Saga Star Wars and the problem of native indigenous people

Now we all know Lucas wrote Star Wars during the Vietnam war and was very much inspired by it. It's famous that he based the Ewoks on the Vietcong; the outnumbered, outgunned, technologically inferior natives fighting against a foreign imperialist power.

But what about the same people of Tatooine? The native indigenous peoples of Tatooine who's land was stolen from them by off-world humans like the moisture farmers. The problem of settler verses native is behind why Anakin's mom is captured and tortured to death. Slaughtering the villagers out of revenge and continuing the cycle of settler verses native is the first step of Anakin's descent into Vader. Anakin and Luke fail to rouse the natives of their own planet to the good cause.

I recently realized this is a brilliant mirror to the Ewoks in ROTJ who were ready to cook Luke and friends alive. Instead of simply slaughtering them out of vengeance, Luke takes a more diplomatic and Jedi approach and sways them to their cause, becoming members of their tribe and it is this alliance that enables them to defeat the ground forces of the Empire and destroy the shield around the death star ultimately saving the day for the rebellion.

This issue is very prominent in episode 1 as well with the Gungan/Naboo conflict. Padme, like her son, manages to end years of mistrust and misunderstanding and unites the two peoples.

 

Source?

Again, when was that ever established either? Shmi was captured while catching mushrooms on her own land. It had nothing to do with any sort of invasion or assumption of one.

 

To the sand people that was not Shmi land but theirs that was stolen by a upstart human.

 

Theirs? Says whom? Who said it was stolen by anyone? Besides, they are nomads. They make camp wherever they want. And land ownership or lack thereof was never established as a reason for why they kidnapped Shmi.

 

Say the Tuskin raiders most likely. Nomads doesn't mean they want people living on there planet.

 

Or most likely they say none of that at all. It's baseless speculation.

Who said it's their planet? Who made them owners of the planet over every other being from it? Who said they are actually native from Tatooine?

 

Wasn't the main Tusken mission in Kotor about them having land disputes?

That's not canon though

 

Except all the places humans and others have taken for permanent residence.

Your "this isn't canon" retorts have been noted. Maybe leave the Tusken discussion to people who are actually interested in having it instead of trying to squash it with notes about canon.

 

How do you know humans weren't indigenous to Tatooine? How do you know the Tuskan Raiders were? Do we know who was there first? Was this addressed somewhere? (I only know content from the films themselves)

 

Qui Gon Jinn in TPM:

"Moisture farms for the most part. Some indigenous tribes and scavengers. A few spaceports like this one are havens for those who don't wish to be found."

 

The Phantom Menace & Attack of the Clones visual dictionaries call them Tatooine natives.

As stated - "Unlike the Jawas, the native Tatooine Sand People have not adapted to easy contact with outworld settlers.
Resentful of incursions in their territory, Sand People prey upon travellers & are known as Tusken Raiders"

The reference books are usually canon unless directly contradicted by a movie or TV source.

 

Taken from whom? Not to mention that logic applies to the Tuskens too.

?! Where did I say anything about canon? If we are going to start to accusing characters of land theft based on nothing but pure speculation, then we might as well speculate about the premises too.

 

I mentioned canon.

It's an interesting discussion, but if we don't bring up legitimate sources it's all just speculation.

Legends material doesn't count.

 

True, and such an argument is supported in legends material which means it certainly was an idea the creative minds at Lucasfilm had (hence why the visual dictionaries mention it).
But if we're looking at it in context of films & TV, which is so far the only canon, it's not mentioned.

What I think is more interesting that needs exploring is, where did humans in Star Wars originate?
Did they come from another galaxy?
Did they start out on one planet in the galaxy and expand outwards to many other worlds?

 

If it's mentioned there, by all means.
Although it seems like pretty loose canon. I've not read much new EU stuff but I've heard some of it is already being contradicted.

Since we've already had a "droid rights" character in a movie, maybe a "native rights" character or a line talking about it in a movie or TV show would be interesting.

It's explored a bit in TPM with the tensions of Gungans & Humans on Naboo.
The idea of a representative alongside the main senator is very clever. That way systems with multiple races get their voice represented at the highest level.
I wonder if the Senator for the Tatooine system would have a Tusken or Jawa representative.

 

Good discussion.

I only have to add that regarding this things really seem bookended by TPM and ROTJ, don't they?
And they are the "greener" of the films visually.

In Ep1 you have the main planet's two species eventually overcoming their differences and conquering the threat to the planet together.
In Ep6, on a grander scale, the galaxy would be ultimately lost without the intervention of the Ewoks.
And as has been said, Luke earlier finds a way around the Ewok's more primitive tendencies without direct conflict. His father couldn't achieve this (further towards the middle of the saga) with the Tuskens, yet at the beginning of the saga his mother did just that with the Gungans.

