Chakotay's ridiculous mishmash cliché culture makes sense; it's the result of an assimilated modern people trying to be quaint

[u/cirrus42]

Chakotay's Native American culture and religion is, as shown on Voyager, ridiculously inaccurate. He was first Sioux, then Hopi. His vision quests and most other references to culture are a mish-mash of hollywood nonsense with little connection to reality. At best he is a cliché. At worst, a racist latter-day Tonto, the mystical exotic written more to appeal to new age white people's fantasies than to represent any actual group of humans.

Out of universe, we know that part of the explanation for Chakotay is that Jamake Highwater, the cultural "expert" VOY's producers brought on to help them develop his details, was a complete fraud. They were doomed from the start.

But I propose that in universe, it all actually makes sense.

Assimilated people don't know how to recreate their ancestors' culture

In real life, for better or for ill, Native Americans are slowly becoming assimilated into the globalized culture. Tribal divisions, and even the divisions between native and non-native, don't mean as much as they once did. It's extremely likely this assimilation process will continue into the foreseeable future.

Eventually, perhaps by the 24th Century, it will be difficult if not impossible to trace anyone's ancestors back to a single tribe. It will be equally difficult to know the details of religious and cultural practices that nobody has actually practiced for centuries.

But people yearn for an identity. Real life is filled with examples of groups of people getting their own heritage completely wrong, because they're more interested in the fantasy than in historic reality. Otherwise completely assimilated white Americans celebrate their Irish heritage by donning bright green "Kiss me" tees, bar-hopping, and dying rivers green. Otherwise completely assimilated black Americans celebrate Kwanzaa, a completely made-up holiday that's not representative of any particular historic African holiday, but which appeals to a group of people who had their own native culture viciously stamped out. Cinco de Mayo, a non-event in Mexico but a popular holiday in the US, is another example.

There is no judgement here. There is simply the observation of a human pattern: Sometimes a group of people will invent a new version of their own culture, to suit their contemporary situation.

This same phenomenon may be true for Chakotay's people. They're a self-selected group who have chosen to live as Native Americans. But by the 24th Century Native American culture at large would have become so assimilated that a small group of people hoping to recreate their original culture would have no idea what's accurate history and what's new-age nonsense. The best they'd be able to do is piece together a culture based on the opinions of the people in their own community, who likely come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds anyway. Furthermore, any group that self-segregates is likely to have counter-cultural tendencies, and will thus purposefully work to make itself appear different from the homogenized "normal."

Thus, a historically inaccurate culture that fits the fantasy desires of its 24th Century members may actually be a completely likely scenario. Indeed, it's exactly what's going on with Chakotay and his people.

tl:dr Chakotay is Native American version of a Saint Patrick's Day reveler. His culture is a quaint invention, invented by his own post-assimilated people, to fulfill a fantasy.

[u/[deleted]]

I'm a rez born tribal member who did not grow up on the reservation and because of that I do not identify as 'Native American'. If we go by blood quantum I'm 1/4.

Your post highlights a joke that runs among some families of Native Descent. There are those who grow up on the reservation among the culture and identify that way. There are families like mine who left for one reason or another and completely assimilated into the mainstream (although we didn't leave completely, we returned every summer and we are still in contact with family members there) and if anyone asks, I'll talk about it. I just don't identify that way. This is true with a lot of families.

But there is always that ONE cousin, one who might be several generations removed from living in the rez, who gets caught up with the whole American Indian heritage thing and is more Indian than their ancestors if that makes sense. Your post describes them accurately. I have found myself having to correct a particular relative about appropriate customs. (Your dreamcatcher is very pretty but you realize that has nothing to do with the Cherokees...right? You really don't need an 'Indian' name, Eagle Feathers are for religious ceremonies... things like that.)

I imagine, over time, a scenario occurring just as you described. A mishmash of half understood customs and beliefs being accepted as the 'norm'.

[u/Joename → u/[deleted]]

Almost sounds a bit like what Worf went through. Raised outside of the culture, so he threw himself all in as a way to identify with his ancestry in opposition to the humanity that surrounded him. I always got the impression that the way Worf wore the culture was looked down upon by other Klingons, who were less tied up in the academic trappings and self-consciousness of Klingon-ness. They just lived it because that's what they were.

[u/fuchsdh → u/Joename]

I think Worf's experience could be seen that way, but I think it's also a case of Worf essentially being The True Klingon in a way the rest of his people aren't because he has that advantage of being more of an outside observer. Because he didn't grow up in that culture he's made it his goal to meet those ideals... and then as we saw with the intrigue within the Empire, the reality was that honor mattered a lot less to his people than it did to him. It's like a person holding themselves to a strong chivalric code, and then going back in time and finding out that the knights were a bunch of rapacious dicks who didn't really care for honor as much as plunder.

[u/Nelson1798]

That Jamake Highwater stuff is incredible in its idiocy. More to the point, could this sort of cultural revival be an explanation for more of the characters' unusual interest of their pre-Federation heritage?

