I'm thinking of the (clearly offensive) portrayal of Native peoples like this scene of Disney's Peter Pan.
[Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_(greeting)) tells me that it originates from a Wyandot interjection or Lakota greeting. Is this accurate? If so, how did the term enter the popular consciousness?
(Also, apologies in advance if I have used inappropriate wording in this question. I've tried to go for the endonyms of the communities I've mentioned, but I know next to nothing about North American indigenous folk and I'd truly appreciate any kind of correction anyone could suggest.)
Hau is a Lakota greeting from males to other males. Apparently it means "yes", as well.
One way that Northern Plains cultures became the quintessential Indian culture in Western minds is through the Wild West Shows of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These traveling shows predated tv, radio, and movies and were common in the US and Europe prior to World War I.
I don't know if you've encountered it before, but Francis Parkman's Oregon Trail from the 1840s depicts Native Americans as saying that all the time. So, the notion that it was a common utterance was either well-established by that point or he started it.
I'm thinking of the (clearly offensive) portrayal of Native peoples like this scene [1] of Disney's Peter Pan.
The scene is less offensive than Barrie's Peter Pan. As bad (inaccurate, offensive) as the American portrayal of Native Americans was/is the Europeans got a more distorted view of the Wild West.