Magical Native American: Difference between revisions

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* Old Indian in ''[[Natural Born Killers]]''.
* Taylor in ''[[Poltergeist]] II''
* The two main characters of ''[[DeadmanDead Man (film)|Dead Man]]'' play around with this a bit. The first, Nobody, is a Native American but there really isn't that much mystical about him other than the fact that he's an Indian who hasn't been westernized (despite spending time in England). William Blake on the other hand is a fairly normal white guy until he's shot. He becomes more and more mystical seeming as the bullet works its way closer and closer to his heart, or at least Nobody's view of him does. The trope is played fairly straight in that Nobody believes his companion to be THAT [[William Blake]], somehow returned to the world in an almost messianic capacity (in the original meaning, at least): "you were a poet and a painter, and now you are a killer of white men!" Then he makes it his personal mission to help Blake in his journey to the spirit world--"the place where William Blake is from."
* Old Lodge Skins in ''[[Little Big Man]]''. "Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't."
* When the revenge western ''[[Seraphim Falls]]'' veers into [[Magical Realism]] 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.
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* Two Bears/O'olish Amaneh from ''[[The Word and The Void]]'' novels by [[Terry Brooks]]. While he is wise and magical, he isn't above violence and in fact is a dangerous killer for the [[Lawful Good]] force in the universe, as well as being a [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|shell shocked]] [[Vietnam War|Vietnam vet]]. He's also heavily implied to be some manner of supernatural being in the form of a Magical Native American- note that as of his last appearance he's been alive for centuries, always appears ''exactly'' where and when he's needed, and actually ''scares'' [[Big Bad|Findo Gask]], who is [[The Stoic]] in addition to being arguably the most powerful demon on earth.
* Sylvia and Zoey Redbird from ''[[The House of Night]]''.
* [[Tad Williams]] likes to use this trope, although it's not as heavy handed as in some other examples. Binabik, Simon's friend in ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn]]'', is one of the [[All Trolls Are Different|troll-like]] Qanuc, rides a wolf, fights with a blowgun, and solves a lot of problems with his traditional knowledge. Similarly, !Xabbu, Renie's [[Love Interest]] 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 [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|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.
* In [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''Alvin Maker'' [[Alternate History]] series, the native americans genuinely are magical. So's everyone else. While the white Americans are hiring dowsers and crafting amulets, the natives prance through the trees in tune to nature's song. Even the papooses hunt by asking prey animals politely; experts jump over tall stockades in a single bound and bend light around themselves. They responded to the atrocities by migrating west of the Mississippi and closing down the river. Meanwhile, the Aztecs are still standing and more enthusiastic than ever.
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* ''Werewolf'' wasn't the only game in the Old World of Darkness to work the Native American motifs. ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' had the Dreamspeakers, a mystical Tradition made up of shamans of all types (Aborigines, Native Americans, African bushmen, even modern technoshamans) who showed a mastery over the spirit world. ''[[Changeling: The Dreaming]]'' had the Nunnehi, changelings who took after Native American myths the same way the Kithain took after European (and African) myths, and whose relationship with the Kithain ranged from "friendly, but keep your distance" to "fucking white man."
* The tribes and spiritual motifs continue in the successor game, ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'', but the Native American themes are downplayed. Furthermore, the werewolves in this game aren't so much protectors ''of'' the spirit world as they are protectors of humanity ''from'' a rapacious spirit world.
* [[Warhammer 4000040,000]]: Necromunda has the Ratskins. Otherwise, does not have much place for this - [[Psychic Powers]] in general are more of risk than they're worth, and the Exodite Eldar (local Wood Elves stand-in) are more of dinosaur riding cowboys.
* In ''[[Witchcraft]]'', the Native Americans had just as many coven equivalents as everyone else. The reason the Natives didn't use their magical superpowers to stop the White Man was because the Combine nullified their advantages somehow.
* ''[[Silver Age Sentinels]]'': Mother Raven (one of the setting's major heroines) is a shaman who received her powers from the actual [[Native American Mythology|Raven]].
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* ''[[Shadow Hearts]]: From the New World'' gives us two: Natan, a quiet [[Gun Fu|dual gun-wielding]] bad boy, and his [[Hot Amazon|amazingly hot]] traveling partner Shania (a literal case, as she can transform just like Yuri from the previous two games).
* While averted in ''One Must Fall: 2097'' in that Raven, the (apparently) Native American character is a purely urban kickboxer and bodyguard to the Big Boss, he seems to somehow have become a Magical Native American by the sequel game, appearing as the boss of the first tournament with his now-well-known mystical defensive power... which also protects the robot he's remotely piloting (OMF doesn't do flesh-and-blood combat). Ookay.
* The Baskars of the ''[[Wild ArmsARMs]]'' series have more than a bit of this, being [[Closer to Earth|in harmony with nature]], very capable with the setting's [[Functional Magic]] and [[Magitek]], and given to a distinctly Native American [[Braids, Beads, and Buckskins|visual theme]]. A partial subversion comes in the fact that they aren't really an ethnic group, more of a [[Space Amish|religious commune]] which anyone may join.
** And [[Wild ArmsARMs 3|Gallows]] is an outright subversion; he's Baskar and has both the look and the magical powers of the trope, but his personality—an idiot lecher who doesn't want to fulfill his responsibilities, even outright running from them—defies it. He defies the [[Squishy Wizard]] trope to a "T", as well.
* The [[Pokémon]] Xatu is made to resemble a Totem Pole creature, and coincidentally, is a Psychic-type.
** It could be a tribute to haplogroup D, since its feather pattern when its wings are closed is distinctly Ainu.