Childhood Indians: Television, Film and Sustaining the White (Sub)Conscience

Using race theory, film studies, colonialist and post-colonialist literature, while studying a cross-section of cinematic Indian depictions in westerns aired over the past seven decades, Raul Chavez has sought to explain how the western film genre have influenced viewers, in particular the Baby-Boomer generation of the 1950s, '60s and '70s to internalize the misrepresented movie depiction of Indians as representative of the real "Indian." These Indian depictions, his "childhood Indians," sustain the subliminally accepted white supremacist imagery that deny Natives their rightful place in American society. The White (sub)Conscience allows Americans to continue to assault Native sovereignty and self-determination as a result of anachronistic misrepresentations of "Indian," Americans accept as genuine. The White (sub)Conscience has institutionalized the "childhood Indian" perception of Natives, ensuring that a subsequent generation of Americans will recognize the white supremacist concept of "Indian." This work will assist in developing a critical analysis of contemporary America, recognizing related institutionalized race themes, and raising more questions that can contribute to understanding the harmful effects of this behavior and forming concepts to remedy this harmful national canon.