Cree Nation leader calls out negative portrayal of historical figure in 'Civ 6'

The real-time strategy game Civilization 6 announced a new playable leader for players to conquer the world with this week, and the people of the Poundmaker Cree Nation are not taking very kindly to it.

Poundmaker Cree Nation headman Milton Tootoosis spoke out against Civ 6's use of the namesake of his nation, Chief Poundmaker (Pîhtokahanapiwiyin), telling CBC Radio program Saskatoon Morning the portrayal of Poundmaker and the Cree people is inaccurate and dangerous. Poundmaker and the Cree people will be playable in the Civ 6 expansion Rise and Fall coming in February.

CBC Radio reported that Tootoosis was initially excited that his people were being represented in Civ 6, but after seeing how they were portrayed — in the same vein as every other historical figure in the game — he was not pleased. In Civilization games, the objective is to select a historical leader such as Ghandi, Genghis Khan, Cleopatra, or Abraham Lincoln, and use them to conquer the world.

"It perpetuates this myth that First Nations had similar values that the colonial culture has, and that is one of conquering other peoples and accessing their land," Tootoosis told Saskatoon Morning. "That is totally not in concert with our traditional ways and world view."

Poundmaker was an instrumental figure for the Cree people in negotiations with the Canadian government in the 1870s and '80s, when First Nations people were being moved to reservations and tensions between the Cree people and colonialists were high. According to the Poundmaker Cree Nation, Poundmaker advocated for peace repeatedly, allowing colonialists to retreat unharmed during battles.

Rather than fighting to control more land like many of the playable people in Civ games, the Cree people fought and negotiated to protect the little land they had that others were taking away.

"It's a little dangerous for a company to perpetuate that ideology that is at odds with what we know," Tootoosis told Saskatoon Morning. "[Poundmaker] was certainly not in the same frame of mind as the colonial powers."

Tootoosis noted that the publishers of Civ 6, 2K, did not approach anyone in the Poundmaker Cree Nation about including Poundmaker in its game.

"This is not new," he told Saskatoon Morning. "Hollywood has done a job for many decades of portraying Indigenous people in a certain way that has been very harmful."

2K has not responded to a request for comment.