Big Thunder (Bedagi) Wabanaki
Algonquin
The Great Spirit is in all things, he is in the air we breathe. The Great Spirit is our Father, but the Earth is our Mother. She nourishes us, that which we put into the ground she returns to us....
Sogoyewapha, "Red Jacket" - Seneca
Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why not all agreed, as you can all read the Book?
This page is to discuss the borrowing of Native American
spiritual rituals.
This issue has become a grave and very sensitive issue to many
of us. They say that imitation the sincerest form of flattery,
but we don't view it this way. While I feel that learning about
others views is a good thing, borrowing from our beliefs or otherwise
bastardizing them is a very insulting and bad thing to do. These
people don't realize, that genocide is more than the killing
of the physical body, it includes the destruction of the culture
and spirituality. And taking the spiritual practices and blending
them with other culture's practices does effectively kill the
spirituality.
First off, just because somebody has read about or even
studied for awhile aspects of Native American Spirituality, that
doesn't mean they are qualified as an expert. Yet, there many
people who feel not only qualified to attempt to practice our
ways, but they feel entitled to lead these rituals. And most
of the ones who think they should lead rituals charge big time
money to participate in their little groups. That would be akin
to me reading a book on Christianity or Judaism, and then feeling
I have the right to charge for a baptism or a bris. Another example
of this 'borrowing' of our rituals is people who think that participating
in a sweat is a 'neat' idea, then want to build and lead their
own sweats! This is a really dumb idea. Without an experienced
person there, a sweat could be fatal.
I've heard it said by some of these people that they are
just trying to honor our ways. Excuse me? But how is it an honor
to take our rituals, attempt to perform them, and then do it
completely wrong an honor? How is it an honor to us when the
culture vulture who is using our rituals not only bastardizes
the meaning, but gets it all wrong, and then charges people to
be lead astray? How is it an honor when they say they are Native
American, or a 'breed' that was trained by medicine men, they
claim they use Tarot Cards (which isn't an NA thing) and talk
about Wiccan practices? If you want to practice Wicca, practice
it, but don't blend non-Native customs and beliefs with ours.
If you want to learn about our ways and our rituals, fine!
But please do not insult us by ripping off our ways and changing
them to fit your erroneous beliefs. Many of us are getting damn
sick of this blatant ripoff of our spiritual rituals. I'm Native
American, and I sure wouldn't feel comfortable teaching these
rituals to others, and I am certainly not arrogant enough to
feel that because I've read about another religions rituals that
I the right to lead that religion's rituals.
So what it boils down to. Learn about our spirituality
if you want. But do not rip off our rituals! And most certainly,
DO NOT BE STUPID ENOUGH TO PAY TO ATTEND A RITUAL BECAUSE ONLY
FAKERS ARE CHARGING PEOPLE TO PRAY!
To learn
more about what is being done to our spirituality, and to hear
more of our views go to: WANTING
TO BE INDIAN: When Spiritual Teaching Turns Into Cultural Theft,
Declaring
War, and Plastic Medicine Men. For a series of article
on this, go to Spiritual Genocide: The Co-Opting of Cultures
There have been many fakers and con men who have made it appear to the unaware that they are medicine men or holy people within the Native American Community. The number one culprit is one Robert Franzone, aka Ghostwolf. To read more about this convicted con man go to Robert Franzone History. Another is Tribal Voice, a 100% white owned company who uses NA Spirituality to gain money. Read about Tribal Voice at this commentary.
A relative new comer to the "lets rip off the poor
white people looking for guidance" scene is a person by
putting up a website that claims they hire out bonafide medicine
men over the Internet for healing rituals. These people (and
I use the term loosely) have many New Age sites up and thinks
they are justified in demanding high payment for bogus healing
by medicine men. To advertise medicine men via the internet for
traditional healing is totally inappropriate, not to mention,
I've never heard a medicine man beg for payment via Visa and
Mastercard. These people's website also contains some glaring
errors, which we pointed out and they quickly changed. For instance,
they claimed Miracle the white buffalo calf was in Montana and
sick, therefore it proved the Earth was sick. Well, Miracle is
and has always been a resident of Janesville, Wisconsin and is
very much a healthy animal. They also have one 'medicine man'
who is only 39. However, it takes many years to become a medicine
man, for ones Navajo trained such as he claims, 15 to 30 years
of training isn't uncommon. Yet, this person has also spent more
than just a few years in prison after being convicted of assault
with a deadly weapon. Another one of their traditional healers
also does her 'healing' in regalia and uses tarot cards. Indians
never used tarot cards! For these people, they need to read and
understand: For Those Who
Think They Were Indian in a Former Life
Recently a friend sent me a flier on a bogus Sundance. To
view what the not so blatant examples of plastic ceremonies held
by plastic medicine men look like, click on the small graphics
below.
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