American Dream as a socio-political ideal

The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals (democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity and equality) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.^[1]

The American Dream is rooted in the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims that "all men are created equal" with the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."^[2] Also, the U.S. Constitution promotes similar freedom, in the Preamble: to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity".

In the age of revolution, when the American consciousness under the influence of turbulent socio-political events is undergoing a radical break, formed largely on the basis of enlightenment ideas, arising not from divine law and tradition, but from legal and civil norms, and the American dream. Like the secularized American consciousness, it sheds its theological garb. The American dream, which originally contained the seeds of political and social idealism, became the embodiment of the enlightenment ideal of a free individual and a democratic society based on the equality of all people, for whose self-realization, unlike the Old World, there are no obstacles. But even in its transformed form, the American dream retains many of its original features: a focus on the new world and the new man, free from the evils of Europe caused by centuries of oppression, injustice, poverty and lawlessness, omnipotence, arbitrariness, luxury and idleness. . Equally important in the American dream is the realization of one's uniqueness, one's choice — a god or a history that has prepared America for a lofty mission — to serve as a model and guiding star for the rest of humanity.

Stereotypical treatment of American Indian in national culture

Indianness is a national heritage; it is a source for commercial enterprise; it is a costume one can put on for a party, a youth activity, or a sporting event. This sense of entitlement, this expression of white privilege, has a long history, manifesting itself in national narratives, popular entertainments, marketing schemes, sporting worlds, and self-improvement regimes.

From the earliest period of European colonization, images of Indians found expression in early drawings, engravings, portraiture, political prints, maps and cartouches, tobacconist figures, weather vanes, coins and medals, and books and prints. Initially, depictions of Native males and females were used to symbolize the North American continent in the international iconography of the day, representations that proliferated. The Indian Queen, symbolized the Western Hemisphere. Her successor, the Indian Princess, became representative of the American colonies. During the Revolutionary period, America was portrayed as a feathered Indian defying British tyranny in printed materials of the day.

Institutionalized throughout the nation and exported to other countries, these images and others include dual portrayals of the good Indian (those who help Europeans) and the bad Indian (those who resist Europeans), nostalgic vanishing, brave warriors, romantic princesses, and countless ignoble images of brutality and degradation. Such representations obliterate or mask the realities of tribal nations struggling to maintain their populations, lands, resources, and sovereignty.

American Indians are richly diverse, yet all too often their public portrayals—in books, advertisements, shop signs, terminology, and even children’s toys and games—are greatly at odds with actual Native peoples and cultures. 

Stereotypical Violence

Almost any portrait that we see of an Indian, he is represented with tomahawk and scalping knife in hand, as if they possessed no other but a barbarous nature. Christian nations might with equal justice be always represented with cannon and ball, swords and pistols.

Language Representations                             

In contrast to the inane stereotype of the Indian as soundless, we know from the vast storehouse of our oral traditions that Aboriginal peoples were peoples of words. Many words. Amazing words. Cultivated words. They were neither wordless nor illiterate in the context of their linguistic and cultural roots.

Commercialization of Indians

Stereotypes sell. To this day, consumers recognize the stylized Indian chief on cans of Calumet baking powder and the kneeling Indian maiden on packages of Land O’Lakes butter

Playing Indian                          

While minstrel shows have long been criticized as racist, American children are still socialized into playing Indian. Columbus Day celebrations, Halloween costumes and Thanksgiving reenactments stereotype Indigenous Peoples as one big distorted culture. We are relegated to racist stereotypes and cultural caricatures

Indian Mascots  /ˈmæskət/ талысман are used to proliferate stereotypical attitudes to indigenouns people. They are insulted because these stereotypes may be exaggerated and made up for commercial purposes.

Native American mascots have very little to do with Native Americans. They do not, nay, cannot, represent indigenous men and women. Much like blackface, such inventions and imaginings, meant to represent a racial other, tell us much more about Euro-Americans….They reflect and reinforce the fundamental features of racial and gendered privilege in a settler society, particularly a sense of entitlement to take and remake without consent and to do so without the burden of history, the challenges of knowing, or the risk of penalty.