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D E PA R T M E N T 39 KEYFRAME Valencia worked with Native Production Consultant, Joely Proudfit, Ph.D., who was crucial in selecting the right elders in different tribes to approach to provide language consultation, sign off on a story, or give a head's up: "Hey, that story is from Google, don't use it." This method didn't mean that tribal elders authorized every story Valencia wanted to tell, though. She wrote a premise for one, and her own tribe's Elder Council said no because it is "one of our creation stories which are really, really sacred. They were afraid it could be like a game of tele- phone," Valencia says, changing once it was out in the world. "Any time they said no, we backed off." Because Valencia was aware that she can offer only one perspective, she assembled the animation industry's first all-Native writers' room, with members of tribes from around the country. She worked hard to create a safe space, and she says, "I'm really grateful that they took the time to be vulnerable, to talk about those moments when they were Native kids, and how they felt overlooked, because we brought all that into the show." Balancing traditional and urban Native life, Valencia calls the series her love letter to Native culture. "And if anybody's taking anything away," she says, one of the things she hopes they learn is "seeing Natives in the present space." Karissa Valencia calls her all-Native team the Native Avengers. Among them is Avenger/Staff Writer Kelly Lynne D'Angelo, who is Tuscarora of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and Muscowpetung Cree, and Avenger/Staff Writer/Consulting Producer Joey Clift, who is enrolled in the Cowlitz tribe and grew up on the Tulalip reservation north of Seattle. "It's always been a dream of mine to have a chance to tell our stories as people, but also, to a greater extent, showcase our pride," says D'Angelo. "Showcase the love that we can give to ourselves that we've always deserved but never seen reflected onscreen." Clift says that growing up he loved shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy, "but because I didn't see any Native animation writers and Native comedians on TV getting opportunities, I didn't think I was allowed to work in the entertainment industry." He sees Spirit Rangers offering kids "the permission to dream that I wish I had." Neither D'Angelo nor Clift considered themselves preschool writers before Valencia approached them, but for D'Angelo it felt natural because her tribe follows the principle of the Seventh Generation: What we do today should contribute to a sustainable world seven generations into the future. "This felt like the right way to honor that," she says. Clift, on the other hand, had doubts about what a preschool show could accomplish. But Spirit Rangers addresses real issues, like Native sports mascots and how the U.S. government didn't honor its treaties with tribes. "There aren't really a lot of issues I can think of where the brakes were put on because the audience was too young. ... The thought- fulness that went into not just making the story shine, but the represen- tation shine, it took me from being hesitant to being all in on this." Both Clift and D'Angelo are familiar with being "the only Native in the room" and having to be the one to explain everything Native to non-Native colleagues. Spirit Rangers was entirely different. "For me personally, there was an unspoken understanding from the get-go," D'Angelo says. "When you get in a room full of people who have a shared experience … of knowing this is and was and always will be your homeland, you carry a deeper responsibility. We all felt the weight of it." "Something I don't think a lot of non-Natives grasp is a tribe is basically a collection of families," says Clift. "There's a lot of pressure there." He says the most nerve-wracking experience he's ever had was making a presentation to his Tribal Council. "If they say no, that's not just Hollywood rejecting an idea. That's like my family saying no. Getting their approval was like, my family accepted this in a real way." Avengers/Staff Writers Joey Clift and Kelly Lynne D'Angelo Middle child Summer can turn into a red-tailed hawk.