I’m gonna be honest: originally this post was going to be about cool Native North American characters (North American b/c I’m including Native Canadians as well) as a way of counterbalancing Columbus Day.
However, as I researched, some ugly truths became apparent to me which we’ll address at the end. In the meantime, get to know a little bit about these characters (you may not have heard of most of them).
Black Crow (Jesse Black Crow)
- Introduced: 1984
- Tribal affiliation: Navajo
- Powers: magic, strength, speed, heightened senses, animal transformation (into a crow)
- Notable facts: Pitted against Captain America by a native spirit in a horrible piece of storytelling where Black Crow was trying to defeat the symbolic invader and Cap ends the battle by apologizing…seriously
Harpoon (Kodiak Noatak)
- Introduced: 1986
- Tribal affiliation: Inuit
- Powers: charges his spears with energy
- Notable facts: Longtime member of the Mauraders; his one claim to fame was piercing Angel to a wall, precipitation his metal-winged transformation by Apocalypse
Scalphunter (John Greycrow)
- Introduced: 1986
- Tribal affiliation: Comanche
- Powers: technological morphing allows him to create any weapon
- Notable facts: Longtime member of the Mauraders; originally fought in WWII; unknown if he has retarded aging process or if Mr. Sinister keeps replacing him with clones, but he still lookin’ fresh
Red Wolf (William Talltrees)
- Introduced: 1970 (but also briefly in 1992)
- Tribal affiliation: Cheyenne
- Powers: strength, speed, heightened senses, tracking ability, and animal rapport (with his wolf companion)
- Notable facts: Have been four iterations of this character, with a new title debuting soon
Puma (Thomas Fireheart)
- Introduced: 1984
- Tribal affiliation: never stated but from New Mexico region
- Powers: transformation into a were-puma gives him super strength, speed, and tracking abilities
- Notable facts: former Spider-Man villain-turned-hero
Talisman (Elizabeth Twoyoungmen)
- Introduced: 1983
- Tribal affiliation: Tsuu T’ina (formerly known as Sarcee)
- Powers: magical
- Notable facts: Daughter of Shaman; archaeology student
Thunderbird (John Proudstar)
- Introduced: 1975
- Tribal affiliation: Apache
- Powers: super strength, super speed, heightened senses (make him a good tracker)
- Notable facts: First X-Man to die (and on his first mission, no less)
American Eagle (Jason Strongbow)
- Introduced: 1981
- Tribal affiliation: Navajo
- Powers: super strength, speed, and tracking ability
- Notable facts: Was in the Contest of Champions; a strong activist for the Navajo Nation…more on him below
Snowbird (Narya)
- Introduced: 1979
- Tribal affiliation: Inuit demigoddess
- Powers: transformation into any Canadian animal
- Notable facts: Longtime member of Alpha Flight; her “birth” into the world was what convinced Shaman to study magic
Shaman (Michael Twoyoungmen)
- Introduced: 1979
- Tribal affiliation: Tsuu T’ina (formerly known as Sarcee)
- Powers: magical (formerly had an eagle mantle that could transform him into an eagle)
- Notable facts: Longtime member of Alpha Flight; surgeon-turned-medicine man who has a bag containing a pocket dimension
Forge
- Introduced: 1984
- Tribal affiliation: Cheyenne
- Powers: technological innovation, oh, and magical abilities (just for good measure)
- Notable facts: A living embodiment of science vs faith as his mutant abilities clash with his spiritual duties to protect the world from the Adversary
Wyatt Wingfoot
- Introduced: 1966
- Tribal affiliation: Keewazi (a fictional tribe that derives its name from the Keewassee massacre…great)
- Skills (powerless): strength, speed, tracking, animal training
- Notable facts: Friend of the Human Torch, former lover of She-Hulk, and longtime associate of the FF
Warpath (James Proudstar)
- Introduced: 1984
- Tribal affiliation: Apache
- Powers: super strength, super speed, super enhanced senses (make him a good tracker)
- Notable facts: Longtime member of X-Force, X-Men, and X-Force (kill squad) who tries to live up to his older brother’s memory
Dani Moonstar
- Introduced: 1982
- Tribal affiliation: Cheyenne
- Skills (currently powerless): strength, speed, hand-to-hand combat, tracking ability
- Formerly: mirage-casting, psychic arrows, and psychic animal rapport
- Notable facts: Longtime member of the New Mutants X-Force, and teacher at Xavier’s Institute who has been a welcome member despite her power loss
Now that you’ve seen them, let’s look at some of the common factors:
1) There hasn’t been a significant indigenous character introduced since 1986, most being created between the years 1981-1986.
