Validating "Savages"

The TV show "The Red Road" is about a police officer named Harold Jensen, that "partners up" with a dangerous member of theNative American Lenape tribe who is an ex-con that just got released from jail, Philip Kopus, who blackmails and helps Harold with the cover up of an accident. The accident was caused by Harold's Schizophrenic wife, Jean, in where she did a hit-and-run injuring a young Lenape boy during one of her delusions caused by her illness. I put "partners up" in quotations because they are not actually partners because Kopus is blackmailing the officer into "looking the other way" when he request it or else he would reveal what really happened. Furthermore, the officer has two daughters, the eldest, Rachel is dating a Lenape boy, Junior, who later in the show we find out he is related to the ex-con, Philip Kopus. Rachel parents do not want Rachel dating the Lenape boy because in their minds all the Lenape Indians are "killers." Rachel's mother, Jean, had a twin brother, who at the age of eight, was drowned by culpability of a Lenape boy. As the show progress, Philip, was the boy, at that time, whom killed Jean's brother and was sent to juvenile detention.

The show opens with some Lenape Indians performing their dances while tourists watch during an event called Powwow. During the performance the Lenape Indians were dressed as how society has come to associate every Native American Indian: wearing a headband with feathers, wearing little clothing and also have their faces painted. Excluding the powwow, during the show the Lenape Indians wear casual clothing and are up to date with modern technology.

In the show we can see the clashing between the two communities, the Native American Lenape tribe and the white community of Walpole, New Jersey. Throughout the show we could see the stereotypes and injustices towards the Native Americans. First with the opening of the show, then the mistreatment and dismissal of the Walpole police department. The savage stereotype of the Native American is prevalent in this show with mostly all the Lenape males. These historical representations of Native Americans in the show justify the economic and social marginalization of Native Americans. The show presents how bad Native Americans are treated, but it validates it through the representation of the savage Native American. The show represent the Lenape Indians as drug addicts that are always up to no good and causing chaos to the neighboring white community. 

It disturbs me that the show is about a "good" cop that makes a "bad" choice in order to protect his family, making him corrupt, yet the Lenape Indians are the savages who kill innocents. This show represents Native Americans as savages while the white community justify their "bad" actions as protection.