Early Adolescent Cherokees’ Reports of Stereotypes About Native Americans

Abstract

Given the paucity of research on ethnic-racial stereotypes from the child’s perspective, we explored the content of Cherokee adolescents’ perceptions of stereotypes about Native Americans, as well as grade-level and school-type differences in the frequency of stereotype reports. The sample comprised 212 Cherokee adolescents (M_age = 12.7 years; Grades 6–8) enrolled in a tribal middle school or one of two public middle schools. Adolescents were asked to list stereotypes they knew existed about Native Americans. Content analysis of stereotypes revealed 19 prevalent themes, with the three most common being practice of rituals and traditions, financial privilege because of tribal payments, and substance use. Eighth graders reported more stereotypes than sixth or seventh graders. Public school students reported more stereotypes than adolescents in the tribal middle school. Results provided nuanced information about Native youths’ stereotype awareness and highlight the importance of contextual factors such as school type and specific tribal practices.

Keywords

stereotypes adolescence Native American Cherokee

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abrams

Rutland

Cameron

Marques

(2003). The development of subjective group dynamics: When in-group bias gets specific. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 21(2), 155–176. https://doi.org/10.1348/026151003765264020

American Gaming Association. (2024, May 28). Tribal Gaming. https://www.americangaming.org/policies/tribal-gaming/

Brewer

M. B.

(2007). The social psychology of intergroup relations: Social categorization, ingroup bias, and outgroup prejudice. In Kruglanski

A. W.

Higgins

E. T.

(Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (pp. 695–715). The Guilford Press.

Bronfenbrenner

(1992). Ecological systems theory. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Burkley

Durante

Fiske

S. T.

Burkley

Andrade

(2017). Structure and content of Native American stereotypic subgroups: Not just (ig)noble. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 23(2), 209–219. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000100

Burnett

Kurtz-Costes

Vuletich

H. A.

Rowley

S. J.

(2020). The development of academic and nonacademic race stereotypes in African American adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 56(9), 1750–1759. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001071

Conover

W. J.

Iman

R. L.

(1981). Rank transformations as a bridge between parametric and nonparametric statistics. American Statistician, 35(3), 124–129. https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.1981.10479327

Copping

K. E.

Kurtz-Costes

Rowley

S. J.

Wood

(2013). Age and race differences in racial stereotype awareness and endorsement. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43(5), 971–980. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12061

Crisp

R. J.

Abrams

(2008). Improving intergroup attitudes and reducing stereotype threat: An integrated contact model. European Review of Social Psychology, 19(1), 242–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463280802547171

10.

Cvencek

Nasir

N. S.

O'Connor

Wischnia

Meltzoff

A. N.

(2015). The development of math–race stereotypes: “They say Chinese people are the best at math”. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 25(4), 630–637. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12151

11.

Diemer

M. A.

Rapa

L. J.

Voight

A. M.

McWhirter

E. H.

(2016). Critical consciousness: A developmental approach to addressing marginalization and oppression. Child Development Perspectives, 10(4), 216–221. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12193

12.

Dvorakova

(2018). Negative stereotypes deconstructed and transformed in the experience of Native American academics. American Journal of Education, 124(3), 345–371. https://doi.org/10.1086/697213

13.

Erhart

R. S.

Hall

D. L.

(2019). A descriptive and comparative analysis of the content of stereotypes about Native Americans. Race and Social Problems, 11, 225–242. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-019-09264-1

14.

Foulkes

Leung

J. T.

Fuhrmann

Knoll

L. J.

Blakemore

S. J.

(2018). Age differences in the prosocial influence effect. Developmental Science, 21(6), e12666. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12666

15.

Fryberg

S. A.

Markus

H. R.

Oyserman

Stone

J. M.

(2008). Of warrior chiefs and Indian princesses: The psychological consequences of American Indian mascots. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 30(3), 208–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973530802375003

16.

Hughes

Way

Rivas-Drake

(2011). Stability and change in private and public ethnic regard among African American, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Chinese American early adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(4), 861–870. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2011.00744.x

17.

Hunter

A. G.

Tarver

S. Z.

Jones

(2022). Transformational family science: Praxis, possibility, and promise. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 14(3), 384–403. https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12476

18.

Jackson

J. R.

Fashant

C. S.

(2021). Native American homelessness and Minneapolis’ infamous Tent City: Dispelling myths and stereotypes to uncover solutions. Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs, 7(1), 129–153. https://doi.org/10.20899/jpna.7.1.129-153

19.

