SparklePumkin

In honor of it being Deaf Awareness Month (September)

I’m making FLY for all the Black Boys who got their wings too soon and for all the boys who need to see themselves reaching higher. If you want to help this story take flight, follow our Kickstarter ! 🪽💫💖

Asking questions like this is good! Please continue to do so. This is not an all inclusive list, of course, but here are some quick tips. If you have a specific Nation in mind, go to their Rez website! There’s likely resources available or a way to reach out to them.

I also want to add, please remember I’m no expert. I’m what we call an “Urban Native” and mixed. I’m applying things on how I personally feel, how my family feels, what I’ve learned about Cultural Appropriation vs Cultural Appreciation as an Anthropology major, and just someone who exists in the world.

1. Making a character sexy =\= sexualizing or fetishizing. You can have an Indigenous character be sexy respectfully. Just don’t play into the stereotypes for why Indigenous Peoples are sexy. Don’t refer to them as “Indians” or worse, for women/AFAB people, “Squ*w”. It’s a slur. I know old Westerns use it for Indigenous/First Nations women. Don’t.

Note: some Indigenous Peoples don’t mind being called Indian, and that’s their personal preference, which is fine for them. However, over all, it is a colonized and improper term that should avoid being used unless necessary to the plot for things like to show racism, complacency or ignorance. Like with all colonistic phrases or slurs, use it wisely and sparingly. A person of that race reclaiming a word doesn’t mean you can suddenly use it Willy Nilly.

2. Obvious, but don’t play into stereotypes. Not all Nations have long hair. Not all Nations used dream catchers, tomahawks or were adept at riding horses as soon as settlers came. If I see another story where there’s one Indigenous person and they’re the tracker of the group, I’m screaming. Indigenous men are not inherently violent. Stop making them that way. I love you, but looking at you, John and James Proudstar from Marvel

3. Be respectful of whatever folklore you’re using. To be honest, unless you’re apart of that culture, I wouldn’t use anything that’s seen as overly dangerous (Sk*nWalk*rs, RavenMockers ((yes even though I’ve written about them)), Spearfinger, etc) in general. Try to stay to things that won’t make your actual Indigenous readers feel like you’re trying to mock their beliefs. An Indigenous person can write about their own culture, history and beliefs to explore, learn and take liberties in a way that others really can’t. Maybe stick to beings like the Mooneyed People, Nunnehi/Nunne’hi, etc, who are neutral or even positive figures. Also, please don’t use sacred beings as your jump scare slasher villain without at least attempting to be somewhat accurate. Your creepy 8’ tall Slenderman with antlers and a deer head is not a W*nd*go.

Note: I personally recommend also not doing Thunderbirds without a lot of research. I obviously love them and write about them myself, but they’re so often misportrayed in media that it’s frustrating.

4. Remember, things have meanings!! If your character has an eagle feather split in half, why? If your character wears yellow face paint, why?? Learn what those things mean. Learn when they’re to be worn, how and why. Don’t just add it to look cool. You’re going to have a six year old little girl wearing war paint meant for the War Chief to a Harvest festival.

5. Don’t mix cultures unless it’s intentional. Yes, Wahzhazhe (Osage) and Ponca are in the same family. Yes, they are both Plains Natives. Yes, they’re both of the Siouan language family. They have similar customs, diets and even some ancient migratory patterns. They are not the same.

Some media that does well (in my opinion) with having Indigenous/First Nations characters:

1. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

2. Dances With Wolves

A good video that accurately explains why stud is a term used for black lesbians only, not white, not poc, BLACK

the person in the video is a fem presenting black person in their car. they say “i love that you asked, lemme give you a little history lesson. full disclaimer, no hate to the commenter, i’m just giving everybody a bit of a debrief! now firstly, let’s talk about where the term stud actually comes from.

back in the days of slavery, when people still used to refer to us as animals, black people that were taller were known to be stronger because they could do more work. so down in the south, they started comparing us to horses. that then coined the term[s] studs for men, and stallions for females. like megan thee stallion. it was really big in the south. to compare us to animals.

but enough about the bleach brigade, let’s actually get back into the history. as you know, or if you don’t know, black women were not able to enter the working class until well into the 1960s. before then, there was a small populous of women that were still working, even though they technically were not supposed to.

‘how was it possible?’ these women would be dressing more masculine—using binders in order to help put down their chests, dressing more in a male form—and because of the fact that most bleach bandits believed that we, as black women, were already masculine, they got away with it. thus coining the term, in the black community, “stud.” because all the dudes knew, but she was one of the guys. so what did it matter?

any time the chlorine community would come up to black people and be like “hey! is that a female working!?” the guys would just save her and be like ‘nah, that’s a stud right there.” it was joke to them because they all knew. but as times changed and slang did too, the black community still keeps it close at heart. and yes, it was rooted in racism, but we’re taking it back for ourselves.

You are not on a horse five feet above the ground, you are going into the sky, and yet so many of the riders have nothing actually securing them to the dragon. Strap yourself in, and then add a few more straps for failsafes.

Why the hell are you sitting up? Have you never heard of aerodynamic drag? If the dragon is a quadraped, having a nice big human sticking out perpendicular from them is like sticking your arm out of a car window. You are gonna get flattened. Lie the fuck down before air resistance tears you straight off.

Why are none of you wearing parachutes? We started figuring out that shit in the Renaissance when all we had to fall from was tall buildings, you're telling me a society that rides large falling reptiles hasn't figured out anti-fall damage technology?