I’m drafting a fantasy story where the main character is a native woman of color (& native tribes are present and active on the continent where the story takes place). There is a colonial kingdom who is not violent toward the natives (they usually don’t interact with each other at all) but the course of the story includes the native Mc being called upon by the gods to help out the colonial queen because the continent is being invaded by different violent colonists. (1/2)
It’s supposed to be more of an “everyone will lose magic if you don’t end up helping these people, because they’ll hurt everyone here”; I should note that the queen is also the mc’s love interest. Tl;dr the natives in the story are indifferent to a non empirical colonial kingdom they’ve coexisted with for about 30 years, & the gods tell the Mc to help save the kingdom from other colonists. If I’m writing this then I want to do it the right way, avoiding any stereotypes etc. (2/2)
Natives Helping Powerful (Colonial) Empire
Before I begin, please do not conflate “colonial” with “white.” Colonial powers are always violent, and are always an active oppressor of the people they are colonizing. It is not a word to toss around lightly.
The reason it is used so much in modern day is because there is only one Indigenous population currently unoccupied by colonialism on the planet, and it’s on a small island. Every other Indigenous group is actively being oppressed by colonialism, and whether that violence is physical or cultural it is still violent.
If you truly mean that this is a colonial power, then I’m going to ask you please not, because Natives helping colonizers is an extremely touchy topic best left for #ownvoices. It does not matter if this colonial empire hasn’t hurt the Native populations yet (and it is “yet”; colonialism is always hungry for victims). Colonialism and our relationship to it is ours to write about.
With how America has just recently blown up a burial site for a border wall and Canada is actively invading (unceded) Wetsuweten territory for a pipeline (with full military vehicles), having any sort of colonial/Native alliance handled by an outsider would be extremely harmful and perpetuate oppression.
If, however, you meant to write “white neighbouring kingdom”…
For starters, the whole concept of “Gods called to do/be x” can be a very Christian/European pagan thing. Native spirituality is a much different beast, and each nation has different ideals and relationships to their deities.
You’ll have to do research into how we move to action, because Native people in general have lower individualism and a higher community focus than the American ideal.
Can’t speak any more specifically than that, because each nation is different in how they relate to their spirits.
Next up, there is certain caution to be applied when you have Indigenous peoples be the most magically attuned. This tends to be dipping into the toes of Magical Native, Noble Savage, and general concepts of misconstruing our responsibility to protect the land as any sort of white person fantasy.
I’ve talked about this at length in the Noble Savage and Magical Native tags. Tl;dr we’re also heavily scientific along with a deep spirituality, and removing our centuries of scientific advancement is a disservice to us.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you have to be careful you don’t fall into the “Thanksgiving” kinds of narratives. Look at how nice and generous and kind Natives were, helping everyone, allowing American culture to flourish, giving away all the land America needed.
It’s a deeply, deeply weaponized narrative, and it sanitizes the active colonialism that was beginning even at the start of America’s history. Land was stolen from the start, and Thanksgiving gives thanks for massacring us.
Natives do not exist to be saviours of white people, which I think is how a lot of non-Natives view our environmental work. They see Natives as wanting to save the whole population, when we are trying to save our home.
We are allowed to be selfish about it, and a few of us have no intention of ever working with white people from how deeply we’ve been burned. Our goal is to save our home, to save the place that gave us our lives, the place that teaches us how to live.
Which I think, deep down, is what upsets me about the story. The whole plot (as presented here) is basically “Native person forced to save white man because I the author say they have to.” That’s how white people view us. That’s how America’s history is taught.
That is not our reality.
There’s also a ring of ahistorical to it, because Indigenous people were either at war or trading with their neighbours (and alternating between the two), so the whole “completely closed off” thing either came from the white kingdom being deeply rude to the point of basically a war/enemies declaration, or you end up painting Natives as haughty and impossible to work with. If the former, your “indifference” is wrong, and if the latter, it’s racist (based off a misconception around the Thanksgiving narrative mentioned above—they were so nice but now they’re so mean for no reason).
People were people, which meant people traded. People had wars. People got curious what was over the fence and cultural diffusion happened all the time. You can trace the trade routes Indigenous people had by tracing how corn spread across the continent, because while it’s a North American crop, it was first domesticated in the south and moved all the way up to the Great Lakes.
If you want an example of how white and Indigenous culture mixed, look up the Metis in Canada. They’re a whole nation that blends primarily Cree and French (with a dash of Scottish) culture together, thanks to intermarriage between white settler men and Native women that mutually benefited both sides for a very long while, and created a very large population of people who are all some percentage of mixed white/ Native. Whatever mix they have does not invalidate either side because they’re built off being mixed and pulling heavily from both, then making it their own.
The whole concept of “they simply coexisted without interacting” doesn’t work, not unless you create a situation that forced them to close off, and “Native person breaks code of silence to help rude-at-best white people” is starting to get back into a type of story best left in Native hands.
All in all, this story doesn’t ring true on multiple fronts. I’d go back to the drawing board based off the points I raised above, and see what a better fit for your story is.
But to reiterate: if this is truly a colonial empire, know that “non violent colonial empire” is an oxymoron, and having a Native person work with a colonizer is not your story to tell.
~ Mod Lesya
As an Indigenous women, I feel as if a non-native person writing about an indigenous community, or person is in my opinion, wrong. It should be a story that is written by an indigenous person themselves. Because they are the ones that has lived, and understand the meaning of what it means to be indigenous. There are so many books and stories written by white people, and it’s not usually good.
As the Mod pointed out, it should be a story written by a Native/Indigenous person, rather than someone who isn’t. People who aren’t indigenous don’t understand the hardships, racism and segregation we are dealt with on an almost daily basis.
But, @maya-kov-sky I’m willing to answer any questions. But from what I’ve seen in your replies. You’re saying you won’t write the story. But, nonetheless, I’m still here the answer any of your questions you may have.
