I just got an ask about a Native spirit that many Natives have asked monsterfuckers to not use.
It starts with a W.
People from the culture it’s from do not say its name because in their culture, saying the name summons the spirit. Out of respect for my friends from that culture, I do not say/type the name either.
I would kindly ask you not put that creature in my ask box in the future. I know the person that submitted it likely didn’t know so there’s no hard feelings. It’s alright. I’m not upset.
I’m not really the best person to educate folks on this topic and I wish I had some resources on why that’s not a good thing for non-Native people to use for their fiction.
I’m sure even my wording here isn’t great. I know the spirit is from a specific Native culture (there’s a lot of them, for those that didn’t know lol) and I can’t remember which one(s) and my brain is still fuzzy from being sick.
So if any of my followers are familiar with this issue, please feel free to share the info of why this isn’t good.
Again, I understand the person that sent the ask likely didn’t know all this. I’m not upset. I just think it’s worth mentioning.
Ugh I’m trying to research to find resources of actually Native folks saying it’s bad for non-Native folks to use this spirit and instead I’m just finding Hot Takes like
“The *** may be a figure from American Indian mythology, but it belongs to all of humankind”
No? Like haven’t we (colonizers) taken enough from Indigenous people without also appropriating their spirits and misusing them? Fuck right off.
I’m too sick to deal with this shit today.
Hello! Hi! Yes! Maybe I can help here!
Here are some very basic things to help people understand this:
- The spirit in question, for those who can’t recognize it from the op (which is fair), is the w-ndigo (plural w-ndigoag). It is specifically from the Algonquin people, but it’s also been spread to other Anishinaabe tribes and cultures.
- (Quick side note: Algonquin is a specific tribe while Anishinaabe is the cultural group. Think of it like a country in a continent, like how Japan is an individual country but shares some cultural aspects with some other East Asian countries because of cultural exchange and shared histories.)
- We (Anishinaabe people) aren’t actually supposed to say its name, like the op said, especially in winter or at night. We believe that its name has powers and can call attention to it. Many people online censor it, while people irl will use other terms for it to avoid saying the name.
- Usually, we only talk about it in detail at specific times. It’s not something to be casually discussed or used as a fun character in movies and games.
- (We’re also taught not to whistle outside during winter nights because that calls its attention. It’s a running joke in a lot of Anishinaabe circles.)
- The most likely theory behind its appropriation is that people who were invited to Anishinaabe story circles and other cultural events, with the expectation that they would behave respectfully, took our sacred stories and shared them without permission, butchering them in the process.
- Everything about it in media is wrong! So, so wrong! In every way! The only accurate thing about in media is that it’s a cannibal spirit, that’s it.
- It’s not a deer. It has never been a deer in Algonquin or Anishinaabe folklore and the idea is wild to me. Where did that even come from? Its actual physical description varies but it’s always humanoid and that’s as much detail as I want to get into here.
- It’s very much a local spirit, based around the winters Anishinaabe tribes experience in the Northern US and throughout Canada. Trying to put it anywhere else… doesn’t make sense. This is aimed at you, Hazbin Hotel fandom. A w-ndigo would die from heat exhaustion in New Orleans.
- The w-ndigo itself isn’t just about cannibalism, it’s about greed and selfishness and how taking everything you want makes you stop valuing the people and world around you and stop caring about who you’re hurting. A person doesn’t have to be a cannibal to become a w-ndigo, they just need to be a selfish asshole (and, depending on who you ask, Anishinaabe).
- Many moden Anishinaabe people see the w-ndigo as just a warning and a metaphor; Potawatomi author Robin Wall Kimmerer used it as a manifestation of climate change and environmental destruction in her book Braiding Sweetgrass. Other Anishinaabe people, particularly those of us who are more spiritual/religious (like me!), believe the w-ndigo and other spirits to be real beings who deserve respect and care, not just scary stories.
- And finally, this spirit is sacred to us. No, sacred doesn’t always mean good. The w-ndigo is a vital part of our cultures and our histories and it deserves respect. Our peoples have been massacred, our children kidnapped, our dances and languages and religions criminalized, our lands stolen, our spiritual leaders murdered. Please just leave our spirits alone. Let us keep hold of what little colonization and genocide has left us.
As a non-Anishinaabe Native, my go-to term for this spirit is the winter hunger.
Additionally, many Southwestern and Western Native American tribes have stories of beings called sk-nw-lkers who I hate having to even obliquely ‘say’ for similar reasons to the former: They can hear when you speak about them.
Just like the winter hunger, the desert swallowing you whole is not a being which is to be used by anyone who is not themselves of a Native tribe that has experience with this being, and also not if you do not know the lore. Whether or not it is dangerous, it is if nothing else deeply disrespectful.