History Main / InjunCountry

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E20JourneysEnd Journey's End]]" where [[CreatorsPet Wesley Crusher]] gets superpowers over time and space while the main cast is busy [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything forcing the tribe of Written By White Men to resettle on another planet because their current one was given away in a treaty to some pale skinned aliens.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Turok}}'' is a time-travelling Native American who hunts the most dangerous game -- no, not [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame that one]]--dinosaurs.

* ''VideoGame/{{Turok}}'' is a time-travelling Native American who hunts the most dangerous game--no, not [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame that one]]--dinosaurs.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS01E06Shapes Shapes]]" is set on an Indian reservation whose elders complain about people turning away from their old beliefs. An Indian Reservation in Montana [[CaliforniaDoubling that looks a lot more like the west coast of British Columbia]]. Thankfully, the native people shown avert both the NobleSavage and Casino Indian stereotypes.

This is a {{Setting}} that broadly covers the locations where Indigenous Americans (also [[UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} First Nations]]) can be found.

The characterization of Injun Country has changed over the years. It began as a staple of TheWestern and tabloid entertainment, where American expansion brought white settlers into conflict with natives in TheWildWest. In these works, the Native Americans were depicted as HollywoodNatives or [[TheSavageIndian bloodthirsty savages]], with a "primitive" lifestyle and the ever-present threat of a scalping. Sympathetic Native characters were almost always [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy honorable brave]] collaborators with whites, while "Half-Breed" characters could go either way.

This is a {{Setting}} that broadly covers the locations where Native Americans (also [[UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} First Nations]]) can be found.

Unlike other settings, there is no common physical aspect to this trope, as RealLife Native Americans are diverse groups that have lived in a variety of places, such as the lush forests of the Appalachian Highlands, the semi-arid flatlands of the Great Plains, and the Intermontane Plateaus of the west. Instead, Injun Country as used in media is a state of mind -- a place where the normal rules of the Civilized World do not apply, broached only by those daring enough to venture into the unknown.

The characterization of Injun Country has changed over the years. It began as a staple of TheWestern and tabloid entertainment, where American expansion brought white settlers into conflict with natives in TheWildWest. In these works, the Native Americans were depicted as HollywoodNatives or [[TheSavageIndian bloodthirsty savages]], with a "primitive" lifestyle and the ever-present threat of a scalping. Sympathetic Native characters were almost always [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy honorable brave]] collaborators with whites, while "[[MixedAncestry Half-Breed]]" characters could go either way.

-->-- Jaye, ''Series/{{Wonderfalls}}''

* ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS01E06Shapes Shapes]]" is set on an Indian reservation whose elders complain about people turning away from their old beliefs. An Indian Reservation in Montana [[CaliforniaDoubling that looks a lot more like the west coast of British Columbia]]. Thankfully, the native people shown avert both the NobleSavage and Casino Indian stereotypes.

