Rain dance in Gilligan's Island

Some Native stereotyping from a popular 1960s TV show:

"Gilligan's Island": Water, Water Everywhere (TV Episode 1965)
Episode aired 2 January 1965The castaways desperately try to find a new water source as they have completely exhausted their current water supply.Gilligan’s Island Transcript
Episode #14, “Water, Water Everywhere”EXT. JUNGLE - DAY

Mrs. Howell wears a headband with a feather in it. Her dress looks vaguely native American, but she has accessorized it with a broach and pearls.

MRS HOWELL
I can't understand it, Thurston. All that nonsense about a divining rod to bring water.

MR HOWELL (O.S.)
Yes, I know. Totally unscientific.

MRS HOWELL
Are you ready?

Mr. Howell enters dressed in a Cherokee ceremonial headdress.

MR HOWELL
Yes, any time you are, my dear. One, two, three.

The Howells perform a "rain dance."

HOWELLS
Ha!

Mr. Howell and Mrs. Howell look to the sky.

MR HOWELL
Rain!

Mr. Howell looks at his dry palm and then back up at the sky.

MR HOWELL (cont'd)
You're not listening.

MRS HOWELL
I don't understand it. It worked last year in Yellowstone Park for the Cherokees.

Comment:  I don't remember the line about the Cherokees. The show may have eliminated it during filming.

The fact that it's in the script makes the stereotyping worse. Clearly the writers didn't know the difference between Plains and Cherokee Indians, or anything.

Eisenberg's "squaw and chief" bit

Five Racist Ways The New Yorker is Embarrassing Itself

By Aura BogadoFor the "Shouts & Murmurs" humor column in its May 25th issue, The New Yorker presents “Men and Dancing,” a collection of four absurd dialogues written by actor and playwright Jesse Eisenberg. In each dialogue someone is pressuring a man to perform a dance that is part of his job and the man makes every excuse in the book to avoid doing so. For example, a quarterback presses a wide receiver to do a touchdown dance and a royal aide pushes a court jester to dance for the king.

The first dialogue—where an imaginary Native "squaw" insists that her "chief" perform a rain dance to help their starving tribe's crops grow—is deeply troubling.No Joke: New Yorker Published a Squaw-and-Chief Bit by Jesse EisenbergThere are all sorts of problems with this characterization of Native Americans—and there's a big problem with the use of the word "squaw," which we thought everyone understood was a racial slur. Aura Bogado makes it plain and simple in her Colorlines piece "Five Racist Ways The New Yorker is Embarrassing Itself."

Eisenberg's bit about Natives displays all the enlightenment of a Tintin comic book or an early Popeye cartoon—but those cringe-inducing products of their time were made over 80 years ago. To see The New Yorker print the word "squaw" like it's just another noun, here in the year 2015, is a reminder that even the smartest guys on the newsstand can still be fairly dumb when it comes to Native stereotyping.Jesse Eisenberg learns zero lessons from Adam Sandler fiasco: “Two Dogs could do a great rain dance”

The actor and frequent New Yorker contributor's Shouts & Murmurs column is being criticized for racist jokes

By Erin KeaneThe depths to which the New Yorker might sink when it comes to appeasing celebrities who want to place their creative work in the venerable magazine’s pages, especially the fiction section and humor columns, have yet to be fully plumbed, but sometimes they get it right. Not this week, though—Jesse Eisenberg’s “Men and Dancing” piece in Shouts & Murmurs, four vignettes explaining just how much some men dread dancing in public, is the dreaded double-whammy of barely-funny meets actually offensive. A quarter of his piece traffics heavily—and wholly unnecessarily—in racist stereotypes about Native Americans, and the fact that this scene of a “Squaw” urging an unnamed chief to perform a rain dance even made it to print is either a truly spectacular act of cynical Shouts & Murmurs celebrity column trolling, or total editorial cluelessness.Actor Jesse Eisenberg called out for using the term 'squaw' in The New Yorker

