# Native Americans, J. K. Rowling, and the new American wizarding school **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 30, 2016, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759 "2016-06-30T04:40:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/41 "2016-07-01T00:44:19Z")
Here’s all the info about [Ilvermorny](https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/ilvermorny). So what should she have done? If she hadn’t mentioned Native Americans at all, people would’ve bitched. She alludes to them, people still bitch. Was lumping everyone together a bad idea? Perhaps. But quit looking for malice where there is none. > [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > So, I sometimes hang out at Tumblr. Other North Americans are critiquing Rowling’s new stuff… Tumblr is probably of the least credible sites on the internet for social issues and culture. > [@Infovore](#): > > That’s the part I roll my eyes at a bit. Even though the Harry Potter books are set in essentially the “real world,” it’s still a real world with a pretty big twist: magic exists, and is common enough to support a culture and several magic schools. I get that Native Americans don’t like to be considered “magical” in our world, but in Rowling’s world, it makes sense that at least some of them would have magical powers. Wouldn’t it be more insulting to assume they’re all Muggles (I’m sorry, but I refuse to use the terminally stupid term “No-Majs”) when members of every other culture have their share of witches and wizards? Exactly – that has got to be one of these stupidest arguments out there. This isn’t a “Native Americans” are magical people. It’s about the whole fucking wizard world – duh. Wizards in America would’ve been just like wizards in Europe. Jesus fucking Christ. It would be absurd to think that wizards don’t exist in America. I’m guessing these people haven’t read the books. (And if I never hear the term “cultural appropriate” ever again, it’ll be too soon.) ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/42 "2016-07-01T01:08:56Z")
As an Indian…yes we still use the term… 1. Didn’t read the article. 2. I also wish never to hear cultural appropriation again. 3. Get annoyed whenever an Indian superhero or guest star (or regular…looking at you Chakotay) are SO INDIAN IT HURTS. Very spiritual. Have magical dreamcatchers etc… 4. Someone above hit on it. I don’t really personally get my undies in a wad over mascots and stuff…but I reserve the right to snark on it (When will we see the Harlem Blacks with their fans in blackface doing some Zulu dance?) and If someone is offended, I’d like to let them be heard and not belittled and marginalized. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/43 "2016-07-01T02:34:17Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > They aren’t part of a culture that was oppressed and marginalized by modern Western culture. They don’t have a huge, huge history of misrepresentation in media with tons of racist tropes like the Magical Indian or Pan-Indian society. And their ancestors are not being presented as evil people, unlike the medicine men in Rowling’s history. > > I get so tired of this. A minority makes a statement about something that bothers them, and, rather than listening and trying to work things out, the majority just makes fun of them and belittles them for caring. All you are doing is widening the rift and making things worse. > > I admit that Rowling is in a hard place. It seems like she’s kinda already incorporated this stuff. And, yet, she’s also the type that is trying not to offend. She’s really big on making everyone feel welcome. > > Yes, she should have contacted them to see if there was a way to get things worked out. It’s just the thing to do now when you are dealing with any culture other than your own in a fictional work. But I don’t know if she can fix the problem now. > > This isn’t Star Trek and the Rubber Tree people bad (where white aliens actually gave American Indians “gifts” 2001-style) but I can see how it steps on peoples toes, given the history of how these people have been treated. Unless you are actually making an anti-religious book, you probably shouldn’t turn all priests and rabbis and Imams into evil people. Contacted who though? There isn’t one leader of Indiandom is there? ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/44 "2016-07-01T02:54:53Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Contacted who though? There isn’t one leader of Indiandom is there? She could have started with the NCAI [National Congress of American Indians - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Congress_of_American_Indians) And as I pointed out earlier… any history of the Americas page (there were no United States of America in 1693 so her college of magic is also wrong). ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/45 "2016-07-01T03:11:53Z")
Also see a lot of Potter fans online shaking their heads over the very idea of ONE wizarding school for the entirety of North America, for many and myriad reasons - sometimes as a comment on how much research she must’ve done at all beforehand, sometimes as a standalone. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/46 "2016-07-01T03:53:12Z")
