Tattoo (VOY)

[J!!]

something i came across a while ago


youtu.be/-yVC1N0kUX8

[Admiral X]

As someone who actually is Lakota, I found Chakotay's portrayal to be laughable at best and at times rather insulting, because for all the attempts at being "progressive," he was still essentially within the norms of what had been typical for Hollywood prior to that. Of course, I find stuff like Avatar to be mildly insulting, too, because it makes Natives out to be essentially magical beings, and glosses over some of the more negative aspects of our history while stacking everything against the stand-ins for white people (notice none of the humans were Native).

For all the crowing about "diversity" and "representation," I think the character I most identify with is Spock (as in the real Spock, not J. J. Abrams's psycho-Spock).

[StrangeDevice]

As someone who actually is Lakota, I found Chakotay's portrayal to be laughable at best and at times rather insulting, because for all the attempts at being "progressive," he was still essentially within the norms of what had been typical for Hollywood prior to that. Of course, I find stuff like Avatar to be mildly insulting, too, because it makes Natives out to be essentially magical beings, and glosses over some of the more negative aspects of our history while stacking everything against the stand-ins for white people (notice none of the humans were Native).

For all the crowing about "diversity" and "representation," I think the character I most identify with is Spock (as in the real Spock, not J. J. Abrams's psycho-Spock).

I'm genuinely curious now. What would ol' Joe Chakotay have looked like if they had done their homework on the Lakota?

[Admiral X]

Lightly brown, dark hair, dark eyes. :shrug: Honestly most wouldn't stand out too much since we don't have any tattoos or anything traditionally. He'd stand out even less if he was like yours truly, which is to say not full-blooded, which is all the more plausible three or four hundred years down the road. The traditional garb and other stuff tend to only come out for special occasions, and I honestly cringe at the thought of him wearing anything as part of his uniform - just not appropriate IMO. He'd need a different name, too, of course. Most go with the English words, though plenty had adopted Anglo-American names, like my Grandfather did, and you'd never know they were Native just by their name. They actually could have had the hunting a deer thing be something of a nightmare for him without being a hippie vegan, because the clan my great grandmother belonged to had a taboo against eating deer.

Oh, as an amusing aside, there was actually an Oglala chief named Red Shirt.

[StrangeDevice]

Lightly brown, dark hair, dark eyes. :shrug: Honestly most wouldn't stand out too much since we don't have any tattoos or anything traditionally. He'd stand out even less if he was like yours truly, which is to say not full-blooded, which is all the more plausible three or four hundred years down the road. The traditional garb and other stuff tend to only come out for special occasions, and I honestly cringe at the thought of him wearing anything as part of his uniform - just not appropriate IMO. He'd need a different name, too, of course. Most go with the English words, though plenty had adopted Anglo-American names, like my Grandfather did, and you'd never know they were Native just by their name. They actually could have had the hunting a deer thing be something of a nightmare for him without being a hippie vegan, because the clan my great grandmother belonged to had a taboo against eating deer.

Oh, as an amusing aside, there was actually an Oglala chief named Red Shirt.

Here's hoping he beat the curse.

It doesn't sound as though there'd be much to interfere with what Starfleet typically expect of serving crewmen, so what kind of situations would have realistically brought out these cultural elements in the character? It doesn't even have to be particularly confronting either, I just remember a great quote from a bit of fanfic where their captain was talking with a Vulcan:

"I am Vulcan. I do not believe in luck."
"I'm Irish. I don't believe in logic."

[Admiral X]

I guess what brought it out would entirely depend on the character and how dedicated they were to their Lakota heritage vs being essentially just another American. Actually it seems like a lot of people my age seem to be more into "gangsta" culture as presented in rap, so it's hard to tell what it would look like centuries from now. I'd like to think it might only be relevant as far as the character being reminded of something from lore, or perhaps being more aware of or concerned with history than others might because of "lest we forget" essentially, or just history being more important to this character in general due to the worry that their culture might disappear entirely if the history isn't remembered. This is actually something of a contemporary concern, and I can only imagine it would still be a concern in the Roddenberry future of humans uniting and the tendency toward monoculture.

[Dînadan]

If they had to show displays of his culture/ceremonies/etc, then unless the Nelix character was heavily revised they could have had an episode where Nelix is doing his racially insensitive thing of digging into others' cultures like he did with Tuvok from time to time and have him come out with badly stereotyped clothing or whatever as part of 'Indian Night' and have Chakotay tell him off and explain he's being racist by acting like that. Bonus points if Nelix also mixes in India in his ignorance.

Of course even that requires compentancy on the writers' part to be able to write it without it sounding preachy or even racist themselves...



Also building on Admiral X's point of him having a 'lest we forget' mentality, considering he's supposed to be an anthropologist/historian they could have used those in concert; basically his motivation/love of anthropology and history stems from his personal way of connecting with his roots.

[StrangeDevice]

What about having his character be part of a Preservationist society back in the Alpha Quadrant that are all about genealogists and anthropologists pooling together their collective knowledge of their family lines for Memory Alpha or some such similar institution? It'd be an interesting little exercise that would allow some of that to peek through occasionally whenever they were dealing with a situation in the Delta Quadrant where the knowledge of an entire culture is under threat.

I suspect that chats about cultural differences would probably be between Chakotay and a guest character for the episode, you could have him attempt to communicate with an alien sociologist who is trying to understand how such a diverse crew have all adjusted to the Federation standard. Mmm, I know there have been efforts to preserve some of the Athabaskan languages that they fear have begun to vanish... Given the "optimistic future" ethos of Trek, how about Chakotay shows him records from the ship computer that these were preserved and work from there?

[Admiral X]

Only thing is that if he was some archivist working for Memory Alpha, that doesn't make for much of a compelling leader, or much experience for combat like he would need as a Maquis. Actually that could be seen as returning to his roots somewhat. I like the idea of him being a student of history, even if it wasn't a formal degree he earned, and not just because I'm a history nerd myself. He has that cultural aspect, but it would also give him an excuse to be familiar with old warrior philosophers, like Sun Tsu and Crazy Horse.

The idea with Neelix being a shithead, though, that honestly makes me cringe, although that would totally be within how the show was written. If I was making VOY, he'd have been something more along the lines of Malcolm Reynolds, and Kes would've been the real guide, and something a bit more along the lines of Sacajawea but way more mysterious.

[StrangeDevice]

Ooh, I've got an idea. Maybe a lot of his assignments in Starfleet involved him going to worlds in disputed territory where he'd be monitoring security for archaeological digs and libraries that were subject to an unstable political climate? Attacks, bombings and the like, necessitating him to brush up on guerilla tactics and the like that eventually became important to his work with the Maquis? His hobby fed into his field work and vice versa.

Yeah, Neelix... Neelix I thought would work best as a combination of a Russian peasant ministering to the needs of his landholder (with Janeway completely unaware of or unable to deal with this cultural mishap) and a conscientious observer that didn't adjust back into civilian life despite never really seeing proper combat outside of the Haakonian metreon attack. He's a little jittery, a bit overly bombastic, tries a little too hard because he has his own personal demons he doesn't let others in on because he fears he'll frighten them away.

Kes on the other hand, I thought of as similar to Max Caulfield in Life is Strange mixed in with Galen from Crusade. Someone who gets mistaken as an emotional doormat when really she's the opposite, she just doesn't make a song and dance about it. Very quiet waifish character, someone who earnestly wants to help others, but has powers and abilities that show a much darker side to her. She could very easily have gone the other way if she hadn't joined the crew of Voyager. Not naïve as such, but an optimist in an environment that tends not to reward such high-mindedness.