Kurtz-Costes

B. E.

Woods

T. A.

(2017). Race and ethnicity in the study of competence motivation. In Elliott

Dweck

Yeager

(Eds.), Handbook of competence and motivation (2nd edition): Theory and application (pp. 529–546). Guilford Press.

20.

Lam

C. B.

McHale

S. M.

Crouter

A. C.

(2014). Time with peers from middle childhood to late adolescence: Developmental course and adjustment correlates. Child Development, 85(4), 1677–1693. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12235

21.

Leavitt

P. A.

Covarrubias

Perez

Y. A.

Fryberg

S. A.

(2015). “Frozen in time”: The impact of Native American media representations on identity and self-understanding. Journal of Social Issues, 71(1), 39–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12095

22.

Levitt

H. M.

Motulsky

S. L.

Wertz

F. J.

Morrow

S. L.

Ponterotto

J. G.

(2017). Recommendations for designing and reviewing qualitative research in psychology: Promoting methodological integrity. Qualitative Psychology, 4(1), 2–22. https://doi.org/10.1037/qup0000082

23.

Meixner

Spitzner

D. J.

(2022). Mixed methods research and social inclusion. In Liamputtong

(Ed.), Handbook of social inclusion: Research and practices in health and social sciences (pp. 395–414). Springer International Publishing.

24.

Mihesuah

D. A.

(2010). American Indians: Stereotypes & realities. SCB Distributors.

25.

Nasir

N. S.

McKinney

Royston

O’Connor

Wischnia

(2017). Knowing about racial stereotypes versus believing them. Urban Education, 52(4), 491–524. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085916672290

26.

National Indian Gaming Commission. (2023). FY 2023 Gross Gaming Revenue Report. Author. https://www.nigc.gov/

27.

Pettigrew

T. F.

(1998). Intergroup contact theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49(1), 65–85. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.65

28.

Quintana

S. M.

(1998). Children’s developmental understanding of ethnicity and race. Applied & Preventive Psychology, 7, 27–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0962-1849(98)80020-6

29.

Rutland

Killen

(2015). A developmental science approach to reducing prejudice and social exclusion: Intergroup processes, social-cognitive development, and moral reasoning. Social Issues and Policy Review, 9(1), 121–154. https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12012

30.

Sameroff

A. J.

(2013). The social context of development. In Woodhead

Carr

Light

(Eds.), Becoming a person (pp. 167–189). Routledge.

31.

Shelvin

K. H.

Rivadeneyra

Zimmerman

(2014). Stereotype threat in African American children: The role of Black identity and stereotype awareness. Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale, 27(3), 175–204.

32.

Sheyahshe

M. A.

(2014). Native Americans in comic books: A critical study. McFarland.

33.

Tan

Fujioka

Lucht

(1997). Native American stereotypes, TV portrayals, and personal contact. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 74(2), 265–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769909707400203

34.

Turner

J. C.

Reynolds

K. J.

(2011). Self-categorization theory. Handbook of Theories in Social Psychology, 2(1), 399–417. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446249222.n46

35.

Twenge

J. M.

Martin

G. N.

Spitzberg

B. H.

(2019). Trends in US adolescents’ media use, 1976–2016: The rise of digital media, the decline of TV, and the (near) demise of print. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(4), 329–345. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000203

36.

Vezzola

(2020). The myth of the monthly check for Native Americans. California Indian Legal Services. https://www.calindian.org/the-myth-of-the-monthly-check-for-native-americans/

37.

Ward

P. R.

Attwell

Meyer

S. B.

Rokkas

Leask

(2017). Understanding the perceived logic of care by vaccine-hesitant and vaccine-refusing parents: A qualitative study in Australia. PLoS One, 12(10), e0185955. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185955

38.

Watts

R. J.

Diemer

M. A.

Voight

A. M.

(2011). Critical consciousness: Current status and future directions. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2011(134), 43–57. https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.310

39.

Way

Hernandez

M. G.

Rogers

Hughes

(2013). “I’m not going to become no rapper”: Stereotypes as a context of ethnic and racial identity development. Journal of Adolescent Research, 28, 407–430. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558413480836

40.

Wobbrock

J. O.

Findlater

Gergle

Higgins

J. J.

(2011, May). The aligned rank transform for nonparametric factorial analyses using only anova procedures [Conference session]. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

41.

Yip

(2016). To be or not to be: How ethnic/racial stereotypes influence ethnic/racial disidentification and psychological mood. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 22(1), 38–46. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000046

42.

Yip

Cheah

C. S. L.

Kiang

Hall

G. C. N.

(2021). Rendered invisible: Are Asian Americans a model or a marginalized minority? American Psychologist, 76(4), 575–581. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000857