Is it racist to give a Native American supersoldier tomahawks?

I had an idea for a multiplayer third-person shooter that's class based. But instead of standard military videogame classes like Sniper or Medic, each class would be a distinct character with a name and backstory. I was thinking of using the Street Fighter character design method of iconic (borderline racist) archetypes based on country - like how Zangief is the huge, slow Russian, or how Dhalsim looks like he walked off the set of The Temple of Doom, and Blanka is based on the harmful stereotype of green electric Brazilians.

The setting is in the near future and the cast would be made of up supersoldiers from various countries wearing power armor. The character representing the US would be a Native American soldier, and he would be the vanilla balanced character of the cast - like Mario in Smash Bros, or Ryu in Street Fighter. He would also intentionally be the most visually "standard" looking supersoldier; very Halo-esq, so as to be non-intimidating to new players.

I was thinking of equipping him with tomahawks, not as his only weapons, but his signature melee weapons. While modern US soldiers do sometimes carry tactical tomahawks, I was wondering if it would be considered offensive to specifically give the lone Native american character, and only that character, tomahawks?

edited 29th Aug '13 10:36:17 PM by Amadeuscreed

huh? that would be like calling a lone samurai weilding a katana in a western setting racist.

Not particularly.

That said, I'd recommend making it clear that he's only using them because they're useful. Maybe even have him comment about the irony of it all.

edited 29th Aug '13 10:14:15 PM by Rem

I really need to visit Brazil one of these days.

I think it's a pretty safe thing to do, though as always the trick is in the implementation. If the cast is using power suits a stereotypical "Injun" tomahawk would probably not be able to bear the stress of that type of combat, whereas something like this◊ would seem more functional and less likely to immediately suggest unfortunate implications.

Does the character in question care about his own history?

Wait, do you mean the axes or the submarine-launched cruise missiles? Because I know which option I prefer.

^ Both. A pair of Tomahawk cruise missiles strapped to a backpack ready to fire and a set of Tomahawks slapped to my belt.

Kill an infantryman across the room/street by throwing the small ones and then kill his buddy on the other side of town with the cruise missile.

I wouldn't say that a modern - or fictional futuristic - soldier arming themselves with a "traditional" weapon is inherently racist...there are plenty of modern military units who carry a specific type of bladed weapon connected to their past. Ghurkas, for example, still carry kukri knives; it is both a traditional weapon and a symbol of their membership in an elite unit. Playing a Native unit as carrying / training with tomahawks for the same reason is totally within military lore.

Right. I would say that it's not racist if the tomahawks are used as/instead of other bladed tools a soldier could have and use in combat, like knifes or machetes. If not it could still be made to work. Making every character stereotypes and over the top is one way (,Like having the American Wearing a Flag on Your Head.) It sounds like what you are doing that so it should be fine.

edited 31st Aug '13 1:12:16 PM by m8e

Attach tomahawks to your tomahawks so you can axplode while you 'splode axes.

edited 10th Sep '13 2:02:15 AM by doorhandle

Prey has a native American protagonist who can come back to life by shooting a bow and arrow at evil spirits, and I don't remember any controversy over that game. As long as he isn't an over-the-top, deliberately offensive stereotype you should be fine.

edited 3rd Mar '14 8:05:09 PM by dvorak

Commenting on this old thread I stumbled across to add two cents: Even in the modern day, American soldiers (including those of white-bread European descent) have been known to carry tomahawks as part of their gear, for the same reson that many Boy Scouts carry hatchets: axes small enough to be easily portable can be very useful to have. You can even buy high-speed tactical tomahawks from various knife companies.

A quick read of the article I found from Google suggests that they're basically a traditional American weapon, though I don't know if soldiers from other countries didn't also routinely carry hatchets or other similar tools.

Well, in the case of the Tomohawk, they're arguably America's National Weapon, like what a Katana is to the Japanese. It'd be either that or the handgun-particularly the revolver.

What kind of Native American? Be specific and then you'll know whether or not you're being racist. If the character isn't Algonquian, it probably means you're treating "Native American" as a single monolithic culture rather than the patchwork of diverse cultures that pre-colonial America was. That would be racist, perhaps.

To answer the question: Not necessarily. I mean, if they're going to use a "Native American" weapon, they might as well be Native American.

For example, it's racist to assume all ethnically-Japanese people know how to use Katanas, but on the other hand if you're going to have a Katana-user, there's no reason not to have them be of Japanese descent. Aside from making your cast more diverse, it could go a long ways to justify their skills with the Katana. For example, they're descended from a Samurai and they want to follow in their ancestor's footsteps or the magical Katana of their ancestor is drawn to them. It takes a bit more effort to write a justification for a caucasian Katana-user.

I'd recommend using that type of justification for a Native American Tomahawk-user. They like their heritage, so they use a traditional Native American weapon. As said by others, make sure they're descended from a tribe that uses Tomahawks. Also, don't make the character too stereotypical.

I'm amused by the idea of a white-bread person who becomes a master of the Katana over many decades of training because they're just that kind of obsessive Japanophile. Same story should include a Japanese person who is an expert at quick-draw and marksmanship because he grew up obsessed with Westerns.

Apologies!

It's a part of his culture, it's only racist if you use it to degrade him or his ethnicity /make him a noble savage

As an Asian-American who's heavy on the American part, I love this sentence. Y'all don't know how sick we all are of seeing Asians/Asian-Americans be nothing but kung-fu masters and samurai.

I actually had an idea today about grizzled ballcaps and body armor special forces types who also are skilled in the Hollywood form of Ninja. Smoke bombs and backflips and sniper rifles and claymore mines, and of course a life-long rivalry with a Spetznatz Samurai opposite number.

One of those random shower plot ideas.

Like AFP said there's not just "Native American" there's literally hundreds of tribes out there and they all had their own unique history, culture, languages, religions, etc.

You're likely thinking of the Hollywood depictions of Sioux indians. Writing native american characters is extremely hard to do well because real natives are the HARSHEST, outright, HARSHEST critics of their portrayals. Rightfully so too due to them being portrayed as mindless savages since forever, and their history is STILL being whitewashed over to the point that you, a well meaning writer had to ask this question. That alone should tell you something.

My advice is if the character needs to be a Native American, seek out a tribe and learn information on that tribe so you can get in depth look at what it means to real natives to be native. To start your research try looking up the Sioux, Shoshone, Iroquois, and Navajo tribes as they're pretty well known. If the character is set in the time when the Western Frontier was still mostly indian land it might make more sense for him to carry something like that. In a modern setting a real native might find it superfluous to go around carrying a tomahawk. You might get away with it in a post apocaylptic setting if the character is using it as a symbol or keepsake of his heritage.

You CANNOT, repeat, cannot just put some feathers in a protaganist's hair and stick a tomahawk in his fist and call him an Indian. THAT is ignorant to say the least.

If you're looking for specific justification for it, there's a globally-recognized martial art called Okichitaw based on Plains Cree combat techniques, and one of their weapons of choice is the Tomohawk(although it's not the main weapon).

But, I will echo the sentiment that research is very important in these issues as well, and pick details carefully(For example, the discovery of the martial art in question is a major reason why a Native American character of my own is specifically Cree, and informed his Weapon Of Choice). Done right, you could help a group that doesn't have a lot of good representation by giving them a very strong and admirable example of their culture. Do it wrong, and you contribute to a really nasty trend of misrepresenting people who have dealt with a rather forceful erasure.