A revolutionary joke about the lives of Native Americans

“Are you a crazy horse?” The bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) listens in amazement to the sight of him riding towards himself from the fog. The man without the saddle on the horse, with a bare body and a pair of feathers on the back of the head, appears to have gone straight out of an old American west. The young man thinks he is confronted with the ghost of one of the most famous warriors of Native American history. One of the heroes of the Battle of Bicorn was Colonel Custer killed in 1876. Crazy horse or sitting bull.

But the man must have deceived him. He is not one of them. “Wonderful guys“, He says with a remarkable modern American accent. He is still an unknown warrior. He was in that glorious battle, but his horse stumbled into a hole and rolled over before he could fight. Since then, he has wandered the spirit world to recover lost souls. No fun.” “The spirit world is cold,” he tells the bear. “My nipples will always be hard.”

This illusion was discussed halfway through the first episode of the comedy series Booking dogs, Four Native American youths who do not want to leave the Oklahoma reservation for sunny and exciting California. This scene is a great example of how many people still find the series funny about the same image of Native Americans.

After all, the Unknown Warrior is not the Native American of American cinema history. He’s a little cheating, not very impressive or dangerous. Above all: fun. According to showrunner and writer Sterlyn Harjo, the series was co-produced by New Zealand filmmaker Tiki Waiti (Half Mori), a member of Seminole Nation of Oklahoma.

“We’re zombies, aren’t we? The walking dead. We faceless, soulless creatures, John Wayne and all the other cowboys must be eliminated in the name of Western expansion,” he said on the radio show. Morning version. Repeated for decades in American movies and series, it is a film that many people think of first when talking about the original inhabitants of the continent. Harjo: It is difficult for many to understand that this representation is not accurate. And this character refers to it. In doing so, we also engage the non-tribal public in humor. The character says, I know you think we’re like this, but let’s laugh about it together. “

Hurtful stereotype

No Booking dogs We need to do this in 2021 to see how under-represented this population group is in Hollywood. The stereotypical character may have faded into the background recently, thanks to the awareness of how much it really hurts, but that doesn’t mean that many realistic portrayals of today’s tribal communities have taken its place. Creating a single-sentence supporting cast for an own character is often a job, Navajo filmmaker Sidney Freeland told me. At The Hollywood Reporter (Freeland directed two episodes Booking dogs) Is very common, this part of the American population is not visible on television.

So got it Great sky, A crime series about the search for two white women who went missing in Montana, has been criticized for completely forgetting that the state of Montana has a proportionate share of recently disappeared or murdered tribal women (only 26 percent of the missing in the state are part of the tribal community, only 7 percent of the population). “Ignoring this fact and giving this destruction a white, feminine face is the pinnacle of cultural insensitivity,” wrote a collection of indigenous groups. An open letter to the broadcaster NBC.

Go in the right direction

No Booking dogs For all these reasons it is revolutionary to focus entirely on the community of the four indigenous youth and the reservation in which they grow up. Just as the cast was made up of actors of almost indigenous backgrounds, the entire crew – including the entire writing team – came from the original people of North America. The latter in particular makes this series so real.

The series has been widely praised by American critics. The success of the series in the United States shows that it has an audience for stories about indigenous peoples. The second season has already been announced.

Stands alone Booking dogs American television is not on the landscape. Earlier this year, the American streaming service went peacock comedy Rutherford Falls The (white) founder was screened about a city that shook when the statue was moved. This series does not shy away from real, nuanced stories about local indigenous peoples. In addition, Netflix is ​​coming Spirit Rangers, An animated series about children who can turn into animal spirits. Producers go further Booking dogs Makes a Res Ball movie about the Native American basketball team.

This is still a small wave, but a significant step in the right direction for the representation of the original citizens of the United States. Especially after being ignored or misrepresented in pop culture for so long. -I believe in who the non-tribal people are Booking dogs Look at the original inhabitants of the United States and see how they really are, ”Harjo said In an interview with NPR. “We’re human. We’re funny. We’re more like non – original residents than they think.”