July 22, 2013

Superheroes in Native American Encyclopedia

A website called Native American Encyclopedia posted a series on Native comic-book and related superheroes. Many are familiar to fans of Native characters, but some are obscure--even to me.

Below are links to the ones I saw. The text is taken from Wikipedia:

Super-Chief ~ Iroquois
Owlwoman ~ Kiowa
Black Crow ~ Navajo
American Eagle ~ Navajo
Forge ~ Cheyenne
Elisa Maza ~ Hopi/African American
Redstone ~ Apache
Red Wolf ~ Cheyenne
Sharon Friedlander ~ Cheyenne
Tom Corsi ~ Cheyenne
Thunderbird ~ Apache
PatoruzĂș ~ Tehuelche
Michelle Chang ~ Native American/Chinese
Warpath ~ Apache
Talisman ~ Sarcee
Ringo Kid ~ Comanche or Cheyenne
Risque ~ Seminole
Snowbird ~ half Sarcee
Puma ~ Arizona
Apache Chief ~ Apache

Comment:  Pretty good list, but it left out some important characters. The biggest omissions include Wyatt Wingfoot, Dani Moonstar, Shaman, Tom Kalmaku, Rainmaker, and Powwow Smith. And the classic Turok and Tonto, of course. If the Ringo Kid is a superhero, so are they.

A note on Sharon Friedlander and Tom Corsi. They're not really superheroes by any definition. And they're not really a Native, since they were white people transformed by magic. Indeed, I wonder how magic made them Cheyenne, a cultural rather than physical trait. Cheyennes don't have "Cheyenne DNA"; they may not even have much Native DNA.

For more on Native superheroes, see Warpath in New X-Men Movie and Burgas Reviews Demon Bear Saga.

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