Satire is Not Stupid and the Stories We Tell are Important

"In the Great American Indian novel, when it is finally written,all of the white people will be Indians and all of the Indians will be ghosts." 
-Sherman Alexie

Satire is not stupid humor. Despite what Happy Madison Production thinks, satire is humor aimed to expose human folly and vice. It is usually subtle, intelligent and politically charged. Take for instance, the Native American poet and author Sherman Alexie in many of his works. A quick example is How to Write the Great American Indian Novel (quoted above), which understands and parades the Dominant narratives written about the eroticism of Natives in books.

Many Native writers and comedians utilize satirical comedy to overturn the Dominant narrative, which makes sense, since for centuries they've had to deal with the "Native Story" being told about/for them. Colonialist America wrote the story of the dangerous savage. The American Romantic period wrote the story of  the noble, stoic Indian warrior whose eventual death was regretful but imminent (Thomas King, The Truth About Stories). Contemporary America is torn between writing Native people as fuel for erotica or as silly caricatures.

Happy Madison seems to be leaning towards the caricature, so we aren't even trampling upon new, untouched offensiveness. It's all the same dull humor that pervades the Dominant narrative about what it means to be "Indian." So, if it's nothing new, business as usual, why are Native people suddenly all up in arms over a couple of ignorant jokes?  Why, wonder the producers of Adam Sandler's new movie, do they have to be so sensitive?  Here's why: Native people are getting fed up with the shit narratives the majority culture is writing for them. They have their own stories. And as Anishinaabe theorist and writer Gerald Vizenor and author Thomas King claim, "The truth about stories is that's all we are." 

 If the narratives I experience are all I am, then I want the stories (the movies, the poetry, the spirituality, the music, the news sources, the comedy) with which I fill my mind to paint something more complex, more human, more interesting than what Mr. Sandler has, thus far, come up with in his history of "comedy."

 As a mother to two beautiful nəxʷqi̕t nəxʷsƛa̕y̕em̕ children and wife to a nəxʷqi̕t nəxʷsƛa̕y̕em̕ Native lawyer, these things matter to me. I don't want my children growing up with the stories about minority culture I was raised on (cough, cough Pocahontas). I grew up on stories of Indian victimization, noble warriors, death and eroticism. When I met my husband and admitted to a coworker that I was interested in him she told me, "Be careful. Indian men only want sex. They're horny bastards." I said, "Really? All of them?" (Read sarcasm because she didn't). She answered, "All of them." 

The Dominant narrative is being called into question in a lot of areas these days: rape culture, gender and sexual orientation and minority rights. It's uncomfortable to realize that your entire life you've been programmed to think racist, sexist and erroneous things about almost every minority in our fair country. But that's how it is. Brushing it off and calling those who are upset by ignorant comedy "too sensitive" is lazy.

 It's 100% okay that many Native people, including my students at the Northwest Indian College, were offended, enraged and shocked that Native representation is so stilted, stuck in John Wayne Western stereotypes. Allison Young, a Navajo film student working on the Sandler film, expressed this frustration perfectly when she told Indian Country Today, "Nothing has changed. We are still just Hollywood Indians.”

Is it any wonder that actors  who were assured that they would be treated respectfully walked away from ugly, sterile representations of Comanche people? Hasn't there been enough of that? Can't we find a better way to be funny? I know we can. See the above clip from Smoke Signals, or just watch the actually satirical video by the hilarious1491s  below, if you don't believe me. 

If you're still having a hard time understanding what's so offensive about calling a Comanche elder "Beaver's Breath" or disrespecting and misrepresenting tribal differences and ceremonies, maybe you won't get the joke the 1491s are telling in their "I'm An Indian Too" video or their "Smiling Indians" video or a number of their other videos, but that's okay. Not everyone understands satire. Clearly Happy Madison never has, but this most recent atrocity is more than enough proof for me. 

“There were about a dozen of us who walked off the set,” said Anthony, who told ICTMN he had initially refused to do the movie. He then agreed to take the job when producers informed him they had hired a cultural consultant and efforts would be made for tasteful representation of Natives." Indian Country Today