J.K. Rowling set her famous Harry Potter novels in the United Kingdom, a setting and history she is familiar with having grown up in Yate, England. Instead of sticking to something she knew, Rowling has recently expanded her wizarding literature to an online series, History of Magic in North America. While most of Rowling’s fans celebrated the further development, upon reading the series, Native Americans have become angered.

It started with Rowling equating “skin walkers” with Animagi. “Skin walkers” is a Navajo term for people who turn into animals. Animagi is the name for witches and wizards who can morph into animals. As soon as the promotional trailer was released in early March, it was met with criticism similar to when Johnny Depp played Tonto, a Native American character, in The Lone Ranger. This is very similar to any criticism towards famous Native American characters being depicted by people who are not Native American.

Rowling attributes the tradition of skin walkers to all Native Americans of the pre-Columbian era, as though they were a monolithic group with one set of beliefs. The big issue when it comes to History of Magic in North America is the correlation between practiced Native religion and the fictitious creations of Rowling.

Dr. Adrienne Keene of the Cherokee Nation wrote, “Native spirituality and religions are not fantasy on the same level as wizards. These beliefs are alive, practiced, and protected. We fight so hard every single day as Native peoples to be seen as contemporary, real, full, and complete human beings and to push away from the stereotypes that restrict us in stock categories of mystical-connected-to-nature-shamans or violent-savage-warriors,” she wrote. Additionally, she added, “How in the world could a young person watch this and not make a logical leap that Native peoples belong in the same fictional world as Harry Potter?”

History of Magic in North America is connected to the new expansion of the cinematic Harry Potter series Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a movie set in 1920’s New York.

The four part series located on the Pottermore website was completely posted as of early March.  Rowling has yet to make a statement about the issue.