Sam's Unsettling Cigar Box Label

At first glance, this lithographic label printed for use on the outside of a wooden cigar box is fairly typical of graphic appeals by cigar companies in this c.1890 Victorian era.  The flag makes a lovely backdrop.  The Native American is handsome in his headdress and regalia.  The Native American has remarkably anglo features.  The title 'Sam's' calls up thoughts of Uncle Sam and American patriotism.But, in looking at this image disturbances arise.  This image is full of sociological information, and most particularly the visual hypocrisies and contradictions exploited in advertising.  This native - who looks like a bronze-skinned white man -is the noble savage, who brought us tobacco,m and who we want nowhere near our neighborhoods.  The flag stretched out behind him is a symbol of his oppression - the flying flag of the armies and cavalries that brought death and destruction to their way of life.  And what did Uncle Sam do for the Indians? - all things wicked and cruel.Swimming about in this little image are all kinds of trouble.   Americans could look at this label without any feeling any reaction at all, both when it was made around 1890, and today.  These psychological emblems, the flag, the native, have been compartmentalized in our thinking, and when conflicting emblems appear, the conflict is avoided by keeping each emblem separate in its own compartment.  We can then avoid dealing with the contradictions in our thoughts, or in our society.