The Newspaper Indian: Native American Identity in the Press, 1820-90

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The Newspaper Indian: Native American Identity in the Press, 1820-90

by John M Coward

University of Illinois Press, 1999

ISBNs

Cloth: 978-0-252-02432-0

Paper: 978-0-252-06738-9

eISBN: 978-0-252-04850-0 (OA)

About the Book

How newspapers shaped the image of Native Americans

John M. Coward looks at how nineteenth-century newspapers and news making practices shaped the contradictory and still persistent representation of Native Americans. As Coward reveals, journalism failed to describe Indigenous people on their own terms. Instead, reporters chose portrayals that adhered to the norms of the majority white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant society that read their papers. In addition, Coward shows how journalists turned Native Americans into symbolic and ambiguous figures used to measure American progress.

An in-depth look at the power of the press, The Newspaper Indian provides insight into how journalism wove a skewed idea of Native Americans into the fabric of American life.

About the Author

John M. Coward is an associate professor of communication at the University of Tulsa. He is the author of Indians Illustrated: The Image of Native Americans in the Pictorial Press.

Reviews

"Greeley's contempt for Indian people as lazy, violent, unprogressive, and unworthy of justice mirrored a larger national view that had flourished since the first captivity narratives had been published in Puritan New England. . . . Coward's book emerges as the most comprehensive and authoritative account of journalistic treatment of American Indians in the nineteenth century."--Michael L. Tate, South Dakota History

"Coward's outstanding study places Indian stereotyping within a broader historical context and demonstrates the continuity of popular misconceptions. . . . Extremely well written, researched, and organized, this monograph makes a major contribution to nineteenth-century Native American historiography and provides unique insights into the press's role in molding the popular imagination."--Thomas A. Britten, The Historian

"Ideal for an undergraduate class since it is written in an informed and up-to-date, but very accessible style. . . . An engaging read."--Gillian Poulter, Left History