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JK Rowling has really annoyed Native Americans with her latest series

JK Rowling has really annoyed Native Americans with her latest series

She may be the darling of the internet, able to do no wrong in many people's eyes... but JK Rowling has just managed to upset some people.

Famed for her Harry Potter books and magical Twitter game, the author has just released a new set of stories called A History of Magic in North America.

Published on the Pottermore website, the series focuses on an alternative wizard-y history of the Americas while drawing on real historical events.

But not everyone is pleased.

According to CNN, the first story in the series has been criticised for "lumping all Native Americans into one group, appropriating their stories" and, according to one Cherokee scholar, "completely re-writing these traditions".

Dr Adrienne Keen, from Providence, Rhode Island, pointed out a number of reasons why the portrayals of the Americas is problematic over on the website Native Appropriations - where she called Rowling's story a "mess".

Those criticisms included "Eurocentric superiority", a failure to address colonial atrocities and the "appropriation" of beings called "skin walkers" which are also present in some Native American legend.

She also spoke out on Twitter:

Other Native American people have spoken also out, including Mari Kurisato, a fiction writer born to an Ojibwe mother. She explained that far from being jealous of Rowling's success, she was full of "rage".

"This kind of fiction," she explains, "reinforces the lie that only white people should tell stories about Natives. Her voice drowns native voices out."

Rowling is yet to address the criticisms.

More: What we learned from JK Rowling's new Harry Potter writing

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