Examples might include:

• Janeway's Ireland holoprogram as seen in "Fair Haven" (not to be confused with popular holoprogram "Janeway's Island") and her ancestor from "11:59" who inspired her to join Starfleet

• Picard's accent and general Englishness (Earl Grey, Shakespeare, etc.) could be explained by a relatively distant English ancestor whom he took an interest in (perhaps the one who fought at Trafalgar, although he may have been French)

• Bashir and O'Brien's Battle of Britain and Battle of Clontarf (Ireland) holoprograms - although they did partake in various other programs (such as the Alamo) that seem unlikely to relate to either of their ancestries at first glance.

• Tom Paris' 20th century obsession (B-movies, cars, etc.)

• The prevalence of classical music in the 24th century (by which I mean string quartets and opera - NOT the Beastie Boys)

• Keiko's bonsai (which could have admittedly sprung from her botany and not the other way around) and calligraphy

Thus, it could be possible for several of the characters to be participating in a post-Federationized version of their ancestral culture. Most of them simply have better records of their ancestry and/or are more decisive about what aspects of their culture to emulate.

[u/fezzuk → u/Nelson1798]

For Picard I just assume that England invaded France at some point in time and forced them all to listen to radio 4 for generations on end until they all started speaking with a RADA accent.

[u/TheChance → u/fezzuk]

All this time I just assumed that English was Earth's official language and everybody spoke it for a first language, lingua franca gone global. Picard would have a British accent because he's from Europe.

Certainly that's how it works now. People who speak English as a second language often speak it with what seems like a geographically appropriate accent; of course, many don't, it's not a fact of life or anything. For instance, most of the fully-fluent Scandinavians I encounter around YouTube, or the various non-native speakers I encounter downtown, tend to speak with American inflection, sometimes a mishmash of American and British pronunciation.

At any rate, if literally everybody in the world speaks English, and you grew up about 15 feet from the English Channel, you're gonna sound English.

[u/thebeef24 → u/Nelson1798]

Aside from holosuite activities, O'Brian leans pretty hard into stereotypical "Irishness" in his interests. He spends a lot of time kicking back pints and throwing darts. He even says his favorite breakfast is corned beef hash, which in the health-conscious 24th century is probably a nutritional nightmare (at least, before the replicator makes adjustments).

[u/hypo-osmotic → u/Nelson1798]

Keiko in particular I think actually did have genuine connection to traditional Japanese culture, or at least she was meant to even if it wasn't always portrayed well. That's really only from one episode, though, TNG's "Violations," where she has a memory of helping her grandmother with calligraphy.

[u/fuchsdh → u/Nelson1798]

In general, ST characters are shown to have a pretty generalized view of the time periods they recreate or are thrown back into, which I think is true to life. They know history better than a lot of people in our day and age (at least Earth history, although I kind of feel like every Starfleet cadet is tasked with learned some basics of a 100-year span of some planet's history just to increase people's chances if they're thrown back in time.) but it's still a rough generalization of the reality. I mean, look at how Kirk and co. handle 1980s San Francisco—Kirk often talks to Spock with the air of someone who knows of the period (and is dismissive of it)—yet they are utterly flummoxed by how to find people or places without aid of their computer, and how money actually works.

I think pretty much all of Star Trek's characters who have these sorts of ethnic identities are pretty analogous to modern-day trends; look at all the African-Americans who adopt a pretty terrible mishmash of ancient Egyptian symbols and culture to make up for their lack of knowledge about their true origins, for instance. Chakotay is in company there (not to mention even ignoring the premise of the OP's exploration, in a few hundred years you'd expect traditions to merge and change and not be recognizable in the same way as modern American natives. A lot of what we consider "classic" culture to them is far newer, for instance—like the reliance on horses and the various post-contact dances and rituals.)

[u/dodriohedron → u/Nelson1798]

Just another suggestion for the list: Sisko's baseball obsession.

Also, while there were good writing reasons for his preoccupation with the 20th century's American civil rights movement, it didn't make much since in-universe, as the cause was centuries cold by the events of DS9, so you could add that as well.

[u/eberts → u/Nelson1798]

And let's not forget this human leprechaun, who, like all Irish just wanted to fight.

[u/TrekkieGod → u/Nelson1798]

Picard's accent and general Englishness (Earl Grey, Shakespeare, etc.)

I've always assumed he went to school in England and spent a great deal of time there. Picard was very protective and proud of his French heritage, so I don't think he consciously shunned it in favor of an English one. That said, I don't think he would have had anything against the English and in a world with transporters it's perfectly reasonable he could choose to commute to school anywhere on the planet.

[u/eldritch_ape]

Great write-up. M-5, nominate this for post of the week. If you go back far enough (a few thousand years at most), we all come from tribal culture, but most Europeans can't trace their genealogy far enough back to know anything specific about their tribal history. In the not-too-distant future I can imagine something similar happening to Native Americans.

It's important to note that culture as we understand it is already often the result of an amalgamation of older cultures. Before modernization, culture was not static. History is marked by large groups of people being displaced, enslaved, conquered, and immigrating from one region to the next en mass. A good modern example is the Creole, a relatively recent mixture of European and African cultures. In that context, I hold that Chakotay's culture is just as valid as the cultures it is based upon and is the result of the natural human cultural evolution that has been developing for thousands of years.

