Assassin's Creed 3 and Native Representation

We've discussed the negative stereotypes and portrayals of Native Americans in media but I wanted to highlight some positive representation of Native Americans particularly in the video game Assassin's Creed 3. If you've never heard of the Assassin's Creed series, all you need to know is that it takes place in a variety of historical settings as part of its good vs evil plot. In Assassin's Creed 3, the historical setting is the American revolution. The main protagonist is half-Mohawk and half-English Ratonhnhaké:ton or Connor, who grows up in a Mohawk village that is attacked and burned to the ground by George Washington. Connor decides to become an Assassin as he wants to protect his people from the American settlers and the Templar society who want world domination.

For the making of Assassin's Creed 3, this Time article goes in depth on how Ubisoft hired Mohawk people as the creative consultants for creating an accurate Mohawk protagonist by putting the Mohawk community in charge of voice acting, translating and singing for the game. Thomas Deer, the Mohawk consultant for the game worked to clear up Ubisoft's questions about depicting ceremonies and using masks. The article even states that "A 2009 study of games released between 2005 and 2006 found that the most popular games had a greater percentage of white male characters than even the general U.S. population, and that Native Americans and Hispanic main characters were nonexistent."

Connor goes against the stereotypes of the savage Indian by making it clear his fight for freedom is based off of his people and players can empathize with his strong morals and culture, instead of subconsciously passing him off as a savage. Instead of creating a character based off of a lump of assumptions and stereotypes of Natives, Ubisoft specifically sought out the voices and perspectives of the Mohawk tribe to create a realistic depiction. For a video game series that reaches a wide audience of people, it's incredibly important that its representation of a Native character and his culture is accurate and humanizes the Mohawk nation and other Native tribes in North America. Though this game is set in the past, it can still inspire interest in the current Mohawk nation and also the strives Native Americans are making in game development too.