'What year is it @NewYorker? Your racism is circa 1930's,' tweeter Jamie Wilson writes

By Kim WheelerWab Kinew @WabKinew
Hey @NewYorker love your magazine, but hate the fact you used the slur "Squaw" in an attempt at a humour column http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/25/men-and-dancing

Hayden King @Hayden_King
In all the vacuous, ignorant writing on squaws, Chiefs and rain dancing, this is exceptional. Top notch, @NewYorker. https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/600481247425654785Eisenberg's squaw and chief schtick a teachable moment

'Historical ignorance only goes so far,' says professor Marlene Atleo

By Wawmeesh G. HamiltonJust because actor Jesse Eisenberg didn`t know the history of the word 'squaw,' doesn't mean he is excused for using it, Marlene Atleo said.Comment:  For more on "squaw," see Cultural Appropriation for Halloween 2014 and Republican: Only Good Indian Is Dead.

Billboard mocks rain dances

Larry Smith posted the following on Facebook:Billboard sign located and 2nd and Roycroft in Belmont Shore/Long Beach, CA.

The billboard is owned by ClearChannel.

The client is the Long Beach Department of Water and Power.

Matthew R. Veeh, Director of Government & Public Affairs, Long Beach Department of Water and Power, say's everyone has signs like this, so it's O.K. for us to a have a sign like this too--regardless of the sign's problematics.

Comment:  Given that droughts are an ongoing problem, shouldn't we continue to do rain dances along with everything else?

In fact, one could argue that a return to rain dances might be called for, since Western lifestyles and technologies are causing the drought. Because rain dances go along with reverence for water, which means not wasting it on lawns and pools and so forth.

In short, a rain dance couldn't hurt and might help. So the billboard's message is false as well as stereotypical.

It qualifies as stereotypical because it implies Indians were superstitious fools who did nothing but rain dances. Actually, they conserved their water and thus managed to survive in a harsh desert climate.

This is something we haven't managed to do without huge, wasteful expenditures of water, energy, and other resources. But it's something we may have to (re)learn eventually.

For more on rain dances, see Krauthammer: Scientific Consensus = "Rain Dance" and Indians Perform "Rain Dance" to End Drought.

Krauthammer: Scientific consensus = "rain dance"

Krauthammer: Climate Change Is 'Superstition' Like 'The Rain Dance Of Native Americans'

By Catherine ThompsonCharles Krauthammer believes climate change is a mere superstition, just like the "rain dance of Native Americans."

Appearing Tuesday on Fox News' "Special Report," the conservative pundit rejected the consensus of between 97 and 98 percent of scientists who believe climate change is real and is fueled by human activity.

"It's always a result of what is ultimately what we're talking about here, human sin with pollution of carbon," Krauthammer said. "It's the oldest superstition around. It was in the Old Testament, it's in the rain dance of Native Americans--if you sin, the skies will not cooperate."Fox News devolves from climate denial to rejecting all science

Witness the spectacular collapse of the right-wing mind

By Lindsay AbramsAs for the consensus of 97 percent of scientists who say man-made global warming is a real phenomenon, Will contends that “they pluck these things from the ether” (as Chait points out, the number actually comes from this report), while Krauthammer just dismisses the idea of a scientific consensus. “Ninety-nine percent of physicists convinced that space and time were fixed until Einstein working in a patent office wrote a paper in which he showed that they are not,” he says. “I’m not impressed by numbers. I’m not impressed by consensus.”

Thus begins the point at which Krauthammer completely gives up on science, Chait writes:It is hard to dispute this except to note that Krauthammer here has taken a radically skeptical position not merely on climate science, but on all science. His argument implies that no scientific argument merits respect. Given the provisional and socially constructed peer pressure driving the consensus theory of aerodynamics, it is amazing that he is willing to travel in an airplane.Comment:  For more on climate change, see LaDuke Endorses Obama and First Stewards Symposium at NMAI.

