Summary
Highlights
Khadija Britton, a 24-year-old Indigenous woman, disappeared after being taken at gunpoint by an ex-boyfriend. Her case highlights the alarming rate of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) in North America, with over 5,000 identified cases, a number believed to be a low estimate. Sam Campbell, an Indigenous and two-spirit individual, emphasizes the importance of caring about this issue, stating that harm to one affects all.
Initially, early films depicted Indigenous life positively, with Indigenous people playing their own roles and showcasing their struggles. However, with the rise of Westerns after the Great Depression, this narrative shifted. Films like "Stagecoach" (1939) began portraying Indigenous people as villains, cementing a harmful stereotype that became deeply embedded in American society, overshadowing later attempts at positive representation.
Studies show that exposure to stereotypical portrayals in film and television leads to the perception of minority groups through those stereotypes. Sam Campbell focuses on three harmful stereotypes: extinction rhetoric (the false idea that Indigenous people no longer exist), the savage killer (portraying Indigenous people as brutal and uncivilized), and Indigenous women as sex symbols (depicting them as wild or easily conquered).
The myth of Indigenous extinction, perpetuated by films like "Last of the Mohicans," justifies abuse and a lack of representation. This leads to the unchallenged use of racial slurs in media and sports team names, with those who speak out often met with dismissive comments.
Films like "Northwest Passage" and "Fort Apache" reinforced the image of Indigenous people as savage killers, ignoring historical truths like the scalping bounties and the protection of land by Indigenous communities. This dehumanization has led to a lack of empathy for Indigenous issues, with sacred sites being bulldozed without significant public outcry.
Hollywood has historically depicted Indigenous women as either "untamed wild women" or "maidens" who can be conquered, implying that violence is necessary to obtain them. This objectification has real-world consequences, with men expecting Indigenous women to conform to these stereotypes, leading to violence. Shockingly, murder is the third leading cause of death for American Indian and Alaska Native women.
To combat these stereotypes, Sam Campbell suggests several actions: recognizing the continued existence of Indigenous people and supporting their battles for land and treaties, ensuring positive representation in media and politics, and pressuring institutions to remove racist imagery. She stresses that Westerns are fictionalized and not accurate historical portrayals.
The world needs to stop treating women as objects and recognize their sacredness. The lack of national media attention on the MMIWG crisis is highlighted by the repeated blocking of "Savanna's Act" in the Senate, which would require statistics on missing and murdered Indigenous women. Additionally, the AMBER alert system was only expanded to reservations in 2018 after the abduction and murder of 11-year-old Ashlyn Mike.
Campbell provides smaller, everyday actions: understanding that "spirit animals" are sacred and not a casual concept, recognizing that a budget meeting is not a "powwow" (which originated from the inability to practice Indigenous ceremonies legally until 1978), and taking Indigenous people and their sacred symbols seriously, just as other cultural and religious symbols are. She emphasizes that fighting stereotypes is fighting a system of white supremacy.