> [@mistymage](#): > > As a Native American this lil tidbit makes my blood boil: " the creation of the Magical Congress of the United States of America in 1693," [Fourteenth Century – Seventeenth Century | Wizarding World](https://www.pottermore.com/collection-episodic/history-of-magic-in-north-america-en) (part 2) That’s kind of a blood-boiler for anybody with even a rudimentary knowledge of American history, I’d think. The **what** of America in **1693**?! > [@Leaper](#): > > Also see a lot of Potter fans online shaking their heads over the very idea of ONE wizarding school for the entirety of North America Now this objection I don’t understand. It wasn’t until about the Civil War that the US population equaled that of Britain, and only about WWII did it become twice as big (with Canada less than one-tenth as large as the US). Magical education in North America up through the 1920s, which AFAIK is as far as Rowling takes the specifics of her “history”, should have been easily manageable in a school less than twice the size of Hogwarts (which has what, something like 20 professors and 1000 students?). Am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/47 "2016-07-01T03:57:28Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > There’s no such thing as werewolves, or skin-walkers. There’s no such thing as vampires, either, but _Twilight_ still got 'em wrong. ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/48 "2016-07-01T04:10:58Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > That’s kind of a blood-boiler for anybody with even a rudimentary knowledge of American history, I’d think. The **what** of America in **1693**?! I was going for the relevant treaties and such (which came about after the War)… and should have included an “and as a native american as well” but by the time I thought of it the edit window was gone. But I will still read or watch this bit and shrug because I guess it’s not our decade or maybe century to throw off mascot /magical Indians/historical figure hood. I’ll shrug just because I like fantasy/sci-fi stuff. ---
**Author:** ![aag3981](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/53a042/32.png) [@aag3981](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aag3981)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/49 "2016-07-01T04:21:35Z")
So… is there another article? Just read the Pottermore article and there is literally one sentence and it isn’t the one everyone is quoting. It’s just a bit in the middle that describes a period when the school was still small and only know by local Indian tribes and colonial villages. Surely people are getting their panties in a bunch over something much more offensive… Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/50 "2016-07-01T04:27:13Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > So what should she have done? If she hadn’t mentioned Native Americans at all, people would’ve bitched. She alludes to them, people still bitch. Was lumping everyone together a bad idea? Perhaps. But quit looking for malice where there is none. I’m not aware that anybody’s trying to accuse Rowling of **malice**. AFAICT nobody thinks that she deliberately tried to slight or disparage or stereotype Native Americans. The criticisms seem to be just that she fell into stereotypes and misrepresentations out of ignorance. [QUOTE=Guinastasia] Exactly – that has got to be one of these stupidest arguments out there. This isn’t a “Native Americans” are magical people. It’s about the whole fucking wizard world – duh. Wizards in America would’ve been just like wizards in Europe. [/quote] Well, no, according to Rowling, they weren’t. That’s the sort of thing I think some people are complaining about, when she says stuff like: > [@](#): > > The Native American wizarding community was particularly gifted in animal and plant magic, its potions in particular being of a sophistication beyond much that was known in Europe. That’s less about the global unity of the wizarding world and more about the sort of stereotype that was common in earlier descriptions of Indians by whites, such as [this 1912 passage](https://books.google.com/books?id=SkEVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA31): > [@](#): > > The Indian and our fauna and flora are intimately connected […] The red man having […] learned to limit his wants mostly to what nature produced without human assistance, knew well where to find the useful wild products […] the groundnut, jack-in-the-pulpit, […] he knew how to prepare for palatable food, and many medicinal plants […] To him it appeared beyond doubt that the Great Spirit had kindly provided for all his wants […] Apparently he lived in perfect harmony with his natural surroundings. Now, it’s one thing for an urban white European-American in 1912 to marvel at the Native Americans’ “harmony with nature” and to be impressed by their knowing more than Europeans did about American wildlife. But it’s another thing for a white European a full century later to fall back on the same sort of mythologizing tropes about Native “medicine men” who were especially skilled in “animal and plant” magic. That does come across as somewhat lazy stereotyping. Like I said, I don’t think anyone is fiercely denouncing Rowling or accusing her of deliberate bigotry or what-not. But as **BigT** says, it’s kind of exasperating that when a minority group notices something about a fictional portrayal of their group that might be considered in some way stereotyping or offensive—and let’s face it, members of that group are naturally going to be more aware of such stereotypes than the rest of us are—the typical response from many members of the majority is not _“Huh. I didn’t realize that. Can you explain a little more about why you find that offensive?”_, but rather _“Oh JFC would you whiny pussies just shut the fuck up for once?! Political correctness run mad!”_, which isn’t really conducive to dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/51 "2016-07-01T04:28:13Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Now this objection I don’t understand. It wasn’t until about the Civil War that the US population equaled that of Britain, and only about WWII did it become twice as big (with Canada less than one-tenth as large as the US). Magical education in North America up through the 1920s, which AFAIK is as far as Rowling takes the specifics of her “history”, should have been easily manageable in a school less than twice the size of Hogwarts (which has what, something like 20 professors and 1000 students?). Am I missing something? Well, first of all, to clear the air, I’m seeing contradictory info on whether Rowling made clear that this piece of writing was about one of many schools or not. Secondly, if I’m understanding the objections right, many are scoffing at the idea that such a school would’ve somehow singlehandedly overcome regional differences, _especially_ after the Civil War, that other cultures (native and neighboring) would necessarily quietly assimilate into a school and system made by a European man, and that apparently, there’s an implication that this is the only wizarding school in NORTH AMERICA, not the United States. ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/52 "2016-07-01T04:28:25Z")
