A Right to Media? Lorie M. Graham - Columbia Law School

432 COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW [41:429
indigenous peoples to access mass media can be characterized as a
cultural barrier. Mainstream media has been predominately
presented in non-indigenous languages, from a non-indigenous
worldview, and at best has tended to focus predominantly on nonindigenous
issues. 8 At its worst, mass media has been utilized to
promote assimilation, promulgate negative stereotypes of indigenous
peoples and perpetuate discrimination against indigenous
communities. 9
A. History
Throughout history, indigenous peoples have had to confront
stereotypes and predominately negative images and stories regarding
their ways of life. These images have been fostered through various
forms of media, from periodicals to film, radio, and television. One
scholar summed up the media’s shaping of the “Indian” image in this
way:
The media . . . is powerful. The messages dominate our
thinking, particularly when the viewer has little or no
opportunity for firsthand observation . . . . On [the] one had
[sic] we would see the noble “Red man” . . . . On the other
side we would see the ‘Indian’ as a savage pillager . . . . We
would see him as the devil incarnate, as strange, romantic,
dangerous and deceptive . . . . Paradoxically, the Savage
Sinner portrayal is contrasted with the Native American as
a misunderstood but well-meaning child . . . giving up his
life for a new and better world for us all. Another image
shows the “Indian” as the first ecologist, crying over our
destruction of the Universe, or an all-knowing woodsy . . .
figure . . . . 10
These and other related issues were brought to the attention
of the international community some forty years ago. 11 In 1971, Jose
8. ECOSOC, Sub-Comm’n on Prevention of Discrimination and Prot. of
Minorities, Study of the Problem of Discrimination Against Indigenous
Populations, paras. 70–73, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1983/21/Add.3 (June 17, 1983)
(prepared by Jose Martinez Cobo) [hereinafter Martinez Cobo June Report].
9. Martinez Cobo Sept. Report, supra note 6, paras. 141–44.
10. Rennard Strickland, Coyote Goes Hollywood, Native Peoples Mag.,
Jan. 13, 1997, paras. 1–2, available at http://www.nativepeoples.com/
article/articles/174/1/COYOTE-GOES-HOLLYWOOD.
11. See Erica-Irene Daes, The United Nations and Indigenous Peoples from
1969 to 1994, in Becoming Visible: Indigenous Politics and Self-Government