* In ''Series/TheSopranos'', Tony Soprano visits an Indian casino that is owned and run by a shady white businessman with perhaps a drop of Indian ancestry.
* ''Series/FTroop'' was almost ahead of its time on this trope, portraying the Hekawi tribe as a harmless group of schemers who are solely interested in making business deals with white settlers. Much of the characterization of the tribe is actually based around Yiddish comedy, to the point that the show teases the myth that they're [[AmbiguouslyJewish the lost 13th tribe of Israel]].
* In ''Series/{{Deadwood}}'', the camp is illegally built on Sioux territory, causing conflict with the local tribesmen. The trope is essentially a {{Reconstruction}} of its original role in Westerns. The Sioux are largely just the faceless Threat From Without, and are seen committing random raids and murders. At one point, Bullock gets into a mano-a-mano with a ProudWarriorRaceGuy who thought shooting him would be too easy.
* In ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', Pawnee was founded in Injun Country. Many of the [[DeliberateValuesDissonance flagrantly politically incorrect murals]] in city hall depict the brutal confrontations between the settlers and the Indians (mostly slaughters and warcrimes committed against the Wamapoke).
** In one episode, the tribal chief objects to the massive fair Leslie is trying to organize because it takes place on the site of one such massacre. The two of them actually have a lot of mutual respect and a friendly relationship, and while she's sympathetic to his point she argues there's nowhere else to hold it (and few places in the town were ''not'' the site of massacres). He stirs up a scandal that could tank the fair with the threat of an Indian curse while privately laughing about how white people always fall for that kind of nonsense. In the end, they reach a compromise by putting an exhibit about the tribe's history (and ads for their modern casino) right at the entrance to the fair, where everybody will have to walk through it first.
* Being about a travelling circus on the American frontier, ''Series/FrontierCircus'' often takes place in Indian country. The Indians are often painted as a vague background threat, with the encounters with the tribes being hostile or friendly as the plot demands.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E59AHundredYardsOverTheRim A Hundred Yards over the Rim]]", Charlie, a member of Chris Horn's wagon train in 1847, is worried about being attacked by the Apache as the expedition is approaching their territory.
* Series/BombPatrolAfghanistan'': Valid arguments can be made that this bomb squad is operating in a modern (21st century / post-9/11) version of this trope. They are definitely in a land inhabited by hostile natives.

* You guessed it. ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}''. No matter what setting, there are "Indians" around. In the original Weird Western setting, Native Americans have carved not one, but two sovereign nations out of American soil. By the time ''Deadlands: Hell on Earth'' rolls around, the "Coyote Confederation" is a defunct wasteland, while the "Sioux Nations" remains one of the few pleasant places anywhere on the planet. ''Deadlands: Lost Colony'', as a SpaceWestern, uses the native sentient beings of planet Banshee as [[FantasyCounterpartCulture ersatz Indians.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Gun}}'' features Blackfoot and Apache natives as antagonists/sympathetic allies/victims in need of saving. The protagonist, Colton Reed, is half-white, half-native.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'' has a half-British/half-Mohawk protagonist who gets himself caught up in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution. He's also from a village known as Kanatahséton, located in [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState upstate New York]] which was then a part of the American frontier.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Peter pulls into an Indian casino as an emergency rest stop, and while he's in the restroom, Lois gambles away the family car. Peter must then try and convince the operators he's a member of the tribe, in order to participate in the tribal profit-sharing, and get the car back.

* ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' has a bunch of Indian ghosts building an absurdly huge casino in the house's backyard. Captain Hero and Spanky Ham start making money with fraudulent bets, while Foxxy Love and Princess Clara start a strip club in the house.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' featured the Great Plains flavor of Injun Country, complete with teepees, feathered headdresses, and a tribe of nature-loving NobleSavage buffalo who come into conflict with the local town of WildWest ponies.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'' features an Indian reservation as a setting for one episode, highlighting some problems that a few reservations face. (Land not suitable for farming cash crops leading to low development) Looten Plunder tries to irrigate it, and [[PetTheDog does give the residents paying jobs]], but [[WellIntentionedExtremist didn't quite think it through, resulting in environmental damage]]. By the end of the episode, the natives go back to farming, but they farm crops that are native to the territory ''and'' set up wind turbines.

* ''ComicBook/{{Scalped}}'' is set in the criminal underworld of a fictional Lakota Souix reservation in South Dakota, with the town's mob boss setting up a new casino.
* The Saint of Killers' backstory in ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' involves him rescuing a young woman from Injun Country. When she tells him about the horrible things they did, he tells her bluntly that they learned it from the whites. While in reality Native American tribes were no strangers to brutality, they did learn scalping from Europeans during the French and Indian War.

