#being ndn is a horror man

[circumpolarvampire]

"*X country* should colonize the US! Please nuke the US!"

You all will do anything to not give us our land back huh

[neechees]

I searched through your blog to see if you've answered a question like this before - if you have I missed it so sorry if I'm making you repeat yourself ^^

Are there things you see in Indigenous characters in media that you wish were less common ? What about things you want to see more in Indigenous characters in media ?

I dont think I have actually so you're fine! :)

So this is just my opinion obvi & some ppl might not agree with everything below, but here are some tropes or really common devices I see in Indigenous characters I hate and/or would like to see less of:

Interracial relationships but ONLY White person/Native person. I don't think this should stop or not be portrayed at all, but at this point it feels like we have more interracial relationships featuring a white person than we actually do depicting relationships between even Native people with each other. ESPECIALLY NATIVE WOMEN PAIRED WITH A WHITE MAN. God I am so sick of it, please give us Native/poc & Native/Native relationships for once, I promise it happens irl

That trope where a White person joins a Native tribe & essentially becomes one of them. For similar reasons as above, and again I don't think this portrayal should stop 100% & it's not necessarily "bad", but I'd like to see more diversity or a different approach to it. It seems like most of these are inspired by historical accounts of this happening irl, but most aren't historical depictions of actual historical people, which I actually WOULD like to see (White or not) more of, instead of just fiction. Also just kinda seems like wish fulfillment with White audiences who have a fetishization of Native people sometimes. Maybe I also hate it so much since it very often goes in with the white savior narrative too

Native women being brutalized on screen, oh my god. Seeing this over & over as a Native woman is literally so retraumatizing. A lot of times it gets to torture porn or voyeuristic, & wasn't even necessary to begin with. I don't care if it's to show how "bad" things are for us, I know, show it some other way.

White ppl making shit off of our Spirits & legends. Just leave us alone. They never get it right.

Just a lot of Native tropes in general because they're overdone. The Noble savage? Indian burial ground? Booooring. Unoriginal. Lazy.

Things I want to see MORE of:

This is just me because I LOVE history, but more historical Native settings BUT, set during Pre-colonization & precolombus. So many historic films about us are during colonization & being persecuted, & I think this is why so many Native people hate films with ndns set in history (in addition to making it seem like we ONLY exist in the past, which is fair), & other than that, makes it seem like our history begins & ends with being colonized

More badass Native ladies. I wanna see Native women who are femme fatales, wrestlers, assassins, martial artists, warriors, gunslingers, athletes, the works. I wanna see untouchable, dangerous Native women.

More fantasy & horror stuff I'm begging, I'm on my knees

The list for what we should STOP seeing in Native characters is honestly shorter because of 1. how severely underrepresented we are, and 2. Where we DO have rep has a lot of tropes that are very very overdone & constantly reuses those tropes, (besides the much lesser known, obscure stuff made by us for us, which isn't as high in number by comparison) so like the list for what we SHOULD try is literally so big I'll just end it here

[dovebuffy92]

https://fandomopolis.com/2021/08/17/reservation-dogs-season-1-episode-3-uncle-brownie-review/

Reservation Dogs Season 1 Episode 3 “Uncle Brownie” Review

Elora Danan Postoak (Kawennahere Devery Jacobs) takes the Reservation Dogs to meet her recluse Uncle Brownie (Gary Farmer).

Spoilers Below

In Reservation Dogs Season One Episode Three, “Uncle Brownie,” directed by Blackhorse Lowe, the three teenagers hang out with Uncle Brownie as he attempts to sell his ancient weed and teach them how to fight. The director Blackhorse Lowe is an award-winning Navajo Nation filmmaker. After Bear Smallhill (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) was beaten up in the “NDN Clinic,” Elora decides to take him and Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) to meet up with her uncle cousin Brownie whose known for knocking out loads of people at once at Ol’ Muggy’s Bar. Brownie is Elora’s deceased mother’s cousin, but they were raised together like siblings. “Uncle Brownie” re-writes what it means to be a warrior.

The dramatic opening sets up a powerful motif that is woven throughout “Uncle Brownie.” An older White couple driving along a highway argues over whether indigenous people in Oklahoma deserve their land back. Distracted, they crash into a deer on the road. The screen goes black. Then there is a wide shot of the dead deer in the foreground and right behind it, on the highway, looms Elora’s Grandmother’s car. Elora, Willie Jack, and Bear climb out of the vehicle. Elora correctly states that “old white people did this.” Bear says that they should take the deer with them in the truck. So they can cook the backstrap tonight. Elora, Bear, and Willie Jack carry the deer in their trunk throughout the entire episode.

At first, the way awkwardly transport the deer reveals that these indigenous teenagers still have a lot to learn. When Uncle Brownie comes out to hitch a ride into town with them, he notices the dead deer in the trunk. The smelly deer carcass has gotten bigger, probably because it’s swelling in the heat. Uncle Brownie spats in disgust. Bear explains they found it on the side of the road and plan to make backstrap out of it. Uncle Brownie wisely explains that they needed to gut it and butcher the deer first. That way, they could safely transport the meat. These teenagers know the value of a dead deer, but not the steps to bring the meat home safely. Now the venison is probably spoiled. In the final scenes, Elora uses the promise of the backstrap to convince Uncle Brownie’s old friends at the local bar to forgive him. Elora and Uncle Brownie bond while trying to get deer blood off their faces. Their plans to have backstrap for dinner are a tool to move the story forward since it reveals how the teenagers need Uncle Brownie’s teachings and then bring people back together.

Uncle Brownie shows an alternative way of being a warrior. Like the viewers, Bear and his friends are influenced by Western Media’s views about what an indigenous warrior or fighter looks like. In many ways, Uncle Brownie appears to be the opposite of a traditional stoic muscular leather-wearing warrior. He is a large man who spends a lot of his time smoking weed and lounging around his remote cabin. He wears a leather vest with a marijuana patch, a hat, a black t-shirt, a grey button-up shirt, and jeans. Uncle Brownie says he lives off the land, but his home is full of Sonic fast-food wrappers. Though at the same time, his knock-out left hook is legendary—we flashback to a younger Uncle Brownie at Ol’ Muggy’s Bar knocking out one person after another. Uncle Brownie was always drunk or high during these moments, but his strength is still impressive. Brownie is a flawed human being but a true warrior to Elora and her friends.  They call him uncle as a sign of respect.

The Reservation Dogs with Uncle Browning drive around town trying to sell his dried-out weed. Uncle Brownie coaches them on the warrior mindset. Bear keeps on bugging the elder to teach him fighting techniques. Finally, Uncle Brownie swings at Bear from the front seat. He advises the teenagers always to be ready. Throughout the episode, Bear tries to catch Uncle Brownie off guard. Bear points out that he still needs to train them on how to fight correctly. Uncle Brownie explains that indigenous don’t teach like White people. They don’t hand out books or have structured fighting lessons. Instead, the elders talk, and the young people learn by listening. Uncle Brownie has been teaching them this whole time.

The warrior teaches the youth that sometimes, one needs to get beaten up to become stronger. A warrior is somebody who gets back up after they fall. Until now, Uncle Brownie hasn’t truly lived by example.  He hid from the world. When Willie Jack sees the animal skulls nailed to the trees outside his cabin, she calls him a shapeshifter. He spits at her to reverse the curse, but The Thing movie poster on his wall suggests he feels like a monster. The 1980’s horror movie is about a shape-shifting alien. Shapeshifters appear to be bad luck in the series; associating Uncle Brownie with them suggests he is in a dark place. But in the eyes of the Reservation Dogs, he is a hero.

Watch FX’s Reservation Dogs on Hulu!

[doesthendnlive]

Kocoum (voiced by James Apaumut Fall ) from Disney’s Pocahontas (1995)

DOES THE NDN LIVE? : NO

---

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

This was the first time I remember seeing a Native American character die in a cartoon. I was five-years-old at the time. 

My experience with Pocahontas as a child was different from most children (I could never understand why the white characters were supposed to be the “good guys” when they not only killed this man but were singing and bragging about killing Indians all throughout the movie). But I remember watching this specific scene so vividly: the horror that flashes on his face when he realizes what happened to him, Pocahontas’s very emotional reaction to his death, the people crying as his body is brought back to the village. There was something about this death that felt so personal and unjust and at five years old I didn’t understand just what it was.

Kocoum is murdered by a white man so that the white man can have an epiphany, and he is forgiven for it. Before he’s killed, he has to be framed as being jealous and violent so that there’s a "good reason” to kill him off. A man who was singing with his friends about murdering “savages” gets to have a redemption arc but a jealous NDN who literally fought against these men who invaded his home, almost bludgeoned his friend to death and is kissing his future wife has to die. 

And as if all of that wasn’t bad enough, Kocoum was Pocahontas’s husband in real life. She had a child with him, and when she was kidnapped, Kocoum was murdered and her child was raised by the women of his family. When Pocahontas was held in captivity, she never saw her son again. Disney was familiar enough with this story to know the NAME OF HER ACTUAL HUSBAND but decided to turn him into a jealous suitor who has to die so a settler can learn a lesson.

[swampgh0stt]

--tagged by @weirdlywisely​

Rules: Write down 10 facts about yourself and tag 10 followers you want to know better

I’ve been writing since I was 3, making stupid stories that were poorly done but hey! everyone’s gotta start somewhere

A shark horror movie got me into the marine science field & no, it wasn’t Jaws

when you search ‘why are writers’ & google tries to autofinish the question for you with ‘depressed,’ ‘alcoholics,’ ‘crazy,’ you have literally found the description of me, good job

Speaking of me & google on a less joking sense, if you search my legal English name, I’m still considered a Missing Person after a major hurricane over 10 yrs ago 

I am 100% convinced that I have a Wanted Poster back in Morton County for being at Oceti Sakowin; everyone else in my camp does, so why leave me out? No one’s safe, fam. 

I am an irl pirate, in the complete sense of political revolutionary. Catch me at your protests, probably yelling about orcas & wearing the bright orange cowboy hat

I’m not a cowboy, I’m an NDN & I’m not even a plains NDN while we’re at it

I only just recently figured out that apparently my body’s made for a higher protein intake since my tribe’s one of those whale-eating groups & maybe this is why my hyper metabolism won’t let me gain weight. I’ve been raised by German white ppl this whole time & estranged from my blood group. How could we ever know?

I’ve literally jumped out of a car & chased after an alligator because I 100% planned on eating it. The sad thing is, that isn’t the first time. I’ve wrestled alligators before & I really love eating gator, okay

I grew up on-again-off-again the streets, going between them, the courthouse, the white side of my family, & my mom well into my highschool years. If you want a colorful description of my childhood, think of Ace’s, but with gang members instead of mountain bandits, Sabo’s a girl & we are so gay for each other, & I’m stealing fried donuts & food instead of pirate money. Also, Dadan’s suddenly a short skinny woman who’s also a hypochondriac in this edition

--tagged again by @ohshanksno​

Rules: Write down 10 facts about yourself and tag 10 followers you want to know better

Honestly, my childhood is scarily similar to Ace’s in most respects. Taking out the fantastical elements & putting a little more Real World themes, it gives me anxiety sometimes ‘cause I worry ppl think I’m faking it but I swear to God the shit I survived is unreal

I have a strong spiritual connection to an orca (x), to the point where I’ve had dreams where I’m in his body & the things I’ve seen/done were all real. No really, I’ve lunged at people before & then suddenly it’s the buzz talk the next day. But that’s really fucking weird & just another thing that not many people believe me on, but what the fuck ever okay? It’s not weird in my culture, but most ppl brush it off because Those Crazy Indians when the bible can talk about a man exorcising enough demons from one human body to possess a herd of pigs & suddenly that’s more believable 

I’ve been called a terrorist for wearing ceremonial feathers

I have a bullet scar on my leg from where I was shot by a police officer

My tribe has this story that we have orca blood in us & that they’re our family. We’re apparently descendants from this big orca who used to terrorize humans & waged war on them until they called down the Thunderbird to take care of the problem (x)

I nearly died in 2016 & that still shakes me up to this day. Like, I nearly fucking died, man. It took some terrible effort on my part to turn my ass around & then some, plus Oceti Sakowin, to save my life. I came out of 2016 like:

While I’m doing some personal info dumping for all the world to see, ‘cause I am unashamed & have no fucks to give: I can understand animals as well as I understand human speech. I don’t even care what that makes you think of me, but I can hear them speak to me & I understand. This especially goes for orcas & horses.

I had wolf parents at some point! Or rather, a wolf mother. Her name was Lyra & I love her dearly. She died of old age when I was younger, but she’s the first thing I will go to when I think Mother. She’s also the one who endowed me with animal speech, I suppose

I study orcas! I want to live in a boathouse! Lemme run away to sea, goddamnit! Also, I’m hydrophobic rip

I decided to get off my lazy ass & answer these because I’m procrastinating from the prompts in my inbox & if that doesn’t tell you what kinda writer I am? shruuuug

I don’t know enough people to tag so I’m not gonna do the whole 10 but--

@stardustrobin​ (ur gonna suffer with me), @razzzmatazz​ (& you too), @homura-bakura​ (just safely assume that everyone I tag is for the sake of suffering w/ me), @flameofswords​, @merciresolution​, @axlryan​, @chillblaines​, @chukfi-losa​

[indigenousandangry]

“But Radcliffe is SUPPOSED to be racist because he’s the BAD GUY...”

aka when everybody who gets mad about my Pocahontas tag wants to completely forget the worst characters in the film:

That’s what we’re going to talk about today, friends. If you’ve been following me for awhile now, you already know my feelings about this film. However, this is something that I don’t think gets nearly enough attention. I’ll add a cut because this is going to be a long one:

So almost every single person who has a problem with my Pocahontas tag wants to dismiss all the valid criticism about how racist and terrible this film is by saying “Radcliffe is the bad guy and that’s what racist white British settlers thought about Indians so what the fuck were you expecting you stupid NDN girl?” 

And yes. Radcliffe is horrible. The things Radcliffe says and does is horrible. This whole fucking film is horrible, disrespectful and completely out of line. But rather than go into detail about the historical inaccuracies (again), let’s look at these specific characters.

So of course anybody who sees the film knows Thomas, and the two next to him are Lon and Ben (I guess? And don’t ask me which one is which). And I think even as horrible as Radcliffe is, these three characters are actually worse. 

In the picture above, the film is JUST starting. We are a minute and ten seconds into the film when the Scottish Nathan Explosion looking guy says that of course John Smith is coming with them because “You can’t fight Indians without John Smith.” 

Right at the beginning of the movie, these three are already excited and eager to start slaughtering Native Americans.

Excited. Eager. Cannot wait to do it. 

“This new world is going to be great, John! I’m gonna get a pile of gold, build me a big house, and if any Indian tries to stop me, I’ll blast him!”

“We’ll kill ourselves an Injun...”

“Or maybe two or three...”

And this is how we are introduced to these characters. This is the first thing we know about them: they’re a bunch of racists going to the new world to murder Indians. They’re not just excited about getting riches and starting a new life. They are ECSTATIC about the idea of killing Indians.

But unlike Radcliffe, we’re supposed to like them.

Because they’re funny, and they’re buddies with John Smith (who is our hero and who can’t POSSIBLY be a bad guy either!) and are just being used by Radcliffe who is the REAL villain because he’s greedy.

And for the most part? The film plays this up. We are more focused on how funny and likable these men are even though they are probably more bloodthirsty than Radcliffe ever could be.

At the 34:07 mark in the film, Radcliffe notices Kocuom’s men scouting the area and watching them. He immediately assumes it’s an ambush and orders the men to start killing them. At one point, he shoots one of the Native men in the leg. He falls to the ground, injured but not dead, and completely unarmed.

This is what happens:

That’s right. That nice guy who’s buddies with John Smith and jokes around with his ginger friend all the time? WAS LITERALLY ABOUT TO SMASH THIS MAN’S SKULL IN AND MURDER HIM IN COLD BLOOD IF KOCUOM HAD NOT STOPPED HIM.

I don’t know about you, but as terrible as Radcliffe is painted to be, THIS specific scene was perhaps just as evil, if not more so. This isn’t Radcliffe trying to shoot an unarmed chief at a distance, this is a man coming up close and personal to dash out another man’s brains for literally no reason. This echoes the horror stories Natives are told about how white men used to smash the skulls of Indian babies so they didn’t have to waste their bullets on them. 

But we’re not supposed to hate this man. We’re supposed to think he’s “misunderstood” because human beings make mistakes. Even afterwards, the men find this encounter hilarious:

“We shot ourselves an Injun, or maybe two or three!”

And then there’s Thomas. And I should mention that even as a child, I never liked Thomas. I knew there was something that went deeper than just “I hate him because he killed an Indian” and as an adult, I realize the problem:

Not only does he murder a Native man, the audience is expected to forgive him for it because he feels bad about it later.

The most sinister thing about this scene is how, from the very beginning of the film, Thomas and his friends have been laughing and playing and joking about murdering Natives. Hell, once they finally fight with Kocuom’s men, they STILL joke about it. They reassure John Smith that “he’ll get his chance!” when they think he’s moping about “all the fun he missed.” And yet we’re never supposed to think these are bad men. We’re never supposed to hope they fucking die. 

What was Kocuom’s crime that made his death justifiable to the creators and the audience?

He was about to kill John Smith because he was jealous.

Nevermind the fact that Kocuom literally had to save one of his men from being bludgeoned to death by one of these men. Or the fact that these men invaded his home and started destroying the place in their search for gold. Or the fact that the Medicine Man told the entire tribe about the dangers these men were going to bring to their village. 

No. Kocuom deserves to die because the woman he admires is literally kissing one of the men who brought all this misery and chaos to their home. Nevermind the sheer betrayal of all of that. Nope. He’s just jealous, so he has to die.

And not only does he have to die because of his jealousy, but he has to die so Thomas realizes that maybe Natives are people after all so we can forgive HIM for invading and killing these people, “because he didn’t know better.” 

And we’re supposed to feel sorry for Thomas because he looks less enthusiastic about killing Indians now:

Even Pocahontas literally forgives him for it too...

So hey, if the pretty Native lady can forgive the murdering racist colonist, we should too, right?

But what about Ben and Lon? What have they been doing while Thomas has been moping around?

“They’re savages, savages, dirty shrieking devils.”

“Savages, savages, let’s go get a few, men!”

“Savages, savages, barely even human...”

So what changes these bloodthirsty, racist, violent, murdering men into the good, understanding, nice guys who deserve to live in peace at the end of this film?

They realize the pretty Indian woman loves their buddy.

Literally as soon as they realize a white man views a pretty Native woman as a commodity, suddenly they have to rethink their strategy. Radcliffe never mentioned pillaging and raping in all this talk about gold and genocide, after all! *gag*

And of course the only thing that actually makes them turn against Radcliffe is when he shoots John Smith by accident. 

Not because colonialism and racism and ethnic cleansing is evil.

Because a white man got shot.

And even when the “peace” is made between these two people, this is the ginger’s reaction to SEEING POCAHONTAS IN THE MIST:

This is when they literally already know that she loves John Smith, that she’s coming to see him before he is sent back to London, but BETTER THINK ABOUT DRAWING OUR GUNS JUST IN CASE. 

These men are never held accountable for the things they’ve said and done throughout the film. We’re never supposed to think they’re evil or the bad guys. We’re never supposed to hope they’re defeated or run off the land.

Pocahontas was never a film about “peace and understanding.” It was about “giving these racists a chance on the off chance that they might change their minds about killing us.”

And that’s far worse than Radcliffe.

[moniquill]

So today I read a book called Sister Raven.

It’s by Karen Rae Levine. Here’s its goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16128296-sister-raven

This is a book that I wanted to like, but it illustrates perfectly why I'm so fucking done reading depictions of ndn folks written by non-ndn folks. This book made me hurt in my breastbone, made me ache in the space behind my eyes. 

