Native Americans in Video Games: Racism, Stereotypes, & The Digitized Indian

Tomahawks, bows and arrows, feathered headdresses, a connection to the spiritual world — these are just a few of the stereotypical elements associated with the “Indians” of popular culture. Generally, these features, among others, are mixed together and poured into a cliche “Native American” mould that characterizes them as either an outdated civilization of savages or romanticizes them as mystical, nature-loving warriors and shamans. This mould has only strengthened over time, and has taken form in a variety of entertainment mediums, starting with literature, then film, then television, and most recently, video games. A few notable Native American characters that have appeared in video games include Mortal Kombat‘s Nightwolf, a tribal warrior donning feathers and face paint, who wields a bow and arrows, a tomahawk, and can also transform into a wolf to defeat his adversaries, Street Fighter‘s equally stereotypical Thunder Hawk, and Banjo Tooie‘s magical shaman Humba Wumba, who lives in a “wigwam” and becomes oddly sexualized in the following game. We tend to glance over these highly stereotypical portrayals as fun and harmless, but can these simplified, misleading images of Native Americans have a negative impact on consumers? Many of these stereotypes, whether they have some sort of basis in history or not, are certainly not relevant to the contemporary Native American. In fact, the common perception of these people as antiquated and exotic could possibly hinder their ability to synthesize with mainstream society, as it greatly affects society’s understanding of them as well as their own sense of identity. That said, it’s interesting to consider the Native American’s place in video games over the past thirty years as they are certainly under-represented, occasionally portrayed in a negative light, and almost always plagued by long-established stereotypes that separate them from the dominant majority, just as they are in film and literature. So, here is a look at some of the most memorable characters and controversies that have punctuated the existence of the “Indian” in video games, accompanied by a discourse on how these trends can affect attempts at contemporary acculturation and hurt the image of Native American people.

Can you spot the similarities?

“How many kids will play this game and then carry what they’ve experienced into their interactions with real, live Apaches and other Native Americans?” the Association for American Indian Development asked video game publishing giant Activision in a public letter accusing the company’s 2006 PC and console title GUN of containing “some very disturbing racist and genocidal elements toward Native Americans”. The AAID went on to launch an online petition demanding that Activision “remove all derogatory, harmful, and inaccurate depictions of American Indians” from the game and reissue a more culturally sensitive version, threatening to campaign to have the game pulled from store shelves internationally. Although Activision thereafter issued an apology to anyone who may have been offended by the game, they justified the content of their product by pointing out that such depictions had already been “conveyed not only through video games but through films, television programming, books, and other media”. The AAID’s subsequent attempts to have the game recalled were barely acknowledged.

As evident in Activision’s defense of GUN, many negative stereotypes about Native American culture are so ingrained in mainstream media that the near-genocide of an entire culture is rarely treated with the same sensitivity with which we regard similarly tragic occurrences like the Holocaust, or African American slavery. The AAID argues that video games like GUN undermine the severity of the atrocities committed against First Nations tribes by the European settlers and marginalize this violence in a way that negatively affects the image of contemporary Native Americans. Millions of people play video games, and entertainment can leave long-lasting impressions on consumers, making it important to be able to criticize misconceptions and separate fantasy from reality. The impact of media on our mentality towards people and events certainly cannot be underestimated, so it is understandable that an organization such as the AAID should be concerned about what kind of images audiences are exposed to, but were their claims about GUN‘s potentially damaging effects warranted?

