{"id":25869,"date":"2010-07-23T13:36:07","date_gmt":"2010-07-23T18:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=25869"},"modified":"2012-01-16T23:25:46","modified_gmt":"2012-01-17T04:25:46","slug":"vintage-levis-brochure-provides-a-round-up-of-western-indian-lore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2010\/07\/23\/vintage-levis-brochure-provides-a-round-up-of-western-indian-lore\/","title":{"rendered":"Vintage Levi’s Brochure Provides a “Round-Up of Western Indian Lore”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Re-posted at Drawing On Indians<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rob Walker (author of the fascinating book Buying In: What We Buy and Who We Are<\/em>) sent me a link to a post at Drinkin’ and Dronin’<\/a> of a 1954 Levi Strauss brochure about “western Indian lore.” It’s a nice round-up of stereotypes and appropriations of Native Americans. We start off with an angry, bare-chested (and Levis-clad) man with a tomahawk, shield, moccasins, and headdress; I’d guess he’s supposed to be a warrior doing a war dance:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Then some descriptions of items associated with different tribes and the obligatory broken English (“just want ‘um”) familiar to anyone who watched The Lone Ranger<\/em> and paid attention to Tonto:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have no idea how accurate their descriptions of “unusual Indian weapons” are, but the overall tone of the brochure doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.<\/p>\n

And we have a lesson on “the Indian sign language,” the origins of which are “lost in the mists of time”:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Related posts: Potowatamis didn’t have a word<\/a> for “global business center,” “discovering” Newfoundland<\/a>, appropriation of Native Americans in fashion<\/a>, teaching kids how to be American Indians<\/a>, marketing the Vancouver Olympics<\/a>, ice skaters dress up like Australian aborigines<\/a>, native cultures in Avatar<\/em><\/a>, Poca-Hotness<\/a>, Indian costume for your dog<\/a>, Indian Halloween costumes<\/a>, Disney depicts Native Americans<\/a>, “my skin is dark but my heart is white<\/a>,” American Indians on t-shirts<\/a>, sports mascots<\/a>, Playmobil’s American Indian family<\/a>, Howe Nissan’s American Indian statue<\/a>, the “crying Indian” anti-litter PSA<\/a>, Native Americans in Italian anti-immigration posters<\/a>, and more American Indian dolls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also check out Adrienne K.’s blog Native Appropriations<\/a> for lots of examples.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Re-posted at Drawing On Indians. Rob Walker (author of the fascinating book Buying In: What We Buy and Who We Are) sent me a link to a post at Drinkin’ and Dronin’ of a 1954 Levi Strauss brochure about “western Indian lore.” It’s a nice round-up of stereotypes and appropriations of Native Americans. We start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[279,225,253,285,1758,23705],"class_list":["post-25869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-objectification","tag-clothesfashion","tag-history","tag-raceethnicity","tag-raceethnicity-american-indiansaboriginals","tag-vintage-stuff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25869"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44066,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25869\/revisions\/44066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}