Menominee actress Alaqua Cox hopes her Marvel character 'Echo' inspires Indigenous people

Alaqua Cox is hoping her superhero character Maya Lopez, aka Echo, continues in the Marvel cinematic universe.

“I hope that she will be able to cross paths with other superheroes,” she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel through a sign language interpreter.

Cox, 26, who’s from the Menominee Nation in Wisconsin, stars as Echo in the five-episode series, also called "Echo," released last week on Disney+ and Hulu.

Her groundbreaking role started in 2021 when she first appeared as Maya Lopez as a conflicted villain to Jeremy Renner’s Avenger character in the Disney+ "Hawkeye" series. Cox played Marvel's first live-action Native American superhero.

“I feel like a role model because I grew up not seeing myself represented on the screen — a deaf, Indigenous amputee,” Cox said. “Now, there’s more Indigenous and deaf actors.

“We have a lot of white superheroes, but we don’t have other cultures’ superheroes. So, we’re now seeing a lot of diversity and all of these disabilities being represented. And I feel like we can do anything.”

“Echo” was a role Cox nearly passed on.

Three of her friends had found online a casting call from a studio that was looking for an Indigenous deaf woman in her 20s. Though Cox had only a little acting experience in high school, they encouraged her to go for it because it fit her description and it was a great opportunity.

“I was battling with it, at first,” Cox said. “I didn’t know if I wanted to do it.

“I thought there’s no way they’re going to hire me because I’m an amputee and I don’t know superheroes. There are no other superheroes that have an amputated leg.”

But Cox said her friends kept pushing to go for it, so she did.

She said there were about 20 other women auditioning before it was narrowed down to three. Then there were three more months of auditioning before she finally landed it.

The role kept growing as the series was being filmed and the producers liked what they saw in Cox.

“It started as a small supporting role and I only shot a few weeks in. And then I saw my name become number one on the call sheet, becoming a lead actor,” Cox said. “It was a huge jump, especially because I had no acting experience, except for two plays I did in high school, but stage is very different compared to TV.”

It was also a challenging time in Cox’s life. Between filming “Hawkeye” and “Echo,” she lost her father.

“I had all that going on in my life and now I’m representing the Indigenous community,” she said.

Cox said that, although the role’s been challenging, it’s also been great being able to represent her people.

“The journey has been wild,” she said. “It’s been such a crazy experience for me.”

While Cox is Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican, her character is Choctaw, a tribal nation with a reservation in Oklahoma.

The show depicts Choctaw cultural traditions historically and presently, starting with the tribe's creation story of how the first people arose from underground.

Cox’s character derives strength from her ancestors, all the way back to those first people. One highlight in the show is an ancient depiction of a lacrosse game in Choctaw ancestral land in what is now Alabama.

The Choctaw people had been forcefully moved from Alabama to Oklahoma by U.S. President Andrew Jackson’s administration in the 1800s during what’s infamously known as the Trail of Tears, to make room for slave plantations.

One of Maya’s (Cox’s character) ancestors emerges victorious in the game by reaching out to her ancestors in that lacrosse game played before European contact.

“Echo” includes characters from Marvel’s “Daredevil” series on Netflix, including Kingpin, played by Vincent D’Onofrio, and Daredevil, played by Charlie Cox.

The show also includes an all-star cast of Indigenous actors, including Tantoo Cardinal, Graham Greene, Zahn McClarnon and Devery Jacobs.

Cox’s 10-year-old cousin, Darnell Besaw, also from the Menominee Reservation, plays a young version of her character.

Members of tribal communities from all over Wisconsin play as background characters in the show, especially as dancers during a pow wow scene.

“Echo” is different than most of the other Marvel and Disney shows in that it’s darker and grittier.

“Maya is a powerful, violent and complicated person and I don’t blame her,” Cox said. “She grew up with a lot of trauma in her life and the character is truly an amazing character.”

“It’s rare to see that kind of character in the MCU. It’s a different and unique perspective and I’m excited for the audience to see that.”

Along with her character and the show inspiring Indigenous peoples around the world, Cox hopes her character can help enlighten hearing people about the deaf community.

“The hearing audience is not educated about the deaf culture,” she said. “It’s crazy because some of them ask the dumbest questions like ‘Can deaf people drive?’ Yes, we can drive.”

She said a deaf person is often more aware of what’s happening visually than a hearing person, especially in activities like driving.

Cox recently welcomed a baby and is home often in the Menominee area in northeast Wisconsin, where she’s known as a local celebrity.

“When I go into a grocery store, or something like that, they’ll ask me for an autograph out of the blue,” she said. “And I can’t hear them, so they’ll tap me on the shoulder and I’m not expecting that and it startles me a little bit.

“They’ll tell me that they’re so proud of me and to see Indigenous representation on the screen is breaking down barriers. I’ve had a lot of positive reinforcement from the community.”

Frank Vaisvilas is a former Report for America corps member who covers Native American issues in Wisconsin based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact him at [email protected] or 815-260-2262. Follow him on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'Echo' actress Alaqua Cox of Menominee Nation sees role as inspiring