The novel describes its primary antagonist, a rapist whose violent crimes desecrate a sacred site, as a wendigo who must be killed because he threatens the reservation's safety. It first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #162 (April 1973), and again in the October 1974 issue. One recurring theme across these storytelling mediums is the use of the wendigoalso spelled wtikoa monstrous figure from Algonquian mythology who exhibits an insatiable greed along with a desire for human flesh. I am just reacting to what I read in this ridiculous PSA journal out there on Deviantart. That taste of human flesh, which out of that rose the wendigo.. People were not really using Google until the 2000s and that kind of info might have not been available in the 90s. One does not need to delve very deeply into the annals of American film, television, and literature to find an array of caricatured depictions of Native American peoples and a distortion of their knowledge. It was already here. Mexicans: Cultural Appropriation PragerU 3.01M subscribers Subscribe 85K Share 2.2M views 4 years ago What is cultural appropriation? [18], A wendigo need not lose the human's powers of cognition or speech and in some depictions may clearly communicate with its prospective victims or even threaten or taunt them. Facing History and Ourselves invites educators to explore our case study Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools, particularly our reading "Culture, Stereotypes, and Identity" which features reflection questions surrounding some of the stereotypical media representations that we touch upon at the beginning of this essay. In addition to characterizing individual people who exhibit destructive tendencies, the wendigo can also describe movements and events with similarly negative effects. Return to Article Details Culturally Conceptualizing Trauma: The Windigo in Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road On the other hand, "The Wendigo" is one of the first representations of the windigo by a "** 40. Powered by Discourse, best viewed with JavaScript enabled. In most traditions, the wendigo is human in origin and becomes a monster through a process that results either from acts of starvation-induced cannibalism or from possession by a spirit. The Wendigo (Also known as windigo, weendigo, windago, waindigo, windiga, witiko, wihtikow, and various other names including manaha) originates from Native-American legend, and is said to be a demonic half-beast as told by the Algonquian peoples along the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada. The idea that diversity and representation can be addressed simply through a "balance between four guys and four girls" or through the removal of "traditional phallic stabbing" troubles me. I'm just glad I learned this lesson from her before actually getting my book published. Here's some links:Website - https://thesierramistify.wixsite.com/thesierramistifyEtsy - https://www.etsy.com/shop/thesierramistify?ref=simple-shop-header-name\u0026listing_id=736195213Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thesierramistify/Art Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thesierramistify.art/- Music used in this video -Prime Beatz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkG3r3-ODOw She states that the wendigo symbolically represents three major concepts: it is the incarnation of winter, the embodiment of hunger, and the personification of selfishness. If an idea has merit, it doesn't need protecting. Latvians have their own version of Thor, so I probably should be offended, as well. After thinking about it more, I think I get it about the wendigos. I hate that I am defending JKR but I think a lot of people don't really think about how the internet was in in the late 90s and what kind of content was on the internet. Historically, deciding exactly what culture is hasn't been easy. I do not know, nor can I. As a creator, I believe it is my responsibility, the responsibility of any creator, if using characters that belong to a culture other than mine and exploring themes from that culture, to be accurate. It never occurred to me that what I was doing might be offensive, because I've never even met a Native American person in real life. When first hearing this criticism, I, as a wannabe author of fiction (by the way, you can buy my debut novella here) rolled my eyes and whitesplained to myself why Rowling wasn't doing anything wrong. Myeesquatis was holding the other leg and we were praying. "This isn't going to be the last time a story like this emerges about cultural appropriation, and what it emphasises is how much we need more diversity, in all components of the fashion industry," says Lewis. [40][41] Joe Nazare wrote that Blackwood's "subtly-demonizing rhetoric transforms the Wendigo from a native myth into a descriptive template for the Indian savage."[42]. Mythical being in Native American folklore, "Windigo" redirects here. A specimen of folk story collected in the early 20th century by Lottie Chicogquaw Marsden, an ethnographer of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, in which a wendigo also exhibits tool use, an ability to survive partial dismemberment, and autocannibalism, reads:[19]. Funny how it's only creatures from certain culture's folklore people get pissy over and not others. Some of this critique was rightly directed at literal cultural theft . I do not know whether Algonquin People indeed consider Wendigo depictions in mainstream media so culturally sensitive or taboo as the "woke" in your lead comment implied I would somehow doubt it but do not know for sure. Wendigo) from its cultural context and its movement by non-Indigenous creators (a large majority being white) into a space of the horror genre that displays negative or antagonistic qualities. As long as theyre not shoving their porn in your face let them be as Paul McCartney sung. Native Americans shouldn't be a "niche," and neither should women, LGBT people, or people of color. Even in the face of ongoing cultural appropriation and erasure, wendigo stories are but one reflection of the survivance, wisdom, and brilliance of Native peoples. It also includes the unauthorized use of parts of their culture (their dress, dance, etc.) Those things, the predation on the Indians by Europeans, most certainly happened. While Bieber's locs may be perceived . So, now I realize, what the hell was I doing, thinking I could write about Native American folklore with anything approaching honesty? Facing History and Ourselves combats racism and antisemitism by using history to teach tolerance in classrooms around the globe. In theory, art and other cultural products are created for the. "[36] Out of equilibrium and estranged by their communities, individuals thought to be afflicted by the wendigo spirit unravel and destroy the ecological balance around them. In 1661, The Jesuit Relations reported: The appropriation, and reclamation, of Native American mythology', Journal of . In the course of the transformation from human to wendigo, the person exhibits increasing selfishness, violence, hunger, and greedparticularly for human flesh. His line of questioning effectively asks what if the monstrosity we face is actually not an otherworldly presence but our all too human selves?. The wendigo -- a creature from Native American myth -- carries powerful symbolism and is presumably sufficiently mysterious to keep enough audience members guessing at its motives and abilities. WAYNE MILLER is the owner and creative director of EVIL CHEEZ PRODUCTIONS (www.evilcheezproductions.blogspot.com, www.facebook.com/evilcheezproductions), specializing in theatrical performances and haunted attractions. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The reason I chose this game is due to how this game has story in it, and I think it would fit this meme well for an analysis and review. [21] The last known wendigo ceremony conducted in the United States was at Lake Windigo of Star Island of Cass Lake, within the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota.[when? Halloween is literally a holiday (most Americans see it as a good excuse to dress as a sexy cat or whatever, but there are actually still people left who believe it's sacred and who perform rituals etc for the holiday). Send them to Marvel. 5. Contents 1 History 2 Gallery 3 Trivia 4 Navigation History Mythologynote my use of the capital M to convey that it is far more than just some made-up stories; it is stories containing deeper spiritual truthsbelongs to all of humanity. In some cases, this entailed killing people with Wendigo psychosis. I would refuse to be shackled by political correctness. Cultural appropriation is a bullshit term made up by people who feel some bizarre psychological need to make up reasons to punish themselves. Oh yeah, Marvel. Idiots have just made a religion out of being racist about culture and only allowing genetic descendants to participate in cultures. [28] He eventually confessed and was executed by authorities at Fort Saskatchewan. Character can be mean, evil or complete asshole but you still should be respectful while writing said character. Europeans may well have behaved like Wendigos when they invaded the Americasthey didbut they didnt bring the Wendigo with them. [47], Other creatures based on the legend, or named for it, appear in various films and television shows, including Dark Was the Night, Ravenous , The Lone Ranger (2013),[48] and the 2021 film Antlers by Scott Cooper, where the wendigo is portrayed as a deer-like creature with a glowing heart that moves from person to person with a never ending hunger. But I do know the actual description of it. The idea of getting down to the nitty-gritty came from the 18th century English slave trade, when nitty-gritty referred to the worthless debris left at the ship's bottom compartment after slaves had been evacuatedand evolved to include the slaves themselves. No cultural appropriation in it, I promise! The people who get offended over it, on behalf of someone else, are pathetically absurd. Maybe ask a person of Chinese heritage. A nice summary is found here: The concept of cultural appropriation emerged in academia in the late 1970s and 1980s as part of the scholarly critique of colonialism. I dont know who originally posted it, or where. They're monsters. However, when reading Magic in North America, it's hard not to get the sense that Rowling did not understand the thin ice she was treading on when it came to representation of Native Americans, nor did she make any effort to treat these themes with the weight they deserve. I have drawn my own version of golems too, and that is Jewish mythology. Humans could also turn into wendigos by being in contact with them for too long. By Derrick Clifton. In a report from the Contemporary Folklore conference covered in issue 388 of FORTEAN TIMES, the go-to magazine for all things paranormal, weird, or unexplained, a complaint is voiced about the cultural appropriation of the Wendigo, likening it to the sexualization of the Mothman statue in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. [2], Although distinct from how it appears in the traditional lore, one of the first appearances of a character inspired by, or named after, a wendigo in non-Indigenous literature is Algernon Blackwood's 1910 novella The Wendigo. Not so for anyone who isn't a straight, white male, and this trend in entertainment forces many people to seek out "niche" markets to find characters who look like them and are portrayed honestly and realistically. wa, which may have meant "owl". Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. Representation in media is crucially important, something I have become very aware of as I've grown older and consumed more entertainment. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. Political correctness started out as one thing, a good thing. The boy told the Indians that the Windigo was near them, and showed them his hand where the Windigo cut him to see if he was fat enough to eat. Twenty-five miles away from emergency food supplies at a Hudson's Bay Company post, Swift Runner butchered and ate his wife and five remaining children. Wendigo) from its cultural conte xt and its movement by non-Indigenous . So yeah, if anyone could offer any insight/information, thatd be appreciated. Some researchers argued that, essentially, Wendigo psychosis was a fabrication, the result of nave anthropologists taking stories related to them at face value without observation. Magazine with fellow environmental thought leaders, LaDuke said: Theres this conflict between the cannibals and Mother Earth, and its going on everywhere. Cultural appropriation can be defined as the "cherry picking" or selecting of certain aspects of a culture, and ignoring their original significance for the purpose of belittling it as a trend. Dont like someones fetish? His first novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF, is available for purchase at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734763 By Christian Chiakulas, Contributor Writer, musician, activist, single father from Chicago. Differing thinking is one of the cherished assets of democratic cultural pluralism. These things feel formulaic, quantitative, mathematicbalancing equations and subtraction. It too is cannibalistic; however, it is characterized as enlightened with ancestral insights. After thinking about it some more, I understand that its a kind of It was okay for these kids to pretend to be Indians but not for these kids to actually be Indians thing but I saw someone claim that it was contributing to colonisation and the death of death of their culture and that felt a bit strong. Ojibwe scholar Brady DeSanti asserts that the wendigo "can be understood as a marker indicating a person imbalanced both internally and toward the larger community of human and spiritual beings around them. Wendigo psychosis is a fascinating condition with a storied history. Since the concept of a wendigo stems from First Nations folklore, maybe someone making a cute little doll of this evil spirit figure was seen as inappropriate or making fun of their culture? [26][27] During the winter of 1878, Swift Runner and his family were starving, and his eldest son died. If it's so vulgar and offensive that many hate it, well they can just not look at it lmao - it clearly wasn't made for them. They got Thor and Loki all wrong and what the hell? Cultural appropriation is the use of a people's traditional dress, music, cuisine, knowledge and other aspects of their culture, without their approval, by members of a different culture.