尽管在增加美国原住民在媒体中的代表性和开放性叙事方面已经取得了一些进展，但娱乐业仍有很长的路要走。原住民背景的创作者们正在突破自我，从他们不同的视角讲述故事，激发灵感，以期影响各种背景的观众。
Nielsen’s panel on the representation of Native peoples at SXSW, Forget Mascots. The Native Representation TV Needs, brought behind-the-scenes insight into how authentic Native representation occurs on screen and throughout the entertainment industry.
For better representation of Native Americans today, the first issue at hand is the lack of representative content and characters as a whole. Based on the 2020 U.S. Census, approximately 2% of the U.S. population is indigenous, yet Gracenote 融合分析 data shows that the community is present in fewer than 0.5% of lead recurring roles on television.
荧屏上对原住民的抹杀是由于原住民人才有限，以及体育吉祥物中高度明显的刻板印象。根据尼尔森公司的一项调查，56% 的男性体育迷表示，他们在电视上看到原住民形象的唯一一次，就是看到他们作为吉祥物出现在体育节目中，而 98% 的顶级广播节目都是体育节目。这是对原住民的挪用，这些吉祥物将原住民的文化漫画化了。IllumiNative 的首席影响官、帕斯瓜亚基部落的公民莉亚-萨尔加多（Leah Salgado）分享了一个名为 "重拾原住民真相"（Reclaiming Native Truth）项目的数据，该项目是针对非原住民对原住民的看法所做的最大规模的民意调查，分析了看法和观念形成的原因。
"我们的研究表明，65% 的原住民反对（亚特兰大勇士队）使用战斧劈砍。原住民青年对使用原住民吉祥物更加反感，"萨尔加多说。"当人们只看到原住民吉祥物时，由于看到这些刻板印象，人们往往会认为原住民更具攻击性。
Part of Illuminative’s mission is to find ways to shift the public narrative to more positive, contemporary, authentic stories of Native people, something Sierra Teller Ornelas, Showrunner, Executive Producer and co-creator of Rutherford Falls and a citizen of the Navajo Nation, advocates for in her work. “I feel like there are stereotypes that we are exhausted by, that non-Native people aren’t even aware of,” Teller Ornelas said. “So there’s a weird dance where you want to dispel these myths, but then you also have to explain that the myth exists. That’s why comedy is so effective.”
Bird Runningwater, a veteran of The Sundance Institute, producer with Amazon Studios, and citizen of Cheyenne and Mescalero Apache Tribes, talked about the challenge of getting into the industry. “I think that the educational experience of most Americans in the country, compounded with the invisibility across American popular culture, create a big problem,” Runningwater said. “You’re also dealing with decision makers and gatekeepers in the industry, who were educated by that same system and also work in that same system where we’re invisible.”
无论是在银幕上还是在媒体行业内，真实的代表性都有助于消除对各种代表性不足的人群的负面刻板印象，并为观众提供新的故事。尼尔森调查显示，87% 的观众有兴趣看到其身份群体之外的人。
"Runningwater 说："由男性驱动的白人至上主义模式不会创造出最好的土著内容。"你必须愿意重新考虑不同的制作方法，并改变制作方法"。
