Anti-Indigenous things to quit saying/doing:
- Stop saying “off the reservation”. It’s a reference to the pass system that was in place restricting Native people from leaving without permission.
- Stop making “1/16th”, “great-great grandmother”, etc. jokes. All of these reference blood quantum, a system designed to “breed out the Natives”. Indigeneity isn’t defined by a percentage, fraction, etc. Quit policing Indigenous identities and quit joking about genocidal tactics.
- Stop calling things your “spirit animal”. You don’t have one. Only Indigenous people from specific nations have spirit animals.
- Stop making dreamcatchers. They are sacred Anishinaabe culture and are not cute trinkets, crafts, etc. Buy them from Anishinaabe artists.
- Stop buying those little cloth “teepees” for your kids/pets/whatever. Also stuff with tipi prints
- Quit referring to your “tribe”. Enough with the “bride tribe” nonsense and all the rest. Stop trivializing tribal affiliations.
- Don’t wear “war paint”. Don’t put a feather in your hair. Don’t dress up as Native people or characters.
- Stop referring to your meetings/side discussions/parties as a “pow wow”.
- Stop supporting sports teams that use racist terms and logos and caricatures of Indigenous people.
- Stop using white sage. It is sacred and overharvested. There are lots of types of sage you can use instead.
- Stop “smudging”. Smoke cleansing exists in many forms in many cultures, use that. Non-Natives can’t smudge.
- Stop tokenizing your Native friends, classmates, in-laws, half siblings, etc.
Please add more!
- Stop treating Native spirits as generic monsters or cryptids, especially w*ndigoag and sk*nwalkers.
- Stop using imagery of skulls in Plains headdresses, especially as tattoos. This shouldn’t need to be explained.
