This Land Is My Land Courts Controversy As Critics Cry 'Cultural Appropriation!'

This game was made for you and me.

This is a bit of a thorny issue. An indie game that’s been on Steam for a couple years in Early Access has recently come under fire as—checks notes—a “racist dumpster fire.”

A tweet from Vice’s Motherboard blog reads: “A defensive, dismissive response reveals the rotten heart of a questionable project.”

The article this tweet refers to is a condemnation of the game This Land Is My Land, a PC survival game about a fictionalized Native American tribe fighting against colonists to take back their land. There are, to my knowledge, almost no video games told from the perspective of Indigenous Americans. The closest big-budget game I can think of is Assassin’s Creed III.

You’d think, then, that this game would be celebrated as adding an important, and largely missing, cultural viewpoint to gaming. We want more diverse stories, settings and perspectives and This Land Is My Land gives that to us.

The problem? Ukrainian developer Game-Labs does not employ any Native Americans. The tiny, independent studio has just one programmer and only four team members total and is based in the Ukraine, so this is not surprising. But people are angry that they also did not officially consult with any Native American tribes or historians. And I can see how this is an issue, though we’ll get into more on that later.

Gamers on Discord accused the developers of “cultural appropriation” and racism, and this has now made its way to the wider internet in the form of at least one article (so far) about the problematic nature of the game.

Native writer Baylee Giroux concludes at the end of the article:

There are countless Indigenous creatives trying to tell our stories. This Land could easily have found and involved any of them from the start instead of, by their own admission, drawing from other media depictions of the Native experience—a poisoned well if ever there was one. At the very least, Game-Labs could have listened respectfully to their criticism at any of the many junctures where it was offered, and taken action.

Instead they've done actual harm. Not just with their game itself, but by creating yet another racist online community that, to borrow another loaded but apt metaphor, circled the wagons against criticism from the Indigenous people whose identity they fetishize, consume, and sell for profit. I’ve witnessed actual Indigenous people being silenced and bullied for speaking up and I have no doubt the same will happen to me. This Land might be a game about Indigenous resistance, but as a product it is by and for settler culture.

This is where things get thorny.

On the one hand, when you make a game about a foreign culture it seems prudent, at the very least, to consult with members of that culture.

On the other hand, Game-Labs has stated a number of times that they openly accept feedback from the community, including many Native players of This Land Is My Land. It’s hard to verify the racial identity of people on Discord, but as I’ve poured over the myriad screenshots and I’ve seen people claiming to be Native who say they support the game and people claiming to be Native call the game racist.

I have also been told by apparently Native gamers on Twitter that they find the game perfectly fine and the devs very respectful and receptive of feedback. Clearly opinions are divided.

From what I’ve seen, including this slideshow on reddit, critics of the game continue to call it racist, accuse it of “cultural appropriation” and then talk in circles without offering advice on how to make it not racist. One critic of the game asked to be hired and bring with them an entire team to reboot the game from scratch—an offer that was declined for obvious reasons (leading to some outrage on Twitter for not getting a job). It’s a bit odd to not offer any actual feedback on how to make the game less racist and then complain that the devs aren’t “taking action.” (Meanwhile, I’ve seen screenshots of helpful suggestions (like the inclusion of historical weapons) being taken quite warmly by the devs).

Questions:

Is This Land Is My Land racist? Does it qualify as “cultural appropriation?” Should a white guy even talk about this?

Some background on your humble narrator: I live in Arizona and grew up around lots and lots of Native / Indigenous / First Nations people both here and in Montana. I studied Native American literature in college. I’ve read books, essays and poems from a number of Native writers including Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, Simon J. Ortiz, Joy Harjo and Leslie Marmon Silko. I’ve watched documentaries on Native basket ball players, heard moving discussions of racial injustice told by female Native basket ball players and the struggles they face. I’ve gone to school and worked jobs with countless Native people. I have seen firsthand the racial tension between Native people and white people here. I have seen the poverty of the reservation and the beauty of Native art, music and dance. One of my close friends is a brilliant Native artist whose work should be in galleries across the world and hopefully will be someday.

I say this simply to point out that I am not a stranger to Native culture even though I am not, in any way, a part of it. I have read about the many cultural debates within the Native community such as who qualifies to actually call themselves Native (the Blood Quantum) in the first place. I know what an “apple” is (red on the outside, white on the inside). I’m not Native, don’t pretend to have any Native ancestry and do not pretend to speak with any authority on Native issues.

But I do think I have enough knowledge to speak about broader cultural issues like cultural appropriation and art and video games.

So while I do not tread into this conversation lightly or without any background, I do enter the fray with some opinions:

• As I’ve noted elsewhere, I find the phrase “cultural appropriation” rather vapid and overly vague. It’s used to condemn all number of things including people eating or preparing food (including potato salad, tacos, etc.) or how we dress, what types of stories we can tell and so forth. I think the phrase stems from an honest, genuine desire to prevent racism, but it’s overused, misused and has, I believe, a divisive impact on peoples and cultures. We should want more cultural intermingling, not less. White supremacists want less—we should not help them achieve that.

