Part One

Native Americans in American Musical Theater: Stereotypes, Representation, and the Struggle for Opportunity

By Trevor McChristian
Contributing Writer

Name a musical with an Asian character as the lead. Miss Saigon, The King and I, and the recent Broadway hit Maybe Happy Ending come to mind. Now, name a musical with a Black or African American lead. The Color Purple, Dreamgirls, and The Wiz are certainly crowd pleasers! Now, I challenge you to name a Broadway musical with a Native American character as the lead — not a secondary or supporting role, not a small feature — the leading player. If you struggled to think of one, you’re not alone.

American musical theater has long reflected the cultural imagination of the United States. From patriotic spectacles like The Will Rogers Follies to romanticized frontier stories like Oklahoma!, Broadway and other theatrical traditions have often shaped public understanding of race, identity, and history. Yet, Native Americans have been frequently and inexplicably excluded from authentic participation and representation in the art form, even when Native characters figure prominently within the plot. Time and time again, instead of nuanced portrayals, the American musical canon has often relied on stereotypes that reduce Indigenous peoples to mere symbols and caricatures of savagery, mysticism, nobility, or disappearance. These one-dimensional and inaccurate portrayals have contributed to broader misconceptions about Native communities in a modern world while simultaneously limiting opportunities for Native American performers, writers, directors, and composers in the theater industry.

The history of Native American representation in American musical theater reveals a pattern of cultural appropriation. For decades (and still today), non-Native actors portrayed Native characters using exaggerated costumes, accents, and mannerisms that reinforced harmful stereotypes. Simultaneously, Indigenous artists struggled to gain access to professional stages and creative leadership positions. Even in modern theatrical productions, Native performers often face barriers to casting, visibility, and artistic control. Examining the stereotypes embedded in musical theater and the lack of opportunities available to Native artists demonstrates how the industry has historically marginalized Indigenous voices while directly profiting from Native imagery and stories.

One of the earliest and most persistent stereotypes in American theater is the image of the “noble savage.” This stereotype portrays Native Americans as spiritually pure, deeply connected to nature, and trapped in a primitive past. The stereotype reduces Indigenous people to simplistic symbols rather than fully developed human beings. In musical theater, Native characters have often existed not as central individuals with their own ambitions and complexities, but as supporting figures who help white protagonists discover morality, courage, or romance.

A major example of this trope appears in the musical Peter Pan. In the original production of Peter Pan, “Ugg-a-Wugg” is a nonsensical song led by a generically drawn Native character named Tiger Lily. The song is made up of predominately meaningless lyrics and grunting designed to emulate a Native tongue and is interspersed with English lyrics like “I will come and save the brave noble redskin.” The musical presents Native characters through caricatured language, exaggerated dancing, and “comedic” songs that rely on racist assumptions. Productions historically featured non-Native actors in costumes replete with predictably stereotypical elements like feathers and face paint. The Native characters had no semblance of emotional depth or individuality; instead, they functioned as exotic entertainment. Such portrayals taught generations of audiences to view Native identity as an exotic costume to wear or childish fantasy to live out rather than as an active and diverse culture.

Another influential musical that reflects problematic representation is Annie Get Your Gun. Although the show centers primarily on Annie Oakley, Native Americans are depicted as obstacles or comic figures within the romanticized mythology of the American frontier. The musical reflects a broader theatrical tradition in which Indigenous peoples are portrayed as part of the “Wild West” spectacle rather than as communities still impacted by colonization and displacement. “I’m an Indian, Too” is quite the modern listen. By reducing Native characters, yet again, to entertainment devices, these musicals reinforced the idea that Indigenous people belonged to the past rather than being actual humans who lived in a shared modern world, making white settlers continuously comfortable with their modern role in colonization. Granted, most productions taking place in 2026 follow the lead of the 1999 Broadway revival and completely rework the ending of the first act to essentially exclude glaringly offensive tropes towards Natives. However, that was after five decades of the musical’s influence, a film adaptation, and a 1979 Don Armando disco remix..