Indians perform "rain dance" to end drought

When in drought, rain dance

By Maureen MageeThe scent of burning sage wafted toward the inflatable bounce house. The beat of drums and the distinctive cries of Apache song caught the attention of boys playing soccer.

Smack in the middle of Mance Buchanan Park in suburban Oceanside on Saturday, dozens of Native Americans gathered in a circle on the brown grass to do what their ancestors had done generations before them: pray, sing and dance for rain.

As California enters its third straight year of dangerously dry conditions amid what Gov. Jerry Brown has proclaimed a drought emergency, Gil “Feather” Fernandez led a traditional rain dance on yet another hot and sunny winter day. He was joined by Sam Bearpaw, Windwalker and dozens of other Native Americans from multiple tribes who work to keep the traditions and rituals of their culture alive in a modern world.

“This is our way of bringing awareness to the severe drought we are having here in California,” Fernandez said. “We look at it from a spiritual angle. But we also want to remind people to respect the earth and take care of it.”Below:  "Wind Walker bows her head in prayer as representatives of several tribes preformed a rain dance on Saturday to attack the drought from a 'spiritual perspective.'" (Earnie Grafton)



From the Coast News, 1/26/14, comes other tidbits about the event:In Oceanside on Saturday, Gil “Bluefeather” Fernandez and several Native Americans gathered to perform a rain dance and raise awareness of the drought situation that the state is currently facing.

Native American singer Windwalker was on hand to lead in songs, along with Sam Bearpaw performing Apache chants and dance.And:There are variations in how these rain dances are performed in the different tribes, and individuals representing various tribes, including the Yaqui, Cherokee, Lakota Sioux, Apache, and Crow will be participating.

Native American singer Windwalker will also be performing during the dances.So Lakota and Cherokee Indians were doing their traditional powwow rain dance in San Diego? Maybe San Diegans should send some Kumeyaay Indians back east to do a sunshine dance.

You can see the muddled thinking in these excerpts. Was it *a* (single) rain dance? A bunch of different rain dances? General chanting (singing) and dancing with prayers for rain attached? Or...?

I don't think the event was at a powwow, but it sounds like they were doing powwow-style dances. Were they claiming these were authentic rain dances from particular tribal traditions? If so, which tribes?

Or were they doing typical powwow-style dances and separately praying for rain? And calling the combination a "rain dance," which is misleading if not stereotypical?

Rain dances are done by particular tribes at particular times of the year. They involve particular preparations, accouterments, and rituals. They generally are not ceremonies that anyone from any tribe can do without the proper cultural knowledge.

A tribe-specific rain dance with centuries of history is completely different from a made-up "dance for rain." It's like the difference between performing the Eucharist in church and eating a McDonald's hamburger named Jesus. They're both examples of eating the body of Christ, but with huge differences in terms of meaning and validity for the participants.

If I were an Indian and in charge, I'd curtail the practice of doing questionable "rain dances" as public stunts. The claim that all Indians have magical dances that can bring rain isn't much different from claiming all Indians are vicious warriors or nature-loving hippies. It doesn't help, it hurts.

As for "Wind Walker" or "Windwalker," is she an Indian or a wannabe? Which tribe is she enrolled with, if any? Who gave her the right to wear a headdress, usually reserved for esteemed male chiefs?

If she was singing rather than dancing, was she doing a "rain song"? Is there such a thing in her tribal culture, whatever it is? Or did she basically make it up?

For more on rain dances, see Oktoberfest Organizer Wants Rain Dance and No Such Thing as Rain Dances.

Oktoberfest organizer wants rain dance

Lushin loses Oktoberfest fight

By Rosie GithinjiJean Lushin is praying for rain.

He even has a couple of Native American Indians on standby to help him get it.

