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Stereotype of the Month Entry
(4/27/05)


Another Stereotype of the Month entry:

In tonight's Tonight Show monologue, Jay Leno noted that the Navajo Nation passed a bill banning same-sex marriages. He joked that this was disappointing to "Skipping Bull" and "Shopping Bear"—two gay Native Americans, as he helpfully explained.

Leno has been a friend to Native people. And this joke could've stereotyped gay people much worse than it did. What's relevant here is the stereotypical names he attributed to Navajos. Names like "Skipping Bull" (e.g., Sitting Bull) occurred mainly on the Great Plains, not in the Southwest. Navajos traditionally used one name (Manuelito, Barboncito, Hoskinini) and later adopted two-part Americanized names (Peter McDonald, Preston Zah, Albert Hale).












Related links
"Funny" Indian names


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