Growing up I think every little boy, and probably a lot of
little girls even, played cowboys versus Indians at one point or another. This is where most children stereotypically
want to be a brave cowboy with his six shooters, taking on the wild frontier
and killing the savage Native American “invaders”. But growing up in my family, I am the
youngest of three boys, I always was made to be the cowboy against my will,
while my brothers got to be the Native American warriors. We always all fought about who got to be the
Indian warriors in my family, and me being the youngest and smallest, never got
to be the Indian. I should explain that
at this point in my life we were living in Scottsdale, Arizona so the
geographical location of our family may have made us think differently about
Native Americans. Our house was
decorated in Southwest/Native American themes, we got Native American toys like
fake tomahawks, bows and arrows, and plastic Indian figures for birthdays and
Christmas, and I don’t even remember getting a six shooter set until like age
9. So I know we weren’t the typical
upbringing for the stereotypes to make sense, but my brothers and I always
thought Indians were the coolest of the two choices, which there may be another
reason for this which I will talk about in another post. It’s hard to remember or even put into words
why all of us boys thought that Indians were the cool warriors versus the
cowboys, but I remember being so mad that I never got to be an Indian and I
always had to be a stupid cowboy. I
think it’s because of moments like this growing up, and throughout my life,
that so many of the things we have discussed this semester about the bad side
of Native life have been so foreign to me.
To me as a child, and still today, there are good Native Americans and
bad Native Americans just like there is good and bad in every culture and every
walk of life. Granted this is not the
stereotypical thought, but it’s how we thought about it, even from a young age!
This video is a great re-enactment of how I remember me and my brothers playing cowboys versus indians, brings back great memories of childhood!
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