Nom Nom Humans

            While we were discussing things in class on Thursday, this video clip kept popping up into my head. It’s a bit from King of the Hill, that animated TV show that reruns on Adult Swim all the time. It you’re too busy to watch the clip, this is the gist: Bobby, the son, learned about Native Americans in school a few days before Thanksgiving because the one Native American in the town (John Redcorn) came to their school. Bobby was so intrigued that he goes way too far in his studies at the local bookstore. For thanksgiving, he makes a speech to his family and neighbors (including Redcorn) and presents them with a fake human head, like one of the tribes would have devoured ages ago.

            What isn’t shown in the clip is what kept playing in my head during class. John Redcorn turns to the boy standing next to him who is very disgusted and accuses Redcorn of eating people and declares, “That was hundreds of years ago! We don’t do that anymore!”

            In fact, if you’ve seen any episodes of the show, Redcorn is the “healer.” He does the new age type of medicine: massages, stones, candles, incense, music…you get the idea. Whenever he starts a speech about “his people,” the wind gently blows his long dark hair, giving him the very noble look of a classic noble Native American.

            We were discussing in class the idea that most portrayals of Native Americans are based in the past. The savages Columbus encounters, the Reds that attack Cowboy camps, etc. The notion of any Native is based in the past. There is rarely a portrayal of a Native in a modern day setting, except maybe for the alcoholic Native that lives in a trailer park. I’ve seen those portrayals.

            Which begs the question: which would the Native Americans rather see on a screen? At this point, it would take something drastic to really change how they are seen on television or on the movie screen. Which one is better? The noble savage, standing tall and proud amongst the crowd, giving off a sense of strength? Or the drunk that all the other characters walk pass and murmur sketchy things about?

            And this brings me to the genius idea that was mentioned much earlier in the class: leave them alone. To me, the smartest move with the highest probably rate of success is the “leave them along” campaign. To stop using their image in mascots, in plays, in movies, in television, anywhere. Let them purify the entertainment we see by letting the rest of us know that, when we see something “Native,” that it really does come from a Native American.

http://video.adultswim.com/king-of-the-hill/a-native-american-feast.html
(just watch the first clip that comes up, it rolls directly into the other clips that don’t have anything to do with this blog post)