Don’t Put Me On Display: Don’t try to change me in any way

Curatorial Statement by the students of Literature in Conversation, a course taught by Dr. Lisa Brooks at Amherst College

The objects in this case represent stereotypical views of Native American people. Most objects in this display are a mockery and insult to Native people, which are contrasted by pieces throughout the space that highlight Indigenous people fighting against stereotypes and inaccurate representations, asserting their own identities and experience. This display is intended to raise questions for viewers about settler stereotypes and harmful misrepresentations that in some ways still persist. We invite you to look closer. 

The Little Trapper is a story about a boy who goes into the woods and sets a trap for a fox so that the “little Indian girl” could make a fox-fur pillow. Throughout the story, the name of the girl is not mentioned—she is only called the “little Indian girl.” It is demeaning that her name is never used, but the little trapper’s name is. She is pushed to the margins, reduced to just her race and her gender. The object represents the active exclusion and writing-out of Indigenous women and their agency from literary texts of resistance to colonization.

The Native American chalkware figurine portrays the persistent stereotype of Native Americans as uncivilized, violent savages. The figurine appears to be a child who is squatting while holding a tomahawk. This is a prevailing stereotype of Indigenous people that simultaneously infantilizes them while painting them as brutal and threatening. We hope that this label prompts viewers to consider why their default image of a Native American might be a warrior or a war-like figure. This is the result of intentional framing of Indigenous populations as dangerous, only to be tamed by European settlers through control and domination. This is a singular, constructed image. 

The figurines in this display reinforce the view that Native people look, act, and live one way, which obscures the multiplicity and variety of Indigenous peoples and experiences across the continent and beyond. Colonial frameworks are perpetuated because they portray the idea that to be Native, you must look a certain way. This view is not only inaccurate, but deeply affects those who both do and don’t fit narrow expectations of “Native-ness.” It is often easier for people to diminish the place of Native Americans and maintain stereotypical narratives than to expand their perspectives and learn from Indigenous people. 

Native people continue to use their voices to share their stories, culture, heritage, and traditions in different ways, for different reasons, and to different audiences. Indigenous people continue to show up as themselves and encourage community members to do the same. This may be through art, music, poetry, stories, and even dance. Self-representation is powerful and disrupts cycles that reinforce misunderstandings and stereotypes about Native Americans. This case, and the space around you, displays some of those Indigenous-centered representations.

Native American people push back against misrepresentation everyday. For example, the magazine cover of Quannah Chassinghorse with the title, “The Power of Personal Expression,” sends a powerful message that Native American People are still here, part of the modern world, and unafraid to show who they are. Quannah Chasinghorse is from the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, Gwich’in, and Sičangu-Oglala Lakota Nations. She is known for her Yidįįłtoo, traditional Alaskan Native facial tattoos, and for her dedicated activism and empowerment of Native audiences.

Portrayals of Native American people are more accurate when created by Indigenous people. Stereotypes leave people to think that Native Americans are people of the past, but in reality they will always be present.