Amy Warne addresses THAT social media post

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(OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.) One social post. Thousands of reactions. Even more comments. Hurtful insults, racial slurs, KKK references and harmful stereotypes.

Amy Warne is Mvskoke (Muscogee), Semvnole (Seminole), and Daughter of Kaccvlke (Tiger Clan). She tells Crosswinds News she had no idea a social post she tries to make every year would go viral this October, especially in such a hate-fueled way.

“It’s Halloween weekend and your reminder that my culture is not your costume!” Warne posted on Facebook October 30. “Playing dress up as an Indian Princess or Native Warrior is offensive. Don’t do it!”

During the first week of Native American Heritage Month, the comments are still rolling in.

“I was quite shocked with the responses that I have both for and against,” Warne said. “I was not prepared for it to take off like it did.”

Warne said in previous years, similar social posts sparked conversations from community members asking her to help them understand. This year, it was hatred.

A lot of it.

“I don't do this work to go viral, I promise you that,” Warne said. “That was not my intention. It's really just to try and amplify our issues and to be that truth and hopefully educate those that are willing to be educated and the others… You're either willing to try and learn and do something different or you're not.”

Warne, a registered dietitian, works as the manager of nutrition and health programs at Partnership for a Healthier America. She is among a small percentage of Native Americans represented in the profession. According to a 2022 study published in the journal Obesity, just 0.3% of registered dietitians and registered dietitian nutritionists surveyed through Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics membership data in 2021 identified as American Indian or Alaska Native. 

She also serves as the Chair of the Oklahoma County Democratic Party.

“I am in a sense somewhat of a public figure because I do a lot in my community,” Warne said. “I work really hard to advocate for my people and try to hold people accountable and move us in the right direction. Toward an inclusive and an understanding of the Native issues that we see specifically here in Oklahoma, home to 39 sovereign Native nations.”

She said she believes the outpouring of racism and other derogatory behavior is linked to the current administration.

“This month was set aside to honor Native histories and traditions and cultures and who we are as a people,” Warne said. “Yet we see the Department of Education post ‘This land is our land’. So we really are seeing two very different sides of the land that we stand on, right? We're seeing the land of the people who have inhabited this for since before colonization and the settlers and colonizers who have come in and tried to take this land as their own. And that's the stark difference I'm seeing in the comments as well.”

Warne said many commenters have gone so far as to directly message her insults and threats, prompting friends and loved ones to check in on her well-being and whereabouts.

“We do have an issue of violence toward people in public spaces, in the public eye,” Warne said. “When they are fighting against the status quo. And who knew that saying dressing up as a Native American would cause such alarm for certain people. It's just been pretty incredible to witness.”

Comments also poured in supporting Warne’s post.

This is the craziest comment section!! I am so sorry you have to deal with these deplorable people.

One would hope humanity has evolved, but the comments in this thread and many others prove otherwise. Absolutely insane. There are many who stand with you on this, Amy, I’m sorry you’re having to deal with this in your dms and notifications. Racism is alive and well on stolen land, we always knew it was there, but they become bolder by the day.

Others have taken to the comment section to try to explain why dressing up as a pan-Native stereotype is offensive, while some Native American commenters have expressed differing views on the costumes.

“Generic stereotypes, turning our sacred traditions, our headdresses, our regalia into a party outfit really does perpetuate and cause harm. It affects Native youth. It minimizes our ongoing struggles,” Warne said.

“A lot of us, to be fair, have been assimilated to an extent that we just don't see anything wrong with it,” she added. “But I keep going back to; we are not a monolith. We are individual citizens of our respective nations, and we have an obligation to the nations that we belong to to honor that.”

Referencing the so-called “sexy Native American” costumes, Warne said the sexualization of Native women exacerbates an already deadly Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) epidemic.

She told Crosswinds she has stopped engaging with the hateful rhetoric on her social post to protect her own emotional health and well-being.

“Our ancestors went through so much for me to be here,” Warne said. “They have survived so much more than online attacks. And I really do have a responsibility to my ancestors, to my family, to my community to continue to try and use my voice as a voice of truth and as a voice of reason. I try really hard not to engage in a way that is harmful because we still need people out there advocating for folks, and we still need people that will speak that truth to power that is often very difficult to do because of things like this. But I would say, it's OK to disengage.”