“Now, I’ve got two Indians willing to do a rain dance,” Lushin told the Traffic Commission Board when they said he could hold Oktoberfest downtown if Foster Park flooded out.

The decision was made by the board to approve a permit for Lushin to hold the annual Oktoberfest at Foster Park, should he decide he wants it, although Lushin has made it clear he is not interested in that location.

He said everyone he has spoken with would prefer the festival not be moved from the location it has been in the past 14 years, and the merchants he has spoken with have no issue with his request to remain downtown.

“I talked to our people, and they still prefer to stay downtown rather than go to Foster Park. And there are a lot of reasons for that,” he said. “They all, almost unanimously, would like Oktoberfest to remain downtown.”Comment:  Stereotype alert!

So Lushin wants rain to flood one location so he can hold an Oktoberfest at another location? Talk about a gross misunderstanding and misuse of Native spirituality.

What's next...using a "rain dance" to break up an opponent's rally? To sweep the streets of litter?

Though he was probably "joking," this level of ignorance is impressive. It's like saying he'll get the Pope to exorcise his wife's shopping "demon"--a gross trivialization of a sincere religious belief.

For more on rain dances, see Skrillex Video Features "Rain Dance" and Apaches Perform No-Rain Dance.

Skrillex video features "rain dance"

Skrillex and Damian Marley Video Features Rain Dance … and MoreDubstep producer Skrillex has collaborated with Damian Marley, the youngest son of reggae legend Bob Marley, on a track called “Make It Bun Dem”—and the recently-released video has a strong Native theme. The basic plot is that a sheriff is aggressively serving eviction notices in a somewhat run-down neighborhood; a Native family consisting of an old man and a high-school boy attempt to thwart the police with a rain dance, then turn to something stronger as the situation escalates.

RollingStone.com calls the video “a statement against oppressive authorities and poverty’s injustice.” A writeup at Exclaim.ca seems to nod in approval as well: “It’s all pretty bleak until a First Nations family channels the spirit world to kick some ass.”

This marks the third time in five months we’ve reported on a video by a non-Native act calling on tribal dance skills—previously we saw hoop dancers Tony and Kevin Duncan in a clip for Nelly Furtado’s “Big Hoops” and Nakotah Larance, also a hoop dancer, in the video for “Geronimo,” by The Knocks and Fred Falke.

Some who left comments at YouTube felt the video’s ending was overdone, while others clearly loved the whole clip. The video is below—what’s your take?Comment:  This video is reminiscent of the action you can see in my PEACE PARTY comics.

I wouldn't necessarily call the dance a "rain dance." We don't know if the boy intended to summon rain or if he simply asked the spirits to intervene. It looks like part of a powwow dance, and those dances aren't about rain.

And the action falls into the "Indians have supernatural powers" category. I suppose it's okay in this context, though I wouldn't do it too often. I'd also leave out the wolves and wolf-dogs.

I agree: the ending is overblown. A subtler victory would be more memorable and effective. As in PEACE PARTY, smart Indians win with clever words and ideas, not brute force.

For more on music videos, see Nakotah Larance in Geronimo Video and Hoop Dancers in Furtado Video.

Apaches perform no-rain dance

Tribe dance for Games sunshineLondon has experienced one of its wettest summers to date, and with just hours to go until the biggest sporting event in the world, the 2012 London Olympics, British Airways is hoping to encourage the recent bout of clear weather to continue, by flying in an Apache tribe to perform a sacred dance.

The Native American ‘Yellow Bird Indian Dancers’ from Arizona, USA performed their traditional dance in London’s Butler’s Wharf on Thursday.

Chief Ken Duncan, from Yellow Bird Indian Dancers, said: “We are honoured to be asked for our support by the people of London.

Over the past week I have begun daily prayers and requests to the Creator, asking him to speak with the rain on our behalf. I have visited with and asked my spiritual elders from various tribes to pray with me. Many will be with me in spirit as I approach the rain, and the prayers will continue until I return to Arizona.