> [@aag3981](#): > > So… is there another article? Just read the Pottermore article and there is literally one sentence and it isn’t the one everyone is quoting. It’s just a bit in the middle that describes a period when the school was still small and only know by local Indian tribes and colonial villages. Surely people are getting their panties in a bunch over something much more offensive… > > Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk Read here and read part 2 as well: [http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&jsonp=vglnk\_146734725289311&key=ce270d38103a630c3181db372a25a052&libId=iq38mrkp010004p6000DLdqoeqrp2&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fboards.straightdope.com%2Fsdmb%2Fshowthread.php%3Fp%3D19446808%23post19446808&v=1&out=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pottermore.com%2Fcollection-episodic%2Fhistory-of-magic-in-north-america-en&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fboards.straightdope.com%2Fsdmb%2Fforumdisplay.php%3Ff%3D13&title=Native%20Americans%2C%20J.%20K.%20Rowling%2C%20and%20the%20new%20American%20wizarding%20school%20-%20Straight%20Dope%20Message%20Board&txt=History%20of%20Magic%20in%20North%20America&loAsUuid=iq38mrtf-84b462b0-2354-4930-bb3b-62edacf2e95b](http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_146734725289311&key=ce270d38103a630c3181db372a25a052&libId=iq38mrkp010004p6000DLdqoeqrp2&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fboards.straightdope.com%2Fsdmb%2Fshowthread.php%3Fp%3D19446808%23post19446808&v=1&out=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pottermore.com%2Fcollection-episodic%2Fhistory-of-magic-in-north-america-en&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fboards.straightdope.com%2Fsdmb%2Fforumdisplay.php%3Ff%3D13&title=Native%20Americans%2C%20J.%20K.%20Rowling%2C%20and%20the%20new%20American%20wizarding%20school%20-%20Straight%20Dope%20Message%20Board&txt=History%20of%20Magic%20in%20North%20America&loAsUuid=iq38mrtf-84b462b0-2354-4930-bb3b-62edacf2e95b) (Which was already posted). Nice huge vigi link… for those who see it 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/53 "2016-07-01T04:54:01Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Well, first of all, to clear the air, I’m seeing contradictory info on whether Rowling made clear that this piece of writing was about one of many schools or not. > > Secondly, if I’m understanding the objections right, many are scoffing at the idea that such a school would’ve somehow singlehandedly overcome regional differences, _especially_ after the Civil War, that other cultures (native and neighboring) would necessarily quietly assimilate into a school and system made by a European man, and that apparently, there’s an implication that this is the only wizarding school in NORTH AMERICA, not the United States. Yes, I get that bit, but as I already noted, the [total North American population was still quite small up to the mid-19th century](http://www.thuto.org/ubh/ub/h202/wpop1.htm). It was maybe 10-15 million in 1800 and around 40 million by 1850, when it began to surpass the population of Great Britain. By 1900 it had reached 100 million while the British population was only about 50 million. That’s still only about a 2-to-1 ratio. So **I maintain that the logistics of magical education in North America up to the early 20th century should have been easily manageable in a single school** that was—okay, maybe not **less** than twice, but not much **more** than twice the size of Hogwarts. Certainly no baseball stadiums would have been required just to hold the student population. And as for the unlikelihood of a single school “overcoming regional differences”, you have to remember that Hogwarts itself was supposedly founded around 990 CE, during and after which period there were also some pretty fucking major regional differences within the British Isles. The Welsh still spoke Welsh then, for pity’s sake. Norman Conquest, anybody? Wars of the Roses, English Civil War, Irish independence? Yet Hogwarts supposedly went on plugging merrily away at magical education through all that conflict and division. I don’t see any reason at all why, within the logic of the Potterverse, we shouldn’t readily accept that Ilvermorny could have done the same. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/54 "2016-07-01T12:07:04Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > The USA already has a wizarding school: Miskatonic University. > > Go 'Pods! I am opposed to a ‘Like’ button on the Dope, and yet sometimes… ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/55 "2016-07-01T12:34:39Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Now, it’s one thing for an urban white European-American in 1912 to marvel at the Native Americans’ “harmony with nature” and to be impressed by their knowing more than Europeans did about American wildlife. Depending on how urban he was, he might have shat bricks at the knowledge of European farmers about European wildlife… (memories of my Big City Cousins being terrified by the sight of a crab, to which reaction from the Little Town Folk was “oh, those are edible… Hey, we could get a bunch and make a cookout!”) > [@Kimstu](#): > > So **I maintain that the logistics of magical education in North America up to the early 20th century should have been easily manageable in a single school** that was—okay, maybe not **less** than twice, but not much **more** than twice the size of Hogwarts. Certainly no baseball stadiums would have been required just to hold the student population. Dunnow, personally I can easily picture a school in Puebla or Los Ángeles. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/56 "2016-07-01T12:36:09Z")
