STEREOTYPING

We hope this will be a good start in correcting the vast amount of miseducation and especially in ridding ourselves of all types of prejudice, most importantly stereotyping, and we hope the information on these pages stimulate questions and thus create a renewed interest in history.

 Stereotyping and Thanksgiving

The Pilgrims are stereotyped as badly as the Wampanoag. Pilgrim women and men are depicted wearing somber black clothes with big white collars and men with hats and silver buckles. This is historically and culturally incorrect. This manner of dress was a common for "Puritans". The Pilgrims were not Puritans, they were Separatists, and did not have a particular manner of dress other than the common clothing of the average person in England during the seventeenth century, which was rather colorful. Besides, the Puritans were not in Plymouth at the time of the first Thanksgiving. Their history begins much later.

Native images typical in the majority of Thanksgiving promotions and other media do not depict the Wampanoag. These images are usually depicting Plains Indians living in tipis with large eagle feather headdresses and are just as historically and culturally incorrect as the Pilgrim stereotype.

 Stereotyping and American Indians

One of the major issues for Native People is stereotyping which keeps us invisible from the general public. We are usually not recognized unless we wear leather with fringe, adorn ourselves with feathers and have black hair, brown eyes and dark skin. A very common native comic is this one:

An additional note is that stereotyping affects all people. For instance, the Irish are far too frequently depicted as red haired people who drink beer, wear shamrocks and chase after rainbows. For the good of all, it is worth the effort to educate ourselves and stimulate enough interest to get us looking beyond the stereotype and into the reality of yesterday and today's world. As Lea and I continue to work on the Many Hoops around Thanksgiving website we will add more information on stereotyping.