To the AAID’s credit, GUN certainly does exploit numerous Native American stereotypes, reinforces several misleading aspects of imagined Indian culture such as “Indian scalping” (which seems to exist only for the sake of increasing the game’s level of violence), and creates misconceptions about Indian traditions involving the killing of sacred white animals. The game also demands that players slaughter large numbers of Apache Indians in order to progress through one particular mission in the game. However, the material is not as slanted as the AAID suggests. In addition to killing Apache warriors, the main character Colton White also kills white men and white women, and actually befriends various Indians in the game, even helping the Apache and Blackfoot tribes defend themselves against unjust and corrupt whites. In fact, he eventually discovers that he himself is of Native American heritage, and switches sides to take down a malignant railroad tycoon named Magruder. So, while GUN certainly does reinforce a number of misleading Indian stereotypes, it is easy to see why the AAID’s plea was ignored. Ruthless violence against Indians is advocated throughout the game, but brutality is also encouraged towards many whites, hispanics, and so forth. Additionally, much of the violence towards Indians is contextualized as part of the attempt to protect migrant Chinese rail-workers from Apache raids as they work on a new train line. The story itself is one of redemption and revenge, and the story is never so simple as “wiping out the Apache” as the AAID would lead us to believe. Essentially, Colton’s adopted father Ned brought ruin upon the Apache tribe when he introduced them to a party of Confederates, including the aforementioned Magruder. As might be expected, the tribe was massacred by the settlers when they came in the way of “progress”. Seeking repentance for his mistake, Ned thereafter dedicated himself to a mission of revenge upon the Confederates. When he dies in Mission 3 of the story, the torch is passed to Colton.

Violence against Apache warriors in GUN.

Over the course of the story, Colton encounters many racist characters, including the sheriff Patrick Denton. However, these characters don’t exclusively hate Indians but are intolerant of all different races, creeds, and religions, not only spewing racist comments about Native Americans, but also about the Chinese, Irish, and Mexicans (they are essentially bigots). The story is never really framed from the racist-towards-Indians angle that the AAID claims, even considering the misconceptions about Native American culture that occasionally surface. Thus the issue is debatable. Regardless of the stance one takes on GUN‘s treatment of Indians, the controversy surrounding the game makes one wonder about the portrayal of Native Americans in other video games. After all, the AAID’s reaction to GUN was not the first time the issue of racism towards Natives has stirred up controversy in the industry.

Introducing one of the most offensive games ever created.

Twenty four years before GUN raised the eyebrows of Native American activists, a game called Custer’s Revenge was released for the Atari 2600. Whereas GUN‘s racist undertones are debatable, Custer’s Revenge is blatantly racist, extremely vulgar, and highly offensive, especially to Native American women. Made by now-defunct video game developer Mystique, which developed a number of pornographic video games throughout the 1980′s, the game is widely regarded as one of the most racist games ever developed. Mystique’s games were programmed in the United States, so one would think the creators would be imbued with a sense of cultural sensitivity for the people of that region, but this was certainly not the case with Custer’s Revenge. The game has players taking on the persona of a character named “Custer”, who is quite clearly inspired by George Armstrong Custer, a United States Army cavalry commander who fought in the Indian Wars, directly taking part in the slaughter of thousands of Native Americans before ultimately bringing about his own death and the defeat of his forces when he led them against numerically superior Indian forces at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Based on the game’s title, one would assume that he will somehow exact a post-humous revenge on the Indians for killing him and his men. And how exactly will Custer carry out his vengeance? By repeatedly raping an Indian women, of course. Oh, and by the way, “Revenge” is actually the name of the woman he rapes. His revenge thus takes the form of a brutal objectification of Native American women.

General Custer: naked, erect, and ready to offend thousands of people for years to come.

Yes, in the role of Custer, a man who took part in the killing of thousands of Native Americans in real-life history, players must weave through volleys of arrows in order to rape a naked, large-breasted Indian woman tied to a cactus. Of course, you would never know that she’s Native American were it not for the stereotypical feather in her hair and a teepee billowing smoke in the background. It’s interesting how these symbols can so easily establish the context for an otherwise generic — if disturbing — premise, isn’t it? Racist, misogynistic elements aside, the game itself is simple: dodge, rape, repeat. And the game gets more challenging each time you rape the Indian woman, and you will need to rape her many times indeed to get a good high score. That’s the experience in its entirety, and the game’s box exclaims that “she’s not about to take it lying down, by George!”, clarifying the intentions of the developers. The game’s designer, Joe Miller, claims that the purpose of his game was to get people “smiling” and “laughing”. Needless to say, many people were not as amused as Miller was when the game hit store shelves in 1982. Custer’s Revenge was met with considerable criticism from the enthusiast press and targeted by Native Americans, women’s rights activists, and various other groups for its racist and misogynistic content. American feminist Andrea Dworkin said that the game “generated many gang rapes of Native American women”, lawsuits abounded, and the game was eventually pulled off of the market. But only after selling around 80,000 copies, meaning that 80,000 people either laughed while they raped a naked, bound Indian woman against a spiky cactus, or cringed. Or something in between.

