‘Spirit Rangers’ creator Karissa Valencia boosts Indigenous representation with Netflix series: 'I got so emotional, because I had just never seen that before'
When Karissa Valencia (Santa Ynez Chumash) first imagined her new animated kids’ show, Spirit Rangers, which launches on Netflix today, on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, she wanted to create a show for kids who hadn’t yet seen people like themselves or heard their stories on TV.
“It’s the show I always wish I had as a kid,” Valencia tells In The Know by Yahoo. “It’s so special to hear from my team — and also just people who’ve gotten to see the show — that it’s healing their inner child.”
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Spirit Rangers tells the story of three Native American siblings (Kodi, Summer and Eddy Skycedar) from the West Coast Chumash and Cowlitz tribes who have a secret. They’re spirit rangers who can transform into different animals to help protect the national park where they live with their ranger parents.
The voice actors who star as the kids (Wačíŋyeya Iwáš’aka Yracheta, Isis Celilo Rogers and Talon Proc Alford) are Native, and audiences will also hear from familiar Indigenous voices, including Wes Studi (Cherokee), Tantoo Cardinal (Cree/Métis) and Devery Jacobs (Kanien’kehá:ka).
Not only that, but Valencia hired an all-Native writers’ room and more than 100 Native crew members for the show.
Valencia credits the executive producer Chris Nee (Doc McStuffins), whom she worked with on animated series Vampirina, and Netflix for making it all possible.
“They supported me with every step of the way because there was going to be so many challenges coming up,” she says. “We had to Indigenize this production. We had to get the blessing of the tribes.”
This meant approaching Valencia’s tribe, the Santa Ynez Chumash, as well as consulting producer Joey Clift‘s Cowlitz tribe. Valencia wanted to be respectful when telling these tribal stories, and to ensure that she had permission from the tribes themselves.
“If there was ever a story I wanted to tell, I wanted to run it by [the tribes] and make sure it was OK. Because sometimes, they’d tell me no,” she adds. “They’d be like, ‘That’s a creation story, that’s really sacred. We don’t want that to exist on Netflix. Here’s this other story. Why don’t you do this character instead?’ And the show is that much better for it, because we have their sign-off and their approval, and we’re approaching our culture in a respectful way.”
Some of the stories in the series include explanations for natural events, such as the story of the condor, who flew too close to the sun and darkened its wings, or how the sun fell asleep and forgot to set on the summer solstice (aka the longest day of the year). These are stories that many Native kids grew up hearing from their elders and families.
And while tradition is tightly woven into the show, Spirit Rangers also celebrates modern Native families who are not forced to exist only in the past.
“We just wanted some sort of acknowledgment that we still exist,” Valencia says of her Native writing staff. “We have iPhones, we dress in modern clothes. So having the family exist in a modern space, as park rangers who are using modern sciences and technology but also their traditional ecological knowledge, that was the first step for me, was just seeing them exist in the modern day.”
In fact, Valencia shares just how much it meant to her to see her young characters dressed in modern outfits.
“I still remember when the designs came in of [the main characters] Kodi, Summer and Eddy, what they were going to look like, and they were just like cute little junior ranger outfits and hiking boots and hats. And I got so emotional, because I had just never seen that before. It was always like in the past tense, in a textbook kind of setting, versus just like a kid thriving today.”
Scheduling the show’s premiere on Indigenous Peoples’ Day has added to the overall excitement for Valencia and her team.
“I’m so glad that we got that as our launch day,” she says. “That is a day that has been [acknowledging] the genocide of our people for so many years, and I am so glad that a show that celebrates Native youth is coming out that day.”
Celebrating the fact that Indigenous people are still here and sharing that knowledge with others has been crucial for Valencia.
“And like we’ve been saying, we’re still here, but it’s also a way for non-Native families to celebrate us,” she adds. “If they’re looking for ways to learn more about Native culture, they’re not googling Christopher Columbus. They’re looking for contemporary artists who are doing good work out here, like Prey and Rutherford Falls. It’s an exciting time.”
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