The Savage Indian: Difference between revisions

[[Discredited Trope|Though not common today]], in older works the default was the Savage Indian, a native of their land who is a [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil|bloodthirsty man or woman]] who only wishes to kill and hunt trophies for the sake of satiating their [[For the Evulz|unquenchable thirst or desire for heads]]. They are brutal, uncompromising and is seen as aare "[[Dirty Coward|Betterall youtoo thanwilling me]]"to typelet ofallies persontake ifthe one must work with themfall]]. They are most of the time exiled by their tribes for being too violent, but if a foreigner comes in, expect the Savage Indian to reject the outsider first with a weapon up their vital organs. Sometimes they will be the [[Evil Counterpart|rival tribe]]/griyo that the Noble Indians want to see defeated or at least no longer hurting them and the people they are making peace with but couldn't due to unfortunate damage done by them.

This trope has ancient forerunners as practically every culture has identified a more primitive neighbor as '"savages'", particularly when there existed a conflict of interests. It became especially common in the age of imperialism during which blatantly racist ideas were used to advance a policy of [[Mighty Whitey|European nations]] "[[Ethnic Menial Labor|civilizing]]" the rest of the world. In the United States, expanding settlers repeatedly came into conflict with the native tribes. Infrequent abhorrent acts of violence perpetrated by the natives against the intruders led to the perception that all natives were brutal savages, [[Blatant Lies|especially considering that the settlers were all saints]]. Battles against savage Indians were commonplace in Western fiction up until the modern era, putting this on the edge of becoming a [[Dead Horse Trope]]. In the era of the "Revisionist Western," (the era in which we find ourselves) fiction often attempts to provide a more diverse and historically accurate view of violence by and against Native Americans.

* In ''[[Shaman King]]'', Hao's life 500 years ago is essentially that of a [[Complete Monster]], going so far as to [[A Nazi Byby Any Other Name|destroy entire cultures]] because they don't want to join him in his quest to rid the world of [[Muggles]]. One of the last survivors of that thinks that Silva and the rest are just like Hao. Which is...really weird in [[The Nineties]].

* Averted in ''Der Kaiser von Kalifornien'' (1936), meaning that American media were [[GodwinsGodwin's Law|worse than the Nazis]].

* Magua from ''[[The Last of the Mohicans (Literature)|The Last of the Mohicans]]''.

* Apache Bull Ramos, the bookers wanted him to be a [[Face]] because he could wrestle well but had very little charisma. He refused though and became one of the greatest [[Heel|heelsheel]]s ever, when it came to drawing crowd heat. He mainly suffered the [[Worf Effect]] to establish the new champion's credibility.

* [[The Book of Mormon (Literatureliterature)|The Book of Mormon]] portrays the Lamanites this way.

* This useused to be a major draw at [[Disney Theme Parks|Disneyland]], back when Westerns were popular. Aside from the Indian Village, [[Tom Sawyer]]'s Island included an eternally burning shack with arrows in the side of it. As attitudes changed, it was given [[Multiple Choice Past|several different backstories]] before it became just a shack.

[[Category:TropeNative American Tropes]]