How we act is defined by image. We may like to believe that what we see is right and logically justifies our actions, but often this is not the case. Throughout history, the power of image has led to conflict. A recent flashpoint of image is that of the Washington Redskins. Some accuse the name of being derogatory, and having no place in our modern, politically correct world, which begs us to ask, “Have we really progressed in our view of Native Americans?” What we learn from the past directs our actions in the present, so it is critical that our image of history is correct if we wish to ensure that the oppressive policies of the past never again take effect.

The image in the past of Native Americans was that of the “Noble Savage,” and can be well expressed by the writings of Spanish slave owner turned reformer Bartolome de las Casas. When observing the Taino people, he writes, ”They lack all manner of commerce, neither buying nor selling, and rely exclusively on their natural environment for maintenance. Endless testimonies […] prove the mild and Pacific temperament of the natives […] But our work was to exasperate, ravage, kill, mangle and destroy; small wonder, then, if they tried to kill one of us now and then.”

His first impression of the Taino is seemingly positive, that they lack greed or anger, but it then becomes apparent that he thinks there is a fundamental difference between the Taino and the Europeans. He states, “pregnant women work to the last minute and give birth almost painlessly; up the next day, they bathe in the river and are as clean and healthy as before giving birth. Indian men and women look upon total nakedness with as much casualness as we look upon a man’s head or at his hands.”

De las Casas was a Jesuit priest, and these writings reveal that he believed that the Taino were like Adam and Eve before eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, referencing their lack of shame at nakedness and God punishing Eve by making birth painful. Although de las Casas wished to help the Taino, he did so because he pitied them, as one might a bumbling child. Although this may have made him admirably more vocal for native rights than the vast majority of Europeans at the time, it is this basic misunderstanding of character and the image of the “Noble Savage” that led to conflict in the first place. Clearly no society can hold these beliefs and truly paint an accurate image of history.

And yet this image still exists today, only disguised in a softer and less obvious form. In history classes the image of Natives Americans is of helpless innocents at the feet of their conquerors, their simple, peaceful, and harmonious way of life brought to an end. This image is an inaccurate and whitewashed revision of history, little better than de las Casas’. In the effort to make up for the atrocities committed in the past it has been permitted for Native Americans to be censored into the bumbling and naive child, incapable of defending themselves and without fault.

The greed and immorality of Cortez is key to understanding the Aztecs, but so are their bloody wars and cruel human sacrifice, the reason why their oppressed neighbors took up arms and fought them alongside the conquistadores. It is important to see the sustainable nature of Iroquois’ society and their complex form of government, but their constant warring with their neighbors should not be swept under the rug because it contradicts the “Noble Savage” image that our society maintains.

Native Americans should not be judged as good, nor bad. They should not be generalized as advanced or primitive. They should not be generalized at all. If we truly believe that our society has advanced beyond the biases of the past we need to stop presenting history in comfortable black and white terms. We must view individual Native American societies in history as a whole, acknowledging both faults and virtues. For us to make progress and learn from the mistakes of the past, history must show Native Americans as they were and are, complex and flawed – human. We can never succeed in this cause with the flat stereotype of the “Noble Savage.”