I always looked forward to matches featuring Native American grappler, Tatanka.
Sure, Chris Chavis, who portrayed the avenging hero, had an impressive buff body and athletic prowess worthy of admiration.
But it wasn’t Tatanka that drew my attention to these bouts; rather it was the Doughboys I was focused on, those husky jobbers assigned to face this rampaging hero week after week.
The arrival on the scene of a Native American wrestler certainly was nothing new.
The website Obsessed with Wrestling includes a list identifying, past and present, a total of seventy-six Native American wrestlers:
http://www.obsessedwithwrestling.com/profiles/indian.php
Tatanka made his WWF television debut in 1992 (after weeks of promotional build-up that would do a “Star Wars” film proud). What made his arrival such an event, I believe, was the awareness raised earlier in popular culture by 1990’s Oscar-winning film “Dances with Wolves” of the oppressive treatment that Native Americans suffered at the hands of the white man. Just as Lt. John Dunbar, the character played by Kevin Costner in the flick, comes to an understanding and appreciation of the native peoples, so too, wrestling fans of 1992 were eager to embrace a Native American hero and, in doing so, to line up on the right side of history. Here, in Tatanka, was an opportunity for the public-at-large to exorcise a bit of the collective guilt raised by “Dances with Wolves.” It didn’t hurt that siding with Tatanka also provided the spectacle of a hot, muscled athlete kicking jobber butt.
For the Doughboy watcher, Tatanka arrived with a vengeance and with his own built-in scenario. Here he was, the avenging Native American on hand to right centuries of wrong. Add to that the fact that the opposing jobbers in the ring often sported mullets and facial hair (as fashionable in the 1990’s as the 1890’s), giving them a vague resemblance to such notable figures of the Old West as Buffalo Bill, pictured above.
It isn’t much of a stretch to imagine these guys as the abusive cavalry who brutalized Native Americans in the late 19th century ready for their overdue comeuppance at the hands and tomahawk of Tatanka (very much in the same manner that the boys-in-blue receive payback at the end of “Dances with Wolves”). Just change their garb from form-fitting uniforms to form-fitting spandex tights and move the action from the Great Plains to the squared circle. The stage is set, week after week, for a parade of doughboys to face whoop-ass from this new politically-correct WWF hero.
Everyone, it seems, is on Tatanka’s side which makes the suffering endured by the doomed jobbers, to the cheers and approval of the crowds, all the more compelling. Young and old alike mimic the grappler’s signature “tomahawk chop” as Tatanka makes his way to the ring; commentators gush over this new hero’s admittedly impressive physique; all of this within the feel-good context of justice triumphing over oppression.
An ironic aspect of these matches is that Chris Chavis plays into what many might consider decades-old stereotypes in popular culture better left in the past, from the taped Native American call that reverberates throughout the arena as Tatanka dashes toward the ring, to the traditional costume, complete with eagle feathers, to the lofty language that he employs when addressing the “Great Chiefs” in his match promos. Is it, perhaps, that we’re both trying to relieve our GUILT for having oppressed them, while at the same time, continuing to EXPLOIT them with a certain condescension, expecting them to parade around in costumes and war-paint?
The bottom line, though, is that Chavis, like any other grappler, was hired by the WWF to play a role; a part which he delivered with athletic skill. Tatanka, to this day, remains a positive Native American role model to his many fans worldwide. A newly updated website (http://www.nativetatanka.com/home.html) includes photos, essays, interviews, tips on fitness, nutrition and ministry, merchandise for sale and a Tribal Club available for fans to join.
But again, it’s the Doughboys who have captured my attention and my empathy as, one by one, these husky boys that I cheer on and root for square off against the avenging tomahawk of Tatanka…