Selling the sacred...at what cost to us?

It's been an epidemic among the native community for years; sweat ceremonies for $2500, vision quest for $4000, Naming ceremonies for $500. It seems there is never a shortage of scammers, frauds, culture vultures, plastic medicine men, shame-ons, con artist, and charlatans. But, what are we as true Indigenous people doing when it comes to our sacred ceremonies? Are we inviting those who share our culture and traditions, or are we mixing with pupils of new age philosophies? Are we conducting ceremonies for the right reasons or for showing of to non-Native how much we know of those sacred ways? We become the exploiters when we allow such people to learn of our ceremonies without teaching them the proper respect for those ceremonies. Without proper respect, we lose our traditions and ceremonies to those who would profit off them or mix them with eastern religious teachings or far worse. Every culture has deep respect for the spiritual traditions of their people, and have for centuries stressed proper protocol and procedures for carrying out these sacred tasks. Most of all the stress the importance of respecting those ceremonies that they hold most sacred of all. We need to do the same, or we will continue to have these people take advantage of our own people. When we facilitate our own exploitation by letting New Agers partake of our ceremonies without teaching them the importance of not mixing beliefs with our sacred teachings, then we have no one to blame but ourselves. All of us need to do our part in keeping our teachings in a undiluted form and teach proper respect- for with Knowledge comes a great responsibility.

Playing Indian- the trend continues...

First to all, Happy New Year; I hope that all find success and happiness in your endeavors. Last year was a banner year for controversy and scandal, especially among the Native scene of who was NDN or not, who was a self proclaimed medicine man, those with "Indian" names, blah, blah, blah...yada, yada. My gripe of the new year has become an epidemic for scorns of years by those who seek to so call "honor" Native culture- I am talking of Indian Hobbyists. What is an Indian Hobbyist, you say? A Indian Hobbyist is someone who dress and perform traditional dance in order to recreate the authentic Indigenous experience of the First Peoples. These people seek the authenticity of this land before the occupation by AmeroEuropean settlers. This type of activity has been popular since the early 1950's. By 1960 you could find a slew of "Indian Hobbyist" pow wows in almost every corner of the US. They even started a Newsletter in 1954 for other hobbyist to get information on pow wows, crafts, how to obtain authentic eagle feathers, and how to articles on making warclubs and hairpieces. Tourism has been the biggest factor in making these hobbyist organizations popular, having those members "playing Indian" to boost sales at RV parks, Curio stores, and other public events. These people hurt the reputation of "authentic" Indigenous cultures who respect the traditions of there people. We don't play Indian, we are Indian! These hobbyist have no clue what our people suffered to retain this knowledge of our own cultures, the real meaning behind our traditions and ceremonies, or the spiritual connections of our dances and songs. They don't have respect for the Regalia we wear, buying thousands of dollars worth of "authentic Native dress" to prance around in and display there "knowledge" of traditional Indian Dance. We even have some Native American organizations who invite such "Indian Hobbyists" to participate in their pow wows. This is a big problem for our Indigenous communities, and we need to shun such people from participating in our events for they do nothing to honor our people. These hobbyist are nothing more than exploiters of the Indigenous cultures that have survive near extinction to keep their traditions intact. Natives don't exploit their own culture, and neither should we enable others to do so. So please, ask any "Indian Hobbyist" to stop "Playing Indian" for it's time to grow up.