those who are not White. And yet the influence of my Innu great great great grandmother also shaped my consciousness in a certain way. It was a window in the wall of my white identity which drew me to explore and eventually make a commitment to Native struggles.

This consciousness made it more complex and confusing to speak about this issue, even as it formed the heart of my commitment and responsibility to it. Even grammatically, I questioned how to use "we" and "they" when I might be included in both, but not quite contained in either category. I had heard many Indian people speak out about these issues. I decided that it was most useful for me to speak as a White woman, to raise the issues in the context of the feminist spirituality movement of which I am part, that we might be true to our commitment to the survival and liberation of all people. Furthermore, while for me there is an element of seeking my own Native heritage, the current phenomenon of outside interest in Native spirituality is a phenomenon of White culture, and this White phenomenon affects all of us who find ourselves interested in Native Americans. It has been important for my search to get inside this White thing about Indians, to explore and understand how it works in White people, of which I am part, so that I can also understand how it affects those of us with some Native ancestry.

Since childhood, I have been a spiritual person. As I was becoming an adult, the values of the gospel led me into political activism on behalf of justice and liberation. This path of justice activism led me to understanding the oppression of women, and of myself as a woman. One of the places where women experience oppression is in the area of spirituality and religion. So feminism instigated for me a spiritual search and a transformation, and with many other women I began to seek and create what we called women's spirituality. This is when I also began to be interested in Native American spirituality.

The Stereotype Indian and Native American Spirituality

There is a phenomenon in White culture which affects any interaction between White people and Native Americans. White culture has created an image and called it "Indian." But this image is a stereotype, and not really informative or accurate about real Native Americans, who are of many diverse cultures. All of us could give details about this stereotype "Indian." An important aspect of this stereotype "Indian" is that is has two sides, like the two sides of a coin.

One side of this stereotype Indian is the Hostile Savage – the dangerous, primitive warrior who attacked the settlers of the West, or the irresponsible reservation drunk who couldn't be trusted, the Indian of which it was said, "the only good Indian is a deal Indian." The other side of the stereotype Indian is the Noble Savage – the innocent primitive who was naturally spiritual and lived in idyllic harmony close to the earth, the Indian of the Thanksgiving stories who helped the Pilgrims survive. The images are embedded deeply in our culture, and are a subliminal backdrop to any of our interactions with Native people or concepts.