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“Earthmother Protect Us”: Playing Indian in Digital Domains

Sat, November 11, 4:00 to 5:45pm, Hyatt Regency Chicago, Columbian, Concourse Level West Tower

Abstract

This paper considers the movement of ‘Playing Indian’ (Deloria 1994) into the digital domains of gaming—both video and massively multiplayer online role-playing games where players take up indigenous personas and interact with digitally rendered indigenous worlds for play. In particular, I examine the role of language in creating and framing the digital worlds of Never Alone (Kisima Inŋitchuŋa), Assassins Creed III, and World of Warcraft where Inupiaq, Mohawk, and Mock Indian English respectively are central aspects of gameplay. While the first two examples are the product of either a community-driven project or draw on extensive collaboration with the community including utilizing recordings of speakers of indigenous languages throughout gameplay, the third, World of Warcraft utilizes a mock variety of Native American English(es) related to Hollywood Indian English (Meek 2006). Across these three games, one thing is clear, language is a central component in the representation of indigenous lives and rendering indigenous worlds for ‘play.’

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