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Native Americans in Comic Books: A Critical Study
This work takes an in-depth look at the world of comic books through the eyes of a Native American reader and offers frank commentary on the medium's cultural representation of the Native American people. It addresses a range of portrayals, from the bloodthirsty barbarians and noble savages of dime novels, to formulaic secondary characters and sidekicks, and, occasionally, protagonists sans paternal white hero, examining how and why Native Americans have been consistently marginalized and misrepresented in comics. Chapters cover early representations of Native Americans in popular culture and newspaper comic strips, the Fenimore Cooper legacy, the "white" Indian, the shaman, revisionist portrayals, and Native American comics from small publishers, among other topics.
223 pages, Hardcover
First published June 9, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 23, 2022
I found this to be a valuable resource when assessing comics and graphic novels for stereotypes and tropes. It is a bit outdated now, and the critiques do get repetitive at times, but I guess that is inevitable when authors make the same mistakes again and again.
September 5, 2013
Chris Rock said it in Bigger and Blacker, I think. "Indians got it bad. Indians got it the worst. You know how bad Indians got it? When's the last time you met two Indians? You ain't never met two Indians! Shit, I have seen a polar bear ride a f***ing tricyle in my lifetime - I have never seen an Indian family just chillin' out at Red Lobster."
And that right there is why we need this book. It is sadly, ridiculously easy for millions of Americans to go years – decades – a whole lifetime, sometimes! – without ever meeting an indigenous person. And if you've never met someone, it's even easier still to misrepresent them, or to accept misrepresentations at face value.
In this book, Mr. Sheyahshe does a tremendous job of tackling that very problem with a thoughtful, objective approach to indigenous characters in comic books. The plain fact is that these characters have been frequently stereotyped, often marginalized, and almost always written or drawn by non-indigenous artists. Outrage is only part of the solution – the rest lies in education, and that is overwhelmingly Mr. Sheyahshe's focus: he presents a variety of comic book titles and characters, from the Golden Age to the present, from Marvel and DC to the smallest of small indie presses, to demonstrate both positive and negative trends in indigenous portrayals.
My one gripe with this book is that its analysis is somewhat formulaic in places. It's clear that the author is working from seven or eight principal metrics (for example, whether the character uses limited or Tonto-esque English) and although they're all important, their inclusion in every single character study grates after awhile. It does not surprise me to learn that Forge does not speak Tonto-style, and I don't need a whole paragraph explaining why that's wonderful and important – especially after reading 12 similar paragraphs previously. I would much rather have read the author's thoughts on something unique and character-specific, like Forge's beard and 'tache. (Is it good to counter the stereotype of American Indians who magically never grow facial hair? Does it even matter?)
Aside from this approach to the character write-ups, however, I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who wants to help raise the bar for indigenous portrayals in fiction, either as an author/artist or as a more-discerning reader. And speaking of reading: this book has added considerably to my list. It features dozens of titles (sample pages faithfully reproduced), many of which Mr. Sheyahshe deems fair-to-fantastic, and several of which I'd never heard of. (Next stop: "Muktuk Wolfsbreath: Hardboiled Shaman"!)
In sum: if you're interested in the subject at hand and willing to mentally fast-forward through a modest amount of "yeah, I get it already", this book is well worth its hefty cover price. The truth is, we've always relied on fiction to introduce us to people outside our own community – and having a handy directory like this one beats loitering at Red Lobster any day.
And that right there is why we need this book. It is sadly, ridiculously easy for millions of Americans to go years – decades – a whole lifetime, sometimes! – without ever meeting an indigenous person. And if you've never met someone, it's even easier still to misrepresent them, or to accept misrepresentations at face value.
In this book, Mr. Sheyahshe does a tremendous job of tackling that very problem with a thoughtful, objective approach to indigenous characters in comic books. The plain fact is that these characters have been frequently stereotyped, often marginalized, and almost always written or drawn by non-indigenous artists. Outrage is only part of the solution – the rest lies in education, and that is overwhelmingly Mr. Sheyahshe's focus: he presents a variety of comic book titles and characters, from the Golden Age to the present, from Marvel and DC to the smallest of small indie presses, to demonstrate both positive and negative trends in indigenous portrayals.