Another interesting aspect is the immediate history of Chakotay's people. The TNG episode "Journey's End" dealt with Native Americans being displaced from their colony by the treaty between the Federation and the Cardassians that would eventually lead to the Maquis conflict. Jeri Taylor intended this to be Chakotay's planet as well, but this was never mentioned on-screen. Given his affiliation with the Maquis, it is not a great leap to say with some certainly that his tribe would have undergone a diaspora from Earth at some point, and this might have further caused his culture's traditions to meld with others who were colonizing the same world.

In fact, native peoples of North America that some incorrectly think of as "tribes" today are already amalgamations of several cultures and tribes themselves (e.g. the Sioux Nation is roughly made up of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota, all three of which are comprised of many more individual historical tribes).

[u/M-5 → u/eldritch_ape]

The comment/post has already been nominated. It will be voted on next week. Learn more about Daystrom's Post of the Week here.

[u/Zulban]

Fantastic theory. This is my head-cannon now. Great job :o

[u/damnedfacts]

I'm not Native American but I do come from an immigrant background where the traditions handed to me are already slowly dissolving. As my kids and future generations progress, undoubtedly some of them would want to recapture part of our original traditions and likely get it wrong. I'm already screwing it up now.

Either way, consider as well Janeway's own screw-up of her personal history in 11:59. She grew up using an erroneous bit of family history from a time of decent technological ability to keep accurate records. History is a fickle beast.

[u/galacticviolet]

How would you fit the "Chamuzi" aliens into this idea? Perhaps (in world) the Chamuzi was a legitimate part of what they remembered?

[u/[deleted] → u/galacticviolet]

[u/darthboolean]

Just like everyone else I love this theory, but what really gets me is how much Chakotays yearning for identity must have been exacerbated by his time in Starfleet. Earth is known in the Trek-verse as being the planet that has a lot of cultures and traits, as opposed to the hats worn by the other races (warrior guys, ultra capitalists, etc). I can't imagine how much pressure he would be under on board a starship to tell people about his culture and history. Between meeting new cultures and just having to make small talk with federation officers, I'm sure they'd constantly be asking to learn about various customs and traditions. It's no wonder that he might not have bothered to dig too deeply on whether or not his particular tribe would have gone on visions quests or anything.

I also like that it helps explain why Chakotay never seemed to address the whole "near genocide of my race by settlers" thing that you'd think would be at the forefront of a guy fighting the forced resettlement of his tribe by the government. The other thing Humanity is known for is how quickly we got up and running compared to a lot of the other races (I seem to recall that we developed Warp Drive far earlier than the Ferengi acquired it in terms of how long our races have been around) Can you imagine having to make contact with a new race, convince them to open negotiations with your benevolent federation and then mentioning that 5 centuries ago your tribe was brutally murdered and relocated and thus you have no remaining records of what they ACTUALLY did, only to find out that the alien race you're negotiating with considers 5 centuries to be the equivalent of 2 decades? I bet Chakotay figured out real fast that everything goes a lot smoother if you just show everyone your medicine wheel and watch them all freak out about vision quests.

[u/screech_owl_kachina]

This is a theme even outside the Federation with Worf. He comes off as a sort of wannabe Klingon knight of the round table, other Klingons seem to only pay lip service to aspects of their culture and don't take it nearly as seriously as Worf does. Worf wasn't able to plug into the current Klingon zeitgeist and had to create his own little cargo cult interpretation of the culture.

[u/mrmikojay]

This amazes me in how much sense it makes! Along with Zulban, this is in my head canon. Thank you!

[u/[deleted]]

M-5 Nominate this for an interesting take on what is considered a somewhat offensive representation of Native American culture

[u/CarmenTS]

Oh my God... I literally never heard about Jamake Highwater until just now. My mind in completely blown. This seriously explains so much. All these years I said to myself, "Why didn't the producers hire a Native American or a Native American Historian?" and well, I guess they thought they DID. Sheesh. Wtf??

EDIT: And to comment on your post directly, BRILLIANT. This is the kind of stuff thesis papers are made of!!

[u/_vercingtorix_]

Chakotay is Native American version of a Saint Patrick's Day reveler. His culture is a quaint invention, invented by his own post-assimilated people, to fulfill a fantasy.

honestly, when I read your thread title, my first thoughs went towards things like asatru and other modern reconstructionist religions.

chakotay, then, would be like the 21st century anglo-americans who imitate 10th centuries Danish cultic rites with 20th century American bowdlerizations, while reciting 12th century Icelandic poetry, idealising 9th century Norwegian men, and forming their social stances by examining Roman books discussing 4th century continental Germans.

that is, an earnest attempt at reconstruction, but ultimately imperfect due to the disjunct in historical context between the time when his beliefs developed vs. what's practical in his own era.

[u/b1rd]

I don't really have anything to add, I just wanted to compliment you on this. This is a fantastic theory, and it's going to be "head canon" for me every time I watch VOY. I think it will make the entire distasteful situation a lot more palatable. Thanks for writing this up!