NAinUF: Characters I - Main Characters

Native American characters in urban fantasy do conform to a lot of basic stereotypes, which can be found in other genres too. The books that avoid them are mainly those written by Native American authors (but these are too small a percentage to make much impact overall). This post discusses some of the most common traits and some of the stereotypes behind them, in reference to main characters. Some of this is an expansion of issues first raised in Indigenous and Colonial Approaches.

Part II discusses supporting characters.

By Non-Native Authors

A main character is often mixed race Northern European / Native American, and usually a woman. If she's an uneven mix, Northern European will dominate. It's very rare for other racial mixes to exist.

Being mixed race is often used to justify:

• Native American supernatural abilities, such as being a medicine woman, skinwalker or shaman (note that shaman is a term used by anthropologists... some books seem to understand that and others don't). It's very clear in Native American beliefs that these things require training, yet they're often displayed as being innate skills requiring minimal training (if any).
  
  Characters never gain powers solely from their Northern European heritage (though in one case - Urban Shaman - it had some impact). There's no becoming a Celtic wizard or druid. It is possible for a character to have a magical power that's considered universal (in a world-view where all magic users are the same, but called different things in different places).
• Extra-special magical powers. In a world where everyone is magical, being part Native American makes a person even more magical.
• Lack of knowledge of Native American beliefs or traditions. It's not unusual for mixed race characters to have no knowledge of their Native American heritage, no desire to learn and possibly an aversion to learning. As the main characters knows little, if anything, about their Native American heritage, this means:
  • They're assimilated into a middle-class white culture.
  • They do not follow traditional Native American spiritualties. Nor have they every followed them. The lack of knowledge means most don't think about it, because it's never been part of their lives.
  • They have few, if any, Native American friends. If they are estranged from their family, it will be the Native American side of the family. They are usually raised by Northern Europeans (or if they are raised by the Native American side, still act as though they know nothing).

It's unusual to see:

• Main characters who aren't mixed race.
• Mixed race characters with races outside Northern European. It's unusual even to see other types of European.
• Mixed race characters as active members of their tribe.
• Urban Indians who are active members of their tribe.
• Characters who have been disconnected from their Native American heritage, but want to reconnect. It has to be said, it's more common in the real world for someone to be interested in their heritage than indifferent, but you wouldn't know it reading urban fantasy.
• Characters of mixed Native American ancestry. Most characters are descended from one tribe only. The main exception is Jennifer Talldeer (Scared Ground), who is Cherokee and Osage.
• Characters who are tribally enrolled. Note that one of the few characters who isn't mixed race - Jennifer Talldeer - is still not tribally enrolled. Her family has ethical objections to the idea of enrolment.

By Native American Authors

In many ways, you can take all that's been said so far and reverse it. Native authors are more likely to have characters who aren't mixed race, are active members of their tribe, know about their own people and have an extended Native American family. These characters are not more magical than everyone else and may not be magical at all. Roles such as being a medicine man/woman don't spontaneously happen to people.

However, there is generally a greater diversity of character types, rather than main characters being cardboard-cutout reversals.

But there aren't enough books by Native American authors to have much impact on the common traits of characters, so the mixed race* characters described above are the majority. Also note as said in previous posts, books by Native Americans authors often aren't classified as urban fantasy**, so wouldn't be on the radar of most urban fantasy readers anyway.

Thoughts

There's a clear trend in the main characters - their culture tends to be as white as possible (in a generic Northern European-descended way). Anything that might highlight their Native Americaness, outside of unusually strong magical powers (a stereotype) and tanned skin (rarely to the point that anyone notices they aren't white), is removed. Native American family members are gone, the tribe is far away and the characters want no part in any of it.

This is often justified by having part-European ancestry, but not always. In the case of Jennifer Talldeer, her family happen to believe that living in a white middle-class neighbourhood is the true way to be an Indian. It's telling that she isn't tribally enrolled and only interacts with her nuclear family (rather than extended family and both tribes).

It's possible authors do this as a way to reduce the amount of research needed, but it seems more likely it's because the audience was never assumed to include Native Americans. It was assumed the audience was Northern European, and would identify more with a Northern European (or apparently Northern European) character. Which raises the question of why make them Native American in the first place.

It's could be the author entered with the best intentions, of giving a Native American character a strong role in a novel based on Native American stories (though it has to be said, many of the books consisted of mostly Northern European plot elements). But I was left with the uncomfortable feeling a lot of authors chose that route because they thought being part Native American was mysterious and 'exotic'. The extra-special magicalness contributes to that feeling, along with having a lovely tan that never draws racist comments.

Stereotypes aside, it leads to a rather bland sameness in main characters. This might make it easier for the author to crank out novels, but it's not so great for the reader.

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* This shouldn't be taken to mean mixed race characters are problematic simply for existing. Just that the way many authors approach it can be problematic.

** After writing the post where I commented on Native American authors being classified outside of urban fantasy, I found this interesting quote by Amy H. Sturgis, editor of The Intersection of Fantasy and Native America.

From an interview at Journey to the Sea. Bolding is mine:

Some of these Native authors produce works that are clearly fantasy by anyone's definition: Drew Hayden Taylor and Daniel Heath Justice are two excellent (and recommended) examples. Others write books often considered to be "magical realism" or simply "Native American literature." This again raises the discussion about how to classify works, which I mentioned last time regarding what counts as "science fiction": these are games with which the critics and scholars are more concerned than the fans and the practitioners. My concern is that many readers who love fantasy literature never discover some of the great Native authors, because these writers' publications are labeled and pigeonholed due to the artists' ethnicity.

This is a wider issue in speculative fiction, rather than an urban fantasy problem.