Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

For some 500 years, words have been among the most powerful weapons used in the campaign to deprive American Indians of their lands and their lives.

Words justified the seizure of the United States by European colonists, the extermination of much of the native population, and the forced relocation of American Indians to isolated reservations.

American Indians had few weapons in this war of words. The battle was carried out in European languages unknown to American Indians, and waged in books, newspapers, speeches, schools, and later in films and electronic media controlled exclusively by non-Indians.

Twisted words painted a distorted and degrading portrait of the first Americans. Generations were taught that Europeans "discovered" America and therefore owned it - even though American Indians had lived here for thousands of years. White settlers who stole American Indian lands were called "courageous pioneers," while American Indians who fought to defend their families were called "blood-thirsty savages." White invaders killed American Indians in "self-defense," while American Indians "murdered" whites in "massacres."

As happens with every minority group under racist attack, words and images that dehumanized American Indians made it easier to deprive them of their human rights. By portraying American Indians as ignorant barbarians who needed to be civilized and Christianized, words were used to convince Americans that treating American Indians as sub-humans and stealing their land was perfectly fine. In the same way, Americans used words to dehumanize Africans to justify slavery, and Nazis used words to dehumanize Jews to justify the Holocaust.

Today, while most American Indian nations continue to be trapped in poverty, a growing number are finally able to join the war of words over their future, thanks to their earnings from casinos and other gaming activities. It's about time.

The war of words is important. If American Indians don't describe themselves accurately to the 99 percent of Americans who are not American Indians, Native Americans will continue to be defined by destructive stereotypes and distortions.

There is no magic formula to turn around hundreds of years of anti-Indian prejudice. But here are 10 steps American Indian nations can take to replace lies with truth, and strengthen their position in 21st century America.

Use the news media to your advantage. Don't wait for reporters to come to you - go to them with news and story ideas that you think readers and viewers will be interested in. If funds are available, hire an employee and/or a consultant to help you develop a successful media strategy to tell your side of the story.

Don't focus exclusively on local media. National media are interested in major American Indian stories. When I was an Associated Press reporter in South Dakota in the early 1980s, stories I wrote about the Lakotas were often carried in newspapers around the nation, and sometimes internationally. Readers and viewers far from American Indian nations are often more sympathetic to American Indians than are nearby residents, who are more likely to feel threatened by land claims, tax disputes, and other conflicts.

Emphasize that American Indian economic success actually benefits far more non-Indians than American Indians. The 198 tribal nations with gaming compacts have established a $7.4 billion industry that has directly created an estimated 200,000 jobs - about 75 percent held by non-Indians. American Indian nations use much of their earnings to purchase goods and services from non-Indian businesses - creating even more jobs and sparking economic development in neighboring communities.

If you have achieved economic success through casinos or other development, be proud of that success and do not apologize for the tax exemptions and gaming compacts that helped achieve it. The benefits American Indian nations have today as sovereign entities are miniscule when compared with the enormous loss they suffered when most of the land in the United States was taken from them - usually for only token compensation. The loss of this land cannot simply be written off as meaningless because it happened long ago.

Appeal to a sense of justice and fairness on the part of the non-Indian majority. Some people will always oppose American Indian initiatives. But American attitudes on race have changed a great deal, and many non-Indians now accept the fact that American Indians were treated unjustly.

Make absolutely clear that you are not seeking the eviction of individual landowners in any land claims case, and that other actions you are taking are not aimed at harming non-Indian families. Confrontation with 99 percent of the U.S. population is not a winning strategy.

When involved in disputes with local, state and federal government officials, go over their heads and communicate directly with ordinary citizens. For example, a land claims dispute can cost governments millions of taxpayer dollars and leave a cloud of uncertainty hanging over a region - hindering home sales and economic development. If you can show that government anti-Indian positions are harmful to the non-Indian majority, you can prompt voters to put pressure on their elected officials to resolve disputes with American Indian nations.

When attacked, counterattack. Go to the media to set the record straight when your opponents spread false information about your activities, or encourage anti-Indian feelings by appealing to stereotypes. And determine who is really behind an attack. When it was learned, for example, that tycoon Donald Trump was behind a campaign to stop the spread of American Indian gaming in New York because he wanted to block competition for his own casinos in Atlantic City, the campaign was discredited.

Reach out to allies to stand with you and validate and publicize your arguments. African Americans victimized by racism are natural allies to denounce anti-Indian campaigns. Non-Indians with jobs in an American Indian casino can serve as excellent advocates for economic benefits of the casino. Film and TV stars can attract media coverage of American Indian issues they support.

When funding is available, create American Indian media. The growth of American Indian radio stations, Web sites and newspapers all give Native Americans the opportunity to speak to each other and to the world.

For far too long, lies and distortions have created a false portrait of the first Americans. Too many people still think of American Indians as the screaming, scalping, murderous savages that John Wayne and other celluloid heroes gunned down to the cheers of movie audiences. Most Americans have never met an American Indian, visited a reservation, or learned how to separate facts from fiction about Native Americans.

Journalist Heywood Broun wrote in 1939: "For truth there is no deadline." The truth about American Indians has been withheld for centuries. It is time for the truth to be told, and the people best qualified to tell it are American Indians themselves.

David Egner is the Vice-President of Nichols-Dezenhall, Communications Management Group. with offices in
Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, CA, and Lonson, UK