The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is getting the superhero treatment.
The Marvel miniseries "Echo," featuring a protagonist from the tribe, was released for streaming to Disney+ and Hulu on Tuesday.
In tandem with the release of the show, the Choctaw Nation launched an educational website covering parts of Choctaw language and culture seen in the series.
"We wanted to have resources available to tell [audiences] the accurate history," said Seth Fairchild, the Choctaw Nation's director of culture.
Fairchild said the question for the communications team was "once we spark people's interest, how do we educate them about our culture?"
"Echo" is the latest TV & film project to feature one of Oklahoma's native communities, with "Reservations Dogs" and "Killers of the Flower Moon" highlighting the stories from the Muscogee and Osage nations.
Marvel and the Choctaw Nation collaborated on the series to ensure accuracy.
In a promotional video, Choctaw Chief Gary Batton said he thinks "it's an exciting time for our Choctaw people to be recognized for our contributions that we've made."
Fairchild said other projects involving the Choctaw Nation have not been as involved in the past. He said other productions have sometimes already written or filmed stories involving Choctaw culture before approaching the nation for accuracy.
"They'll write it, they'll film it, and then they come to us and say 'hey, we want you guys to review this,'" Fairchild said. "Sometimes there's major changes that need to take place."
"The best situation is when these companies will go to indigenous populations on the front end and say, just like Marvel did, 'walk along side us through this process,'" he said.
Fairchild said he hopes that kind of model can become standard practice for future productions involving stories about Native Americans.
You can learn more about the "Echo" series and the elements of Choctaw culture shown by visiting the Marvel ECHO x Choctaw Nation website.
