Somehow I don’t remember hearing that sacred Maya rituals were for $1 million. The organization Natives Against Media Stereotypes isn’t too happy:

Contestants fought with each other and pushed and shoved each other for the chance to win $1 Million dollars. Thursday night’s show much more resembled a football game where the fans adorn themselves with “war paint” and practice the offensive “Tomahawk Chop.” Did CBS ever think about how painful it might be for Native Americans in the viewing audience to watch white people parody Mayan warriors and bounce and prance around on netting trying to imitate their deeply engrained racist perceptions of Mayan culture? Did the producers even do any research into modern Mayan culture. Did they ever think that feathers might have special spiritual significance to the Mayans and that they might not like their culture depicted in the outrageously disrespectful way it was depicted on Thursday night? We think not.

The group points out that “The producers of Survivor Guatemala have included every under-represented minority group in America as contestants, except Native Americans.” Click here to view images from the episode.