Native American Background

General
1

Hello everyone, just wondering, are there are any here who are of Native American/First Nations background?

Just wondering, if you guys could help us translate from English?
We are writing a story that involves a culture akin to those of Native Americans.

Navajo, Apache, Cherokee, the list goes on… All are welcome!

We need five different tribes, but again any help is appreciated.

EDIT:

PS. We already know it is not one culture and that there many different tribes. Please don’t point it out anymore. Thank you.

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You mean people that know a Native language?

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Yes, mate. But it will be better if they are Native Americans too since we can ask them about other stuffs like traditional diet, wedding traditions, etcetera.

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“Native Americans” is not one culture…it is many, and they are very distinct to one another. It’s a bit like saying, “Is anyone from Europe, who can help us translate into a European language? We are writing a story that involves a culture akin to Europeans.” Or central Africa, or any other large region with multiple tribes and ethnicities whose beliefs and cultures vary widely.

One of my favourite blogs (well, Tumblrs really) is Writing With Colour. They have a First Nations tag, which I highly recommend and which may be helpful to you. Here is a link to their First Nations posts, which might be very helpful to read.

There is also this post, with some suggestions about writers who wish to use elements from, or write about, a First Nations/Native American culture. And the ask tag contains some links to other blogs as well.

Also, if you google a particular language (the Cherokee Nation website has a searchable lexicon, for instance), that might give you a good starting point for research until you are able to find people from the appropriate tribe to help beta the appropriate sections.

Same with the traditions–Google is a wonderful starting point, and then I think you can also find people from the applicable nation who are able to answer specific questions you might still have after some research.

I hope some of this is helpful!

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We already know it is not one culture.

Hence what I wrote above.

@Lordirish
Actually gave us an idea for some of the tribes.

But thank you for the other suggestions. Cheers mate.

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I don’t know if this helps at all but some tribes did speak a bit of English with their home language at the time of the gold rush when Americans entered their domain to dig up gold from mines and such. So perhaps in constantly making the characters talk in a Native language all the time, you could also write some parts of it in English to make the writing a lot easier.
Oh, and if your creating five tribes you need to remember that the Natives worshiped God’s, Spirits and ancestral guardians because they belived that it would bring them protection (where Wendigos came from and I think that can go to the Harpy as well :slight_smile:) anyway I hope this helps someone somewhere :smile: :thumbsup:

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