“I am asking the rain to watch from afar and see the many people from the many lands come together and play as one.”

To carry on the spirit of keeping the good weather, the tribe spent the morning training the BA Lawn Captains, who will be entertaining crowds at British Airways Park Live, so that they can perform it if needed.Comment:  So many layers here!

Some background on Yellow Bird Productions:International renowned "Yellow Bird Productions" under the direction of Ken Duncan, member of the Apache Tribe specialize in presentations that celebrate the unique spirit of the American Indian.

Yellow Bird is a professional family dance compay based in Phoenix, Arizona. They include the current 2011 World Champion Hoop Dancer and former "Miss Indian World."For starters, it's not clear that the Yellow Bird Indian Dancers performed a rain dance or a no-rain dance. It seems as though they performed the same "traditional dance" they always perform. From photos, we can tell this involves hoops, which aren't involved in rain-related ceremonies.

Nor is it clear that the dancers are Apache, much less an "Apache tribe." According to its website, Yellow Bird has "champion Hoop Dancers, Great Plains pow wow dancers and Apache dancers." So only some of its dancers are Apache.

But let's assume this was an Apache group, as the press implied.

The Apache may consider their traditional dance, whatever it is, a prayer to the Creator. It seems "Chief Ken Duncan" added a prayer to keep the rain away. If I'm right, the dance was a generalized prayer to God with a specific prayer voiced separately. The dance itself wasn't about rain; it was transformed into a "no-rain dance" by the circumstances.

As another note, you generally don't call the head of a dance troupe "Chief." But perhaps that was the British press's doing, not Yellow Bird's.

Praying for money?

Someone on Facebook said her first response to this dance was that it perpetuates stereotypes. Her second response was that it's sad to see Natives praying for money. Both are good points.

Does Yellow Bird Productions really have a dance to keep the rain away? Or did they just say that to get a free trip to London? Couldn't Duncan have prayed for sunshine without the trip and the dance? Do Apache elders really have nothing better to do than help an athletic competition keep dry? What about all the war, poverty, hunger, and disease in the world?

The Olympics is a billion-dollar athletic competition, I'm sure. Suppose rain would cost the Olympics 1% of its profits, or $10 million. If the "no-rain dance" works, will the Olympics give that 1% to indigenous causes? If the Indians earned it, why not?

We don't know if Yellow Bird was paid, but they got a free trip, at least. If that isn't praying for money, it's close. Couldn't the dancers have prayed and danced back in Arizona? Was their presence in London really necessary? Or was it all a show--to prove the Brits weren't taking the possibility of rain lightly?

Indians are weather wizards?

The dance certainly perpetuated the idea that Indians have some supernatural power over rain. Did the dancers think of saying, "No, we don't dance to bring rain or to keep it away. That's a common myth. Even the Pueblo Indians don't do that, and we're Apache, not Pueblo."

Or did they say to themselves, "Free trip! Tell the Olympics we'll do whatever they want! Take our usual hoop dance, slap a prayer on it, and voilá...it becomes a pseudo-magical anti-rain dance! Pack your bags, everyone!"

I don't know, but I suspect the latter. If so, I'd say it's a stereotypical abuse of traditional Native culture.

The typical rebuttal would be: "Why take this dance so seriously? Whether it works or not, it's just a bit of entertainment." If that's the case, why not dress up some white men as Plains Indians and have them make up a dance? If the no-rain dance isn't a legitimate part of an actual Native culture, who cares who does it?

In other words, if the dance has no cultural connection to rain, having real Indians perform it doesn't make it right. All it does is legitimize the stereotypical belief that Indians can control the rain.

For more on rain dances, see Atheists Criticize Rain-Dance Wish and No Such Thing as Rain Dances.

Atheists criticize rain-dance wish

A complaint about a Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack's recent wish for a rain dance. It's similar to previous complaints from right-wing Christians, but this one comes from an atheist.

