ABSTRACT
On one of his regular visits to Northern Exposure's fictional town of Cicely in the real state of Alaska, traditional healer Leonard Quinhagak seeks expressions of the "collective unconscious of white culture." When the creators of Northern Exposure assigned "Indians" as the indigenous people of their town of Cicely, Alaska, they cleverly avoided the risk of cliche. Like all popular culture, Northern Exposure suffers gaps and contradictions, which simultaneously lend it power and popularity. The text fosters messages of goodness in cultural diversity and community—arguably the preferred, constructed meaning of the series. In Northern Exposure, television offers the first truly successful series to prominently feature Native American characters as normal, functioning human beings within modern society. Northern Exposure in many ways mimics the classic Western and its clash of cultures. Marilyn Whirlwind and Leonard Quinhagak are characters who, largely because of their cultural heritage and worldview, have impact on the action and on other characters.