* ''{{ComicBook/Jeremiah}}'': In a twist, the surviving Native American tribes managed to create functioning nation-states with their own military to police and sometimes conduct raids against white nearby settlements.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'' is part of the modern wave of portraying an idealized version of Indian society. This isn't as bad as it could have been, since other than the title character they are ''exactly'' as quick to violence as the colonists, as in they both launch their sneak attacks on the other at the same time.
* ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'' portrays Injun Country as dangerous, but ultimately the Indians are more sympathetic than the dastardly white pirates. The Indians have both teepees and totem poles, but they are part of a MagicalLand to begin with.

* ''Film/DancesWithWolves'' has both extreme flavors of the trope. The Pawnee tribe is purely malevolent, slaughtering a harmless white man for entering their land. The Lakota tribe, however, are proud, noble, far superior to the madness of white society, and tragically doomed. Many Lakota were not happy about being portrayed as helpless innocents in need of a MightyWhitey while the Pawnee were offended for being portrayed as AlwaysChaoticEvil.

* The films ''Film/SmokeSignals'' and ''Film/TheBusinessOfFancyDancing'' are insider views of present-day Indian reservations, and examine the issues that modern Native Americans face. Both films were written, and the latter directed, by Sherman Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene author, screenwriter, and poet.
* ''Film/TheIronHorse'' involves the people building the Transcontinental Railroad struggling to fight off attacks from the Cheyenne--who are struggling to destroy something that is a mortal threat to their way of life.

* In ''Film/{{The New World|2005}}'', the Virginian Powhatan tribe is portrayed, and they are much different from the standard Great Plains stereotype. Though ominous and warlike at first, they enjoy a much more favorable portrayal then the initial white settlers. The Powhatan are shown to be clean, fit, and prosperous, while the English fort is filthy and filled with sick, hideous, mean people. As the film goes on, however, Pocahontas learns to appreciate English culture as well, and she is enchanted by England when she visits it.
* In the film ''Film/ThreeTenToYuma2007'', the party passes through Injun Country and gets attacked at night by some fairly stereotypical braves, who are barely visible in the darkness.
* ''Film/TheOutlawJoseyWales'' takes place in a revisionist Injun Country. The primary conflict is between white soldiers on opposite sides of the Civil War. Josey acquires an Indian companion who grouses about the white man but also subverts various stereotypes. While holed up in a ranch house that has been fortified against Indian attack, Josey has a heart-to-heart with the honorable chief of the local tribe to avoid a conflict with them.
* ''Renegade'' (aka ''Film/{{Blueberry}}'') features a white lawman who was adopted into an Indian tribe in his youth. He lives with one foot in his white frontier town and one foot in Injun Country. Indians are portrayed as wise and mystical people whose knowledge of hallucinogens ultimately allows the hero to achieve a climactic epiphany.
* ''Film/{{Maverick}}'' subverts the classic Wild West Injun Country. Maverick's Indian friend is a sly, greedy conman who helps Maverick pull a trick on his companions and bilks money from a wealthy white hunter, who wants the Indians to behave like they do in the books. He also remarks that while they tend to choose nice spots they've only been in the current location a short while after being forcefully removed from their ''actual'' home territory, and if it happens again they're settling in a swamp in the hopes people will leave them the hell alone.
* In ''My Little Chickadee'', a train passing through Injun Country gets attacked by stereotypical Indian braves on horseback. Mae West makes wisecracks as she guns a few down from a cabin window.
* In ''Film/{{Appaloosa}}'', the heroes chase the villains into Injun Country. When they're all attacked by a war band, the white folks all agree to a truce until they get out of Injun Country.
* In ''Film/{{Stagecoach}}'', the stagecoach enters Apache country and must ultimately flee from a swarm of angry Apaches giving chase.

* Parodied in the western comedy ''Film/TheVillain''; there's a literal white line drawn across the desert, and when some pursuing Indians reach it, they screech to a stop; the one guy who tumbles across hurriedly scrambles back.
** And, it's Indian ''county''.
* In ''Mans Favorite Sport'' (in 1964, no less) included an Indian huckster, John Screaming Eagle.
* Hilariously lampooned in ''Film/CannibalTheMusical'', where Alfred Packer and his party pass through a Ute settlement. All of the Native Americans are played by ''Japanese'' actors. There's even a scene showing the tribal warriors practicing their katas in front of teepees made from Japanese flags. The chief points out all the stereotypical aspects of their camp and dress to try to convince the whites that they're genuine.
* Played for laughs in ''Film/LightningJack'', where the title character is chased by angry natives after an attempt to negotiate fail. The leader stops persuit almost immediately since even he isn't sure what the issue is; when we finally get subtitles it turns out that Jack, who speaks a bit of several native languages but isn't fluent in the local one, had unknowingly spouted complete gibberish that one of the warriors interpreted as name-calling. The rest of the band just laugh at the guy and leave the heroes alone.
* The movies based on the stories of Creator/KarlMay (see under literature) were little better in that regard. Being [[CaliforniaDoubling shot in Croatia]] did little to help. The Film/DEFAWesterns inspired by the West-German Karl May movies at least tried to portray real historic characters and events, but were not shot anywhere close to the real US either, for obvious reasons.[[note]] The DEFA being an East German company during the cold war and all[[/note]]
* ''Film/TheBigTrail'', starring a young Creator/JohnWayne, centers on a settler's wagon train that has to make it through Injun Country. In one scene Wayne talks the train past a band of Cheyenne by promising not to settle in their territory (they're headed for Oregon). In another scene the train isn't so lucky, and they have to circle the wagons and fend off another band of Indians.
* The Indians are a background threat through most ''Film/CanyonPassage'', with rumours of attacks and deaths filtering in to town. Then Bragg provokes them into a full-scale uprising. Interestingly, early on Dance observes that the land was originally the Indians' and that folks would do well to remember that in their dealings with them: an enlightened sentiment for both the time the movie is set ''and'' the time it was made.
* The train in ''Film/BreakheartPass'' is headed into a region that is being plagued by the renegade White Hand and his braves.
* ''Film/JohnnyReno'': Stone Junction is located inside Indian Territory. That makes the murder of an Indian inside town limits serious business, as it becomes a Federal case.
* Much of ''Film/{{Tumbleweed}}'' takes place in Yaqui territory where the chief Aguila has declared war on all white men.

* In ''Film/SevenWaysFromSundown'', Seven and Flood are attacked by Apaches after they stray on to Apache sacred lands.

* In ''Film/TheChargeAtFeatherRiver'', the Cheyenne are on the warpath due to the incursion of the railroad into their lands. Archer and the Guardhouse Brigade have to infiltrate deep into Cheyenne territory to rescue two white women being held prisoner by the Cheyenne.

* In ''Film/TheOutlawsIsComing'', BigBad Rance Rodan's plan is to wipe out all the buffalo and force the Indian tribes to go on the warpath.

* ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' by Creator/CormacMcCarthy features white American bounty hunters venturing into Mexican lands to kill the Native Americans and Mexican settlers they find there. The first band, led by Captain White, gets slaughtered by a large and militant band of Native Americans, but the second band, led by Glanton and the judge, carves a bloody path through injun country.

* [[TheCaptivityNarrative "Captitivity Narratives"]] featuring white Puritan girls getting captured by Indians and forced to live with them were popular between the 17th and 19th centuries. The archetypical example would be ''Literature/ANarrativeOfTheCaptivityAndRestorationOfMrsMaryRowlandson'', a true, autobiographical story.
* ''Literature/AroundTheWorldIn80Days'' uses the first characterization: On their way to New York our heroes' train is ambushed by a considerable number of Sioux. This is likely because Verne preferred to run with popular -if unflattering- stereotypes, possibly as satire.

