Tired, old stereotypes die hard, and few are older or more tired than the idiotic Indian "war whoop" and "tomahawk chop" that Atlanta Braves fans are so fond of. Indian Country Today Media Network did a good job this week tracing the genealogy of Atlanta's ridiculous tradition. It also posted a video and article of Senator Scott Brown's staffers dissing Elizabeth Warren by imitating the tomahawk chop, meant obviously to disparage her claims to Native American heritage. Regardless of what you think of Warren's claims to native ancestry, one would expect better behavior from representatives of one of the highest political offices in the country than such blatantly racist tactics. But then again such behavior is so endemic in the Republican ranks. Senator Brown, get your people under control!
The staffers' antics follow on the heels of another disgusting display of racist stereotyping in high-profile media on an episode of the Jay Leno show on August 27. In a conversation with right-wing comedian Dennis Miller, they invoked Sacheen Littlefeather's Academy Awards speech in 1973 when she refused an Oscar on behalf of Marlon Brando, saying that "Warren is as much of an Indian as that stripper chick Brando sent." Not only was the comment a particular type of racial slur (one that denies a person their heritage), it was also incredibly sexist, not to mention totally uninformed.
Unlike Warren, Littlefeather (now a 65 year old elder) has long been known to the Native American community and her identity as a Native American woman is irrefutable, a fact that was lost on Miller and Leno who obviously prefer the ease of perpetuating lies in the interest of bad humor than in exercising restraint in the interest of the truth. But calling her a "stripper" was adding insult to injury. In her modeling days she did do a Playboy spread that was somehow not publishable (read: exploitable) until after she became famous for her speech, well over a year after the original photo shoot. The spread would've featured 10 Native American women, including Littlefeather, complete with the title "10 Little Indians." It seems necessary to point out that a modeling job someone did once in their youth--even a Playboy spread-- is a big distinction from being a "stripper."
Since Brando and Littlefeather's Academy Award incident things have changed considerably (although not entirely) in Hollywood when it comes to Native American imagery, and the movement to ban Indian mascots in school and college sports teams has taken hold across the country. The likes of Scott Brown, Jay Leno, and Dennis Miller clearly have a thing or two to learn.