Praying for rain: Atheist critics show how petty and small-minded they’ve become

By Lisa MillerFlynn came out swinging churlishly. About Vilsack’s statement, he said, “That’s not just government entangling itself with religion, that’s government publicly practicing it, and wallowing in superstition.” Besides, he added (rather meanly), prayer doesn’t work.

The jury may be out on the efficacy of prayer, but on the question of whether the USDA chief has violated the First Amendment, Flynn is entirely wrong. Vilsack did not say he had ceased doing his day job and was collecting his government salary while devoting himself to prayer. He did not suggest using taxpayer dollars to set up an altar to the rain gods outside USDA headquarters on Independence Avenue SW, nor did he–as Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) did last year–use his authority to declare a national day of prayer for rain. Vilsack merely said that, in light of the vast consequences of the drought on human life, he was moved to prayer. And that he wished he had more, or better, prayers to alleviate the suffering of so many.

“If a leader wants to say he’s praying for help, there’s nothing in the Constitution that makes it inappropriate,” said David Beckmann, a Lutheran pastor and president of the hunger advocacy organization Bread for the World.The article also offers some questionable Indian lore:Rain prayers are especially potent among desert dwellers; in the arid Southwest, Native Americans have for thousands of years made prayers, songs and dances for rain, and they continue to do so today.

“Thence throw you misty water,” goes the “Rain Magic Song” of the Pueblo Indians, “all round about us here.”

Before they make such supplications, said Tony Chavarria, curator of ethnology at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, N.M., Pueblo Indians are taught to “look within yourself, your community to see what needs to be repaired, what you can to make yourself and your community a more balanced place so the deities will be more willing to convey that blessing.”Comment:  I've never heard of a "Rain Magic Song." I doubt the 21 Pueblo tribes in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas have that or any other rain-related song or dance in common.

Blogger Johnny Flynn denied that any tribe dances to cause rain. The phrase "prayers, songs and dances for rain" is suitably vague. Are these actions to beckon a particular rainstorm? To ask the gods to continue to deliver rain as they have in the past? To welcome the rain? Or...? These purposes are similar, but they aren't quite the same thing.

For more on the subject, see No Such Thing as Rain Dances.

Below:  "Rain clouds form to the east of parched Vigo county cornfields Thursday July 19 2012 in Terre Haute, Ind." (Jim Avelis/AP)

No such thing as rain dances

A Navajo blogger discusses the drought afflicting the US and whether Natives can summon rain.

I Know Why a Rain Dance Won’t End The Drought

By Johnny P. FlynnThe biggest fire in Arizona history is slowly burning itself out and Colorado has seen fires devastate the fringes of urban areas south of Denver.

The American consumer is looking at higher prices as corn crops across the Midwest are dying in the fields. This is the context in which Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently said: “I get on my knees every day... and I’m saying an extra prayer now. If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance I could do, I would do it.”

As an American Indian all my life I have been cursed with the myth of the “Indian rain dance.” I am here to say there is no such thing. Not in my Potawatomi tribe or in any other tribe across the Americas.And:The weather pattern, called the ‘monsoon’ in Arizona, is predictable (monsoon actually comes from the Arabic word for season). Arizona’s monsoon may deposit only a few tenths of an inch of rain, but there may be 2-3 storms a week in the dry summer, just enough to water the corn at a critical time in its growth cycle.

Because the Hopi plant their crops in the mouths of washes, any runoff also waters the crops. For centuries Hopi farming techniques have utilized every drop of moisture and they remain one of the most culturally conservative native groups in the United States.

Every summer the Hopi hold late summer dances—but not to bring the rain. Like the ax in the tree, the rain is coming or not regardless of the ax or the dance. The dances are held to welcome the rain.Comment:  I wouldn't swear that not a single tribe dances to attract rain. But I'll take Flynn's word for the general rule.

