Hey all, I’m working on an old western which has some native characters, predominantly of a fictional tribe. I’m wondering if you all think it would be understandable if people spoke (in dialogs only) as the times and used terms like “Indian” or, even worse, “Injun”, or should I stick with using tribe names and the word “native”? Or something different altogether?
Thanks!
That sounds like a good strategy resulting in you really understanding the “source material”… more so than just farming the responsibility out to a sensitivity reader. However, for those who are lazy and broke, another option is to do a beta swap with someone who’s in the group you want a sensitivity read from. Maybe you can’t be too lazy for this option though, because trading manuscript critiques is a fair amount of work. But it’s a different kind of work than doing a bunch of research, so it might appeal more to certain writers. Just thought I’d mention it.