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Serena Charley
Family and Human Services

Deb Merskin, Mentor
Shari Hundorf, Mentor

Stereotypes in Ink: Cartoon Images of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest

People in the United States are bombarded with images. The majority of these images are used to sell products or particular services, but other images, such as cartoons, convey ideas and attitudes about groups of people. Editorial and political cartoons in Oregon and Washington newspapers form the core of this study, in particular, cartoons utilizing American Indian images on issues solely related to regional issues of the Pacific Northwest. Historically, the use of such cartoons has occurred mainly to provide social comment on the behavior of the American Indian as being blood-thirsty savages or being lazy and disobedient dependents of the United States federal government. The American Indian is not considered a threat to the American dream except with respect to regional disputes. This research will analyze those images, the nature of the caricatures used by current cartoonists, and the impact on the audience the cartoonist wished to reach.