Afterword: Erasing the Footsteps That Lead Astray

TheMarešová, Jana Afterword at first illustrates, using the recent controversy around Ravensburger Verlag, that Indianthusiasm and the infatuation with Winnetou stories is still existing and relevant in Central European context. After that, it argues that the Indianthusiasts’ appreciation of Indigenous cultures is often misleading and presents four reasons why the “Indian” sign is harmful to Indigenous cultures and peoples—(1) the “Indian” prevents from seeing and recognizing living Indigenous cultures and peoples, (2) the “Indian” provides only seeming knowledge of Indigenous cultures as it turns attention to the constructed “Indian” sign and not authentic Indigenous cultures, (3) the “Indian” contributes to the continuous exploitation of Indigenous cultures since Indianthusiasm benefits predominantly non-Indigenous cultures, (4) the “Indian” sign perpetuates negative stereotypes that directly conduce to violence experienced by Indigenous peoples, which is explained on the example of the correlation between the “Indian princess” stereotype and the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The latter part of the text provides several suggestions for non-Indigenous scholars to help mitigate the negative effects of the “Indian” sign on Indigenous cultures and to help spread the awareness of existing Indigenous artistic production and cultural diversity, such as creating space for Indigenous artists in Central Europe and promoting Indigenous voices, so that the representational power of the “Indian” sign is reduced.