A tradition almost as time-honored as Thanksgiving itself in America, the odd gravitational pull white girls feel toward dressing in Native American garb (mostly for Halloween, but sometimes for other occasions) is almost akin to the classic moth to a flame metaphor. Who knows what attracts them so to “adopting” this “Native American spirit” by way of donning often inaccurate versions of the attire designed solely to make them look “hot”? Is it the bright colors? The fringe? The feathers? The beads? Only they can explain, and maybe not really.
2010 marked the year when the obsession seemed to become mainstream enough (after fashion shows of 2009 peddled the look on their models) to get saturated in the likes of Kesha’s (then going by Ke$ha) music videos (see: “Your Love Is My Drug”) and general promotional blitzkrieg. Appearing in photo stills and live performances with “tribal jewelry,” “war paint” and a bombastic headdress, Kesha ruled the charts with few people questioning the overt appropriation. Also in 2010, Paris Hilton blithely showed up to a Halloween party at the Playboy Mansion dressed as a “sexy Indian”—yet even back then, cultural appropriation was a term being bandied freely enough to make the sartorial choice anything but sexy. This memo was not delivered to Paris’ sister, Nicky, who also opted to dress in a less “sexy” Native American costume five years later for the Casamigos Tequila Halloween Party (maybe the Playboy Mansion wasn’t accepting the Hiltons that year for their poor taste).
In 2012, the “trend” really reached a crescendo, and seemed to go hand in hand with playing off the appropriation as “festival wear” (grafted from the hipster girl aesthetic), as evidenced by Leighton Meester, Karlie Kloss, Gwen Stefani and Lana Del Rey. The first white girl, at least, had the excuse that she was not herself when she chose to do some cosplay with Pocahontas, but rather, Blair Waldorf in the season six Thanksgiving episode of Gossip Girl, “It’s Really Complicated” (racist depictions often are). At the same time, that “excuse” doesn’t make it any better, as Blair is genuinely trying to portray a Native American instead of “incorporating pieces” from the festival wear lineup. To add a general ickiness to the matter, her reason for putting on the costume is because it is the day of Thanksgiving, and she wants to show up to Chuck’s (Ed Westwick) hotel/residence posing as a stripper, therefore offering such cringeworthy dialogue as, “Pocahontas needs her John Smith.” Chuck retorts, “I always saw myself as more of a John Rolfe kind of guy.” Blair concludes, “That’s my Chuck. You can play both. After dinner.” Oh dear. Privileged white folk getting off on colonial subjugator/Native American role playing? It’s a wonder such a scene could pass then, let alone be tolerated in the present.
The same “what were they thinking” moment occurred at the 2012 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show (RIP—but it was too generally affronting to endure after last year) when Karlie Kloss strutted down the runway in a version of Native American dress even more scanty than what Blair was doing with her own stripperfied ensemble. Because apparently women dressed as “slutty Indians” really does it for men who just want to plunder. Kloss was just one of the models VS tapped to showcase their highly offensive wares that year, but her appearance was the most scarring—particularly since it was soundtracked to a live version of Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out of Heaven.” Naturally, the company apologized and footage of that segment in the show has since been noticeably buried.
So has the “Looking Hot” video from No Doubt (because again, white girls do appear to think they look hot when dressed as Native American women). And only a day after the “cowboys and Indians” themed visuals were unleashed onto the world. Escalating in offensiveness with each passing second, the apex occurs when “Native American Gwen” is lassoed in the midst of a battle by cowboys (some of them played by her bandmates) and tied up against a wall for their torturing pleasure. She gets away to ride off into “her land” on a white horse. As though that’s supposed to make it better.
As for Del Rey, it was her infamous “Ride” video, a masterpiece of her visual style in every way except for this (and it does, indeed, incite one believe this is the true reason behind why she’s been so obsessed with making reparations to Native Americans), in which she went on blast with her white girl “oblivion” to being offensive. In a scene during a bonfire party on a beach, Del Rey appears in a headdress laughing diabolically—almost as diabolically as the colonial assholes pulling up their ships to rape and pillage America.
Ellie Goulding, likely a descendant of one such British brute, opted for the full Native American regalia look on Halloween in 2014, captioning the photo, oy, “Chief.” It was late enough in the game of the 2010s to conjure outrage, including getting her branded as “insensitive,” “racist” and “ignorant.” The uproar was calamitous enough to prompt Goulding to do the mea culpa thing and add to that apology with a donation to an organization called Running Strong. Because the new-fangled way for celebrities to continue to always get away with doing what they want is to simply do it anyway knowing full-well the venomous backlash it will cause and then just act contrite and throw money at an according organization afterward.
The years between 2013 and 2014, indeed, indicated white girls still didn’t get the message that no one thought their attempt at appropriating Native American culture was sexy. Granted, Michelle Williams was trying her best to look more “vulnerable” than “fuckable” on a cover for AnOther magazine. Released during her My Week With Marilyn promotion, the image had little to do with Marilyn (nor did the Judy Garland-centric caption, “There’s No Place Like Home”). Kaley Cuoco (who has made people forget all about any wrongdoing with The Flight Attendant) opted to wield her white girl charm the following year in order to appear as a celebrity competitor in the Longines Masters competition in L.A.—dressed as a Native American (what she described as “Pocahontas-y”) while riding a horse. Still, if she did it, maybe it was only because Khloé Kardashian set a precedent earlier in the year by attending North West’s “Kidchella” themed party… in which Native American costuming was naturally “essential” in order to cater to the “festival wear” vibe.
Whatever the psychosis behind white girls thinking it’s “okay” to “pay homage” in this way, as one of the grandmasters of white girlness, Regina George, might say, “Stop trying to make Native American ‘fashion’ happen. It’s not going to happen.”
