Two rather sensationalist articles suggest things have gotten irreparably bad and that the Cree (collectively) are outraged; several more balanced articles suggest that Headman Totoosis would have liked to have been contacted first as a courtesy, has some concerns about the game, but also suggests he saw some aspects of the portrayal rather positively. I really think the available evidence suggests that the media is blowing this out of proportion (shocking, I know).
R&F has been advertised as including eight civs and nine leaders, and it's too late to replace the Cree. R&F will ship with the Cree, and at most they'll be excluded from the Canadian version of the game.
NB that outside of Headman Totoosis, the Cree have been well-received, including by the Poundmaker Singers and by Cree players. NB that Headman Totoosis also has a political agenda here. Not an unreasonable one, but still an agenda.
The article also makes several assertions that are patently untrue (including that Sid Meier's Civilization is made by 2K, the publisher not developer), so I'd take anything it says with a rather large grain of salt.
Yeah and what else is lost is that this is just ONE member of the Cree that takes some issues with the display. Granted Headman Totoosis is more influential within the Cree Nation than most individual members, but at the time of those interviews he had not even consulted with the elders. So for what is played that all of the Cree people are so appalled is really one member of the Cree sees some potential issues (as highlighted in the follow-up article from Clyde Tootoosis.
And he absolutely has a political agenda, although I really feel he has approached it the wrong way. Even though he was not nearly as negative as much of the press has sensationalized it to be, he was still fairly negative prompting much of the sensationalism as well as other very critical pieces about 2K and Friaxis. In the end this is bad for both the Cree and all indigenous people. The unfortunate truth is like many other indigenous people the Cree are all but forgotten. They were unable to find 5,000 people to just make an anonymous signature, and in a world where 7,000 people actually gave money to a dude that was simply making potato salad, they are clearly not a major factor in the public's eye. They are about to get a platform to be seen by the millions. And instead of people talking about how cool and interesting this culture they have never heard of or only heard of in passing the narrative is negative and about portrayal of cultures in general. The Cree are once again lost, when it could be a story about them.
All this isn't to say he should just blindly accept what Friaxis has done or must be OK with all the aspects of the design. No, there most certainly can be concerns about these things, but by stating what
should have happened, handing out ultimatums, and even threating legal action (even in passing) all will ultimately hurt them. If instead he had mentioned that there are articular aspect he feels missed the mark and instead
invited them to come and make the depiction better, or acknowledged a video game won't/can't be the most accurate it could have flipped the narrative and resulted in so much more news actually about the Cree people.
Maybe this is what he wanted. For the Cree to be the only one to tell their own story. No one else will want to depict them, to avoid any potential backlash (well other than those that would have a clear negative agenda as backlash would be irrelevant to them), which sadly will also extended to other indigenous cultures as well. Many stories that could have really benefited from some global exposure will be lost in the future. In the end Friaxis could do absolutely nothing, never make a comment and the world will move on, even on a slow news weekend the story had no legs. They may give some half-hearted apology, but there will be no real action, no real dialogue to address concerns real or perceived. Ultimately it is an opportunity lost.. However, hopefully the uptick in interest can lead to some traction on Poundmaker's legacy.