_x000D_Screenshot: href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0sxwGlTLWw”>Keep America Beautiful

What is the “Crying Indian”?

In the 1970s, Keep America Beautiful, a nonprofit aimed at reducing littering and pollution commissioned The Crying Indian as a public service announcement. It showed Iron Eyes Cody, an Italian American actor who claimed Cherokee heritage, canoeing through a polluted landscape and crying at the sight of trash. In addition to being an iconic piece of TV pop culture, the ad was criticized for being stereotypical and inappropriate._x000D_Keep America Beautiful transferred the rights to the ad to the National Congress of American Indians – a Native American advocacy group that plans to retire the character for good.