In 1971, a television advertisement caught the country’s attention. A canoe drifted through dull, polluted water. A man dressed in buckskins appeared as a Native American in the canoe, his eyes scanning the trash scattered along the shore. Then came a tear, one drop that told the whole story without a word. That image is now known simply as the “Crying Indian” ad. It was produced by the nonprofit Keep America Beautiful. This group is backed by major beverage and packaging companies.

The man was Iron Eyes Cody, a familiar face in Westerns and public service campaigns. For decades, audiences believed he was a true Native American. However, the truth didn’t come out until years later: Cody was born Espera Oscar de Corti, an Italian-American who built a career playing Native roles on screen and in public life.

Finding out the truth wasn’t just trivia about one man’s background. It pulled the lid off bigger questions about cultural appropriation, how television and movies portray Native peoples, and who gets the mic to tell Native stories. Many Native activists, historians, and leaders had been pointing out those problems for centuries. The response to that truth, and even to the ad itself back in the 1970s, was far from simple.

How Native Communities Saw It

When the ad first aired, the American Indian Movement (AIM) was in the middle of organizing for sovereignty, civil rights, and accurate representation. Mainstream media praised the spot. Inside Native communities, the reaction was mixed.

Some recognized the familiar “noble savage” stereotype,  the quiet, dignified figure tied spiritually to the land, but without a voice or political power. Historian Philip J. Deloria later described Cody’s public persona as a symbol meant to stir guilt in non-Native viewers while keeping actual Native people silent in the conversation.

Suzan Shown Harjo, a Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee activist, remembered how the campaign used a “fake Indian” to send an environmental message while leaving Native leaders out of the policy discussions that mattered.

Shifting Blame Away from Corporations

Keep America Beautiful’s sponsors included companies like Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Busch, the same industries producing disposable packaging that littered rivers and roadsides. The ad asked people to feel guilty about tossing a bottle or wrapper out the window or on the ground, but said nothing about the corporations behind the flood of waste.

A historian called it “brilliant propaganda.” The ad’s main issue was how de Corti pointed at people and told viewers, “You’re the problem,” while quietly steering the conversation away from the corporations churning out mountains of disposable packaging. Native activists saw the deeper harm in how corporate America used Native images and culture for their benefit.

The Truth Comes Out

In 1996, Cody’s half-sister, May Abshire, revealed Cody’s Italian heritage according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Many Americans were shocked. Native activists weren’t. As Harjo put it, “We always knew he wasn’t Native. You can’t just put on a costume and become one of us.”

The story renewed debates about “redface” in Hollywood. This term refers to non-Native actors playing Native roles. Such portrayals shaped public understanding of Indigenous people.

Reclaiming the Narrative

In 2023, Keep America Beautiful retired the Crying Indian ad and handed the rights to the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). For many people in Indian Country, it wasn’t a sweeping victory, but it mattered. Finally, Native Americans had the choice over how that image is shared and who tells their stories.

Since then, younger Native leaders have taken another look at the ad’s complicated legacy. Native Writer Julian Brave NoiseCat didn’t excuse the harm it caused. However, he noted that the emotional image left behind something that people recognize, that Native Americans care for the land. This time, though, it’s Native voices telling the story.

“We’ve always cared for the land,” he wrote. “But now we get to speak for ourselves.”

Sources:

Deloria, Philip J. Playing Indian. Yale University Press, 1998.

Dunaway, Finis. Seeing Green: The Use and Abuse of American Environmental Images. University of Chicago Press, 2015.

 Harjo, Suzan Shown. Interview with Indian Country Today, 1973. Archives.

NoiseCat, Julian Brave. “How Native Americans Are Reclaiming the Crying Indian.” The Guardian, 2023.to speak for ourselves.”