The Shawnee Tribe Chief, Ben Barnes, grew up loving video games. One of his favorites was *Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri*, a 1999 game where players colonize distant planets. So, when the same game studio, Firaxis, reached out to his tribe about including their famous leader Tecumseh in *Civilization VII*, Barnes was thrilled.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Barnes said. “Do they really want us to be part of the next *Civilization* game?”

Since its first release in 1991, *Civilization* has become one of the most popular strategy games in the world, allowing players to build and manage empires from scratch. The game lets you choose famous leaders from history, like Cleopatra or Gandhi, and tasks you with expanding your civilization, negotiating with neighbors, and developing areas like trade, science, and the arts. According to Circana, which tracks U.S. game sales, *Civilization* is the best-selling strategy game franchise ever.

But over the years, as both video game technology and society evolved, people became more aware of cultural issues. The game’s focus on land settlement and resource exploitation sparked criticism, especially from Indigenous communities. The genre itself is called “4X”—standing for “explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate.”

In 2010, Firaxis scrapped plans to add a Pueblo leader after objections from tribal leaders. In 2018, they included a Cree leader but faced backlash in Canada. With Tecumseh’s inclusion in *Civilization VII*, the developers knew they needed to approach things differently. They couldn’t just add the Shawnee leader without involving the Shawnee people.

For Barnes and the Shawnee Tribe, this was more than just a video game appearance—it was a chance to be seen in a new light and to represent their culture in modern media.

“It’s about cultural expression,” Barnes explained. “Why shouldn’t we be included? We should see ourselves in every form of media.”

For Firaxis, this collaboration was an opportunity to improve how they represented different cultures, especially Indigenous ones. Working with the Shawnee allowed them to incorporate the tribe’s language and history into the game authentically. Game producer Andrew Frederiksen said they spent months working with the Shawnee to ensure Tecumseh’s representation was genuine. This included asking about how future Shawnee buildings might look and even creating new Shawnee words for futuristic concepts.

Sid Meier, who created *Civilization*, said the Shawnee partnership was special. Chief Barnes had talked about the challenges of preserving the Shawnee language, which led Firaxis and its publisher 2K Games to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars toward language revitalization programs for the tribe.

One exciting part of this collaboration came when Shawnee actor Dean Dillon auditioned for a role in the game, not realizing he’d be voicing Tecumseh himself. Dillon was blown away when he got the news. “I ran around my house yelling, ‘Oh my gosh!’” Dillon recalled.

Hearing his own voice coming from Tecumseh’s character in the game felt surreal for Dillon.

While Indigenous leaders like Montezuma have appeared in past versions of *Civilization*, Meier admitted that earlier games didn’t think much about historical accuracy. For instance, early versions of the game included controversial figures like Stalin and Mao Zedong without fully considering how players might interpret them.

“We didn’t realize people would take it as seriously as they do,” Meier said. “We thought it was just a way to play with history.”

Now, with *Civilization VII*, Firaxis is making changes. For example, they’re removing the term “barbarians” for non-playable hostile characters and allowing players to negotiate with them instead.

As *Civilization* grew beyond its original U.S. and European audience—selling more than 70 million copies worldwide—players from all over wanted their cultures represented. Recent games have included civilizations like the Māori from New Zealand and the Mapuche from South America.

Being included in *Civilization* has now become something of a badge of honor for nations around the world, according to Meier.

The gaming world is evolving rapidly, and collaborations like this between Firaxis and the Shawnee Tribe show how video games can reflect diverse cultures more thoughtfully in the future.