Racism and Misogyny in Action (uncensored).

Of course, the sexual objectification of Native American women in popular culture is not something that started with Custer’s Revenge. The image of the exotic “Indian Princess” is widespread, although usually not in such a graphic and violent manner. In the Disney films of Pocahontas and Peter Pan, in television, in literature from the early nineteenth century — this image is not something new or isolated. There is a book by M. Elise Marubbio titled Killing the Indian Maiden that looks in depth at these images as they appear in film, explaining how and why the “white male-dominated” film industry constructs Indian women as “subservient, simplistic, self-destructive” and desirable “Others”. The video games business is also a white male-dominated industry, and thus many of the ideas in Marubbio’s book can be applied to it as well. It’s worth checking out if you want to learn more about the driving forces behind these characterizations.

The sexualization of Native American women in video games did not stop with Custer’s Revenge, although it never again reached the same absurd level of offensiveness. The sexualization has continued into the new millennium, visible in Mature-rated games like Bonetown, Darkwatch, and even the all-ages game, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Characters like Darkwatch‘s Tala (also known as “Stalking Wolf”) are definitely a step up from the woman victimized in Custer’s Revenge, but are largely still the objects of white men’s lust. For example, by using her sex appeal, Tala seduces the story’s main character, Civil War veteran Jericho Cross, having sex with him in order to further her own needs. Tala is not only a temptress, but also a shaman with mysterious powers, adding typical “native mysticism” to her sexualization and laundry list of other stereotypical ‘Indian’ traits. Indeed, there is something about the mystical, exotic “Other” that holds deep appeal with audiences, and this appeal can be extrapolated beyond the boundaries of sexual objectification. That is to say that our attraction to the popular images of Native American culture is not limited to the eroticization of its females, but can be extended to our fascination with character archetypes such as the spiritual shaman, the noble savage, the skilled warrior, and so forth. With regard to these romanticized stereotypes that we find so enchanting, Michael A. Sheyashe, the author of Native Americans in Comics, writes that video games “target a young and impressionable audience and leave them with no idea who we are as Natives or what our viable culture is all about”. His statement rings true when we look at all the games out there that make their characters “Indian” by simply handing them bows and arrows, slapping war paint on their faces, putting feathers in their hair, or giving them mysterious spiritual powers, in addition to other superficial qualities that are not at all relevant to contemporary Native American culture. The naked woman of Custer’s Revenge is the sad extreme of these romanticized misconceptions, and the warriors dancing around fires in Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs to bolster their powers is an example the typical.

Tala, as featured in Playboy’s ‘Videogames’ Hottest Chicks’ Issue.

One of the first encounters I had with “Indians” in video games as a child was took place via the Turok series. The first entry in the series, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, was released in 1997 and was one of the first blockbuster video games to feature a Native American as the central protagonist. The main character was a warrior named Tal’Set, who was charged with stopping the evil Campaigner from using a powerful, ancient weapon to control the universe. In the series mythos, each generation the title of “Turok” is passed down to the tribe’s eldest male, who must then guard the barrier between Earth and the Lost Land; the same barrier that the Campaigner wishes to break. The Lost Land is a primitive otherworld of sorts that is inhabited by dinosaurs, animals, and is entirely segregated from the struggles of modernizing humanity. It seems so typical that Native Americans would have this connection to another mystical, spiritual world, doesn’t it? This native mysticism is bolstered in Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, which introduces an “Energy Totem” and magical talismans that grant special powers to the new Turok, Joshua Fireseed. Simply put, Turok embraces the same stereotypes that have clung to the Indian culture constructed in popular media for the past several hundred years. A mystical connection to the spiritual world, superb tracking and sneaking abilities, bows and arrows, tomahawks, feathers — the staples of “Indianhood” are in full bloom. An important part of the series involves facing off against dinosaurs in the Lost Land, and who better to overcome nature’s greatest beasts than those whom we perceive as nature’s greatest hunters? The Turok series, while colouring Native Americans as cool and powerful, reinforces stereotypes that paint Indian culture as something ancient and segregated from the rest of the world. The games never delve into the cultural background of the characters beyond their bows and arrows, hunting, and the usual mill of superficial features. Tal’Set, Joshua, and the other Turoks are “Native” simply because of the stereotypical qualities that we accept as the basis for being such.

