First History of Magic in North America Doesn’t Go Over Well

Rowling’s foray into the early History of Magic in North America and the part played by the native peoples goes over badly.

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Yesterday’s first installment of the history of magic in North America from J.K. Rowling surprised me at how short it was. I had expected something of a deep dive into the many native peoples of North America, perhaps some discussion of the myths and legends of the different tribes and a discussion of how they reacted to the arrival of the white settlers from Europe. Instead what we got was an extraordinarily mild piece that barely scratched the surface of Native America history.

It seemed to me that Rowling was vaguely aware she was on shaky ground, didn’t want to dive in too deep lest she be accused of co-opting Native American traditions, or worse, get something wrong and insult those very people she was trying to honor by reminding  her readers they ever existed at all.

Perhaps the truth is, there was no way she could have touched this third rail of US history without it going badly. Before the piece even came out, there were those ready to pounce, expressing trepidation that she was going here at all. This was always going to be a hard needle to thread, to bring up the traditions of the Native peoples as a white lady from the UK who has little understanding of how fraught these relations still are centuries later in this country.

Centuries of outright genocide by “Americans” on those who were here first, and neglect of the few descendants who survived, coupled with the publishing industry ignoring writers of color of all stripes and their stories that are not eurocentric left this an explosive issue. The cries of “cultural appropriation” were going to happen no matter what.

The truth is I think Rowling thought that she was being inclusive by including them at all. Her intent is good, but sadly, intent is not magic, no matter how much she waves a wand and recites Latin phrases. The problem is deeper and wider than just one writer–she cannot make up for years upon years of an entire society refusing to include their stories or writers of Native American descent.

Perhaps she could have done a bit of research on authors and asked someone else to do this piece for her–perhaps Sherman Alexie or Leslie Marmon Silko, or a Native American writer that is up and coming and deserves a break. But the entire point of Pottermore is that they are *her* writings. So it is doubtful doing such a thing would have occurred to anyone.

Instead Rowling spent the day being dragged on Twitter. Unlike some reactions, where Rowling has responded quickly and eagerly to fix a mistake, in this case she has not responded. (Not identifying a country for the “African” wizarding school of Uagadou, for instance, which she quickly fixed, both by announcing it via Twitter (Uganda), and apologizing and promising the Pottermore story would be updated forthwith comes to mind.) Perhaps she really didn’t see it coming? Or perhaps she just doesn’t know how exactly to proceed having now made this misstep. Either way, let’s hope she does eventually figure out how to put it right.