* The works of 19th century writer Creator/KarlMay are the uber-example of this trope for anyone who learned to read in German as a kid. Despite never having been to the then still Wild West himself,[[note]]presumably because he spent several years in prison for fraud[[/note]] he wrote vivid first-person accounts of "his" encounters with NobleSavage Apache Literature/{{Winnetou}}.
* The trope was to a large extent first codified in the works of [[Literature/TheLeatherstockingTales James Fenimore Cooper]] which stress how much the Indians - both [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality "heroic" and "villainous" ones]] are attuned to their environment. Although his writings may [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny not be to the tastes of many modern readers]], they were [[FairForItsDay very progressive for the time]] and earned Cooper a lot of hate e. g. from politicians who then set in motion the displacement of Native Americans from their home. The popularity of Creator/MarkTwain's attempt at literary patricide, [[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hns/indians/offense.html "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses,"]] did not help.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'' has a half-English/half-Mohawk protagonist who gets himself caught up in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution and he's from a village known as Kanatahséton, located in [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState upstate New York]] which was then a part of the American frontier.

* One of the ''Series/AufWeidersehenPet'' series has a back-story involving an Indian tribe buying the Middlesborough Transporter Bridge and re-erecting it in the desert as an attraction for their casino. Of course, our heroes get the job ... ''ItMakesSenseInContext''

* ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Shapes" is set on an Indian reservation whose elders complain about people turning away from their old beliefs. An Indian Reservation in Montana [[CaliforniaDoubling that looks a lot more like the west coast of British Columbia]]. Thankfully, the native people shown avert both the NobleSavage and Casino Indian stereotypes.
* The painful last-season episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' where [[CreatorsPet Wesley Crusher]] gets superpowers over time and space while the main cast is busy [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything forcing the tribe of Written By White Men to resettle on another planet because their current one was given away in a treaty to some pale skinned aliens.]]

* In ''Film/TheNewWorld'', the Virginian Powhatan tribe is portrayed, and they are much different from the standard Great Plains stereotype. Though ominous and warlike at first, they enjoy a much more favorable portrayal then the initial white settlers. The Powhatan are shown to be clean, fit, and prosperous, while the English fort is filthy and filled with sick, hideous, mean people. As the film goes on, however, Pocahontas learns to appreciate English culture as well, and she is enchanted by England when she visits it.

Unlike other settings, there is no common physical aspect to this trope, as RealLife Native Americans are diverse groups that have lived in a variety of places, such as the lush forests of the Appalachian Highlands, the arid deserts of the Great Plains, and the Intermontane Plateaus of the west. Instead, Injun Country as used in media is a state of mind -- a place where the normal rules of the Civilized World do not apply, broached only by those daring enough to venture into the unknown.

* ''Film/DancesWithWolves'' has both extreme flavors of the trope. The Pawnee tribe is purely malevolent, slaughtering a harmless white man for entering their land. The Lakota tribe, however, are proud, noble, far superior to the madness of white society, and tragically doomed. Many Lakota were not happy about being portrayed as helpless innocents in need of a MightyWhitey.

* "Captitivity Narratives" featuring white Puritan girls getting captured by Indians and forced to live with them were popular between the 17th and 19th centuries. The archetypical example would be ''A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson'', a true, autobiographical story.

* ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}'' is part of the modern wave of portraying an idealized version of Indian society. This isn't as bad as it could have been, since other than the title character they are ''exactly'' as quick to violence as the colonists, as in they both launch their sneak attacks on the other at the same time.
* ''Disney/PeterPan'' portrays Injun Country as dangerous, but ultimately the Indians are more sympathetic than the dastardly white pirates. The Indians have both teepees and totem poles, but they are part of a MagicalLand to begin with.

Unlike other settings, there is no common physical aspect to this trope, as RealLife Native Americans are a diverse group that have lived in a variety of places, such as the lush forests of the Appalachian Highlands, the arid deserts of the Great Plains, and the Intermontane Plateaus of the west. Instead, Injun Country as used in media is a state of mind -- a place where the normal rules of the Civilized World do not apply, broached only by those daring enough to venture into the unknown.