arguments appear in chapter 4, and I think a more in depth examination of Indigenous points of view, especially examining the conflicting viewpoints mentioned briefly in other places, would have strengthened this.

[Ryan Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate this work; I applaud it's intentions. The language is scholarly yet easy to read. Taylor deftly shows how the discourses of the frontier, masculinity and whiteness are intertwined in contemporary performances of Indian identities through mascots.

I wish there had been more focus on the ethnography, however: in-print representations of the interviews. I'm also greatly interested in the material effects and damages--only sometimes alluded to--in addition to the committing of symbolic violence.

Finally, I wish the print copy didn't have as many errors and repeated phrases.

[Mills College Library]

306.483 T2445 2013