Redface is the wearing of makeup to darken or redden skin tone, or feathers, warpaint, etc. by non-Natives to impersonate a Native American or Indigenous Canadian person, or to in some other way perpetuate stereotypes of Indigenous peoples of Canada and the United States. It is analogous to the wearing of Blackface.[1] In the early twentieth century, it was often white performers, who wore blackface or redface when portraying Plains Indians in Hollywood Westerns.[2] In the early days of television sitcoms, "non-Native sitcom characters donned headdresses, carried tomahawks, spoke broken English, played Squanto at Thanksgiving gatherings, received 'Indian' names, danced wildly, and exhibited other examples of representations of redface".[3]
Redface has been used to describe non-Native adoption of Indigenous cultures, no matter how sympathetic, such as the painters in the Taos Society of Artists during the early 20th Century portraying themselves in their own works wearing Indigenous clothing.[4]
Redface in sports, fashion and pop culture
Often associated with the behavior of sports fans of teams with Native American names or mascots,[5] "redface" has also been used to describe "Indian" Halloween costumes that are seen as offensive by Native people, or imitations of sacred headdresses worn as fashion accessories.[6]
Redface in art
In 2011, Harmony Korine directed the short art film Snowballs for the fashion brand Proenza Schouler. The film features Rachel Korine and an unnamed actor wearing "elaborate Native American headdresses and layers of skirts, capes, pants, and tops from Proenza's fall collection."[7][8]
Redface in Hollywood movies
Westerns were a popular film genre from the 1930s to the early 1960s. A common plot involved conflict between Native Americans and the cavalry, settlers, or both. Native Americans were usually portrayed by non-Natives in redface.
Espera Oscar de Corti, an Italian-American, had a decades-long career portraying Native Americans as Iron Eyes Cody.
Beginning in the late 1960s, westerns attempted to depict a more realistic and balanced view of the Old West in movies such as Little Big Man. However, the casting of non-Native Johnny Depp as Tonto in Disney's 2013 revival of The Lone Ranger was labelled as "redface".[9]
^Peter Antelyes (2009). "Haim Afen Range: The Jewish Indian and the Redface Western". MELUS. 34 (3). Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States: 15–42. doi:10.1353/mel.0.0047. JSTOR40344855. S2CID126754809.
^Dustin Tahmahkera (2008). "Custer's Last Sitcom: Decolonized Viewing of the Sitcom's "Indian"". American Indian Quarterly. 32 (3). University of Nebraska Press: 324–351. doi:10.1353/aiq.0.0012. JSTOR25487882. S2CID161435088.
^John Ott (2009). "Reform in Redface: The Taos Society of Artists Plays Indian". American Art. 23 (2). The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Smithsonian American Art Museum: 80–107. doi:10.1086/605710. JSTOR10.1086/605710. S2CID191229545.