• I think you can be disrespectful and racist when you use someone else’s culture in a disrespectful or racist way. The Washington Redskins is a great example of this, given that “redskins” is a racist, dehumanizing term. I’m glad they are now the Washington Football Team though I hope they come up with something more clever in the future. The scene in Disney’s Peter Pan where they sing “why is a redskin red?” is another pretty gross example of racism in action, though I think including Native people in Neverland is a great touch. It gets a little trickier when a team is called the Braves, as that’s not a racist word and has kind of a badass connotation, sort of like the Minnesota Vikings, but I can still see—given our history—why people would be offended by it. We did not conquer the Vikings and take their land.

• In any case, I think it’s possible to create art, tell stories, cook food, make video games about other cultures and so forth without it qualifying as appropriation and without it being disrespectful or racist—but, of course, it can also go the other way. If This Land Is My Land uses racist tropes about Native people or creates an image of those people as bad or stupid or what have you, then I can understand why people would call it racist.

• This, however, is not what the game is accused of doing. Many of its critics admit to really enjoying the game, having played it since it released in Early Access. The only racism they point to is the fact that no Native people are part of the team and no Native consultants were hired.

• The only claim of racism that I’ve seen that has anything to do with content (as opposed to the color of the devs’ skin) is that they don’t use any specific tribes and treat Native culture as monolithic. The game’s tribe is fictional. But is this actually racist? Lots of games and books and movies fictionalize elements of their stories for lots of reasons. It seems like the smart move—something to avoid even more controversy—but not a racist one.

• There are some racist jokes in those Discord threads but not from the developers. Joking about “casinos” and so forth should be condemned and the devs should condemn it. Having a Native on the team wouldn’t stop those people from being racist, however. People can just be shitty.

• Giroux also critiques the game’s karma system, which dings players for killing and rewards them for peaceful/non-violent stuff. This is common in video games but I agree it sounds kind of pointless in a game about fighting to take back your land. Sounds like something they should scrap post-haste.

Ideally, of course, it would be great if Game-Labs did use consultants, have some discussions with tribes and historians and so forth. Maybe they should start an Indie GoGo or something to raise some money to pay a consulting fee. I’m not sure.

From what I can tell, the game portrays Native Americans sympathetically and in a positive light, which I think is pretty crucial here. Can it still be racist? Sure. Maybe it tips the other way into the “Noble Savage” trope. I could see that. That’s an easy trap to fall into when white people talk about Native people.

Historically, of course, popular culture has portrayed Natives as one of two things: Bloodthirsty Savages or Noble Savages. Both are racist and ignorant portrayals. Native people are just like everyone else: Human beings capable of good and evil.

This portrayal has changed over the years as more Native storytellers have been heard, and culture has moved toward more realistic and grounded understanding of Native peoples. One of my favorite movies of all time is The Mission, which documents the atrocities of the Church and slavers in South America. It was written by English playwright, Robert Bolt—a white guy—and directed by Roland Joffé—another white guy.

And yet The Mission remains an important story that adds to an important conversation about the brutal history of the colonization of the Americas. Should we deem it racist or accuse its creators of “cultural appropriation” because of this? That seems rather extreme to me. We should obviously encourage and embrace more Native works of art—including in film and games—but surely we can do that while also encouraging and embracing games like This Land Is My Land. Maybe I’m wrong.

More recently, Taylor Sheridan (a white guy) wrote and directed Wind River, a movie about the plight of Native women. It was a powerful, deeply disturbing film that I don’t think anyone can accuse of being racist despite a white guy having made it. I’d love it if we saw video games tackle similar issues. (Sheridan also makes the show Yellowstone which often highlights racism against Natives, the danger Native women face and so forth).

Some great films have also been made by Native people, including the wonderful Smoke Signals based on Sherman Alexie’s short story "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" from his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. It’s a great movie that’s actually quite funny and moving and a great book of short stories. I don’t think Wind River and Smoke Signals cancel one another out. I think compliment one another.

Giroux accuses This Land Is My Land of causing “actual harm” but I think our modern, overly-woke culture bandies about the word “harm” rather too cavalierly. If anything, this game adds a much-ignored perspective, and much-needed diversity, to the gaming world. There are simply not very many games about Native people out there. I hope more Native game developers make the games they want to make and tell the stories they want to tell. This Land Is My Land proves there is a market for it. I’d happily support those games!

I just don’t understand why we have to trash something, spread a bunch of angry claims like the game is a “racist dumpster fire” and accuse the devs of being terrible instead of saying “This is one step toward a more diverse gaming culture with more diverse stories and points of view. It’s not perfect. Maybe, as this game is developed, we can be part of the conversation and help make it better.”

After all, Game-Labs have said they’re welcoming feedback. If there’s a problem with the game, or if something could be added or tweaked, people can speak up and say so. I just don’t think accusing them of cultural appropriation is nearly as helpful as actual tips and pointers.

Are you giving your labor away for free by doing this? Maybe?

It’s an Early Access game and in Early Access games people give studio’s feedback. Maybe that’s free labor, maybe it’s just support—but either way, we’re not talking about a massive corporation exploiting working people here.

What do you think? Am I wildly off-base? Am I missing something? Jump in the comments and let me know.

Check out the game on Steam here.

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