New Member Application: Native America

Name:
Country: Native America
Human: Winona Little Feather

Representative of:
The Indian Nation; indigenous peoples and tribes of precolonial North America

Gender:
Female

Age:
Human: 24
Historical: Officially 524 years old (dating from official European discovery in 1492) but technically, several thousand years old

Brief personality:
An old, wise, and stoic nation representing the indigenous populations of the Americas before European invasion. She is somewhat standoffish, and a bit distrusting and resentful towards many European nations for obvious reasons, and even more so towards America and Canada. Despite this, Native America maintains a civil relationship with these nations and interacts with them fairly amicably, especially America and Canada whom she essentially lives with, and even offers them her wisdom and expertise in certain matters. Though she typically retains a calm and collected demeanor, she is known to become extremely fierce and violent when deeply angered or threatened, letting her warrior spirit overcome her and exhibiting her expertise with a variety of weapons including the bow and arrow, spears, small knives, and the tomahawk. Brave and adventurous, she possesses a strong innate connection to nature and wild animals and is highly skilled and resourceful when it comes to living alongside both. Because of this, she is often accompanied by either a wolf, a hawk, or both. She is also deeply spiritual and often communicates with animistic spirits of the Earth which help her in her shaman craft of traditional medicinal healing.

Brief physical description:
An average-height woman of about 5'4" tall with a lean yet muscular, almost Amazonian type build. She has a deep bronze complexion with a somewhat reddish hue from spending so much time outside in the sun. She has deep, dark brown eyes and waist-long straight black hair which she typically wears in two long, loose braids with a single feather hanging from the right one, though she often lets it flow down and free as well. Her body is covered in several scars as a result of the intense violence she has endured within the last few hundred years. Her standard outfit is a cross between traditional Native American regalia and modern attire with jeans, fur-lined buckskin boots, a colorful patterned woven crop top, and a suede vest adorned with fringe and decorative bead-work over top of it. She also has a red and black tribal tattoo on her left shoulder. She wears a small dream catcher and a turquoise and shell beaded necklace around her neck. Around her waist, she wears a leather belt with a bear paw buckle from which she always carries a pouch of medicinal herbs and roots as well as a hunting knife that she carved herself. Her attire varies slightly depending on what time-period or activity she's engaging in. When hunting, she wears a wolfskin over her head which hangs down her back. Her battle attire also includes the wolfskin along with elaborate face and body paint. When conducting spiritual communication and medicinal work with her "chanupa," or pipe, she wears an elaborate regalia dress and headdress adorned with feathers as well intricate jewelry and some face paint under her eyes. She also wears this full regalia style for pow-wows.

Brief history:
Native America once freely ruled continental North (and South) America until 1492 when Spain, led by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, first set foot in her territory. She was initially astonished and intrigued by these strange looking, pale-faced newcomers as well as with their massive ships, metal weaponry, and other forms of technology that were previously unheard of to her. She thought they might be of supernatural origin and thus, greeted them amiably, exchanging food and gifts with them. However, it soon became apparent that the strange nations really wanted land, resources, and in particular, "the yellow rock that made them crazy" (ie: gold). Thus began several hundred years of intense violent conflict between herself and several other European nations, mainly Britain, France, and Spain. This became even worse when the child nations of America and Canada were discovered as European nations like Britain and France began frequenting her land more and more to help the new young nations grow bigger and stronger. Though she fought long and hard, she eventually grew extremely weak and virtually powerless as a result of so many years of chaos and warfare with the more powerful nations. When America and Canada had grown big and strong enough to claim their independence, this pattern only continued. She initially hated America and Canada (especially America for his sense of entitlement and constant encroachment upon her) for their continued colonization of her and she often engaged in many violent confrontations with both of them, winning some, but losing the great majority. Eventually, however, America and Canada began softening their attitudes towards her and America even offered her some of her land back and help with getting back on her feet through the reservation system and Canada soon began doing the same. Although she initially found this offer to be far too restrictive, America and Canada began slowly improving the system and thus, she saw no other choice than to accept it and adapt to it if she wanted to survive. She eventually regained, to a degree, some of her strength and power as well as gaining federal recognition for many of her people's tribes along with some self-governance. Despite this, she still feels that she's lost much of her dignity and virtually all of her independence, resulting in a highly conflicted relationship with her current situation. As America and Canada both grew and matured, however, she more or less reconciled with both of them and now lives peacefully alongside them, seeing no point in holding onto the hatred and violence of the past. Today, while she is still plagued by things such as poverty and alcoholism, she remains a resilient and proud nation who holds tightly to her ancient culture, customs, and traditions.

Religious affiliation:
Animism/Shamanism

Any special powers or abilities:
She possesses the ability to communicate with spirits of plants, animals, and other natural elements and features of the Earth and its landscape. She's also able to concoct a wide variety of nature-based medicines and remedies for a myriad of different maladies.