"How can you love the wolf and the Eskimo at the same time?": Representations of Indigenous peoples in nature magazines

This research examined Audubon magazine's representations of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Textual and image analysis spanned the years 1960 to 2002. Text and images were analyzed using cultural studies methods of critical textual analysis, critical discourse analysis, and ethnographic content analysis. Some of these representations were compared to other environmental magazines. Analysis included nature writing and news stories that covered the Keep America Beautiful Campaign, the use of eagles by Native Americans, the Nez Perce Wolf recovery project, the U'wa struggle against oil companies, and other issues. Contributors utilizing nature writing genre often utilized brief references to Indigenous peoples. These references provided a way to make points about nature, identities, and Indigenous peoples. I concluded that the imagery was not monolithic across time or across a particular topic. The "ecological Indian" image was both challenged and reinforced. A vast array of Indigenous images supported the magazine's goals, one goal being the encouragement of activism among readers. Letters-to-the-editor served as a dialogic space for perspectives not represented in the magazine's articles