2) Almost all of the characters have portmanteau surnames
3) Almost all of the characters have similar backgrounds, dress, abilities, and powers that devolve them into living stereotypes
To be more specific, almost all of the characters on this list have the abilities of strength, speed, tracking, and animal rapport or transformation. Several more have spirit magic or a connection with some native force/deity. And almost all of them dress in something fringed, feathered, tasseled, or beaded and brandish knives, tomahawks, or bows.
To add insult to injury, the artists/colorists from the heyday in which these characters were front-and-center tended to give them “red face”. Exhibit A:
This affront further stereotyped indigenous peoples by associating them with antiquated ideas of the “red man”.
Worse still were a few attempts to cross the color barrier. The first, in 1979, was Snowbird—the child of an Inuit goddess—who looked anything but native. Now, if she had been born albino, that might be another story (and a cool connection to her name and power), but Marvel whitewashed her and still got to check off its diversity box. Another Inuit character (with white skin and red hair) was Harpoon, whose only indigenous marker was…yup…a harpoon.
Possibly more insulting was a storyline in The New Mutants in 1983 where two Caucasian people—Sharon Friedlander and Tom Corsi—were transformed by the Demon Bear into demon-possessed Cheyenne…bondage dolls? Magik was able to break the spell except for the racial change (cuz magic, yo). Although the intent—surely—was to allow a predominantly white audience an insight into what it might feel like to be outside of a life of white privilege, it ended up coming off like a bad episode of Quantum Leap.
Although there has been a push by Marvel in recent decades to be more inclusive, it seems that the indigenous characters (with a few exceptions) are being left out and left behind.
One plus in the last decade is in the characterization of American Eagle. For effect, here’s his initial costume, his reaction to his initial costume, and his new costume.
Writers realized that his character had a lot of potential, they updated him, and made him relevant again. He still had strong connections to his tribe (it being integral to the plot of Civil War and War Machine) but those ties strengthened him instead of held him back .Unfortunately, amidst news of Marvel releasing a new Red Wolf title, the reliance upon stereotypical imagery persists.
Over at ComicsAlliance, they said it best:
“Red Wolf looks even more out of place on that promo image when you compare him to who he’s standing next to. Sam Wilson is Captain America, full stop. Miles and Gwen are their spider-personas. Thor is simply Thor. Immediately to the left of Red Wolf is Ms Marvel, the poster child for the modern, diverse Marvel Comics. She looks strong and powerful, and while her costume is a nod to her Muslim American upbringing, it’s definitely from a modern context. You can look at Kamala and see how her background is reflected in her costume, but it’s not the primary visual identifier. She looks like a superhero. More importantly, she looks like someone I could meet. Red Wolf looks like a Dead Indian [an old-fashioned, stereotypical image].”
Just as people in the queer community balk at stereotypical portrayals of GLBT individuals in comics, so should we have the same outrage at demeaning caricatures of other minority groups. We know what it feels like to be treated poorly based on someone else’s faulty ideas, and therefore we should stand up for others in the same predicament.
I have long been a proponent of having the world in comics be an accurate reflection of the world we live in. According to the 2010 Census, 5.2 million people in the United States identified as American Indian and Alaska Native, either alone or in combination with one or more other races. Additionally, both populations increased by 39 percent since 2000, averaging about 1% of the total US population.
And while that may seem like too small of a group to cater to, keep in mind that trans*people make up roughly the same percentage (and look at the push the comic industry is making to include trans* characters).
Here’s hoping that Marvel’s new Red Wolf series—made better by the recent news that cover artist Jeffrey Veregge (a member of the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe) will be consulting on characterization and design—will make the necessary steps to outgrow the archetype of the “savage native”. Here’s hoping that our indigenous brothers and sisters will see equal and fair representation in our lifetimes.
Oh, and Christopher Columbus is a DICK.
Put in your two cents in the comments below.
Follow me on Twitter @HeyMrTullyman
