IDEAL INDIAN IMAGES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE

This paper examines the construction and persistence of “ideal Indian” images in American literature, from early colonial and romantic portrayals to modern Indigenous counter-narratives. Drawing on historical context, literary analysis, and postcolonial theory, it traces recurring tropes – noble savage, ignoble savage, vanishing Indian, and Indian princess – and evaluates their cultural work in nation-building and erasure. Works discussed include James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans (1826), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha (1855), Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Zitkala-Ša’s American Indian Stories (1921), N. Scott Momaday’s House Made of Dawn (1968), and Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine (1984). The paper concludes that although some portrayals appear sympathetic, they often perpetuate symbolic dispossession; counter-narratives by Native authors reclaim complexity and agency.