History Main / MagicalNativeAmerican

** Gateway was both far more mystical than Talisman (he never spoke) AND subverted the trope by being an airplane pilot in the alternate reality of The AgeOfApocalypse.

* The Wolves tribe of ''DigitalDevilSaga'' wear stereotypical Native-American clothes, can shape shift and use magic. The last two can be excused by all but one person in the game world doing it as well however.

* Subverted in OrsonScottCard's ''Literature/TheTalesOfAlvinMaker'' AlternateHistory series, where the Native Americans genuinely ''are'' magical, but so is everyone else in 19th century America. While the White Americans are hiring dowsers and crafting amulets, and the Black slaves are building Voodoo fetishes by candlelight, the Natives prance through the trees in tune with Nature's song, using blood magic to control animals and bend light around themselves. As a whole, most tribes responded to White agression by migrating West of [[IstanbulNotConstantinople the Mizzippy]] and closing down the river, while the Aztecs still dominate Mexico, using human sacrifice to fuel their magic.

A subtrope of EthnicMagician. Native Americans (or a race meant to be an {{expy}} of them) who possess powers because of their ethnicity. Often this involves stating that their power comes from innate spirituality or [[InHarmonyWithNature closeness to nature]] that "civilized" races don't have. Usually involves influence over nature, animals, or other spirit powers. Quite often, the Native in question will be [[BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins dressed very "traditionally"]] even in modern settings. May sometimes speak-um TontoTalk.

* Nanaki[[hottip:*:Red XIII's real name.]]'s people in ''FinalFantasyVII''. They are fire-tailed, talking red mountain lion who lives for centuries [[spoiler:as the ending cinematic shows]]. Their [[PlanetOfHats role]] is safeguarding Cosmo Canyon, the holy ground of the Study of Planet Life. The Cosmo Canyon has an [[TheThemeParkVersion overtly]] Native American theme. Nanaki's WeaponOfChoice are 'combs', feathers that adorn the headdress of a Native chief.

** In the TOS episode "Werewolf of the Timberland", White Feather can talk to animals and perform a StealthHiBye worthy of ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' himself.

* Hilariously subverted in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuestTheRealAdventures'', that ironically deals with Magical Native Americans. Jonny and co meet one old man who turns out to be completely ordinary person, who only knows Jonny's name because it's written on the dog's collar, and he only guessed that the enemy has a helicopter because he saw one recently, as opposed identifying the trail a helicopter would leave behind after taking off. Despite this, both he and his wife are sufficiently amused by the idea that they start acting as stereotypical native Americans for the rest of the episode, from referring to themselves as Indians, to calling Lorenzo 'white man', culminating in them honoring an old native tradition at the end of the episode.

* In ''{{Discworld}}'' fic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5315107/1/Small-medium-large-headache Small Medium, Large Headache]]'', Mrs Cake's spirit guide One-Man-Bucket makes an appearance. Eveybody knows Red Indian Spirit Guides are wise and compassionate spirit entities who work with mediums out of compassion for the human race and pass on the pure wisdom of their earthly lives, right? well, a new medium has arisen in Ankh-Morpork. And her Guides are the ''other'' sort of Indian. Ones to whom the word ''{{not-an-Apache}}'' are cognate with ''target'', ''victim'' or ''To be tied upside-down over a roaring fire until their skulls explode''.

--->"Don't plan to bind or banish you, [[{Skinwalker}} old ghost.]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Just gonna kick your ass up between your ears.]]"

* Parodied beautifully with deputy Wounded Bird from ''{{Rango}}'', no matter how much Rango would like to think it's being played straight.
--> '''Rango''': ''(as Wounded Bird scatters feathers in the wind)'' I see you're communicating with the spirits.
--> '''Wounded Bird''': No. I'm molting. It means I'm ready to mate.

* MercedesLackey is guilty of this trope by the use of the [[HeraldsOfValdemar Hawkbrothers]] who are almost magical, though there may be some subversion of it in their cousins, the Shin'a'in, who shun the use of magic completely (except when their ultra-magical goddess gets involved). There are actually good reasons for this, revealed over the course of the series. Shin'a'in who are found to be magically inclined are either trained as Shamans, or sent to the Hawkbrothers.
** But then again, magic use is represented heavily across all cultures in the Valdemar series; Lackey uses the stereotype but it's far from out of place in-universe.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' has Joseph Listens-to-Wind, also known as Injun Joe, genuine Illinois medicine man, senior member of the White Council and, by extension, one of the most powerful wizards in the world. He's described as having a great sense of empathy for animals and even has a pet raccoon. He's also [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld well over two (possibly three) centuries old]], so he's a MagicalNativeAmerican who remembers the better part of their history with the White Man. All in all, Listens-To-Wind is probably the least strained and most BadAss version of this trope. Ever.
--->"Don't plan to bind or banish you, old ghost. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Just gonna kick your ass up between your ears.]]"

* Xabbu, Renie's LoveInterest in ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'', is an African Bushman who was raised partly in the Bush and partly in a modern setting. His natural sensitivity to his surroundings comes in very useful once they become trapped in the Grail Network - this would be ironic considering it's really a vastly sophisticated ''simulation'', but it turns out that the [[AIIsACrapshoot operating system]] knows about this trope and is deliberately feeding him extra information. The first ''{{Otherland}}'' book also starts out with a foreword by Williams that basically says "Look, I know there are like fifty billion Bushmen tribes, and it turns out they all have their own completely unique and mutually exclusive religions, but I'm kinda gonna pretend there's only one for the sake of the story, okay?" Although, even within the story, it's only ''insinuated'' that !Xabu subscribes to a general "Bushman" religion; he's the only one we ever meet, so we don't really know the constrast between the tribes.

