To people claiming JK Rowling doesn’t know Native American Mythology... please shut up and read more RESEARCH books.
On second thought I’m not going to reblog the post I was going to respond to. This is snarky enough without me being a bitchy punch with a brick to the face. Unfortunately reassembling the first part to be less of a fuck you to someone you can’t see is too much a bother and I don’t want to pretend to not be aggravated.
Regarding having supposedly a No-Maj & no Native American named founders……
Congratulations on missing the point entirely with picking animals to represent the houses rather than themselves. In Hogwarts, the pride of the lineage was very strong, and indeed, the Houses were named after the founders, not their attributes, colors, or anything else. In Ilvermorny, they’re named after favorite magical creatures specifically to AVOID that pride.
Do you know how Native American names are earned/received/given? Not by lineage, but by CHOICE, DEED, actions, and personality.
Oh and they usually favor colors + animals. :| /cough cough points to own name: Silverwolf and paints a bright red circle around it./
Not to mention, the founder was following the footsteps of an Irish witch animagus who could turn into a crow. Meanwhile the animagus witches & wizards were more common among Natives, but various tribes sometimes had frauds (which is a real thing!) who discouraged any such thing out of jealousy (also real as hell).
Are you also aware of how distrustful many Native tribes are of snakes and those who idolize them? My tribe won’t even use them in art, and they’re not alone in that.
You’ve got the Great Horned Serpent or in Lakota: Uncegila, who 1) helped get wands for her adopted sons 2) true to mythology 3) is as NorthEast Atlantic Native mythos as you can GET. It was such a thing in NE Native tribes that it transferred over heavily to the settlers, especially since it was said to be hypnotic. NOW GRANTED, she made the horned serpent “friendly” (ish?) whereas, I always rooted for the Thunderbird and like I said, snakes were often associated as evil/vengeful. BUT SEE THAT LAST PART? REVENGE. You HAVE to give her credit for making that a key aspect to the story! And all monsters being “evil” is almost anti-Native in itself given the respect we have for wolves, and killer whales, and bears, and leopards, and alligators that could and still do, eat humans.
You’ve got the amazing mishmash of Irish + Native American brownies. LITERALLY NAMED PUKWUDGIES AFTER THE WAMPAONOG PUKWUDGIES!
Don’t even get me started on Thunderbirds and wampus. You cannot GET more Native American than Thunderbirds, and wampus?
Look instead of smacktalking shit for not being “researched enough” do some god damn research yourselves.
You know another thing she kept in tact? The founder delivered twin girls. In the legend of the sky woman who fell from the sky, she had twins. But rather like a panda, could only care for one, so the strongest was sent to the West to try to survive on his own. The other she kept close, but as they grew up they found each other again and helped shape the world. The son from the West wanted harsh rocks and rigid cliffs and mountains, no rivers, and all food had to be fought very hard for. Whereas the boy from the East was used to a much easier life and wanted food everywhere easy to obtain, and twoway rivers so you never had to row, they would just carry you. They were able to always compromise and that helped create a world where you have to work hard, but will still be easily rewarded, and with help protected. Just as one daughter was a great witch, but the other was a squib, together they helped balance the world out.
I heard SO MUCH shit about how she didn’t research enough I was prepared for the worst and instead I got an A+ example of how I’d like to see others try to emulate if they wish to use Native American mythology. RESEARCH. Before you DARE say anyone else didn’t do enough? You better do fifty times what they did because if you end up wrong, you REALLY look asinine as fuck.
And the first students enrolled were 3 Wampanoag other than her adopted sons. AN ADDITIONAL NOTE? Native American tribes in the region commonly adopted outsiders into their tribes in order to keep the lineage as strong as possible, you couldn’t GET more of a fuck you to Gormalaith. It literally takes the idea that in-breeding = purity, and flips it completely inside out. And J.K. Rowling actually NAILED that. Something I’ve yet to see any mainstream American functionally DO. On top of which, Irish, Wampanoag, Iroquois, and quite a few other tribes were matriarchal, as was the founder’s family because of her magic.
Go pretend to get Brownie points for spouting nonsense somewhere else WITHOUT dismissing my people’s heritage and mythologies alongside it, okay? We’re fighting tooth and nail to keep these stories alive, and you want them erased or going unknown all the faster for what? Please, go research. Just. Seriously. Make your own stories, but don’t you DARE presume to tell someone how to represent something you clearly don’t even CARE to look up.
