On the Indian images in the white canons of 19th century America

Proceeding from the perspective of postcolonial criticism and illustrating its argument with the works of white literary masters such as Cooper, Melville and Mark Twain, this article analyzes the stereotypical Indian images in the white literature of 19th century America and explores how white writers erase the actual existence of Indian people with fabricated Indian images, envision Indian extinction in their texts and thereby justify the dislocation, annihilation and expropriation of American Indians, the original occupants of North American continent. Hence, this article comes to the conclusion that the stereotypical Indian images invented by the white canons of America play a pivotal role in silencing and marginalizing Indian people and therefore they constitute part and parcel of white colonialist discourse.