Thursday, June 11, 2009
No one would ever expect to find a toy Ku Klux Klan figure in their Happy Meal in Mississippi, or for the McDonald’s in Tel Aviv to give out miniature Hitlers, so why would America’s legendary fast-food chain think it was good idea to give out toy replicas of General George Armstrong Custer in areas populated by American Indians? That’s the question on the minds of Native Americans living in the Midwest after finding out McDonald’s was giving away the Custer toys in Lakota country, which spans multiple states, including North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana.
The Custer toy is part of McDonald’s tie in with the movie Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. In other words, a marketing scheme derived from a film that takes creative license with many of history’s most famous figures and events managed to trump either the memory or sensibilities of McDonald’s executives in regards to the actual history of one of America’s most reviled military commanders. Custer is best known to the Lakota as an ‘Indian killer” who once led an attack on a group of Cheyenne/Arapaho that resulted in the slaughter of men, women and children, and who was later killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
When Tim Giago, editor of the Native Sun News, contacted a local McDonald’s frequented by Lakota customers about reports of the Custer toy being given away, the manager referred him to the company’s Midwest regional office for comment. Instead of addressing the matter publicly, McDonald’s officials quietly recalled the toys from area restaurants.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Custer Rides Again in McDonald's Happy Meal (by Tim Giago, Huffington Post)
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