Various Turok game covers. Check out those savage beasts and savage hunters.

Although it was great to see Native American characters at the helm in a series of million-seller video games for the first time, Turok never gave its protagonists personalities that extended very far beyond the conventional, run-of-the mill Indian stereotypes that have persisted for centuries. Recently, however, a game titled Prey was released that attempts to explore its Indian characters at a deeper level. Like Turok, Prey casts a Native American as the protagonist. However, Cherokee tribe member Tommy Tawodi is very different from Tal’Set and Joshua Fireseed. Unlike those characters, Tommy ditches decorative feathers and war paint, puts on a shirt, and dresses in contemporary fashion. Prey makes it clear that Tommy and the other Cherokee are characters of the modern world — not members of an exotic, extinct culture of the past. Tommy is interesting compared to most Indian characters in popular entertainment in that he wants to break away from the traditions of the Cherokee, dislikes life on the reservation, and is spiteful of those around him who are caught up in cultural customs and humdrum. The game begins in a rundown bar on the tribe’s reserve. As Tommy walks out of the bathroom and players see lines of gambling machines, one can’t help but connect the setting to contemporary Indian stereotypes, but Tommy’s dialogue soon establishes the setting as something intended to raise questions about Native American identity. After a short period of time on the reserve, Tommy and the other Cherokee are abducted by aliens and brought to a mysterious ship.

Experience Prey’s story up to and including the abduction.

The plot sounds a bit ridiculous, but the atmosphere and storytelling are solid. As one might anticipate, Tommy’s “mystical Indian heritage” comes into play aboard the ship, as Tommy is able to use his previously unrealized spiritual powers to destroy foes with a magically enhanced bow and arrows, sense impending threats, see paths that others cannot, and so forth. These abilities reek of conventional “native mysticism”, but Tommy must ultimately accept the value of his people’s unique connection to their ancient beliefs and spirituality. Tommy’s spiritual abilities, while typical of the “mystical Indian” image, are clearly intended as a way of allowing for innovative gameplay and not merely as a superficial inclusion, so the realm of senseless stereotyping is generally evaded in this regard. The game’s story is closely tied to Tommy’s perception of himself as a Cherokee, ending with Tommy in a state of bliss about his Cherokee heritage. The personal journey during which Tommy gains confidence in his identity as a Native American is both unique and charming considering the typical flat portrayal of Indian characters in popular culture. Tommy’s voice actor, Michael Greyeyes, laments that Hollywood “typically relegates different indigenous cultures into either a single pan-Indian construct” (eg. radical protestor, anglicized casino businessmen) or “most commonly, as a historical figure — typically from a Plains culture”, and states that he was excited to voice Tommy because he breaks away from these stereotypes. Greyeyes excitement was well-founded, as Tommy is neither a typical Indian stock character nor an outdated “noble savage”. Prey takes a step away from typical Indian stereotypes by offering a complex character who is not the typical Indian of popular culture. The game draws heavily on Cherokee myths and falls back on a few cliches, but ultimately offers a refreshing attempt at telling a story about Indians for a mainstream audience. One can only hope that this trend will continue, and that Native American protagonists continue to break from traditional character roles and time-hardened stereotypes.

Tommy Tawodi: A new kind of Native American hero.

Based on your own experiences with supposed “Indian” culture in interactive entertainment, what do you think about the portrayal of Native Americans in video games? Are recent games, such as 2010′s Red Dead Redemption, making progress in depicting Indians that aren’t trapped by traditional character archetypes? Persistent stereotypes, presented through film, literature, video games, and other media, can damage society’s perceptions of visible ethnic groups, and there are numerous misconceptions about Native Americans that are held up by the stereotypes existing in video games. Are we headed in the right direction?