Young Writers Society

I have an idea centering around a group of Native American teenagers who used the power of spirit animals to protect they town from monsters from Native American folklore.

note, however, that I'm having a bit of some trouble deciding on the villains but I do have a basic idea of what my main characters would be.

• a boy who's reluctant with his duty of being the defender of the town and lives with his grandmother.

• his sister who's a bit naive but clever and a bit of jokester

• one of his friends, who's a bit of a supernatural enthusiast.

• his other friend who's a tough girly girl and a bit like a sister almost everyone.

a bit flat but when I get around to making it, I might be able to make them more rounded eventually. now what mythos should I focus on now and what spirit animal fits with each of them?

I say this with the utmost care and respect: do your research before even beginning to touch this idea, because right now you have gotten a lot wrong in the very premise.

Not all Native American peoples have "spirit animals", and next to none of them actually call them that. The very concept of "spirit animal" has been appropriated and bastardized from the actual traditions of many peoples, then taken into pop culture and further alienated from what "spirit animals" actually are. The way you get spiritual guides also varies, so you might get an opposite or you might get the same— depends on the tribe. They are not like patronus from Harry Potter. Their roles and responsibilities are different depending on the people in question.

Native American is not a group. It is an umbrella term of hundreds upon hundreds of tribes (Canada has over 600 recognized alone!), each tribe with its own distinct beliefs. Some of them have spirit guides that are animals, some of them have spirit guides that are human, some have no concept of a single guide that follows you through life.

On top of this, Native religions are often closed to the public. This means you might not be able to research them, especially if you approach without respecting their rules. You do not have any right or ownership to use an idea that is closed to non-Native individuals, which means you might not be given the information to make the representation accurate.

If you are told no, then please, please, please respect the tribe's wishes and do not write a story with their beliefs.

You can find more information on researching Natives and what to avoid here. If you want an overreaching guide, start here, but I would strongly recommend you read the whole tag on that blog.

ok, after I do the research, how might you suggest changing the idea?

You should find all changes you need to make by doing the research. This isn't something I can tell you to do— you have to do the work involved in respectful representation.

ok, I don't really want to sound like a jerk but, could you suggest some resources that aren't blogs please? not saying it's bad but I prefer more objective and somewhat factual resources. sure it has its merit, I once used this blog to get some facts (although a few were bias personally).

note: as someone whose black, I'm really sorry for being an idiot. but I'm actually serious, I want actual resources about native Americans in either north or eastern America.

This is a guide on how to research tribes via books and/or official websites and/or in person.

Yes, it's the same blog. That blog actually has a lot of resources for out of blog learning, because the mod herself can't cover all Native tribes and encourages people to do their own research very heavily.

What you want to look for in sources is authenticity. Aka, a blog run by somebody within the tribe you're researching will be just as factual (maybe moreso) as an ethnography that comes from somebody external interviewing a tribe member. So rank things by "how much Native voice is in here" to get the best results.

sigh, fine. thanks anyway but I have several questions.

• since "spirit animals" aren't a thing, then what is it really?

• since I'll mostly choose to have my story to take place in the south (most likely in south Carolina or possibly Georgia), how might i manage to find any natives that can give me live input to my work, since where I'm from, it's mostly black and white population, with only a few being latino, Asian, and Indian (or even from places like Iraq and Pakistan.)

• from the blog post I've read, the native American religions seem to give off that there is no evil or good, but gray. correct me if I'm wrong but is this true?

• I've found the only tidbit of information on certain tribes, so what few ebooks should I get if I want to do research on this topic?

• and finally, I seriously don't know what tribe I should represent in all honesty. well since , I live in south Carolina, the most likey candidate is Cherokee (even catawba and plenty of others I've found). so, what might you suggest?

note: I'm so sorry for the long reply. I know you might not be able to answer so maybe try answering them all as best as you can.

since "spirit animals" aren't a thing, then what is it really?

Spirit guides vary tribe by tribe and there is no answer to this question.

since I'll mostly choose to have my story to take place in the south (most likely in south Carolina or possibly Georgia), how might i manage to find any natives that can give me live input to my work, since where I'm from, it's mostly black and white population, with only a few being latino, Asian, and Indian (or even from places like Iraq and Pakistan.)

Find reserves nearby. Native people are highly segregated off, so just because you don't see them doesn't mean there isn't one within traveling distance. There is rather literally a list of all Native reserves in the United States, which I got by Googling "reserves in the US". Just replace whatever state you want with "US" and you'll get a similar list.

Not to mention, most of them have websites with email addresses that you can use to contact them, even if they're not within travelling distance. Native communities have integrated modern technology into their lives.

You might also have to accept that no tribe within the region you've selected has the concept of "spirit animal", because, as I said before, it is not a universal constant among tribes.

from the blog post I've read, the native American religions seem to give off that there is no evil or good, but gray. correct me if I'm wrong but is this true?

