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| Spiritual Commodification and MisappropriationGO TO: Sonoma CountyFree Press Home Page| Columns |FeaturesSpiritual Commodificationand MisappropriationWhat Native People Want You ToUnderstandCompiled by Mariah JonesThere is a disinformation campaign in progress in Sonoma County to undermineNative peoples' nationwide efforts to protect their ceremonial processesfrom abuse. The promulgators would have you believe that only a few "militant"Indians are concerned about this exploitation by those who have no real knowledgeof the deep inner meaning inherent in these ceremonies. The truth is thatthe overwhelming majority of Native people DO object to this phenomenon.If you stand with Indian people, then you respect their moral right to decideunder which circumstances their ceremonies will be "shared" with non-Indians.Please read the following statements by Native people. They are spiritualleaders, authors, attorneys, anthropologists, scholars, activists, educatorsand tribal leaders. Though they represent just a small percentage of thosewho have spoken out on this issue, the concepts presented will give you someidea of the perspective you are being asked to consider."What's at issue here is the same old question that Europeans have alwaysposed with regard to American Indians, whether what's ours isn't somehowtheirs. And, of course, they've always answered in the affirmative. Now,being spiritually bankrupt themselves, they want our spirituality as well.So, they make up rationalizations to explain why they're entitled to it."Russell Means (Lakota) "The process is ultimately intended to supplantIndians, even in areas of their own customs and spirituality. In the end,non-Indians will have complete power to define what is and is not Indian,even for Indians. When this happens, the last vestiges of real Indian societyand Indian rights will disappear. Non-Indians will then "own" our heritageand ideas as thoroughly as they now claim to own our land and resources."Pam Colorado (Oneida) "...On the other hand, the stereotypical andgrossly distortive work of Hyemeyohsts Storm, a man only marginally Indian,has earned him the wrath of the Northern Cheyenne people with whom he claimedaffiliation."Wendy Rose (Hopi) "Do the names Sun Bear, Wallace Black Elk, Oh ShinnaFast Wolf, Brook Medicine Eagle, Harley Reagan Swiftdeer, Buck Ghost Horse,or Mary Thunder mean anything to you? Well, they should, because thesepseudo-medicine quacks are passing themselves off as Native American spiritualleaders. Native American spirituality has become a fad to many New Agenon-Indians and their naivete is being exploited to the limit by plasticmedicine people, much to the dismay of traditional elders. Practicing NativeAmerican spirituality out of the context of Native American culture diminishesthe integrity of both.Many of these people are actually Indians who are spreading false ritualsfor profit. The rest are white men and women who claim to be Indian. Forthe most part they have changed their names to Indian names to lend authenticityto their flock.One way to tell if these people are legitimate is whether they go into theNative American communities they claim to be from and perform the same rituals."l99l Turtle Island Project Newsletter Chairperson--Betty Cooper(Blackfeet) "There are some obvious tip-offs for people interested inIndian customs and ceremonies. One is simplistic vision quests. You can waita whole lifetime for a vision--these guys have visions about every week."Avis Little Eagle (Lakota) "They want to become Indian without holdingthemselves accountable to Indian communities. If they did, they would haveto listen to Indians telling them to stop carrying around sacred pipes...andto stop appropriating our spiritual practices. Rather, these New Agers seeIndians as romanticized gurus who exist only to meet their consumeristneeds...They trivialize Native American practices so that these practiceslose their spiritual force....Their perceived need for warm and fuzzy mysticismtakes precedence over our need to survive."Andy Smith (Cherokee) "The realities of Indian belief and existencehave become so misunderstood and distorted at this point that when a realIndian stands up and speaks the truth at any given moment, he or she is notonly unlikely to be believed, but will probably be publicly contradictedand "corrected" by the citation of some non-Indian and totally inaccurate"expert".Vine Deloria, Jr. (Lakota) "These people have nothing to say on thematters they claim to be so expert about. To whites, they claim they're"messengers", but from whom? They are not the messengers of Indian people.I am a messenger and I do not charge for my ceremonies."Thomas Banyacya (Hopi) "We cannot prevent people from throwing theirmoney away on so-called "Indian Ceremonies", but we can challenge those whomisuse our sacred pipes, sweatlodges and ceremonies."The Traditional Circle of Elders "Non-Indians have become so usedto all this hype on the part of impostors and liars that when a real Indianspiritual leader tries to offer them useful advice, he