“Guardians of the Indian Image”: Controlling Representations of Indigenous Cultures in Television

Abstract

Abstract:This study enhances existing scholarship on Indigenous media and activism by documenting the strategies Native organizations have historically used to challenge misrepresentation in television. Focusing specifically on the efforts of the National Congress of American Indians, the National Indian Youth Council, and the Native American Public Broadcasting Consortium, this article demonstrates that control of televisual images is a political struggle in which Indigenous activists have repeatedly asserted self-determination through confrontation and collaboration with governing institutions. Historical news sources, organizational reports, legal proceedings, and interviews reveal the motivations for and consistency with which Indigenous activists have attempted to seize control of mediated images. Since the 1960s, Native advocacy groups have initiated petitions, boycotts, and lawsuits to hold lawmakers and federal agencies accountable for misrepresentation. In doing so, these organizations have relied on Indigenous peoples and resources outside of the media industry, including intertribal and interethnic coalitions that supported the broader Red Power movement. Ultimately, these activists have created opportunities for Native peoples to re-present meaningful images of themselves in television. This history of organized resistance to racism in television offers important lessons to activists engaged in the ongoing battle against popular stereotypes and cultural imperialism.