To say that the portrayal of First Nations people in most media has been less than stellar,  is a huge understatement. Donald Trump’s bizarre, pelican nest for hair, huge!

Back in my day, (the early 90’s) we used to get a lot of our information from comic books still. From Tintin to Turok, many generations most likely only learned about First Nations in comics or in movies and television when you really analyze things.

It’s hard to find good examples of positive portrayals of First Nations throughout comic history and WAY too easy to find the bad. In this article on Cracked, I was surprised at just how many First Nations based images there were. I was also glad to see that they didn’t just brush off First Nations stereotypes unlike say, a myriad of sports teams at every level.

I was surprised when I looked through my own comic collection to see just how many depictions and mentions of First Nations that I had glossed over or forgot about until I went back and looked. What was really surprising is how much of these images appeared courtesy of everyone’s favorite teenage octogenarian, Archie Andrews!

Yep, Ol’ Arch and his pals sure seemed to have a fair amount of First Nations encounters and Native inspired (appropriated) clothing all through the years. Seems like the appropriation of today is just another recycled trend, like most things appropriators get mixed up in!

Next issue, I mean post (I’ve been reading too many comics, wait, that’s not necessarily a bad thing I say!) I think we should journey to the darker realms of portrayals First Nations in the history of comics. Like most of our history, it’s not the easiest subject to look back on.