is rejected. He isn't"Indian" enough for all these non-Indian experts on Indian religion.Now, this is not only degrading to Indian people, it's downright delusionalbehavior...We've got real problems today, tremendous problems which threatenthe survival of the planet. Indians and non-Indians must confront these problemstogether,...but this dialogue is impossible so long as non-Indians remaindeluded about things as basic as Indian spirituality."Chief Oren Lyons (Onondaga) "What about the quest for Native spirituality?It is mostly ESCAPIST, and people like Lynn Andrews, and other would-be shamanswould rather look to an ideal, romanticized "Native" living in never-neverland than confront the reality of what being Native means in this society.Our elders and traditional teachers want to share the beauty of Native cultures,the Native way. But appropriation is not sharing. Appropriation exploitsand commercializes Native cultures, and is harmful to innocent people."Lenore Keeshig-Tobias (Ojibwe) "Not Just Entertainment" Whole EarthReview '91 "Each tribe has their own unique ways which only they canfully understand...each tribe has their own sacred ceremonies, songs, dancesand prayers which form their own tribal religious ways. These come from eachtribe's history, science, environment and all the things which make up ourdifferent cultures. I am Ponca because of over l0,000 years of interminglingthe lives, blood and history of my tribe upon Ponca land. Every movementand action is blessed with a meaning handed down by generations of ancestorsand held within our tribal memory.I say these things because I want to warn people about some bad things happeningto traditional ways. All across Indian country, in every city and state,white people are commercializing Lakota ceremonies. Our ways cannot be boughtand sold like bibles. No knowledge, no science, no language, no culture isinvolved in their pitiful mockery of traditional ways.They actually believe that by singing or drumming the right song, they aredoing something Indian. Medicine equals magic to them. Their ignorance isan insult to even the very simplest of our ceremonies, but their white arroganceleads them to believe they can learn in a week what an Indian learns in manylifetimes.It is time we who value old ways begin to explain to our non-Indian gueststhat our basic philosophy of respect for the circle of life is open to theunderstanding of all races. But if our tribal ceremonies are to survive withmeaning and dignity for our children, we must explain to the wasoci thatit is not necessary for them to pretend to be Indian to understand the natureof the circle. How can Lakota children find the same respect for tribal waysour grandfathers handed down to us if hundreds of these pitiful ones areout waving Pipes, pouring water, singing songs learned from cassettes andwhipping a drum?Carter Camp (Ponca) Lakota Times "...Those of the New Age haveproven themselves willing to disregard the right of American Indians to amodicum of cultural sanctity or psychological sanctity. They too, willfullyand consistently disregard the protests and objections of their victims,speaking only of their own "right to know" and to victimize. They too, havepersistently shown themselves willing to lie, distort, fabricate, cheat andsteal in order to accomplish their agenda. Why? The answers are as simpleas the fact that they are here and that they fully plan to stay. While theNew Age can hardly be accused rationally of performing the conquest of theAmericas, and its adherents go to great lengths in expressing their dismayat their methods used therein, they have clearly inherited what their ancestorsgained by conquest, both in terms of resources and in terms of relative power.The New Agers, for all their protestations to the contrary, aren't aboutto give up any power. It is a somewhat tricky psychological project to beable to "feel good about themselves" through "legitimizing" the maintenanceof their own colonial privilege.The invaders' "contributions", however invented they may be, inevitably "entitle"them to superior status; there may have been a problem once, but it's inthe past so forget it; we're all in this together now, so let's move forward(with me in the lead); I'm OK, you"re OK (so long as you stay in your placeand don't upset me with questions of, or challenges to my privilege)"Ward Churchill (Creek/Cherokee Metis) Fantasies of the MasterRace, l992 "This process of white dabbling in American Indian spiritualrituals represents the ultimate absorption. Native American spiritualitybecomes a commodity in the Euroamerican market place, to be bought and soldalongside other "New Age" items."M. Annette Jaimes (Juaneno/Yaqui) "I'm just tired of people goingaround representing themselves as healers and medicine people. We hear ofit all the time, and no one is bothering to check their credibility orcredentials."Chief Wilma Mankiller (Cherokee)SendEmail to Sonoma County Free PressSonoma County FreePress Home Page | About The Free Press |Columns |Letters to the Editor|Features |
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