The middle movies seem to be more volatile in their encounters between human and alien.
Anakin and the Tattooine settlers versus the Tuskens in AOTC. Anakin killing a bunch of Genosians in Ep2 also, and the somewhat mindless Geonosis arena beasts.
Luke being knocked out by the Tuskens in ANH is all the more ironic now when you see how easily Anakin disposed of them when he was mortally angry.
And in Ep5 Luke is almost killed by the Wampa, and C3PO is blown apart on Bespin then treated as scrap by the ugnaughts.

I just think there is an underrated aspect of equilibrium occurring here.

 

It's pretty indisputable that Tusken Raiders are Native American analogues (with some Bedouin trappings) and have been from Day One, bringing with them all the attendant associations and implications. In A New Hope they pretty uncomplicatedly fill the pulp fiction role of the violent savage, but in Attack of the Clones Lucas (perhaps having become more politically sensitive) subtly brings some more nuance to the situation. It's hard to hear Cliegg call them "vicious, mindless monsters" and listen to Anakin talk about "slaughtering them like animals" and not instinctively recoil and realize that these are indeed men, women, and children we're talking about, not beasts. Hearing language like this makes us realize that there is a long history of dehumanization and hate between these two groups which means everything is not so simple as it seems. It's subtext, but it's definitely there. Lucas is not telling a speculative fiction tale about mindless non-sentient animals who inexplicably look, walk, and act like people and whom it's perfectly morally acceptable to slaughter wholesale--that would be absurd and bizarre. Like always, he's telling a story about people and how they relate to one another, a story with referents in the real world--in this case, very very extremely obvious ones.

 

I don't know if it's all that clear. I suspect that if you asked Lucas directly he'd smile and shrug and say that it's really up to the interpretation of the viewer (much like whether or not Mace beat Palpatine).

I find the Geonosian issue to be more disconcerting from this perspective. These are technologically advanced creatures, so we can't interpret them as anything close to "vicious, mindless monsters." Anakin and Padme land on their planet, without legal right to do so, and several Geonosians (police officers?) attempt to arrest them--which is their right. But Anakin murders them all. However, I don't think we the audience are supposed to think too much of this, I don't think we're supposed to be shocked at the senseless loss of Geonosian lives out anything like that, it's just played as an action scene.

 

Well, they're on a covert rescue mission to infiltrate a facility with a demonstrated hostility to the Republic, and they acted against beings who were trying to kill them. You can quibble with the details but for the purposes of a space adventure movie I think the heroes were more or less in the clear morally. It's not murder or anything. But you're right that them being giant insects plays into the audience not really questioning the brutality as much.

 

Well, it wasn't really a mission: they just took the initiative themselves against orders. But, you're right that while Geonosis had "demonstrated hostility" by building a droid army... although I'd argue that's when you have to continue to rely on negotiations, not try and escalate hostilities.

Not initially, though. Initially, the Geonosians were just trying to arrest them. Only when Anakin started killing them did they try and kill Anakin--which one could argue is self-defense.

But, yeah. Obviously in this case we're meant to think of them as just giant bugs. That's kind of my point; likewise, I'm not entirely sure the audience is supposed to see the Sand People as somehow equal to human beings (as opposed to "vicious, mindless monsters"). I can see good arguments for both sides here, yours among them. It might be somewhere in between--as I said, it's even possible that it's intentionally left to the interpretation of the audience.

Side note: I'm sure you've seen "Starship Troopers." In that movie humans are at war against an alien race of giant bugs. According to the director and scriptwriter of that movie, that is intended to be a comment how, in real life, we have a tendency to dehumanize the enemy. It's a very interesting movie. It's complementary to the "Star Wars" movies, from a certain point of view.

 

Yes, the cinematic inspiration comes straight from The Searchers (i.e. protagonist returning to burning homestead in ANH and protagonist observing natives' camp at night in AoTC).

 

Yes agreed. Whilst I do like how Luke convinced the Ewoks though demonstrating the Force, I also think we are not definitely told that Tatooine belongs to the Tuskens. It seems a planet of various species including moisture farmers.

I don't think the Tuskens shown in the films (from TPM onwards all the way through to ANH) were the good guys necessarily. Interesting that the same Republic that defends the Wookies on Kashykk seemed to turn against them once they had helped Master Yoda (All these Wookies are dead. Move to the East).

Who does Naboo belong to?

I thought the film showed (and Lucas' commentary states) that Windu did beat Palpatine. That's what makes the scene powerful right? As for Anakin against the Tuskens I thought it was revenge, but could be perceived as justice. We are not shown the Tuskens in the films at least doing good deeds (They kill at least one pod racer in TPM and kidnap Shmi in AOTC and attack Luke and rob him in ANH). As for Anakin and Padme on Geonosis, yes I tend to agree now I think about it. They basically started killing Geonosians. The Geonosians eventually arrest the two with the help of Jango Fett and some droidekas.