cowboys and Indians
Settlers-versus-natives game
Cowboys and Indians is a children's game where players divide into two groups—one playing frontier settlers or lawmen, the other playing Native Americans—and act out pursuits and battles.
The game reflects romanticized and often stereotyped depictions of the American Old West from mid-20th-century films and television.
Now considered culturally dated and potentially offensive for reducing Indigenous peoples to adversaries in play combat.
- sheriffCounty's chief officer
- lassoLooped rope for catching
- ropeThick twisted fibers
- teepeeConical pole-and-hide shelter
- trailPath through wilderness
cap gun · toy bow · horse · hat · chaps · manifest destiny · warbonnet · arrow · smoke signals · Wild West · settlers · Native American · totem · saddle · dime novels · caricatures · exoticization · romanticization
- Wild Westhowdy, sheriff, giddyup, lawmen, yeehaw
- rivalsrival, opponent, adversary, competitor, foe
- playground gamestag, hide and seek, hopscotch, freeze, capture the flag
cowboys and Indianscops and robbers
Children's game of chase
doctor · house · war · playing house · tea party
cowboys and Indiansvideo games
Interactive electronic entertainment
Fortnite · Minecraft · online gaming · screen time · organized sports
cowboy, Indian, Indians, boyish, boyhood, cowhide, coward, bovine