* Xabbu, Renie's LoveInterest in ''{{Otherland}}'', is an African Bushman who was raised partly in the Bush and partly in a modern setting. His natural sensitivity to his surroundings comes in very useful once they become trapped in the Grail Network - this would be ironic considering it's really a vastly sophisticated ''simulation'', but it turns out that the [[AIIsACrapshoot operating system]] knows about this trope and is deliberately feeding him extra information. The first ''{{Otherland}}'' book also starts out with a foreword by Williams that basically says "Look, I know there are like fifty billion Bushmen tribes, and it turns out they all have their own completely unique and mutually exclusive religions, but I'm kinda gonna pretend there's only one for the sake of the story, okay?" Although, even within the story, it's only ''insinuated'' that !Xabu subscribes to a general "Bushman" religion; he's the only one we ever meet, so we don't really know the constrast between the tribes.

* MercedesLackey is guilty of this trope by the use of the Hawkbrothers who are almost magical, though there may be some subversion of it in their cousins, the Shin'a'in, who shun the use of magic completely (except when their ultra-magical goddess gets involved). There are actually good reasons for this, revealed over the course of the series. Shin'a'in who are found to be magically inclined are either trained as Shamans, or sent to the Hawkbrothers.

* The Apache Tracker in ''WelcomeToNightVale'' puts on the act of being one of these, stereotypical feather headdress and all, despite being a man "of apparently Slavic origin." Cecil never skips an opportunity to point out that this caricature is racist and offensive, even after [[spoiler:the Apache Tracker mysteriously transforms into an actual Native American]].

[[folder:Film]]

* A humorous example is the "weird naked Indian" from ''WaynesWorld 2''. That was a parody of a more straightforward example: the almost naked Native guy from Jim Morrison's visions in Oliver Stone's ''The Doors''.

* When the revenge western ''SeraphimFalls'' veers into MagicalRealism in the third act, a Native American man played by Wes Studi appears to each of the two main characters by a water hole in the middle of a barren desert. He trades Pierce Brosnan's character some water for the horse that Brosnan had stolen from Liam Neeson, then gives Neeson the horse for free. When Neeson gives him money anyway, he discards the coins. His name is listed as Charon in the credits, and the film suggests that he's a demon who is engineering a final confrontation between the two nemeses.

* The main character of the short-lived FOX show ''NewAmsterdam'' was made immortal by a Native American shaman after taking a bullet meant for her.
* Mulder gets brought back to life by a Native American ritual after getting gassed in a boxcar full of dead alien hybrids on ''TheXFiles'', and later on fights a reanimated South American Shaman. The plot thread with the alien boxcar is subverted a bit, however, when Skinner has the idea to work with some Navajo World War II vets who were in the Codetalker program to "store" an account of what happened. Making it not a case of Native American Magic saving the day, but language.

* The DisneyAnimatedCanon is a double dose of this trope, with ''{{Pocahontas}}'' and ''BrotherBear''. ''Pocahontas'' is particularly {{egregious}} because they took a ''historical figure'' and gave her cute animal friends and a spirit guide. Pocahontas has fairly blatant magic, too: she becomes able to translate between her native tongue and English instantly upon meeting John Smith, as a gift from her Talking Tree spirit guide. She is also ridiculously [[FriendToAllLivingThings friendly to ]]''[[FriendToAllLivingThings all ]]''[[FriendToAllLivingThings animals]]: for instance, she can track a mother bear to her den and play with her cubs right in front of mama, [[MamaBear which is ]]''[[MamaBear not ]]''[[MamaBear behavior that is recommended to anyone ]]''[[MamaBear not ]]''[[MamaBear a super-powered shaman]]. She also has enough charisma to convert John Smith to her ways within hours of meeting him. In reality it seems to have gone quite the other way. Pocohantas converted to Christianity, changed her name to Rebecca, and married settler John Rolfe. Seems she went White-man in a big way.

* Subverted in the CiemWebcomicSeries: Imaki Izuki is half-Indian (partially Navajo and partially Apache) in [[UltimateUniverse the books]], although he is implicitly fully Japanese in the comics. He's the one who supplies Candi with her {{Magitek}} [[TeleportersAndTransporters Zeran accessories]] right before she finalizes the look of her Ciem identity with his help. Several in the village he takes her to in the books look like MagicalNativeAmerican types, but don't have any actual powers. Then there's "Jackrabbit," who's a [[MixAndMatchCritters Phexo]] mutant given [[InASingleBound kangaroo legs]]. Powers, yes; but no actual magic.

* More or less averted in the revival of ''AufWiedersehenPet'', where the native Americans don't have any real powers beside total lack of vertigo, and a plot-significant knowledge of local herbs.

* An episode of ''SoWeird'' takes place on a reservation and includes a tale of the Coyote Spirit who helps those lost in the woods. At the end of the episode, the coyote [[VolundaryShapeshifting turns into]] the Native American who told the story.