This is a 1970's commercial for the Keep American Beautiful Campaign. This very much reprsents the claiming of "Indianess" that Huhndorf talks about. It paints Native Americans as pure, all of them carrying a "deep respect for the natural beauty that was once this country." It uses all the traditional stereotypes (clothing, facepaint, canoe) to promote it.  I think its a continuation of colonialist mentalities of idealizing "going Native." With this imagery, the group is calling on all Americans to return to, and claim, a native purity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=862cXNfxwmE

One might say that this is a dated commercial, BUT in 1998, they brought back the same imagery to continue their campaign, showing that is is very much a current stereotype:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iwHO7WONk0

Here is a link to a NY Times business article that describes the impact of the commercial (it is considered to be one of the most successful commercials of all time):

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9906E7D91F3CF931A15757C0A96E958260&scp=1&sq=crying%20indian%20campiagn&st=cse

Discussion:

Although stereotypes go all across the board, I was most intrigued by the positive stereotypes of Native Americans. There was a notion that they are more connected nature/the earth and somehow innately more pure. What do you think the role/impact of these positive stereotypes are? Do they only serve as a way to draw attention away from the negative ones? Are positive stereotypes better or worse than negative ones? This can also be applied to the "model minority" stereotype from last week's readings.