Custer Rides Again in McDonald's Happy Meal

Say it isn't so! Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer has invaded Lakota country again, this time through the Happy Meals sold to little children at McDonald's.

Bobbie DuBray, Administrative Assistant for the Lakota Peoples Law Project was not only shocked by this apparent display of racial insensitivity, but also angered by it.

DuBray says, "I went through the drive thru at McDonalds on East North Street to get a Happy Meal for my five-year-old son. I got home and my brother opened the meal and found the Custer doll." She said he then asked her to come and look at what he found. To her shock it was Custer toy. Her son wanted the toy and she told him, "No. that's a bad toy." She said that her 10 year old daughter did not understand why the toy was bad. She and her mother, Betty Handley, then gave the girl a history lesson "My daughter was not taught about this in school. What are they teaching our children?" she asked.

DuBray, visibly upset by this experience, said, "I think it's insulting. It's like handing out KKK dolls in the south where there are a lot of Blacks."

Belva Morrison, Indian Child Welfare Specialist for the Lakota Law Project, said that DuBray told her about the doll incident this morning. Morrison said, "It is insensitive for local merchants to hand out these dolls where there is a large Indian population. They should have thought twice about promoting these figurines. I don't believe we're overacting. I think we are not tolerating things like this anymore. They're targeting young kids whose minds are easily impressed."

Pam Duncan, executive director for United Sioux Tribes, when asked about the Custer figurines said, "Why are they honoring Custer? I don't know how they [McDonalds] could be so insensitive. Especially the way we are experiencing racism right now. That's teaching our kids the wrong culture."

Dana Knight a mother, and a United Sioux Tribes employee said, "I don't want no Custer in my house."

Tim Swimmer who happened to be nearby offered his comment. He said, "It's like history is repeating itself." He was bothered by the apparent insensitivity shown by the McDonald's chain to a very sensitive issue in Lakota country. Custer is best known to the Lakota as an "Indian killer," and as the man who attacked an encampment of the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho at the Little Big Horn and paid the ultimate price for this folly. He was the head of the 7th Cavalry unit that attacked a sleeping camp of Cheyenne/Arapaho on the Washita in Oklahoma ruthlessly slaughtering men, women and children.

Josh Ullmark, Restaurant Manager of the McDonald's on East North Street, the McDonald's most frequented by Native Americans, said he was aware that the Custer figurines were being distributed in the Happy Meals. When Ullmark was asked for a comment he offered an 800 number for McDonalds Midwest Regional Office in Peoria, Illinois and refused to comment.

The Happy Meal prize shows the man they labeled "General Custer" (he was a Lt. Colonel) riding a motorcycle and his figurine is accompanied by a card explaining a bit of Custer's history. "Ever hear of Custer's last stand? It was named after George Armstrong Custer who lead (their spelling) his troops into the battle at Little Big Horn," the card reads.

The question that immediately came to the mind of Jason Wolters, an Oglala Lakota, was, "I don't think the big shots at McDonald's realize what an insult this is to the Lakota people. Here was a man responsible for the death of many Lakota and a man responsible for discovering the gold that eventually led to the theft of the Sacred Black Hills of the Great Sioux Nation, and they have the audacity to hand out his likeness to children here in Rapid City, a town now fighting to prove it is not a racist community?"

Wolters compared the insult to putting a figurine of Adolph Hitler in a McDonald's Happy Meal served in Tel Aviv, Israel. "Most white people would never understand our perspective on this horrible faux paux, but to every Indian in America, the insult is obvious," he said.

He added, "Most advertising agencies are in the east and the people who put the ads and flyers together have absolutely no idea about the demographics out here in Indian country. We Lakota never see an Indian in the flyers of Kohl's, J. C. Penney's or Wal-Mart. They never stop to consider that our Lakota children never see people like themselves in the flyers and ads they send out here and yet you can go to Chicago or San Francisco and see ads with African Americans and Asian Americans.

Yesterday several customers, white and Indian, visited different McDonald's shops in Rapid City and ordered Happy Meals. They soon discovered their packets did not contain a Custer figurine and motorcycle. They went to the counter and specifically asked for a Custer memento and were told there were none to be had. Customers buying Happy Meals without the Custer figurine were offered refunds on the meal if they so requested. It became apparent that McDonald's withdrew the offensive Custer figurines quietly and without comment.

Tim Giago is the editor of Native Sun News and this story will break in his newspaper tomorrow. He is the founder of the Native American Journalists Association and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard with the Class of 1991

Comments

[fireballr7]

I believe this was all a major oversight by someone low on the chain at McD's.

I'm sure they believed because Custer has a National park named after him in SD that most would be okay with it. Even though Custer was massacred there through a battle similar that goes on throughout time, everywhere in the world, it was still not very sensitive to the indeigenious populus.

The Hitler and KKK comments I feel are way off.

While I am ashamed as an American of some of the battles and tactics that our forefathers deemed "okay" at the time at Sand Creek, Bear Creek, and Wounded Knee, just to name a few, it still is part of our young history as nation, good or bad.

The key is moving on and dealing with these, and other topics, as a nation - being one. Understanding, and tolerating all of our indifferences over time andmaking us all better today.

McDonald's didn't do the right thing, no, but they corrected their error immediately and recognized their customers feelings.

The real question I ask is how Custer was allowed to have a National Park named after him in South Dakota to begin with.

Even worse, because this Colonel didn't stand trial or persecution from anyone, is that John Covington, the leader at Sand Creek, has a statue of him on his horse in downtown Denver.

I think those long lasting effigies should ring louder than a toy from a food chain.

[champions1]

I have been wanting to quit the big Mc Donalds for some time but this will make it for sure, boycott the rascals...i would prefer different language, but JUST DO IT...

[Podcast]

If Adolph Hitler had been in the Night at the Museum 2 do you think they would have made a figurine doll in his image and put it in the Happy Meals? No they just do that to American Indians because they know nobody (except Indians) gives a damn.

[ryankatus]

I can understand the dislike for the doll. However, does anyone realize that this is part of the promotion for Night at the Museum 2?

[LeftRight]

Custer is still a poor choice.

[champions1]

IT is time for all Americans to take a stand against this b.s. ...come on people B O Y C O T T

[redbow40]

I can only imagine what would've been said in the main stream media if an Adolf Hitler doll had been offered in a Mc Donalds in West L.A. OR Beverly Hills. Racism directed at American Indians doesn't seem to matter. Thanks for the article.

[LeftRight]

They shouldn't have given out Custer dolls where there is NO native population either!!!

Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer makes John McCain look like a tactical genius, by graduating last in his class at West Point, and then doing horrendous through the Civil War. By the time of his last mistake at the Little Big Horn he was LONG overdue for being Killed In Action!! I grew up learning about the tragedy of "General" Custer at the Little Big Horn, but it's amazing how much you learn with just a little teeny tiny bit of study!!

[Parducci]

Custer surrounded by french fries this time.