THE ARTS
Crystal Echo Hawk Advocating for Narrative Change HENRY JE NK I NS, PH . D.
When was the last time you saw a Native American on television — not a 19th century “noble redman” in war paint and a feathered headdress— but a contemporary Indigenous person, say, wearing blue jeans and drinking coffee? Dr. Stephanie Fryberg of the University of Michigan reports that the percentage of Native actors cast in American film and television productions hovers between 0 and 0.4% each year. And it gets worse. Simply searching “Native American” on Google still brings up an abundance of images dated before 1900 and mostly showing men. This erasure has consequences: An alarming 20 percent of Americans believe that Native Americans no longer exist. Adding to the problem is the fact that less than 20 percent of state educational standards require any attention to Native Americans in a 20th or 21st century context. In most schools, nothing is taught about the governance of sovereign Indian nations or the importance of Indigenous insights into environmental issues, or the models of restorative justice in the Indigenous court system. On the other
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RELEVANCE REPORT 2021-22
hand, there are still more than a thousand Indian “braves,” “chiefs” and “warriors” serving as K-12 team mascots. Statistics like these reveal how deeply ingrained these negative perceptions are and how urgently they need to be addressed within the larger reckoning regarding racial inequality in the United States. As the president and CEO of IllumiNative, Crystal Echo Hawk (Pawnee) has been a leader in the struggle to increase the visibility of Native peoples. IllumiNative is a research-driven initiative created and led by Native Americans that is challenging negative narratives and supporting accurate and authentic portrayals of Native communities in pop culture. IllumiNative builds on Hawk’s massive $3.3 million research project, Reclaiming Native Truth, which assembled many of the statistics cited above. Their reports make strong connections between the lack of representation across media, news, education and politics and how these gaps diminish public awareness and support for
