University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The White Men Are Coming! The White Men Are Coming!: Identifying Navajoness through Reservation Tourism in 30 Days, Jamie's American Road Trip, and Navajo Cops

McSwain, Megan Y.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/113212

Description

Title
The White Men Are Coming! The White Men Are Coming!: Identifying Navajoness through Reservation Tourism in 30 Days, Jamie's American Road Trip, and Navajo Cops
Author(s)
McSwain, Megan Y.
Issue Date
2021-07-28
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
McCarthy, Cameron
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
McCarthy, Cameron
Committee Member(s)
  • Molina-Guzman, Isabel
  • Ciafone, Amanda
  • Byrd, Jodi
Department of Study
Inst of Communications Rsch
Discipline
Communications and Media
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • Navajos
  • Native Americans
  • media representations
  • reservation tourism
  • reality TV
Abstract
Native Americans as a marginalized population within the United States are typically rendered invisible within contemporary culture and society. Often relegated to the past, within the American and global imagination, Natives are habitually characterized by homogenizing stereotypes, which only contributes to the erasure of tribes’ unique histories, cultures, and identities. In an attempt to illuminate one such tribe, this dissertation narrows the scholarly focus of Native American representations in media to examine the production and consumption of the Navajo tribe through three docuseries—30 Days (2008), Jamie’s American Road Trip (2009/2012), and Navajo Cops (2012). Situated at the intersection of Media Studies, American Indian Studies, Cultural Studies, and Postcolonial Studies, this dissertation explores the ways in which Navajo identities are constructed by the shows’ white/non-Navajo hosts and producers for viewers’ cultural consumption. Interrogating a combined total of nine episodes, I seek to understand the ways in which Navajos are made (in)visible and represented through the shows’ touristic and ethnographic elements, reliance on Wild West imagery, disavowal of U.S. settler colonialism, and perpetuation of romantic Native tropes.
Graduation Semester
2021-08
Type of Resource
Thesis
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113212
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2021 Megan McSwain

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