Nah-mee's tribe is the conjectural name for a group of characters referenced in the Jungle Cruise.
Description[]
This was a tribe of Indigenous South American peoples active in the Amazon rainforest during the 20th century. They followed a political system in-which they were lead by a single chieftain. Some members of the tribe seemed to be involved with the practice of cannibalism. They tribe appeared to be connected to the practice of creating shrunken-heads, the skins of human heads, shrunken and preserved via heating around wooden balls. This tribe was also active in the Wilds of Adventureland, a realm conjoining jungles across the world.
History[]
Background[]
This tribe was active in the Amazon rainforest. By the 1930s, their chieftain was one Chief Nah-mee, a cannibal and trader of shrunken-heads. Nah-mee and his ancient, magic-using cousin Trader Sam were allies with the Jungle Navigation Company, a colonial British company. This affiliation would result in skippers of the company considering Nah-mee to be "The Head Man of the Jungle".
In the December of 1935, the Jungle Navigation Company held their first inaugural, "Jingle Cruise", a Christmas-themed tour of the Rivers of Adventure. The Jingle Cruise practice of continuing the Jingle Cruise would continue for the following years and during one of these tours (potentially even the inaugural Jingle Cruise), an air shipment of holiday decoration missed its marker and was dumped in the rivers. Because of this, the jungles became polluted with Holiday decor that the Jungle Navigation Company condoned as an improvised decoration (despite the harm it caused to the local wildlife). Holiday themed pollution would appear to become a standard tradition of the Jungle Navigation Company's Jingle Cruise celebrations. Sam would take to selling champagne to guests for New Year's while Nah-mee assumed the Santa Claus themed alias of, "Trader Sam-ta".
Nah-mee's business expanded to trading fruit and pendants. The pendants which Nah-mee came to predominately sell were enchanted and known as the Tiger of Courage, the Elephant of Wisdom, and the Monkey of Cleverness. Nah-mee was sometimes accompanied by Sam's pet Indian elephant, Ellie. Nah-mee would assist Sam in opening up an east-coast franchise of his bar.
Development history[]
Creation & Changes[]
Nah-mee was created for Walt Disney World's Jungle Cruise as a counterpart to Disneyland's Trader Sam. While Disneyland's trader was realistic, the Magic Kingdom version of the character was designed by animator Marc Davis to be more comedic. Nah-mee's design closely resembled artwork of Indigenous North Americans which Davis had previously created for the film Peter Pan (1953).
As Jungle Cruise cast-members were encouraged to improvise, the scripts referred to this character as, "Chief (Name)". This would lead to the joking name of Chief Namee being given to the character by cast-members. Around the 1990s, the scripts for the Magic Kingdom's Jungle Cruise would be changed for consistency with Disneyland, resulting in the erroneous identification of Chief Nah-mee as being Trader Sam.
Nah-mee's central shrunken-head necklace has gone through some change. It originally had a long black beard with a white-streak, a head also shown in concept-art by Marc Davis. This head was opted out for a different head with no beard and long hair. This central head was often removed, sometimes in inconsistent outfit changes but seemingly permanently in Tokyo.
In 2011, Sam and the chief were again made separate characters with the opening of Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar. It was revealed in this restaurant that the two were cousins and the chief was given the official name of Chief Nah-mee. In 2021, a refurbishment was overseen at the American Jungle Cruise attractions to remove culturally insensitive elements from the attraction such as in the figure of Trader Sam.
Racism[]
Chief Nah-mee is a culturally insensitive stereotype of the Jivaroan peoples of the Amazon. Nah-mee's shrunken-head trading and, "Savage" characterization are based on how Jivaro peoples were pressured into trading shrunken heads (religious items affiliated with binding the soul of a vengeful enemy's spirit) with European colonists who considered them to be exotic souvenirs. Cannibalism is a trait not affiliated at all with the Jivaro people but which is a more general myth perpetuated by white colonists onto Indigenous tribes.
While Trader Sam at-least had a more normal design for a person, Nah-mee was designed by Marc Davis to be a caricature of Jivaro. Namely, his design was made to subscribe to the, "Jíbaro" pejorative of Jivaro peoples, implying him to be dim-witted and barbaric. This myth was created in the Colonial Spanish Period by conquistadors as propaganda in retaliation to the Jivaroan having been successful at fighting off Spanish invasion for much of their history.
Appearances[]
Jungle Cruise[]
The tribe was references alongside their leader, Chief Nah-mee. A possible illustration of them appeared on a mural advertising JNC tours of the Amazon which depicted several stereotypes of South American Indigenous peoples. Petroglyphs of piranhas and shrines to the fish left in the amazon might be attributed to the tribe.
Trader Sam's[]
Trivia[]
- As other members of the tribe were never explicitly shown, certain theories exist regarding their possible identities:
- Due to being negative stereotypes of the Jivaroan peoples, it is sometimes thought Nah-mee's tribe might be a tribe of the Jivaroan nation. However, the Jivaroan do not practice cannibalism as Nah-mee is affiliated with doing.
- Another theory asserts that Nah-mee might be the 1930s leader of the Puka Michuna tribe of the Amazon from the 2021 Jungle Cruise film. This might be evidenced be Nah-mee and the 1910s Puka Michuna chieftain Trader Sam both being chieftains who went by the monikers, "Trader Sam" and who both wore top-hats, with Sam having traded hers from Lily Houghton in 1916 and said theory proposing this to be the origin of Nah-mee's hat. This would also infer that Nah-mee is not actually a cannibal as in the film, this was a myth spread by JNC skipper by Frank Wolff.
- It is unknown if the tribe was connected to any other members of Nah-mee's family.
- A crate outside of Trader Sam's Gift Shop! identifies Nah-mee as having an address in, "Adventureland".
Gallery[]
