Why I'm excited my kids can finally see playful Indigenous representation in Netflix's Spirit Rangers

When I was growing up, I didn't see a single Saturday morning cartoon that reflected me. From The Flintstones to Inspector Gadget, my cartoon entertainment was silly and fantastical but never rooted in my reality. Not until Disney's problematic Pocahontas did I see that our stories could be told onscreen, but not necessarily in a good way. I idolized Irene Bedard, the voice of Pocahontas, but felt grossed out by the song "Savages" and the movie's overall distortion of the historical person.

Decades later, I make careful choices about what my children watch. Now, I can add the new animated kids Netflix series Spirit Rangers to their queue. The show offers a rich depiction of Indigenous storytelling, and that's thanks to an all-Native writers' room, led by Chumash showrunner Karissa Valencia.

Premiering on the U.S. holiday of Indigenous Peoples Day (October 10), the series tells the story of the Skycedar family, who work at a national park in California. While the parents deal with challenges of the physical park, like a thunderstorm that delays the launch of the park's opening, the newly appointed junior park ranger siblings — Kodi, Summer and Eddy — tap into their connection to the spirit world to help solve those problems in Spirit Park.

To enter that spirit world, they swing their medallions before turning into a bear cub, red-tailed hawk and turtle, respectively. Each episode introduces a new spirit animal.

Watching the show with my half-Mohawk children, I was delighted to see an episode dedicated to Haudenosaunee stories of lacrosse and the Three Sisters vegetables, pointing to the screen and tying the word "Haudenosaunee" (which they often hear in their school's daily land acknowledgement) to that specific Spirit Rangers episode and, more importantly, to themselves. They sing along to the theme song, performed by Raye Zaragoza, and eat up the cuteness of the animated animals. 

The voice talent also features many Canadians, including Tantoo Cardinal, who voices Moon; Devery Jacobs, who appears as Wind Eagle, whose flapping wings creates the world's wind; Cree Summer as both ranger DeeDee and the spirit animal Lizard; and Michelle Bardach as Corn Spirit and Colocolo Opossum.

The trio who voice the Skycedar siblings, Wačíŋyeya Iwáš'aka Yracheta (Kodi), Isis Celilo Rogers (Summer) and Talon Proc Alford (Eddy), were brand new to voice acting before this show; each received training to bring their characters to life. In the case of Yracheta, who lives on an isolated reservation and access to a recording studio wasn't possible, Netflix built one and had it shipped to him so he could be Kodi. 

Spirit Rangers is a unique entry into the growing Indigenous-focused television space, where shows like Reservation Dogs and Rutherford Falls are often meant for adult audiences. The animated series boasts a crew of over 100 Indigenous artists, composers, choreographers, sound designers and more, as well as the first all-Indigenous writers' room in the animation space. 

"The all-Native writers' room is really the heart of the series," says Valencia. "I went to Netflix with this pie-in-the-sky dream — that I really wanted an all-Native writers' room — because as soon as they greenlit Spirit Rangers, I was already feeling the pressure of being the first of its kind for so many reasons. For better or worse, I shared that pressure with my writers, so this wasn't on my shoulders."

First, she tapped Kelly Lynne D'Angelo, a Tuscarora writer and a professional Dungeon Master in Dungeons and Dragons, for "building the magic." Next, Valencia assembled a writers' room that included Cowlitz writer Joey Clift, Choctaw writer Shelley Dennis, Athabascan writer Carlee Malemute, Oglala Lakota writer Lucas Brown Eyes, and more. 

"I felt really lucky that they felt we created a space where they could be vulnerable and talk about those hard days where they felt invisible," says Valencia. Everything the writers shared came together into the Skycedar family. "They're based on two different tribes and they have a variety of skin tones, eye colors, hairstyles and colours. That all came from those conversations."

Something else that resonated with the writers' room, portrayed in the series, was the approach to men with long hair. The father of the Skycedars wears a long braid, while oldest brother Kodi has short hair and youngest brother Eddy has a small braid. This was a reflection of real life where boys proudly wear their hair long — until, that is, they become school age.

"That's when they go to school and kids make fun of them, and [they'd] cut it off just because they felt the pressure to conform," says Valencia. 

That subtle reflection of modern day life as an Indigenous person is especially poignant when I think about how often Indigenous people are represented as being in the past. (In Spirit Rangers, the family uses technology — the Skycedar dad loves to fly his drone, and it reminds me of my drone-owning parents.)

The Skycedar parents come from two different communities: the Cowlitz tribe and the Chumash tribe. Valencia says it was important to display stories not only from her own tribe but also others to show that Indigenous peoples are not a monolith. I find that it also shows how an Indigneous family can come from different communities, which I often don't see reflected in storytelling. It's also a reflection of my own family makeup, with one parent coming from Six Nations of the Grand River and the other from Akwesasne.

"Spirit Park in the show ends up being this magical hub where all the spirits can pass through and visit, and we get to learn from each other," says Valencia. "I think we reflect it in small ways and in big ways. Every spirit that you meet, and even the kids, have tribal prints on them that are all based on whatever region they're from."

That attention to detail, ensuring that the prints are specific and correct to that community, might get missed by my kids — but I appreciate them, and all the other Indigenous elements of the show. And I know I won't be the only one. 

Valencia says that the years-long work that went into making Spirit Rangers isn't the end for Indigenous representation in kids' shows. 

"Animation is a small community, and I'm just so happy that we have 100 more Indigenous crew to add to this animation roster."