birdoge

Speaking as a still-probably-ignorant white person who only knows anything because I've been writing an Ojibwe character for some time as well:

You may want to check out /r/IndianCountry if you haven't already; iirc they have some archived threads about doing this kind of research respectfully. I know some tribes (Navajo comes to mind, I think) outright refuse to discuss some portions of their beliefs and customs to outsiders, so researching your specific questions more might give you a feel on if those questions would be appropriate to ask an actual Native? That sub seems pretty friendly to non-Natives who are respectful and don't expect their research to be done for them, though I haven't posted there myself.

The Ojibwe character I've been writing is completely removed from her heritage, so I haven't had to deal with the same sorts of research problems as it sounds like you have, but the recent debacle with JK Rowling and Navajo skinwalkers sounds like it might be relevant to you, if you haven't already read up on it.

Thank you kindly for the offer, I'll keep it in mind! It's good to hear the core concept is at least feasible.

Thank you for this AMA! I've been writing a story about a pyromaniac in the late 60's with a home-built flamethrower for a while now and this thread is fascinating to me. The character uses a propane tank as fuel and the fire it expels is just a jet of flame and not a stream of napalm or something of that nature. I've read Breath of the Dragon by Ragnar Benson, but the flamethrower my character uses is pretty highly fictionalized and just sort of stuff I've made up that sounds mostly believable. Are there any particular resources you could recommend for research along this line?