Alaska's Big Spill: Can the Wilderness Heal?

Title

Alaska's Big Spill: Can the Wilderness Heal?

Description

The cover of the January 1990 issue of National Geographic magazine featured an oil-slicked bird - an image used repeatedly in popular media to appeal to the American public's empathy.To add to the emotional intensity of the Exxon Valdez disaster, the feature article displayed a photograph of an Alaskan native that was strikingly similar to "The Crying Indian" - also known as Iron Eyes Cody - who served as venerable poster child of the Keep America Beautiful litter campaign. The "Ecological Indian" stereotype appeared in the aftermath of the oil spill perhaps for the same sort of purpose that The Crying Indian played: to instill Exxon with guilt.

Creator

National Geographic

Source

National Geographic, Vol. 177, No.1, Jan. 1990

Date

1990-1

Files

Jan 1990 Cover.Exxon Valdez Spill.jpeg (ADDED).jpeg

Citation

National Geographic, “Alaska's Big Spill: Can the Wilderness Heal?,” Fifty Years of Green: An Environmental History of Middlebury College since 1965, accessed December 1, 2024, https://goldenorb.middlebury.edu/fyg/items/show/315.

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