Most tribes don't even have dances related to rain. So projecting the Hopi Snake (Rain) Dance onto 500 tribes is badly stereotypical.

For more on the subject, see Cartoon:  Natives Are the Best Strippers.

Cartoon: Natives are best strippers

Adrienne Keene of Native Appropriations nails another stereotypical item:

"The sexiest rain dance ever":  Cyanide and Happiness cartoon

It took me a minute to even get the joke in this cartoon. Let's break it down:

We all know all Indians do rain dances, right? (riiiight)

And high roller strip club patrons "make it rain" by throwing money up in the air so it falls down like rain on the stripper.

Therefore, it's funny, get it?

When they dance, it's making it rain (cause they're Native), but instead of rain, it's money (cause they're a stripper)!

ZOMG so funny.

And all the stereotypes managed to be jam packed in one little cartoon (caution: sarcasm ahead):

The lovely warbonnet. since we all know ALL Natives wear those (especially the women, duh).

The rain dance. I mean, at least for me anyway, I can't even bust a move outside without running the risk of starting a thunderstorm! It's a real problem. No outdoor wedding for me.

The tomahawk. Cause we know Natives are war-like people that like to scalp teh whitez (watch me as I war whoop! Awooo!)

The casinos. Cause we ALL are super rich and make lots and lots of untaxed money! And we steal it all from you!

And on a serious note (/sarcasm):

The bikini and stripper theme generally, cause Native women haven't been sexualized enough throughout history. Makes me so mad.

Don't you dare get on my case about "it's a comic, it's just a joke, it's satire"--it's not. Images like these are what create the false stereotypes to which Native people are expected to ascribe. Because if all of the world thinks that Indians wear headdresses, carry tomahawks, do rain dances, or own casinos; it erases our current existence as a diverse group of contemporary people living contemporary lives and trivializes the continued struggles of Native peoples. Just because a tribe has a casino doesn't mean everything is all better after 500+ years of mistreatment and historical trauma.

Some comments on Facebook:Wow, that cartoon is offensive on so many levels. Thanks for pointing it out.

*headdesk*

When do we get to the funny part? :(

Wow...just, wow.

Yes I got the joke and No I did not find it remotely funny.

Unfortunately you left out "It's edgy, you're just humorless and overly sensitive, that's why you don't get it" in your list of excuses people will make for this. "Edgy" and "ironic" seem to be the new politically correct terms for "racist," "sexist," "misogynist," "homophobic," etc.Comment:  Stick figures are appropriate here since that's all Indians are to most people: one-dimensional cartoon characters.

Good point about the tomahawk. I think of it as just another weapons and tool, but it's associated with scalping in the public's mind. Whenever a stereotypical image includes a tomahawk, it's an extra hint about Indian savagery.

And of course Adrienne's key point is right on. "Images like these are what create the false stereotypes"...bingo. People believe what they see because...well, seeing is believing.

If you see a thousand images of Indians in headdresses, you may not think that every Indian wears a headdress. But you won't think that no Indians wear headdresses except on special ceremonial occasions. You'll think, "Even if many Indians don't wear headdresses, some do. Not all, but maybe 5% or 10% or 20% of them."

"Edgy" = "racist"

The last Facebook comment is especially astute. Yes, "edgy" and "ironic" are today's code words for "racist," "sexist," and so forth. If people admit their racism, say they're doing it intentionally, claim it's some sort of statement, then that excuses them.

And gullible idiots eat it up. "These people are famous," they say to themselves. "They're on TV. They told us they didn't mean any harm. They just thought the racist stereotypes were funny.

"We believe them because we like racist stereotypes too. We prefer to laugh at minorities rather than learn about them. All that tragedy they've gone through is a downer. It's much easier to blame them for being savage and uncivilized than to do something about their problems."

For more on the subject, see Okay to Stereotype in "Satires"? and Native Comic Strips vs. Comic Books.