The American Indian Quarterly

Dustin Tahmahkera
Custer’s Last Sitcom: Decolonized Viewing of the Sitcom’s “Indian”
The American Indian Quarterly - Volume 32, Number 3, Summer 2008, pp. 324-351

University of Nebraska Press

Project MUSE - The American Indian Quarterly - Custer's Last Sitcom: Decolonized Viewing of the Sitcom's "Indian" Project MUSE Journals The American Indian Quarterly Volume 32, Number 3, Summer 2008 Custer's Last Sitcom: Decolonized Viewing of the Sitcom's "Indian" The American Indian Quarterly Volume 32, Number 3, Summer 2008 E-ISSN: 1534-1828 Print ISSN: 0095-182X DOI: 10.1353/aiq.0.0012 Custer's Last Sitcom: Decolonized Viewing of the Sitcom's "Indian" Dustin Tahmahkera We are smart enough to know books and cameras are real, television sets are real, but what they conjure up about Native people isn't very real. Darrell Kipp (Blackfeet), "Images of Native People as Seen by the Eye of the Blackbird" I'm a sit-com kid. All in the Family, Brady Bunch, Three's Company. So my timing, my sense of humor, my world outlook is definitely partly shaped by situation comedies. Sherman Alexie (Coeur d'Alene/Spokane), "No Reservations" On December 31, 1951, CBS aired an episode of I Love Lucy called "The Adagio." In this episode the writers used a typical ploy found throughout the original run of the series. Lucy wants to break into show business, but Ricky, her husband and a nightclub performer and owner, repeatedly rejects her and her seemingly inadequate performance skills. As soon as Ricky mentions his search in "The Adagio" for an authentic Apache dancer to perform at his club, Lucy responds, "Apache, huh?" Triggering a moment of reflection in response to her...