Indigenous Video Games in Libraries

There is a recent movement known as Indigenous Futurisms that examines Indigenous perspectives within the context of technology. Related to this, video gaming continues to be one of the fastest growing forms of new media, yet diversity in the industry is still an issue. This is especially apparent with a lack of proper representation of Indigenous video game characters and Indigenous storylines. While this is starting to change with the recent rise of a handful of Indigenous owned gaming studios and creators, there are still challenges around accessibility for gameplay. Video games made by Indigenous creators and/or with Indigenous characters are for the most part non-existent in most public library collections. In discussions of decolonization in libraries, video games as a popular form of media are often overlooked and not viewed as valuable educational tools to encourage literacy and creativity. This paper suggests changes that can be made to ensure that video games that share Indigenous Knowledges and traditions or are developed by Indigenous creators are made accessible and are represented in library collections and spaces. This paper provides an overview of Indigenous video games and the academic scholars that are examining and writing about Indigenous representation and inclusion in the video gaming industry. It covers a history of Indigenous video games while outlining the problems of representation and then provides examples of more recent games that are addressing problematic representation. Finally, this paper suggests ways that Indigenous video games can be included in library collections and spaces by examining ways to access the considerable educational benefits and knowledge that can be learned from Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous cultures.

and Métis descent, has written extensively on video game studies and advocates for them as a tool for Indigenous sovereignty and cultural expression (Lohne, 2020).
However, little scholarship has been written about the study of Indigenous video games and their lack of inclusion in library collections, but libraries should include this discourse as part of their efforts towards decolonization.
This paper provides an overview of Indigenous video games and the academic scholars that are examining and writing about Indigenous representation and inclusion in the video gaming industry. It covers a history of Indigenous video games while outlining the problems of representation and then provides examples of more recent games that are addressing problematic representation. Finally, this paper suggests ways that Indigenous video games can be included in library collections and spaces by examining ways to access the considerable educational benefits and knowledge that can be learned from Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous cultures.
Before continuing, I would also like to situate myself and acknowledge that I'm a multiracial transgender settler living on the unceded, ancestral, and stolen homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy ̓ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel ̓ íl ̓ witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Peoples and that I have taken time to reflect upon and acknowledge my own privileges. As noted, I am not an Indigenous academic, so this paper is meant to be a starting point for a larger discussion.

Indigenous Representation in Video Games
Historical Indigenous representation in video games is problematic, resulting in Indigenous People have little control over settler narratives. Early video games that involved Indigenous Peoples were from the viewpoint of settler colonialism, and gameplay was focused on how many animals or natural resources could be extracted and used from the Land. For example, the 1970s video game The Oregon Trail exemplifies how Indigenous Peoples' claims to the Land are erased in favour of a settler-colonial lifestyle. The game's main objectives include gathering resources such as food, weapons, and raw materials and having access to transportation while preserving one's life as a settler. There is no narrative in the game that includes the proper and respectful inclusion of the traditional Indigenous Knowledges or Ways of Being towards resources or the Land (Miner, 2020). Instead, Ikenberg (2020)

In response to The Oregon Trail, Elizabeth LaPensée's 2019 game When Rivers
Were Trails presents a revisionist historical narrative that places Indigenous characters, communities, and shared knowledges and cultural practices in proper relation to the Land (Miner, 2020). The game centres Indigenous Knowledges and Indigenous Ways of Being while modifying gameplay narratives to that of generosity, respect, relationality, responsibility, reverence, and reciprocity versus traditional narratives of violence, exploitation, control, greed, and ownership of the Land or materials. In the game, characters survive using traditional Indigenous methods of gathering and hunting food and utilizing transport, all while avoiding Indian Agents (LaPensée, 2021). LaPensée's games are categorized as being serious games in that they prioritize both fine art and game design together with strong a call for action around social justice (Ząbecki, 2019).
Furthermore, Miner (2020) notes that When Rivers Were Trails has a different approach than that of most traditional video games, as in this game "the interrelation between player and game state has shifted. The game makes room for generosity and a relational perspective on community" (p. 312). This is done by centering the game around an almost entirely Indigenous cast of characters that use traditional cultural practices and respectful ways of moving through natural environments using a gameplay mechanics strategy for accumulating or using resources.

A problem with Indigenous representation portrayed by video game characters in
Europa Universalis and Civilization is that these types of games offer up the illusion that Indigenous Nations have broken away from being Othered, while at the same time still relying on the mechanics and assumptions of settler colonial gameplay. Spivak (as cited in Jensen, 2011) defines it as, "the other is always the other as in inferior, not as in fascinating" (p. 65). It means that those that are at the centre of power (such as gaming producers) have the ability through the social construction of a virtual world to designate Indigenous gaming characters as Others within a video game. This allows for Indigenous sovereignty only through a lens of Eurocentric notions of power, achievement, and participation of the conquering of "empty" worlds (Carpenter, 2021).
The use of this terminology imposes the settler colonial view that any Land devoid of "modern development" is a flaw. Games produced with Indigenous creators can provide a far richer experience than a world that is seen solely from a settler colonial

