On June 28, 2016, JK Rowling released an introductory video and writing to "Ilvermorny," the newest expansion in her Harry Potter canon. For those of you who haven't been keeping up, Ilvermorny is the North American wizarding school that you can think of as the American equivalent to Hogwarts.
The teaser video is animated and goes through a brief history of what Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is and how it was founded. The animation style is reminiscent of "Nightmare Before Christmas" and other Tim Burton animated films, but to me it seemed a little out of place in the Harry Potter canon world. It was cute, and obviously geared for children looking for more magic after finishing the series, but left me with a lot of questions.
After the short video, there's an additional writing from JK Rowlings introducing the history of Ilvermorny. It was apparently founded in the early 17th century with a strong connection to a young Irish girl. The story of Isolt Sayre starts off the history, and it was hard not to compare her story to Harry Potter's first novel. The parallels are almost ridiculous, with both being orphans, both second guardians being ridiculously biased that their way of life is greatly superior to the 'others' (the others being either Wizards or muggles).
The story reaches America when Isolt escapes from her corrupt guardian, goes undercover as a young boy, and journeys to America on the Mayflower. If you're interested in reading the story, you can do so on Pottermore.
After the story and video, there's still more to do with the new American school. You can now take a sorting quiz to find which Ilvermorny house you would be placed in if you attended. The quiz is very similar to the Hogwarts house quiz, complete with four possible outcomes. The houses are Horned Serpent (representing the mind), Wampus (representing the body), Pukwudgie (representing the heart), and Thunderbird (representing the soul).
The houses for Ilvermorny are where several people are finding fault with this new continuation. There's been previous criticism surrounding JK Rowling's inclusion of Native Americans in her history, which is referred to as "shallow" and "generalized." As a white American whose family emigrated in a time close to when Isolt Sayre was said to immigrate, I feel like I can't speak definitively on any of the controversies surrounding the Native American community. However, here's an article by Adrienne Keene that talks about some of the problems she found.
