#who took a 23andme test that came back 1.5% indigenous

[captainjonnitkessler]

Lol I'm so confused why we've decided to ban everyone from the word "wendigo" when we would've laughed in other religious people's faces when they ask you not to say to speak a name. And why is it just wendigo. It's so weird but it's EVERYWHERE, like people getting canceled left and right because they said the word or liked the design and based a character off of it. I can understand if the argument is against non-natives mischaracterizing their stories, but seriously, a word

First, a disclaimer: I do think what's happened with the wendigo culturally is really shitty. To take the existing legend of a cannibalistic humanoid monster, which is often used to represent rapacious greed, colonialism, and exploitation, and turn it into "scary deer skull monster eat people" and then plaster it everywhere because it got popular is both shitty and dreadfully ironic.

But the idea of the word itself being a taboo I have to respect sucks. For one thing, as far as I can tell it's straight up not true. Plenty of native writers, Algonquin and otherwise, have spoken and written about it in academic and fictional contexts. The "it's disrespectful to say its name!" thing seems to just be something someone said on the internet and everyone took it as an excuse to play More Woke Than You.

I read a twitter thread that posited that someone got it confused with skinwalkers, which IS something you're supposed to avoid naming in Navajo belief. And if you personally don't want to say it, that's fine! If you don't like the idea of non-Navajo people talking about them because you think they'll be disrespectful or they won't get it, that's perfectly understandable!

But if you tell me that I can't even say the word because it will draw a skinwalker's attention, I reserve the right to roll my eyes the same way I do when people tell me that using a ouija board is going to invite demonic spirits into my house. It's not disrespectful for someone to not follow *your* religion.