American Indian Culture and Research Journal

In the last decade, scholars have increasingly focused their attention on media portrayals of North American Indians. Much of the interest has centered on the stereotyping of Indians and Indian cultures in the popular and fine arts. While scholars have noted a shift, in recent years, toward more favorable and realistic Indian images in the mass media, some are not as optimistic about achieving significant social gains in the near future. Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr., for example, maintains that some of the recent favorable images are a by-product of increased social awareness, but even the more sympathetic contemporary artists primarily view Indians "according to their own artistic needs and moral values rather than in terms of the outlook and desires of the people they profess to know and depict." With regard to historical broadcast portrayals, this line of reasoning supports two main theses. First, that radio and television portrayals of Native Americans, with some exceptions, have paralleled earlier treatments in film and print. Second, that images and portrayals were also strongly affected by radio and television economics and program packaging requirements. An investigation of Indians and broadcast seems warranted for two primary reasons. The majority of work on Indian images and stereotypes has concentrated on film, giving only passing mention to radio and television, which reach proportionately more individuals with the same content. Native Americans are becoming more involved in the broadcast media via participation in station ownership and program production, beginning to use the broadcast media to forward their own goals and present their perspectives, rather than being systematically used by the media to forward the cause of mass entertainment. In order to effectively position Indian broadcast images, with respect to other media, it would be fruitful to examine several key points regarding the development of broadcast programming.