![]() ![]() ![]() These are part of the complex ways that our communities were and continue to be organized," she says. "You might be part of the Wolf Clan or you might be part of the Turtle Clan. But one example of animal symbolism among Indigenous peoples, according to Luger, is that political and familial organizations are sometimes named after animals. There are thousands of Indigenous peoples in North America alone, so it's impossible to generalize the spiritual role that animals play across all of these groups and from person to person. "We do, of course, maintain connections and different relationships to the natural world around us," says Luger. While the phrase "spirit animal" may not be commonly used in Native cultures, animals are highly symbolic in general. "It can feel very dehumanizing and disrespectful when something that is as storied and important as our clan systems is misinterpreted as this silly 'spirit animal' thing." -Chelsey Luger, founder of Indigenous wellness initiative Well for Culture "That feels offensive because it's already been difficult for us over the years to have people recognize and respect who we are as people." "It feels like people are making light of our culture," says Luger, now a journalist and founder of Indigenous wellness initiative Well for Culture. This makes it a damaging form of cultural appropriation. Even though "spirit animal" isn't a term widely used in Indigenous cultures-if at all-it takes the concept of their sacred connection with and reverence for nature and twists it into a catchphrase and a commodity. Instead, one person may proclaim Harry Styles as their spirit animal, while another reserves that title for pizza.īut therein lies the problem with this phrase. In a lot of these cases, "spirit animal" didn't even reference an actual animal. But in 2010, the meaning shifted as it was used in a joking manner on Tumblr and in the New York Times. Although it's not clear how "spirit animal" entered popular vernacular, internet historians claim that it started appearing online un-ironically on Wiccan and Pagan message boards in the '90s. "We learn from and have strong spiritual relationships with many more-than-human relatives, as well, not just one, so the idea of having a 'spirit animal' in the way white people often talk about them seems strange to me and actually pretty capitalistic in a way that doesn't sit well with me."Įven so, in the mid-2010s the phrase started appearing everywhere. ![]() Any or all of these relationships can be spiritual." That said, she's not aware of a specific term in her language that translates to "spirit animal" as it's used colloquially. "I will say that for me, I have relations with more-than-human animals, plants, and natural kinds- water, soil, sun-just like I do with humans because we are all relatives. "I can only speak for myself as a Shoshone-Bannock woman, and not even for other members of my tribe," says McDaid-Morgan, a PhD student in Learning Sciences at Northwestern University. I've never heard anybody talk about this."Īs a member of the Shoshone-Bannock nation, the phrase "spirit animal" wasn't a part of Nikki McDaid-Morgan's vocabulary, either, until it entered the pop-culture realm, that is. "I can't speak for all Indigenous people, and there's a chance that you'll find somebody out there to say something differently, but I've worked in hundreds of Native communities over the past 10 years or so-and I know plenty of First Nations people from Canada. Don't tell me about my own culture,'" says Luger. But her classmate didn't take no for an answer, insisting that he had it on authority from First Nations people in Canada that "real Natives"-in his words-have spirit animals. "He says, 'So what's your spirit animal?' And I was like, 'What? What are you talking about?' And he goes, 'Yeah, all Native people have a spirit animal.'" She remembers laughing the comment off, telling him she wasn't familiar with the term and that it must be a stereotype. ![]()
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