I have a character in my supernatural novel set in Wisconsin who is a Native girl, and I've been considering having her be cursed with lycanthropy. I've thought for a long time about whether or not this would be too stereotypical or if Twilight has left a bad taste in audiences' mouths when it comes to Native werewolves, and I would like to hear your opinion. I've also considered explaining the curse by having it be placed by a German witch, since as far as I'm aware werewolves are more (1/2)
prominent in German folklore than Native folklore. Or is this just too similar to the savage Native trope? She is meant to be a sympathetic character, but I wouldn’t want to perpetrate the stereotype anyway. (2/2)
Werewolf Natives: Problems or Not?
Proceed with caution is all I can say.
Animalistic Natives is a problem, and Twilight made it worse by how abusive a lot of their Native characters ended up being (or so I’ve heard—I’ve avoided Twilight remarkably effectively for being a teenager in its peak). When you toss this in with lyconthropy, you end up with problems. As in the animalistic subtext of most Native stories got turned into the reality of the world.
There was also the problem with how the tribe in question actually did have wolves as part of their spirituality, but that got bastardized. So it’s a double-punch of Savage Natives and cultural appropriation, hence the bad taste.
If it was a curse placed upon her by a colonizer, then you’ve got an interesting angle about how the ills of colonialism have added something not exactly part of the religion, but that would require picking a tribe that uses wolves differently. Some of us have wolves in our beliefs, some of us don’t. Those who lived in the old range of wolves (so, pre-endangered population) are likely to have beliefs about wolves, and those who don’t, well, wouldn’t.
I’d suggest to make her animal and human side separate, where she is very much a human and the lycanthropy isn’t used against her in the narrative. I’d also like for her to be cured eventually, so that there’s hope for healing from colonialism.
I’d like to think it was possible for a story like this to be done well. I don’t know if it can be done well by an outsider with the Twilight aftermath being relatively fresh, and with the rampant appropriation. I feel like it would need to be a side character, just so you don’t write about our struggles from our PoV.
I’ll turn this over to community opinion.
Do you think a story like this is possible to do in good taste? Or should it be a non-Native character that gets cursed, if one gets cursed at all?
~ Mod Lesya