Newspaper Indian: Native American Identity in the Press, 1820-90

How newspapers shaped the image of Native Americans

John M. Coward looks at how nineteenth-century newspapers and news making practices shaped the contradictory and still persistent representation of Native Americans. As Coward reveals, journalism failed to describe Indigenous people on their own terms. Instead, reporters chose portrayals that adhered to the norms of the majority white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant society that read their papers. In addition, Coward shows how journalists turned Native Americans into symbolic and ambiguous figures used to measure American progress.

An in-depth look at the power of the press, The Newspaper Indian provides insight into how journalism wove a skewed idea of Native Americans into the fabric of American life.