Indians associated with Greeks

Exhibit shows progression, change in understanding of the American WestCarl Schafer, associate director of the Museum of Art, said the American Indians have been mythologized by artists like Manship, who associated his American Indian hunter with Greek mythological characters, particularly Hercules.

"[Manship's sculpture] is a heavily mythologized character," Schafer said. "No Native American actually looks like this. This is a really Greek sort of form--this giant hulking torso. They were trying to associate Native Americans with classical mythological characters."Comment:  This statue does the same thing as mascots and other attempts to romanticize the Indian. It locates Indians in the safe and distant past, where we don't have to acknowledge them or take responsibility for our actions toward them.