The Newspaper Indian : Native American Identity in the Press, 1820-90

Newspapers were a key source for popular opinion in the nineteenth century, and The Newspaper Indian is the first in-depth look at how newspapers and newsmaking practices shaped the representation of Native Americans, a contradictory representation that carries over into our own time.

John M. Coward has examined seven decades of newspaper reporting, journalism that perpetuated the many stereotypes of the American Indian.

Indians were not described on their own terms but by the norms of the white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant society that wrote and read about them.

Beyond the examination of Native American representation (and, more often, misrepresentation) in the media, Coward shows how Americans turned native people into symbolic and ambiguous figures whose identities were used as a measure of American Progress.

The Newspaper Indian is a fascinating look at a nation and the power of its press.

It provides insight into how Native Americans have been woven with newsprint into the very fabric of American life.