Indian princess

This article is about stereotypical and inaccurate representations of Native American women. For a list of princesses from the Indian subcontinent, see Category:Indian princesses.

The Indian princess or Native American princess is usually a stereotypical and inaccurate representation of a Native American or other Indigenous woman of the Americas.[1] The term "princess" was often mistakenly applied to the daughters of tribal chiefs or other community leaders by early American colonists who mistakenly believed that Indigenous people shared the European system of royalty.[1] This inaccurate portrayal has continued in popular animation, with characters that conform to European standards of beauty,[2] with the most famous misrepresentation being that of Pocahontas. Frequently, the "Indian Princess" stereotype is paired with the "Pocahontas theme" in which the princess "offers herself to a captive Christian knight, a prisoner of her father, and after rescuing him, she is converted to Christianity and lives with him in his native land."[3] - a false narrative which misrepresents the events of Matoaka's life. The phrase "Indian princess", when used in this way, is often considered to be a derogatory term, a type of racial slur, and is deemed offensive by Native Americans.[1]

One exception to this rule is that at some Native American powwows and other types of pageants, some competition titles and awards for girls or young women might include the name "Princess".[4] This usage is not accepted by all, and there are calls to discontinue its usage and replace it with "more culturally relevant and accurate nomenclature."[5]

  1. ^ a b c National Museum of the American Indian (2007). Do All Indians Live in Tipis?. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-115301-3.
  2. ^ Garcia, Alma (2012). Contested Images: Women of Color in Popular Culture. Lanham, Md: AltaMira Press. pp. 157–166.
  3. ^ Cohan Scherer, Joanna (May 1988). "The Public Faces of Sarah Winnemucca". Cultural Anthropology. 3 (2): 178–204. doi:10.1525/can.1988.3.2.02a00040. JSTOR 656350.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Miss Indian World Information was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Logan, Yanenowi (September 7, 2021). "Honor past princesses, but retire the 'Indian Princess'". Indian Country Today. Archived from the original on September 7, 2021. Retrieved November 20, 2021.