McDonald's Custer toy angers Indian Country [View All]

Source: missoulian

RAPID CITY, S.D. - Custer rides again, although he's atop a plastic motorcycle and in a McDonald's Happy Meal box.

And that doesn't sit well with some in the Native American community.

Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer was killed in 1876 along the Little Big Horn River by Native Americans he aimed to destroy.
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But Hollywood brought him back to life as a character in the Ben Stiller comedy “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” which opened in theaters May 22. McDonald's included characters from the movie as toys in its kid-sized Happy Meals.

The fast food chain's decision to circulate the toy in Indian Country is akin to circulating a Hitler figure in Israel, according to Laurette Pourier, executive director for the Society for the Advancement of Native Interests-Today. “It's insensitive and disrespectful.”

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The majority of the U.S. Army's victims were friendly Native Americans who would not run, Long Fox said. The military campaigns against Native Americans were driven by the government's desire to acquire land without any consideration for Native Americans as human beings, she said.

Read more: http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/06/18/news/local/news05.txt

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