Chakotay is the surrogate for Trek’s condescension to Native Americans. Condescension you say? But they are treated with respect! “All religion is bunkum, except NA spiritualism, which is correct and good.”
But it is. A pat on the head: “see? We like and respect native Americans. We use your sacred beliefs and concepts for one character on a TV show. Pay no attention to the fact we cast a Mexican-American.”
I don’t know if it an example of classic Hollywood liberalism, but it is there, and ST isn’t the only one to do it. (The native Americans were the only ones left alone by Jack Williamson’s Humanoids, because they could be trusted to live in perfect peace and harmony without supervision.)
As far as I can tell, Chakotay was born in this (un-named) colony world. The fact that there were Earth flora and fauna on this planet is presumably due to the actions of the colonists, who brought the biosphere with them (then proceeded to hunt it).
Chakotay was born in 2329 on a Federation colony near the CardassianDemilitarized Zone that his native tribe had moved to several generations earlier. Here, he was raised by his father, Kolopak, who considered him a “contrary” from the beginning because he had come out of his mother “upside down” as his father once remarked. (VOY: “Tattoo”, “Endgame”)… From an early age, his father tried to impart his values on Chakotay in many ways, such as taking him on hikes to nearby forested worlds of their ancestors. In 2344 he took Chakotay on a quest through the Central American rainforest, looking for their fellow descendants of the ancient Rubber Tree People that had never left the forest… Chakotay also refused to hunt deer with his father. (VOY: “Waking Moments”)
Mexican mestizos have a lot of Native American ancestry. They might not be able to document a sufficient blood quantum to enroll in a federally recognized tribe, but it’s not like they took a W.A.S.P. actor and put him in brownface.
If Graham Greene (Oneida) can play a Dakota, and Russell Means (Dakota) can play a Mohican, then I don’t see a problem casting Robert Beltran as a member of a fictional tribe.
“All Sikhs are Sings, but not all Sings are played by turban wearing Sikhs.”
It was the 60s. Señor Montalban played many different ethnicities, as did Michael Ansara (I think I counted more than 10, including Asian(!) (and not counting Klingon)), James Hong, Seth Sakai and Mako.
But Chatokay was a character of the 90s. They should have cast a Native American. They knew better by then. (yes yes, he was ACTING! [Insert flourished arm movement here])
Written responses to the Final Jeopardy! clue do not have to be spelled correctly, but they must be phonetically correct and not add or subtract any extraneous sounds or syllables.