The whole thing is written in the stilted, hyperformal language that white folks often take when taking upon themselves to retell Authentic Native Stories. 

Folks have names like Gray Wolf and Two Feathers and Dancing Otter. There is Rampant Capitalization, and awkwardly transliterated phrasing. No one uses contractions, and there’s the Cadence of Importance , something touched upon in this article about the langiage of horror: http://allthingslinguistic.com/post/132692150326/the-linguistics-of-horror

It's not Raven Man, it's Man Who Is Raven. It's never sunny out; it's Grandfather Sun Showing His Face. We have constant and perpetual reference to Grandfather Sun and Grandmother Moon.  Much is made of The Great Spirit. Things take Many Moons. Everyone speaks in parables.

This is a story with NDN characters - they seem to be paleo-algonquin, I guess - but no NDN values. The main character goes through the motions of living in a pre-Columbian northeast tribe; she lives in a bark-and-hide covered bentwood dwelling that she calls a lodge. She wears moccasins, and oils and plaits her hair. She grows corn and squash and beans. She refers to raccoons and beavers, deer and chipmunks. She harvests maple sugar and wild strawberries. She uses accurately-described neolothic technologies, the author clearly did her research.

But she is fundamentally a European fairytale heroine.

She was stolen as a baby by an evil witch who wanted to raise her for her own personal gain and was denied knowledge of her origins and identity (Rapunzel).

She has six brothers who have been transformed into birds but can transform back into humans at night, and somehow only she can fix this (The Wild Swans).  

Whereas actual NDN lore generally fixates on the number four (four seasons, for directions, four stages of human life, four sacred medicines, four sacred paths., etc) this story decides that seven is better. The author  takes the four directions and adds ‘earthward, skyward, and within’ to make a total of seven.

There’s a kind of fervent obsession with spirituality and gratitude, everyone is prayerfully thankful for everything in a very performative way. The author’s note at the end says this:

“It’s difficult to categorize Sister Raven. I prefer to think of it as historical fantasy. The historical part of the novel is the culture and lifestyle of the pre-Columbian Native Americans who inhabited what is now New England. The Fantasy, however, is completely of my own making. I chose a fifteenth century Native American setting because I felt it was the best fit for the mood I wanted to create and for the story I wanted to tell. I approached the historical research of the novel with diligence and respect.”

I don’t think that Karen Rae Levine is a bad person with bad intentions. I’m not angry about this book the way that I was angry about CSE Cooney’s story Household Spirits ( https://moniquill.dreamwidth.org/350055.html ) I’m just…. Tired.

This book was on my list because at some point it was recc’d to me as a good fantasy story with NDN characters. I don’t remember who or where.

I’m tired, because apparantly my people and my history are a mood. They’re a setting that anyone can pick up and play with, and if they ‘approach the historical research of the novel with diligence and respect’ they’ll get national book awards for having done so, and be praised for Good Representation.

And I’m TIRED.

I’m tired of people telling our stories from the outside, from a fundamentally misunderstanding place, and being lauded for doing so.

Numacheem yeu kesuckok.

Nus sauunum.

Nuttannakous muttae moocheke yeu kesuckok; Nuttiyam moskehtu newutche nuhhog.  

Nuttisowis Mosketu Kongkontu.

Nus sauunum.

Nukquenauwehik anue.

I’m not feeling well.  

I’m tired.

I worked very hard today; I made medicine for myself.

My name is Medicine Crow.

I’m tired.

I want more.

[last-tarrasque]

That kind of nonsense shows that land back has been made into nothing more than a slogan used to signal how “progressive” you are, not the slogan of a serious political movement. Liberal “progressives” do not seriously believe that the land belongs to indigenous people, but simply want to boost their “progressive” credentials. On a broader sense this helps declaw indigenous nationalism and redirect politics that would otherwise threaten the continued existence of the Amerikan settler colony into a safe, useless direction.

"*X country* should colonize the US! Please nuke the US!"

You all will do anything to not give us our land back huh