American Indian Law Review Volume 20 | Number 1 1-1-1995 Eliminating Indian Stereotypes from American Society: Causes and Legal and Societal Solutions Kim Chandler Johnson John Terrence Eck Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/ailr Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, and the Indian and Aboriginal Law Commons Recommended Citation Kim C. Johnson & John T. Eck, Eliminating Indian Stereotypes from American Society: Causes and Legal and Societal Solutions, 20 Am. Indian L. Rev. 65 (1995), https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/ailr/vol20/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in American Indian Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ELIMINATING INDIAN STEREOTYPES FROM AMERICAN SOCIETY: CAUSES AND LEGAL AND SOCIETAL SOLUTIONS Kim ChandlerJohnson* & John Terrence Eck** 1995 World Series Fans were greeted by a billboard,across from the stadium, which depicted a peace pipe broken in half by a three-dimensionaltomahawk. The billboardread: "There will be no peace-pipe smoking in Atlanta. Indians beware."*** Introduction Even in the 1990s, derogatory stereotypes of Native Americans are all 2 too common. In school textbooks,' film and television productions, literature3 and even children's toys,4 the American Indian is portrayed in a simplistic way: as a relic of the Wild West frontier days. "We're not ignorant, savage or subservient," said Indian activist Charles Tripp.5 Tripp, a Tulsa attorney and Cherokee Indian, spoke at an Oklahoma conference which was held the day after Thanksgiving to celebrate 1992 as the "International Year of the Indigenous People."6 He urged Indians and other *Assistant Public Defender, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma City, Okla.