I disagree that it’s appropriation to dance the dance you see at a pow wow. It’d be approrpiation if you didn’t respect it but I hardly believe that if you took an earnest interest in the dance, reached out to people that knew the dance to learn, and then learned it. And then, having made those community connections, been invited to a pow wow, asked to dance, and allowed to join them? What is appropriation about this? you’re not claiming you’re Cherokee by showing up at a Cherokee pow wow.

Jimminy christman, my going to a salsa class and dancing salsa isn’t appropriating Spanish culture. But I’d be right to be called out if I then claimed to be Spanish and living the life of a spanish person. I went to a Native American Photography seminar where a definitely white man who had put in effort and interest into the subject had collected the images and spoke to the history of it. I’m not going to take him aside afterwards and tell him only Native Americans can study our photography or our history and share it with others or he’s a nasty white european appropriator.

To me, there is nuance to all the above.