Native representation in films

I saw the Avatar sequel and the Black Panther sequel this weekend, and the parallels are striking: both involving underwater cultures, connections to whales, and specific indigenous representation - in Avatar, the new tribe is based largely on the Maori (bottom photo), and in BP, the new tribe is based on the Mayans.

Here's an article that compares and contrasts them.

A super interesting side note: the leader of the native people in Black Panther is a character created for the comic in 1939! He was called Sub-Mariner in the comic; in the film he is K'uk'ulkan (the serpent god) and called Namor, which is a portmanteau of "no love" in the Mayan language: