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Three young Hopi girls wearing traditional blankets.

Quanah Parker with a blanket wrapped around his body.

Blanket Indian

The term "blanket Indian" is a derogatory term that was used commonly between the mid-19th century and the early 20th century to refer to Native Americans who continued to dress and act in their traditional way. The phrase originates from the trade blankets worn by tribes in the South, Southwest, and along the Northwest Coast, which came to be associated with all Indians in America. The first written documentation of "blanket Indian" can be found in the 1859 version of Dictionary of Americanisms: A glossary of words and phrases usually regarded as peculiar to the United States. The term can be found in popular literature, periodicals, and even government documents like a census or a report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. "Blanket Indian" came to be controversial through its institutionalization and its role in romanticizing Native Americans, mostly by white Americans.

Cultural Background

Throughout the United States, many Native American tribes utilized blankets as a piece of clothing. This practice is most commonly associated with the Pueblo and Plains tribes but also spread to Native Americans along the Northwest coast. Although trade blankets were common among indigenous people, mass mechanization introduced by white settlers allowed for these blankets to be produced on a larger scale, which led to tribes who had no previous experience in weaving, adopting the blanket. Some tribes, like the Meskwaki, turned to wearing blankets because the animal skins that they traditionally made clothes from were no longer obtainable. For Indians the blanket represented individuality, creativity, and their belonging to their tribe. The blankets would ultimately become an important part of Native identity. Over time, the image of a Native American wearing a blanket become synonymous with all Native Americans and all native cultures to white Americans.

Chief Anotklosh of the Taku nation with a blanket.

Etymology

The phrase “Blanket Indian” derives from the association of Native Americans with their trade blankets by white settlers. The term was most commonly used by American colonialists. This phrase first appeared in John Russell Bartlett's 1859 book Dictionary of Americanisms: A glossary of words and phrases usually regarded as peculiar to the United States and is referred to as "a wild Indian, whose principal article of dress is the blanket". Similar phrases like "back to the blanket" and "wore the blanket" also emerged around the same time to express a similar sentiment.

Popular Usage

The term "blanket Indian" began to be used in the mid-19th century then reached its height of popularity in 1915 before steadily becoming less and less common in the vernacular of Americans. For many Americans, the phrase helped distinguish Native Americans who retained their traditional dress versus those who had adapted to western culture--this group was sometimes referred as "hat Indians". Overall, references to "blanket Indians" could be found anywhere from official government documents to popular literature, and periodicals from the time.

Prominent Examples

From the 1800s to the early 20th century, it was common for "blanket Indian" to be used in government documents as a way of classifying between two categories of Native Americans. From the late 1800s to early in the 20th century, "blanket Indian" was used in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The term even appears in the 1890 U.S. Census specifying the number of traditionalists within the Indian population.

There is written documentation of Captain Richard Henry Pratt, who founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which was a Native American boarding school that aimed to westernize indigenous people, once boasting about the school’s success in turning a “blanket Indian” into a gentleman.

The magazine, Atlantic Monthly, once published an article in 1924 referencing the potential for America to "revert to the state of the blanket Indian".

Controversy

Over time, this term became institutionalized through its use in government documents, with little regard to the blanket as a symbol for Native American culture.

A percentage of Americans mourned the loss of the "blanket Indian" as it meant that the stereotype of a Native American that they fascinated over would disappear. White Americans would no longer be able to witness Indians dressed in their traditional clothing and behaving in a traditional manner unless they invented their own, which they did.