Wow, it was interesting to hear your point of view on this. I didn't fully understand the furor over the stories, beyond the poor research Rowling apparently did (even I spotted the mishmash of Native mythology). I saw it as her trying to shoehorn the format she was familiar with onto American soil, and not getting it quite right. Which was disappointing, because as you said, she did it much better in the books.

I see this a lot in the Pagan community as well. People see what they perceive as similarities in our beliefs and customs, and then feel free to graft whatever they like onto their own. It works OK when you're talking about European mythologies, because there *was* a lot of overlap in some places, but it's not the same thing. It makes me uncomfortable to see workshops given by descendants of Europeans on "Native American" topics at Pagan festivals; again, they seem to lump them all together, as if there was one culture here before our ancestors came. There's not a whole lot of scholarship going on in our community, which is sad.

I'd love to have a conversation with you about all this! You always make me want to learn more. Thank you for sharing this!