Talk:Native Americans in popular culture

Merge proposal

 * Oppose The topic of Native Americans in popular culture is much more broad than stereotypes. Ideally it includes accurate representation, including self-representation, of Native Americans, as well as influences Native Americans have had on mainstream culture. -Uyvsdi (talk) 03:11, 13 June 2011 (UTC)Uyvsdi

Yikes!
The entry is quite disappointing. Short and choppy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.108.84.66 (talk) 18:56, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

Entry suggestion
An idea for an entry from a recent work, due to its potential significance in the history of native portrayals: The first two seasons of the Westworld series have several episodes dedicated to the "Ghost Nation", a fictional Native American people (based mostly on Plains Indian, horseman cultures) portrayed by the robots of the eponymous theme park. Due to the artificial nature of the theme park, the series' storyline presents the native characters in several varying perspectives - as positive stereotypes (romanticised "peaceful, noble savages, attuned to nature"), as negative stereotypes (vilified "savage Indian raider in war paint whose entire life revolves around attacking settlers") and a nuanced, humane, down-to-earth portrayal (as the robots gain consciousness and knowledge about the nature of their world, they grieve, they feel anger, they show deep altruism, personal flaws, as well as personal heroism and kindness). In this manner, the series' storyline explores the past portrayals of Native Americans on a metatextual level. It's also gradually revealed to the viewers that the native-themed robot characters grew to explore and understand the true nature of their world largelly on their own, without oversight (the first hint of this appears in "Dissonance Theory"). The majority of the spoken word in the episode "Kiksuya", where the Ghost Nation serves as the primary focus, is in subtitled Lakotan - probably the most extensive authentic portrayal of Lakotan or any Native American language on the small screen, to date. Only the protagonist of the episode (portrayed by Zahn McClarnon) speaks some English lines, in a brief not-in-character scene. In a previous episode of the series ("Reunion"), the same character has the personality of a skillful business salesman, without any external stereotypes associated with media portrayals of Native Americans. --ZemplinTemplar (talk) 03:44, 20 November 2018 (UTC)