Can you please explain a little bit more about “Do’s and Don’t’s” when writing about and describing a Native American person? What’s acceptable and what isn’t. I tried to find it somewhere else but the responses were always vague…

writingwithcolor:

Native American Characters: Dos and Dont’s

DO

• Familiarize yourself with their culture.
• Decide how much your character is influenced and involved with their culture in relation to the others that they’re surrounded and engaged (or not) engaged in.
• Talk to Native American people willing to discuss their portrayals in your writing.
• Beware the Magical Native American trope.
• Also be wary of the Braids, Beads and Buckskins trope.
• Tonto Talk…Hollywood Natives…
• Harmony w/ Nature…Noble Savage…
• Submerge yourself in awareness to common NDN tropes to either subvert, defy or overall handle carefully.
• Watch movies, documentaries, read fiction and non-fiction books and other media created by NDN people.
• Write a human and handle accordingly.

DON’T

• Get caught up on getting it right. Obviously do your best, but between research, editing and beta-readers, you can correct any slip-ups.
• Homogenize Native American people. Choose a Nation. Are they Dakota? Ojibwe?
• Become hyper-focused on their race that you forget to write a person with thoughts and dreams and feelings.

~ Mod Colette