N is for Native: In the world of Gossamer Steel, the Sámi who are native to The Country – formerly the Nordic countries – are instrumental in re-building the post-apocalyptic world, in alliance with the nomads from Eurasia. In the broader sense of native, there are others, including Dravidians in Bhārata (India sub-continent) that are committed to re-building their birth places.

Native or indigenous? In terms of people the words are interchangeable, although with plants and animals some argue that they are subtly different. Of greater concern is the plight of the native or indigenous people in the face of our industrialised world. As Cultural Survival says, “One of the unfortunate things common to almost all Indigenous Peoples is being under assault—culturally, economically, or physically.  In almost every case they suffer all the consequences of extreme marginalization: poverty, lack of government services, shorter lifespans, and poorer health.”

“…Because they look, act, and dress differently from the dominant society, Indigenous Peoples are often discriminated against or seen as less than human…  The world’s languages are disappearing at a rate even faster than that of biological diversity, with more than half of the world’s 7,000 predicted to disappear in the next 90 years… Indigenous lands and environments are under assault on every continent. A recent World Wildlife Fund study named the 200 places on earth that have the highest and most fragile biodiversity, and found that 95 percent of them are on Indigenous territories…”

Naga people of Northeast India ~ by rajkumar1220

Called Native, Tribal, First, or Indigenous Peoples, they constitute about 5% of the world’s population, yet account for about 15% of the world’s poor. At least 370 million people worldwide are considered to be indigenous. Most of them live in remote areas of the world. Indigenous peoples are divided into at least 5000 peoples ranging from the forest peoples of the Amazon to the tribal peoples of India – such as the Naga (pictured) – and from the Inuit of the Arctic to the Aborigines in Australia. Indigenous peoples do not necessarily claim to be the only people native to their countries, but in many cases indigenous peoples are indeed “aboriginal” or “native” to the lands they live in, being descendants of those peoples that inhabited a territory prior to colonization or formation of the present state.

N is also for the dryad Ngetal, Norwegian commodity trader Niels Gundersson, the serpent Nagas of Hindu & Buddhist religions, and the ‘Wyrm Bait’ protagonist Norman Silver

PREVIOUS A TO Z POSTS:

A is for Array ~ B is for the Blood-Marked ~ C is for Corylus Avellana ~ D is for Duskweald ~ E is for Energy ~ F is for Feeniks ~ G is for Garuda ~ H is for Herders ~ I is for Ithaka ~ J is for Junk ~ K is for Kitsune ~ L is for Lorelei ~ M is for Mojave

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The brainchild of Arlee Bird, at Tossing it Out, the A to Z Challenge is posting every day in April except Sundays (we get those off for good behaviour.) And since there are 26 days, that matches the 26 letters of the alphabet. On April 1, blog about something that begins with the letter “A.” April 2 is “B,” April 3 is “C,” and so on. Please visit other challenge writers.

My theme is ‘The World of Gossamer Steel, the SF-fantasy setting for a series of short stories and novellas that portray the tales behind the MMORPG that is central to my crime novel ‘Wyrm Bait’.