This depends on the religion in question. This question is unanswerable without a specific tribe.

I've found the only tidbit of information on certain tribes, so what few ebooks should I get if I want to do research on this topic?

In the guide I linked— Researching Native Americans— I say to look for ethnographies about the peoples you're looking at. Google "[tribe name] ethnography" for an answer. This question is otherwise unanswerable, because there are so many books on the topic and unless you go at it from a tribe standpoint, you will not get anywhere.

I will say to avoid books written by white people unless they are anthropologists who have lived with the tribe and there are tribe members as the co-authors of the book. And avoid anything in the "new age" section of the bookstore like the plague.

and finally, I seriously don't know what tribe I should represent in all honesty. well since , I live in south Carolina, the most likey candidate is Cherokee (even catawba and plenty of others I've found). so, what might you suggest?

Look up groups that exist in your state, and look up ancestral groups that lived in your state. Tribes got moved around very, very harshly over the course of US settlement, so it's likely the tribes there now aren't ancestral. Whether you want to have the tribes there now or have a resurgence of ancestral blood is up to you.

I will say, in your research, you have to stop seeing "Native American religions" as something you can research as-is. It's Cree religion, Mohawk religion, Lakota religion, Apache religion, [insert nation here] religion. Each one of these are markedly different. Even within these groups, there can be religion differences depending on where they are. Plains Cree are going to be different from James Bay Cree.

There are some similarities between religions, and cultural diffusion is a thing where the Ojibwe have a similar creation story to the Huron, but they differ in specifics. And if you want to have an accurate Native religion, those specifics are important.

ok, I'll try Cherokee. now with that, what free books (library or online) or resources can I find that might help me and also, I know the differences between some religions (i think). don't tell me I made a mistake on that one.

One google search: "Cherokee religious beliefs".

Brings up a lot of different resources for me. The first one I clicked on was this, a page on the Cherokee nation's site. It's an official first-hand resource from the nation itself.

Aside from that, I checked out a few other websites. While all of them covered the same general aspects of Cherokee religion, none mentioned the idea of spirit guides or spirit animals. Animal spirits, yes, but they aren't the same concept.

As far as I can see, one of two things is true:

1: The Cherokee nation does not believe in spirit guides.
2: The Cherokee nation's belief in spirit guides is held close to the chest to prevent outsiders from using it.

Either way, 1 or 2, you're probably going to have to look for a different nation to use for your idea if you're attached to the idea of spirit guides. The page I linked has a few different beliefs spelled out that appear rather interesting (and which the Cherokee nation is clearly willing to share in stories with outsiders, as it appears on a public site), so maybe look into those instead?

As well, the page I linked has a contact email for the website. If you have questions about Cherokee culture, then I'd suggest you send an email and ask members of the Cherokee nation itself.

thank you very much for that. I just wanted to ask you if they were any another nation I might look into that has the spirit guide concept?

That's a hard question to answer! There are hundreds upon thousands of Native nations, and answering requires knowing which ones have spirit guides, and on top of that knowing any sorts of details about it (like, whether or not it can be spoken about).

You're going to have to start metaphorically knocking on doors by googling "[nation] religious beliefs" for a whole bunch of tribes. It shouldn't be too difficult, except you do have to watch out that the sites are Native-run instead of non-Native-run. Emailing tribes who are open for contact is also an option, which means you'll get info straight from the horse's mouth.

This is your story, after all. You'll have to do enough research into the religious beliefs to write them accurately anyway, so you might as well give yourself a head start once you do find one that has spirit guides. Spirit guides are, after all, only one part of a whole religion, and it'd be really unfair to just take one part of it without taking everything— especially if this story is meant to focus on Native kids who grew up with their culture.

You're going to have to know more about their heritage than just the spirit animal part. You're going to have to really build their ethnicity into who they are, because, I'm sure as you know being black, race changes your perception of how you see the world. Doing this research will help you flesh out the characters because you'll know where they'll be coming from, and you'll know how they grew up and were raised.

The bottom line is, you have to do your own research. We can't tell you what to write, especially for such a sensitive concept. While there is the off chance somebody could tell you where to look, you can't count on it and need to substitute your own work.

If you don't want to take the time to really get down to the nuts and bolts, I'd suggest scrapping the concept that it's a Native belief and just working with a patronus type magic system that you build yourself.

I might consider scraping the idea but I kinda figured it out. I could make story based on using spirits who based on animals of sorts, with the teens happened to be native American.like mixing pokemon and digimon together with a spirit sort of thing.


That's all I got really.

You can ask what I should flesh out and add into on into it if you like.

Honest question for you:

Why make them Native but not use their heritage as your magic system?

because I'm scared that might come off as offensive or wrong. I'm really trying my best not to come off as a misguided weirdo. in fact, since I barely have any idea of which culture i should represent, I'm kinda lost on this one.