While glancing into the history of America, I have found a heroic comic character named the Straight Arrow. The unique thing to share about this character is his origin. Unlike all the characters from past till present in Hollywood, all are white, but Straight Arrow was the only historic heroic character with its origin from Native Americans or people usually called them Red Indians. Indians are Native Americans, dissimilar to all white people; they have darker skin tones, different races, cultures, and rituals. There is a long history of Racism against Indians, the indigenous people of America who live in America before Columbus discovered America. Indigenous people are the native tribes of America to whom we all know as aboriginals, Native Americans, red Indians, tribal people or with many different names.
Today indigenous people are treated as part of history, or they are treated as a way they are the past species, and in Hollywood movies, they are usually pictured as Villains, sidekicks, or some wild brutal cannibals. This is a wrong depiction of Red Indian cultures and rituals, which can be altered if we have exhaustively gone through the character of Straight Arrow.
Straight Arrow Hero:
Straight Arrow was an American Indian fictional character. The Whites described him as an Indian Comanche orphan, called “Steve Adams” (same initials as “Straight Arrow”). Steve returned to his true “secret Indian identity” to correct some error, often committed with indigenous people and sometimes with whites too. Steve’s golden-colored horse, Fury, and his wizened sidekick, Packy McCloud, were helping in these efforts. Straight Arrow, the son of a great Comanche warrior on his way to becoming one himself, is orphaned at the age of ten when his village is massacred by white invaders and another Indian tribe collaborating jointly. Wounded, he makes it to the Adams’ ranch, where he is raised as their son. Following Adams’ death, he inherits the estate, which he renames the Broken Bow Ranch. (This is just speculation; there was never a true origin story). When wicked people, white or red, scheme against justice, Steve enters a cave concealed on his ranch, and Straight Arrow, astride his golden palomino Fury, emerges to bring justice. Straight Arrow’s grizzled sidekick, prospector Packy McCloud, is the only one who knows Straight Arrow and Steve Adams is the same person.
Straight Arrow first appeared on a radio show and on “Injun-uity cards” almost simultaneously. The two schemes were well-coordinated, supported by the National Biscuit Corporation (NEBSECO) and the McCann-Erickson advertising agency. These cards have been called “Injun-uity Cards.” The word “injun-uity” is a combination of two words, which combines with the term (“injun”) and the word “ingenuity,” which is the ability to do something cleverly.
One of the issues covered by these cards ‘Indian know-how’ and was the development of objects in an Indian style or the right way to do different outdoor activities on each card. The cards have been published in four “books” series. Each book contained cards for a duration of approximately nine months in Shredded Wheat packages. Each book was made of 36 books. The publication of the comic book and the series of the newspaper had slightly gone through the coordination of the radio and Injun-uity cards’ two-hour, joint marketing support campaigns.
In an effort to cash in the first year’s Nabisco millions of dollars’ investment, the comic and newspaper series began approximately a year after versions of the radio and Injun-uity card. But just about a year later, in the late summer of 1951, the news series took off. The comic book was older than Straight Arrow’s other incarnations, distributed from 1950 to 1956. The book was much longer.
Straight Arrow has produced a lot of innovations. On items like toys and apparel, Nabisco sold the rights to use its Straight Arrow figure. While these occurrences had happened in lesser proportion in the past, the colossal nature of the phenomenon in the Straight Arrow can undoubtedly be considered an important example of modern “merchandising.” The Straight Arrow radio show was a Western youth adventure series broadcast twice a week in the U.S. from 1948 or 1949 until 1951. There have been a total of 292 series. Though broadcasting first in California alone, it was transmitted on the Mutual Radio Network nationally in early 1949. Sheldon Stark was the author of many of the programs.
