#native writer

1) they can be triggering, why I put a TW, but (at least to me and my family) they’re not really sacred. They’re like supernatural vultures, honestly

2) Where’s the energy for the Nunnehi in Monster Boyband or Thunderbirds in any of those posts? What about my Piasa Bird series? My Mishipeshu post? Or anything else on my “Indigenous Monsters” Masterlist? It’s literally only for Raven Mockers and I don’t get it.

3) Do you write letters to Disney and Marvel? Do you comment on their posts about Wakanda (Wakonta/Wakonda is the Creator to many Indigenous Peoples. They pronounce it the same and the original comic creator literally said he got it from Indigenous Peoples)? Do you say anything about Thunderbird (John Proudstar)? No?? Then leave me alone oh my God(s)

4) Do you come for all these movies/TV shows/games/podcasts using the Sk*nW*lk*r or W*nd*g* names? They butcher what they actually are and look like, and make them into slasher fic monsters, but that’s okay? Get off my back

5) If you don’t know someone’s race!! Take a second to look at their profile!! Literally one of my most popular posts rn is a fuck Trump/fuck ICE post where I mention I’m Indigenous. It’s in the three post feature at the top of my profile if you click on it. It’s right under the Ask Me button.

So I'm actually gonna start talking a bit about a project I've had in the works for the last 3 or so years publicly at LONG LAST

Because by the end of next year the publishing process is gonna begin.

That's right, I've written a novel. Or, more accurately, have been writing a novel for 3 years and am FINALLY getting close enough to the end of my drafting process that I can begin raising the hype for it!

This novel follows the story of Micah, an air druid who believes they are the last surviving member of the druids after an event called the Downfall, as they and their group of friends travel together while building up the Rebellion forces. Their goal? To bring down Calei, the human king who had wiped out the druids and used their life forces to extend his own tyrannical reign.

This story is a very big thing for me, as it's my own exploration of the intergenerational trauma that myself as a Canadian First Nations person has, as well as my own personal struggles with growing past it. The story is also an exploration of queer identities in settings where characters may not have the exact words to describe themselves.

For example:

Micah is a Two-Spirit person who is aromantic. They don't have those words in this setting and are self described by saying "I don't feel that way I'm afraid. Love with the hopes of it ending in marriage has never been my style. (...) I have people I love, for sure, but I doubt I would ever marry. They're already like family to me," for their aromanticism.

Another character is a trans man who is very surprised to learn there are other trans people in the group he joins, saying "You mean... there are other people like me? (...) I grew up far from any cities really, and even after I'd only ever met Mystique who... really isn't the best role model."

On top of all of the rather deep themes, it IS filled with witty one liners, queer comedy, and the exasperation of regular old humans trying to handle a 270 year old elemental being roaming around and dragging up chaos wherever they go.

[Text:]

                                         This was the first

time I no longer felt                                          afraid: I knelt

into its wintered body as                                          if offering my own

small life                            to a god spent                                                         of being

so made in its flesh.

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

Your Godly lover had given you immortality after They nearly lost you. They couldn’t bear the idea of losing you. You hated Them for it even all these centuries later. You had to watch your family grow old and die. Your younger siblings. Their children. Their children’s children. Eventually you couldn’t even be around their descendants. It was too hard. All you could do was set up a trust fund each time you found out another had been born. You still had to take care of them somehow. They were all that was left in this world of your family.

You were a whispered legend in the county you lived in. Some thought you were a Spirit of the Forest that was from the pre-Colonization of the area. Some said you were a monster, lurking and read to eat unsuspecting youth who wandered into your trees. Others said you were stolen by a man who killed you. Very few whispered the truth, because those who had eventually were forced away from the area to allow it to be settled.

It wasn’t until some of your youngest sister’s descendants moved back to the area that you allowed yourself to peek at them. You’d find excuses to go to town, to find them. Your sister had been gorgeous. Maybe the most beautiful woman aside from your mother that you’d ever seen. She was tall, with eyes like clay, hair like midnight and skin so smooth you always wanted to be the one to paint it. Her descendant was none of those things aside from beautiful.

Her eyes shun like the midday sky, with hair that curled and twisted in ways you’d never imagined before the settlers came. Her face was round and childlike despite the life line that aged her face. Her skin burned easily in the sun that your sister loved, but there was ink on that skin. A permanent painting of a bird. You couldn’t help but smile. The more you saw her, the more you wanted to get to know her. You were attached. You did get to know her. You two chatted, and her voice sounding like a melody. You loved her. She was almost like her sister had come back to you.

Then she died.

You felt like your heart was torn out of your chest. You screamed, cried, begged your Godly former lover to let you die, but They didn’t. Then, a few days after, you stood at the edge of her funeral, watching her cold body be lowered into the ground. You saw her husband standing there with their child. A beautiful little girl who reminded you so much of her mother.

It wasn’t long until you saw that same beautiful little girl curled up in a ball in the middle of the woods, sobbing. Her father said he wanted to go camping, then left her. You couldn’t let the search party find her. They would give her back to that man who said she ran off, and she was too young to deny it.

As you sat with her head in your lap and she started to fall asleep, having washed the dirt out of her golden hair, your Godly former lover appeared before you.

“This will hurt. It always does.”

You look at Them, your lower lip trembling. “I know, but I had to save her. He would have just done something else if this didn’t work.”

They look down at the little girl, tilting Their head. “Her heart reminds me of hers. Pure. Soft. She will grow up to be kind, just like her.”

“I miss her,” you whisper, voice cracking as you look down at the sleeping child.

Your Godly former lover lays Their hand on your shoulder, squeezing it softly. “I’m sorry for what I did to you. I love you.”

“I know. I wish you didn’t.”

I have been trying to find a way to respond to this because I think this brings up the debate of cultural appreciation versus cultural appropriation. This is my personal take, and if any other Indigenous people disagree with me, that is their opinion, and they are right to have it.

Here's the thing, you're talking about my culture. My heritage. My ancestorial beliefs. I have talked a few times about how growing up I didn't have much positive representation for that part of myself, and how hard it was for me. That is a large part of why I write about Indigenous coded characters or about Indigenous creatures. Before I began writing my own stories, I had never read a single romance novel with any Indigenous main character (if you know any, definitely let me know!), aside from Cowboys and Indians novels, which for me is not included in "positive representation" (but if other Indigenous people want to, that is up to them).

If you were to bring this up about say the Straggele, I would understand more because just because I have studied folklore and culture from around the world, doesn't make it mine. If someone who was Swiss reached out to me and said something, I could understand where that came from. However, allowing parts of my history to influence my writing, getting to create characters that I see myself in, reading more into the history of my nations and our cousin and sister nations, amongst so many other things, is not sexualizing my culture. I am not appropriating myself or playing into stereotypes by writing what makes me happy.

I also want to add that the colonist fantasy includes a lot of racist stereotypes, which I don't put in my writing. There are no Indigenous women who use their body to get what they want or trick European men into helping them. There are no damsels in distress Indigenous women who just blink their big brown eyes and sling their braids over their shoulders as they ask for help. They're not naked and flaunting themselves or anything like that. Also, how are any of my characters "savages"? All of my stories are written in roughly this day and age aside from an ongoing commission.

It is not playing into colonist fantasies to write about Indigenous people. It is not playing into colonist fantasies for me to want to write about creatures from my own culture. Just like it would not be playing into colonist fantasies to sexualize a Kelpie as I'm also mixed with Celtic, or a Babau as I'm also mixed with Italian.