My one gripe with this book is that its analysis is somewhat formulaic in places. It's clear that the author is working from seven or eight principal metrics (for example, whether the character uses limited or Tonto-esque English) and although they're all important, their inclusion in every single character study grates after awhile. It does not surprise me to learn that Forge does not speak Tonto-style, and I don't need a whole paragraph explaining why that's wonderful and important – especially after reading 12 similar paragraphs previously. I would much rather have read the author's thoughts on something unique and character-specific, like Forge's beard and 'tache. (Is it good to counter the stereotype of American Indians who magically never grow facial hair? Does it even matter?)
Aside from this approach to the character write-ups, however, I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who wants to help raise the bar for indigenous portrayals in fiction, either as an author/artist or as a more-discerning reader. And speaking of reading: this book has added considerably to my list. It features dozens of titles (sample pages faithfully reproduced), many of which Mr. Sheyahshe deems fair-to-fantastic, and several of which I'd never heard of. (Next stop: "Muktuk Wolfsbreath: Hardboiled Shaman"!)
In sum: if you're interested in the subject at hand and willing to mentally fast-forward through a modest amount of "yeah, I get it already", this book is well worth its hefty cover price. The truth is, we've always relied on fiction to introduce us to people outside our own community – and having a handy directory like this one beats loitering at Red Lobster any day.
January 13, 2018
There were some frustrations with this book. For example, most of the works focused on did not participate in certain pervasive stereotypes (at least not all of them), but the examples of the works that did use the stereotypes were not there. I suspect that means that someone with a greater knowledge of comics can get more out of the book.
That being said, what is in here is very valuable, and I would recommend it to any comic creator to be read before working with indigenous characters. Often the solution would be to have more indigenous creators, and I am in favor of that. Education of existing creators still has a lot of value, and reading this should open up a lot of new thoughts, preventing many errors that are easily taken for granted.
Especially helpful is a list of criteria that Sheyahshe uses in evaluating a work. Based on the appendix, it is clearly largely influenced by Raymond William Stedman's work in Shadows of the Indian, but that book covers many genres, whereas this is specific to comic books, so particularly helpful for that field.
That being said, what is in here is very valuable, and I would recommend it to any comic creator to be read before working with indigenous characters. Often the solution would be to have more indigenous creators, and I am in favor of that. Education of existing creators still has a lot of value, and reading this should open up a lot of new thoughts, preventing many errors that are easily taken for granted.
Especially helpful is a list of criteria that Sheyahshe uses in evaluating a work. Based on the appendix, it is clearly largely influenced by Raymond William Stedman's work in Shadows of the Indian, but that book covers many genres, whereas this is specific to comic books, so particularly helpful for that field.
January 12, 2025
It's good a book like this exists, but critically, the author is inconsistent with applying the same critique to more famous characters like Forge. Indigenous women get a whole chapter /s. This book uses some very outdated criteria like Tonto-speak and drunk Indian (Tonto) that unintentionally shows depictions from the 60s onward as better (but problematic). I got this book to see DC's Arak, but he gets one mention.
April 18, 2021
Informative, academic, and formulaic.
I learned a lot reading this book, but it’s not something I would recommend unless you’re a looking for a highly specific look into Native American representation in comics. The headers for these chapters were great, and at times I could read the salt coming off the pages.
An excellent resource, not an easy read. Would love to see an updated version someday with some prominent titles in the past decade featuring more and more indigenous characters
I learned a lot reading this book, but it’s not something I would recommend unless you’re a looking for a highly specific look into Native American representation in comics. The headers for these chapters were great, and at times I could read the salt coming off the pages.
An excellent resource, not an easy read. Would love to see an updated version someday with some prominent titles in the past decade featuring more and more indigenous characters
July 19, 2021
This was a good overview of how Native Americans have been represented in comic books. The writing is a little stilted at times, and the approach can be a little tedious, but Sheyahshe provides little flashes of humour here and there to lighten the proceedings.
February 18, 2017
This is a great introductory survey to the topic, as well as a light-hearted and humorous read. Sheyahshe combines clever quip with straightforward analysis, which makes this book both enjoyable and informative.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews