#indigenous Piper McLean

[ravenaohridska]

Kinsale Drake as Piper Mclean

She's Navajo. I couldn't find any model from Cherokee ancestry around Piper's age, but if you know any PLEASE tell me 🙏🏻

Also, she's not an actress, she's an influencer/activist.

[spookedbees]

i should start a list of characters i wish we got to see interact more

[jasongr-ace]

It’s so frustrating how much of Piper fanart looks like it could be here

[wanderingmind867]

My word on this subject probably doesn't count for much (seeing as i'm not native american), but i really like rick riordan's portrayal of piper and her family history. It feels like a story you'd see in a coming of age story, but the framing of it around a native family really sets it apart.

Tristan McLean runs from his heritage. He seems almost like he was taught to feel shame for it. Like a lot of indigenous peoples, he seems to be suffering from the assimilation problem. Like how we here in Canada had the residential schools, where the christian churches tried to "civilize" the native kids. It seems to have worked on Tristan McLean. He feels embarrassed by his culture, because the people around him made him feel embarrassed of it. He doesn't want to play indigenous roles, because he can't bring himself to accept who he is.

Meanwhile, Piper actually seems to want to get back in touch with her cherokee roots. She learns not to be embarrassed of who she is, both demigod-wise and cherokee-wise. She accepts her cultural heritage, and she doesn't repeat the mistake of her father. She doesn't feel shame, just because she's native. And that's the sad thing about this generation divide. Tristan McLean isn't even a bad guy, he's just a man with an infinite amount of hurt and trauma. And it's sad, just seeing how even success wasn't able to bring the poor man any happiness.

Or like how the US did all of the same stuff, but refuses to talk about it (seriously, when does the US talk about their colonialism towards the natives? At least we're trying to hold the discussion here in canada).

[overheard-at-camp-half-blood]

Does anyone else remember when people would fancast Victoria Justice as Piper?! Or am I just that fucking old?!

[dancingonolympus]

Hi, hello. I'm so sorry to bother you. I saw a post you made back in September when you were reading The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, where you mentioned that you're Cherokee. I am currently rereading the book and remembered something the fandom was constantly talking about some years ago, when I first read the series. So I have a question, if you don't mind. (though I totally understand if you mind, you don't have to answer if you don't wanna)

I think it's in Mark of Athena that Piper starts wearing an eagle feather in her hair. A lot of people have said that this is offensive, so the majority of the fandom depict her without it. When I first saw someone mentioning that it was offensive for Rick to do that, I just accepted it without questioning. But now I'm thinking about it and just did some research on the topic, but couldn't really find anything about why is it offensive. For what I read, Native Americans have in fact worn feathers in their hair through history and many still do, including Cherokee people; though it did mention that they had to be earned and were mostly used for ceremonies. So I'm just curious and wanted to ask a Cherokee person about it. If you don't mind.

I am coming from ignorance here. I am not USAmerican, I don't know anything about Native American people. I'm gonna keep doing research anyway.

Siyo and Hello! Wado and thank you for the ask.

The main issue with Piper and the feather isn’t necessarily the feather itself. As you mentioned, feathers are historically important to a lot of native tribes and cultures(a lot of, not all) and we still wear them to this day. In most practices, feathers have to be earned (have you ever seen a traditional headdress or war bonet from plains tribes? Every one of those is earned, gifted to someone, every one of those feathers is earned)

The issue with Piper isn’t that she’s wearing a feather, the issue is how she wears the feather. Simply putting a feather in your hair isn’t the traditional way Cherokee people wear feathers, like a lot of other tribes and people we have our own way of doing things. Nowadays you often see women dancers at powwows wearing a feather plume in their hair, but that’s different than braiding a feather in your hair like how Piper is described.

Another issue arises when we take into consideration the sexualization and misrepresentation of native women in media. There’s a rampant stereotype of a ‘Cherokee princess’ who wears inaccurate regalia (which, most of the time, includes a feather in hair not being worn in the proper way.) When Rick decided to have his Cherokee woman character wear a feather in her hair the wrong way, he was (unintentionally, I hope) feeding into this negative stereotype which hurts indigenous women to this day (Indigenous women in the United States and Canada are more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted)

There are many ways Rick could’ve represented Piper’s identity and heritage in her design. He could’ve met with Cherokee tribal members and asked them for their input, asked them how Piper should wear her feather. If he didn’t want to do that he could’ve scrapped the idea of the feather entirely. Piper could’ve been shown as wearing a tear dress, or a ribbon skirt, beaded jewelry, or he could’ve written her as braiding her hair.

There’s probably some stuff I’m missing cause it’s late, but here’s the gist of it.

[heyhoneyfox]

Frank: a lot of land acknowledgements feel so performative but at least they're trying I guess

Percy: ha, yeah.

Percy:

Percy: what's a land acknowledgement?

Annabeth: a formal show of respect to the indigenous band that originally inhabited the land you're on, most often used in group settings.

Percy: wha

Piper: white people trying to act like they care about indigenous land by saying "hey this is the name indigenous people gave the land we're on. Okay now enough of that."

Annabeth:

Annabeth: what she said

[indigenous-character-tournament]

Chakotay is canonically Indigenous. His tribe is unspecified.

Piper McLean is canonically Cherokee.

[sunrisenovaa]

a piper mclean web weave inspired by a post i saw forever ago

@lazarusphenomenon tagging you bc you were the inspo post

[once-upon-an-animation]

Hi everyone; I have a question regarding Native American stereotypes as it pertains to Piper McClean, a character from Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson.

I was discussing on a forum about alternative godly parents for Piper, and the possibility of Piper being a child of Demeter was brought up. It was pointed out to me that indigenous characters having a connection to the earth was an offensive stereotype.

Can anyone of indigenous descent help me understand this more effectively? From the little exposure I have had to indigenous culture and folklore, I was under the idea that nature did have a significant place in the culture, but it wasn’t necessarily the *only* facet of the culture.

Is there a way to write an indigenous character and touch upon this aspect of the culture without being offensive or stereotypical? Would there be a balanced way to write a character like Piper if she were a child of Demeter or any other nature god/goddess? In general, regarding indigenous characters, what would be considered stereotypical vs. attempting to acknowledge the importance/significance of this aspect of culture?

Asking for the sake of receiving education.

[teethmarrk]

A piper ^ ^

[dove00]

Hi! This is probably the last thing I’m gonna say on this topic (until it probably comes up again) because I read some comments I got that had to do with headcanons.

We’re going to use an example! Piper McLean and Percy Jackson!

A very popular headcanon is that Percy is Pacific Islander and, as someone who is mixed Pacific Islander, I enjoy this headcanon.

Piper is canonically Indigenous. She is written by a white person, who probably meant well, but a lot of stereotypes are found in Piper’s story.

Piper faces a double standard that Percy doesn’t have to face in canon and majority of fandom spaces.

(It’s also important to note that Piper is a part of many different groups as she is also a part of the LGBTQIA+ Community in canon.)

If canon book Percy faces criticism, it is not racism because he is canonically white.

Jason Todd is not facing the same stuff Jade Nguyen faces.

Headcanons are great but let’s not forget there are actual characters of color in media we can also give love to.

[wanderingmind867]

I want to salute rick riordan for talking about indigenous stuff with piper. Because as a Canadian who isn't native, I like the fact that I can learn about other cultures. In Canada, I think we're at least making an effort to try and make peace with the horrible things we did. And I like that i get to learn about cherokee culture through piper mclean. I certainly don't learn about it from any conventional american sources, i'll tell you that.

And that's a problem i've always had: the united states refuses to address their injustices towards the first nations and indigenous peoples in the country. At least here in Canada, we now have a holiday for it! We have the day for truth and reconciliation, and it's a good thing we have that! But does the US have that? Oh, no! They want to sweep their residential schools and trails of tears under the rug! The most native recognition in the US i've seen or heard recently was piper mclean, the rick riordan presents book "race to the sun" and a lyric in a song sung by kris goddamn kristofferson (who was a great man, but still).

The US won't have the conversation. Not that I've seen. How often do we hear about the Cherokee? The Navajo? The Hopi? The list goes on and on, and it's a real problem. And if i, as a non-native person, can identify this as a problem, then i think that shows the egregiousness of all of this.

[dancingonolympus]

Me, an indigenous woman, reading TLH, seeing Piper, also an indigenous woman, be sent to a boarding wilderness school where (opens book) and I (slightly loosely) quote; “the children are treated like animals”

[impossiblesuitcase]

There are many Piper McLean fan arts where she looks a lot like Cinder. Particularly the ones where she looks less white and has tan skin +brown hair

Definitely in the colouring. But Piper has Indigenous features whereas Cinder has Asian so I imagine their features appear different.

[indigenous-character-tournament]

Piper McLean is canonically Cherokee.

Kuzco is canonically Quechua.