#i think that if you wanted indigenous north american trivia or info

[officerhaughtstuff]

as for trivia stuff (which i will relate to wynonna earp)... do you know anything about the first nations? i kind of would love to see more of that on the show. i think aboriginal culture was mentioned maybe twice? the ep w/ the bear and i think we were supposed to see the blacksmith as part of the first nations? anyways, any interesting facts you know about first nations?

okay. so i know i know more trivia facts than these, but i blanked. so you can have 1 true trivia fact, 2 myths/legends originating from indigenous people, and 3 badass historical indigenous people to look up or maybe ask me about later:

here is the trivia fact related to aboriginal people in australia for you: despite the common myth, kangaroo does not mean “i don’t know” in aboriginal. bc first off aboriginal isnt a language or even a single fucking group. in 18th century australia there were at least 700 tribes speaking as many as 250 different languages. the word kangaroo (or gangaru) is from the guugu yimithirr language of the people who lived by Botany Bay. it means large grey/black kangaroo. big surprise. but the english used the word to refer to any kangaroo or wallaby, not just the specific one to which the people of Botany Bay were referring. 

it goes further though. bc the origin of this misconception is when the English went up to the Baagandji people 14 hundred miles away and used this word. even though the people there didnt /speak/ guugu yimithirr, the Baagandji people reasonably interpreted this word as “an animal that hasn’t been seen before” bc i mean it makes the most sense. they used the word to describe the English’s horses, which they had never seen the likes of before.

here’s one myth: associated with the Tupi people, a major indigenous group in Brazil about a mermaid named Iara. well, mermaid after a sort. Iara grew up in a tribe that lived in the Amazon, the pride of her people, the best warrior, the smartest person, the most beautiful, and the daughter of the spiritual leader. she had two brothers who grew jealous of how much she overshadowed them in every way. so they decided to get down with some murder to solve their problems. they waited until she was asleep, bc theyre big brave warriors but also bc they knew if she was awake that she could take them. only they were only half right. she killed them both in self defense while still half-asleep bc she was that rad. only no one listened when she said it was in her defense, that they were trying to kill her. so her dad let the tribe hunt her down. she escaped for a while, but eventually with the whole tribe hunting her she was caught and drowned in a river. the fish, however, thought she was p rad so they turned her (dead body btw. she died. real dead. all the way. not even “mostly” dead. full stop dead dead) into a half-fish half-human. she was the first of the Iara, a whole group of mermaids that lived in Amazonian rivers. they (and Iara herself first) would entrance men so completely with their singing/general beauty and awesomeness that men would be lured to them/her. and what happened next differed. you either were drowned and eaten, or turned into a brainwashed member of their/her harem and treated fairly decently for a brainwashed harem member. if a man did escape, the Iara’s beauty would leave them literally insane. 

this myth probably was a result of co-mingling of indigenous beliefs and european influence. but, as i said before, it is closely associated with the Tupi people

the second myth: this time from Mayan culture. This one relates to another myth, but the backstory is what we’re talking about here. so the other myth, to provide some reference point, is another myth that is about a demon who is the spirit of a beautiful young woman. who seduces men and kills them. bc who doesn’t love a good siren mythos? but the origin of this siren-esque mythos is interesting, much like the myth of Iara. we start with the typical virgin/whore dichotomy. this time in the form of two beautiful sisters, Utz-Colel and Xkeban. which mean “good woman” and “sinner” respectively and also inventively. i think you can figure out who was the virgin and who was the whore in this dichotomy for yourself. but! interestingly enough, thats not all there was to their personalities! which is something that not even modern media can always handle, so props to the Mayans. Xkeban, the “whore” was generous with her love. which, sure, meant she had a bunch of sex. but it also meant that she shared her love with everyone, like the poor and the needy and the sick. she’d even sell the gifts from her suitors and donate the proceeds to those in need. nice lady, is what im saying. Utz-Colel, the virgin, on the other hand, took her whole “im a good girl and a virgin and im pure and therefore better than you” thing to extremes. she wouldnt even smile at those who she thought were “unworthy”. we all know the type. we’ve all met the type. this type is, apparently, eternal. unfortunately.

then, one day, Xkeban is found dead in her home, to everyone’s surprise! but instead of your typical “rotting-corpse” smell she instead emits a beautiful fragrance, the most beautiful perfume. when she was buried sweet-smelling flowers sprang up from her grave. Utz-Colel was confused. her sister was literally the worst. a dirty sinner. how could a dirty sinner emit anything but the worst stench in death? either way, she figured, she was sure to emit a smell ten times better than her sister on her own death bc she is Pure and Good. its even in her name. Utz-Colel eventually died, as so many of us do. she died a virgin and was commended by her neighbors as being very chaste. only when she died she emitted the mother of all stenches. like “rotting corpse” stench but the dial is turned up to eleven. foul-smelling flowers are what sprang form her grave. from the afterlife Utz-Colel is confused and pretty pissed off. now, for most people this may be mildly distressing and a turning of your worldview but youre dead, whats it matter now? youve got cool afterlife shit to get up to. only Utz-Colel sucks at letting things go. so she mulls this over for a while. then comes to the exact wrong conclusion. instead of “my sister was actually pretty nice, even with all the sinning and i was kinda Terrible” she thinks “my sister clearly committed the sexiest of the sins, i gotta get in on that”. so she twists Xkeban’s generosity in all things, including love, to become Xtabay (literally “female ensnarer” what ingenious subtlety) who seduces and kills wayward men. because Utz-Colel sucks at figuring out the right lesson to learn.

the three historical people to look up:

-Malinche, who was Mayan and about whom there are conflicting stories and opinoins. be sure to look up both sides. she was influential when the Spanish met the Mayans

Osh-Tisch, who was from the Crow Nation and one of the last baté(Two Spirit spiritual leaders). Her name translates to “Finds Them and Kills Them” she was crazy brave, despite the horrible treatment white people gave to people like her. (also it would be helpful to look up Two Spirit as it is an interesting and important gender identity amongst some indigenous groups and i don’t want to do it disservice by explaining it incorrectly at 1:30am on a trivia rant)

Micaela Bastidas, who was from Peru/Bolivia and instrumental in conflicts with the Spanish there at the time. It would be a mistake to claim she was only an accessory to her husband’s goals. She was the daughter of an African man and an indigenous woman, and she was tactically gifted. She also worked closely with a Creole woman whose name I am sadly blanking on.