I’m sorry I missed this thread when it first got posted but glad I am seeing it now and love your article of the 20 Greatest Native American Heroes in DC, @HubCityQuestion. I didn’t even know there were 20 in DC so seeing them all listed with links to suggested readings was awesome.
Like @mercurie80 I am part Cherokee and am a member of Cherokee Nation with direct lineage to the Trail of Tears. As such this topic resonates with me and I’m eager to learn more about the Native American representation in DC Comics. As a Hawkman/Hawkwoman/Hawkgirl fan and as a Cherokee I have to go with Owlwoman as my favorite of these characters but am sad to say I had never heard of her until now. That’s changed and now that I know of her I’m going to be looking into her stories a lot more.
Thanks for making this topic, Mercurie80, and thanks to all of you for contributing to it. Wado (Cherokee for ‘Thank you’ and it’s pronounced “Wah-dough”)
I am revising my favorite Native American DC character upon learning new information - Hawkman’s mother is a Cherokee, a member of the same nation I am a member of! So my favorite DC character, period, is also my favorite Native American DC character!
You did great work and these lines hit home with me:
“Hawkman, more than any other DC hero, is a citizen of the entire universe. And that includes the six months when he represented the only Native American superhero to headline a flagship DC title.”
Love it. Absolutely love it. Wado (Cherokee for ‘thank you’).
I’d like to offer Roy Harper, who has a really complicated and interesting relationship with his heritage. His early backstory was full of stereotypes, and it would have been super easy for the writers to retcon it, but instead, they treated his background as a white kid (but technically, we never find out who his mother is, and she very well could have been Indigenous) raised on a reservation and considered to be Navajo in everything but blood. I wish DC returned to focus on this part of his character (I wish DC would start writing Roy better just in general)
I can’t speak to how well this was handled bc I’m not Indigenous myself, but from what I’ve seen, these aspects of his identity were handled pretty respectfully (at least in the Gail Simone run. Don’t love the way it was handled in Rebirth)
Not to mention the criminally underrated and badly written Tom Kalmaku
I think he should be used more, it’s important for Hal to have Non Superhero friends to call him on his BS