I just read all the bits and enjoyed them. Sure, her writing can be clunky, particularly for historical narrative, but on the other hand she’s clever and engaging. I already know for sure I’d like more backstory on The Great Sasquatch Rebellion of 1896. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/57 "2016-07-01T13:11:35Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > > [@Eonwe](#): > > > > Can a work of fiction never be wrong about anything, because by its very nature it is all “made up”? > > They can only be wrong if they were intending to be right. I think **DIgitalC** put it very well. Something can be wrong in fiction if it does not further the dramatic purpose of the work. > [@Miller](#): > > There’s no such thing as vampires, either, but _Twilight_ still got 'em wrong. IIUC this is at least partly tongue-in-cheek, but it sort of illustrates what I am saying. I would say that _Twilight_ did get vampires right, in at least one important way. The dramatic purpose of the _Twilight_ series is tweeny vampire porn. Presenting vampires as mysterious romantic figures who sparkle and drink puma blood (or whatever the hell it was - I only read the first installment, and only because my daughter made me) was to further that dramatic purpose. And ISTM that it did work - the idea is to appeal to the approach/avoidance conflict towards sexuality of many early pubescent girls, and it sure sold like hotcakes. Was it great art? No. Did it achieve its purpose? I would say Yes. And I think the “United States of America in 1693” is a good example of a fictional device that **doesn’t** work dramatically. Rowling is not proposing a parallel universe where the USA has existed for a thousand years. Therefore presenting a USA in 1693 violates the dramatic purpose, because it is a fictional detail that does not further the dramatic purpose of the work. She can “re-purpose” vampires or werewolves or skin-walkers or witches, because she is creating a dramatic universe where werewolves are as they are presented in that universe - not in bad horror films of the 40s, in the Potter universe. I grant you that there is a lot of fan-wanking, where people try to explain everything as if it were intentional or successful. There’s lots of that - not only with Harry Potter, but Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek and any other popular series. But fan-wanking isn’t always wrong. It is just based on different assumptions - namely that the dramatic purpose of a work isn’t to present real life. The rules of quidditch make no sense. But the dramatic purpose of quidditch in the HP books isn’t to present a realistic sport - it is to give Harry and the other characters dramatic situations in which their actions and reactions show them to be what they are. Likewise with this North American school of magic. It isn’t to show how it would really work to have a North American school of magic - there is no such thing as magic, so such a school wouldn’t work even if it were scrupulously careful to present Native American magic exactly as one or another of the Native American traditions said they were. But if Rowling is scrupulously careful to present her depiction of a North American school of magic in such a way as to create an effective narrative, then it will work. It depends on how far you can stretch the “willing suspension of disbelief”. I am a big fan - I am able to stretch it pretty far. YMMV. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/58 "2016-07-01T13:12:06Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > They can only be wrong if they were intending to be right. Right. It seems pretty obvious that Rowling wanted to be right about some of the basics of her setting, in the same way that all writers of fiction intend to be accurate about setting, even writers of fantasy/sci-fi. Rowling does not write alternate histories, for example. The Potter “universe” exists concurrently with the universe you and I are living in right now. So when I read something like: > [@mistymage](#): > > As a Native American this lil tidbit makes my blood boil: " the creation of the Magical Congress of the United States of America in 1693," [Fourteenth Century – Seventeenth Century | Wizarding World](https://www.pottermore.com/collection-episodic/history-of-magic-in-north-america-en) (part 2) It is an obvious, blazing, embarrassing error. One that is clearly against intent of having the Potterverse exist in the real world. The evidence is clear that many of these errors go _against_ her intent. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759/59 "2016-07-01T13:38:11Z")
At this point, I’m guessing JK essentially phoned this in. She had the actual background of the school (founded by a previously unknown Slytherin descendant, the whole battle inside the family) fairly well plotted out, but when it came time to tie it into real world details, she did a bit of googling to get actual locations and dates (though she got that wrong too) fleshed it out with what she remembered about Native American history from her grade school days, and plopped it on the website. Since this is purely unnecessary backstory for the movie, she put as little effort as possible into it. There’s nothing wrong with that, since she’s giving it away for free, but her cavalier attitude has now bit her in the ass. ETA: The full line about the Magical Congress is “Perhaps the most significant effect of Salem was the creation of the Magical Congress of the United States of America in 1693, pre-dating the No-Maj version by around a century.” I don’t know if she added the final clause later, but she is at least acknowledging that the actual USA didn’t exist for another 100 years. It’s still a remarkably stupid thing, since the very concept of the USA was 90+ years away, but at least she doesn’t actually think the USA existed in the 1600s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-americans-j-k-rowling-and-the-new-american-wizarding-school/758759.md?page=2)