Miner (2020) details some notable differences between When Rivers Were Trails
and other video games that feature Indigenous Peoples or Indigenous Lands. First, When Rivers Were Trails consists of almost entirely all Indigenous characters, uses traditional cultural practices and beliefs, and the Indigenous communities in the game were created in collaboration with over thirty Indigenous contributors. Second, the relationship between the player and the mechanics of the game have shifted: "the game makes room for generosity and a relational perspective on community (Miner, 2020, p. 312  Newer games, such as Never Alone and When Rivers Were Trails, are being used as tools of cultural expression and Indigenous sovereignty by their Indigenous creators and collaborators. Never Alone is a video game made by the first Indigenousowned gaming company in the United States, was developed with Indigenous Storyteller Robert Nasruck Cleveland, and is based on Kunuuksaayuka, a traditional Iñupiat tale (Lohne, 2020). Lohne (2020) also mentions that the game was envisioned by the publisher and the community as being accessible to the community and playable in an intergenerational manner. In this way video stories that are being relayed by Elders in the game pass along Indigenous Knowledges and Indigenous Ways of Being to the community through youth culture using video games as a form of education.  (Muzyka, 2019). The two-player cooperative science fiction platform game has a unique narrative in that in the first contact between settler and Indigenous players, both are seen to have equal positionality, and as a result each is asked to consider what it means to be the Other. From there, they play together and make decisions around alliances, the possibility of war, and whether each will remain in their own worlds as they act as liaisons between their communities (Longboat, 2019a). In considering Indigenous representation in video games, if, as Younging (2018)

Education with Video Games
One of the many strategic goals of libraries is to have initiatives around how the library and its resources and materials can be used for learning and education, particularly around bridging the digital divide and supporting that with the creative use of He teaches workshop participants that within the framework of making games there is room for Indigenous Peoples to share their language and Traditional Knowledges by controlling the narrative and advocating for self-representation (Roetman, 2016). Other educational institutions, such as libraries, also need to ensure that digital skills are given just as much space and priority in their programming. Batchelor et al. (2021) notes that "ninth graders, seniors, and college students found that playing video games enhanced their connections to print-based texts they were reading in their classes" (p. 94). Other technical, creative, and project management skills can be applied to the development of Indigenous video games using tools such as storytelling, digital development and design, decision making, coding skills, and programming. LaPensée (as cited in Roetman, 2016) explains that her approach as an Indigenous person to video game design differs than most linear gameplay in that her use of narrative uses "non-linear storytelling, including those traditional tales elders told for days or months at a time and often revisited for teaching purposes" (p. 47). Libraries should also be able to provide informational resources with opportunities for Indigenous Peoples that want to become involved in the video gaming industry.
Many educational facilities are calling for the use of interactive fiction in emerging literacies, such as the use of gaming technology in the classroom to help build multimedia skills for writing and comprehension or critical thinking skills involving decision making or complex puzzle solving (Batchelor et al., 2021). One example of an Indigenous patron using libraries to learn coding is John Romero (Yaqui/Cherokee), one of the creators of the popular video game Doom (Roetman, 2016). He was able to Indigenous Video Games in Libraries 23 release an update to his game in 2016 because of library-provided resources and access to game-making tools. Many different types of software and gaming tools are open source and freely available to prospective game designers. Libraries are wellplaced to provide access to video gaming resources and education to prospective Indigenous game designers and creators.

Indigenous Video Games in Libraries
Most public libraries have had video game collections for close to fifteen years, but Indigenous video games are often missing from these collections. Calls to action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC, 2015) around equity, education, language, and culture highlight the fact that libraries need to ensure that they remedy the lack of inclusion and accessibility of Indigenous video games in library collections.
One of the main challenges around accessibility to Indigenous video games is that many of the games that indie gaming studios produce are only available for digital download, rather than a physical format. There are other barriers around general awareness too, because Indigenous video games are often only reviewed in depth by other Indigenous Peoples. Marketing budget constraints also make it difficult to get published in mainstream gaming magazines or on websites. However, there are many Indigenous games that can be downloaded to personal digital devices such as phones, tablets, and laptops but an overall greater awareness that these games exist is lacking.
To increase awareness and become more inclusive of Indigenous video games, there are several considerations for libraries: 1. Accessibility-Computer and/or console stations (with headphones) can be set up with Indigenous video games already downloaded on them. The public can then play in time slots that can be reserved, similar to computer stations. Some stations may make use of gaming platforms such as Steam which makes it easy for library staff to download games. 4. Cooperative Gaming-One example that is mentioned in Batchelor et al. (2021) is that of a schoolteacher that connected her computer to a projector and used interactive live play sessions of a game along with the participation of her students. The students mentioned things they noticed about the storyline or had questions about and then they all played through the game in a group effort.
Options could include purchasing one game for the library that is played as a group or several copies where students can work in small groups. With some types of Indigenous interactive fiction games, there is the ability to do a live walk through, where one can pause or rewind the story and have certain points for discussion where decisions around movements and actions are decided upon by the majority. The lack of Indigenous representation in video games and video game collections is harmful and perpetuates the notion that Indigenous culture is not worth preserving.
Having video games with Indigenous characters developed by Indigenous creators can be an educational tool that leads to better relations between Indigenous Peoples and settlers. If Indigenous video games are missing from archive and library collections, it leads to a bigger problematic question around settler colonial institutions informed by Panuncial (2019): whose history gets archived and preserved and whose history is not being represented at all?

Conclusion
The discourse around Indigenous video games is relatively new. As Longboat