teens from the rez/native americans/native american communities that are not rez's
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teens from the rez/native americans/native american communities that are not rez's
My webcomic, Firework has a mostly multicultural cast (mmc is French/Japanese and fmc is from some island in the Pacific that I made up), but for this story, I'm writing about reality. And the reality is that Native Americans seem invisible.
I'm going for a formerly on the rez/descendant of a tribe around New England/east Canada, and I'm going to pin down a tribe from my research soon. However, I know there are communities around the United States that feature a lot of Native Americans, some of which are Indian reservations. How is it like to come from one? The girl is in college now, very cheerful and humorous, and a really big fan of the Boston Celtics. She has a single mother and two siblings, and used to be super poor and bad at academics (while she was on the rez/in the community), and recently (within the past few years) things have changed a bit because her mom met a decent (Asian-American, but wait, it has to do with another character) man who took the children's education seriously and also had a very good steady income. He has moved them up to Boston's south end and her life is a bit better/happier.
Sorry for rambling, but I need to flesh out this character in a believable way. She does "look" the part, although I'm not sure what that means (what are typical features of someone who is predominantly Native American? Sorry for being ignorant/sheltered), but she won't mention her past, her struggles, etc. much, just because she's pretty cheerful. It only really comes up because the boy she's going to start dating is a self-hating white college student who she meets at the cafe they work in, and after their personalities clash a bit on the break, he asks "and what are you?" and she says after a long pause "A celtics fan." The boy is jealous of a black art student in his class and basically hates himself for it, and in getting to know this girl he's supposed to have a character arc or something.
Re: teens from the rez/native americans/native american communities that are not rez's
She sounds interesting, and the reality aspect is a good one, blending her heritage and her naturaly persona and throwing her into a new environment with more changes, is a wonderful playing field to write your story. I wish you well, I did a bit of research for my novels now in the revision stage, so I will be going back and getting more source materials on the Navajo, my chosen community that play a key role in my high fantasy-sci-fi YA series. Working out the plot, the start and middle and end of the novel is a way of giving the story symmetry, and from your impressive wordcount, congrats BTW, I think you can trust your muses, continue to dig for what you want, some things will jump at you, others not so much.
I find that depending on the style of the article, and how accessible it is to our writerly technique determines how useful or not it will be. I used the old fashiond google approach and looked at everything from the education spoonsorship, typography, culture rituals, ways of life on the Res, to legends and mythology, both ancestral and urban etc, checking out blogs, on-line publications, even teen beauty contests, that are far more indepth for Navajo girls than our hollywoood versions, the emphasis is a blend of commmunity, dream building, self-discovery, embracing the past and the present and aiming for the future using the aspect of beauty, in all aspects to combine these ideas.
Not sure if I've helped, but I wish you all the best with your novel! ^_^
Re: teens from the rez/native americans/native american communities that are not rez's
Yeah, I'll look in the blogosphere and stuff! I even started researching Native American rap on youtube because I figure rap can tell lots about your culture.
Re: teens from the rez/native americans/native american communities that are not rez's
Once you have a specific tribe or res, you'll have your answers. There is insane variation and differing resources between them.
Re: teens from the rez/native americans/native american communities that are not rez's
Yeah, I know. I've chosen the Narragansett, a tribe composed of
www.narragansett-tribe.org, which has a reservation in Providence, RI. Like many tribes it combined with various other nearby tribes, and I can look into the stories of some noted athletes and writers from the tribe. The location is close enough to Massachusetts to fit my character's backstory, and I'll be ironing subtle details of it into her personality as best as I can. This story is still much in its infancy, of course, since I'm not set on the three main characters' names even!
The girl's name is Barbara Soone probably (although she hates it and prefers to be called "Bebop" which is how we meet her, after the Adult Swim anime)
Re: teens from the rez/native americans/native american communities that are not rez's
comment nanoism...no idea what that first line was supposed to say