Do you think you are "Indian at heart" or were an
Indian in a past life? Do you admire native ways and want to
incorporate them into your life and do your own version of a
sweat lodge or a vision quest? Have you seen ads, books, and
websites that offer to train you to be come a shaman in an easy
number of steps, a few days on the weekend, or for a fee?
Have you really thought this all the way through? Have you thought
about how native people feel about what you might want to do?
Please think about these important points before you take that
fateful step and expend time, money, and emotional investment:
1. Native people DO NOT believe it is ethical to charge money
for any ceremony or teaching. Any who charge you even a penny
are NOT authentic.
2. Native traditionalists believe the ONLY acceptable way to
transmit traditional teachings is orally and face-to-face. Any
allegedly traditional teachings in books or on websites are NOT authentic.
3. Learning medicine ways takes decades and must be done with
great caution and patience out of respect for the sacred. Any
offer to teach you all you need to know in a weekend seminar
or two is wishful thinking at best, fraud at worst.
4. Most of these FRAUDULENT operators are not the slightest
bit reputable. Some, such as Robert "Ghostwolf" AKA
Robert Franzone and Forrest Carter, have actually been convicted
of fraud. Some are sexual predators who prey upon their followers. "Sun
Bear" a.k.a. Vincent La Duke was a serial rapist who was
facing numerous charges when he died, including the rape of girls
as young as fourteen.
Women should be extremely wary of any " teacher" who
claims sex is part of an alleged "ceremony." Most of
these FRAUDULENT operators have been caught making complete fantasies
of what many whites WISH natives were like. Another way to say
it is that they are outright liars and hoaxers. Some, like Carlos
Castaneda, were exposed as long as three decades ago.
You probably are asking yourself, "Aren't any of these
people for real and a good way for me to learn?"
Please understand the following points about native spiritual
ways:
1.Native belief systems are COMMUNAL, not focused on the individual's
faith like Christianity.
2. Native beliefs are TRIBAL-SPECIFIC. There is NO "generic
Indian" form of spirituality. There are as many differences
from tribe to tribe as there are between Hinduism and the Church
of England. No one would think of teaching those two as the same
and calling them "Indo-European," yet many of these
FRAUDULENT operators teach a thrown together mishmash of bits
and pieces of different beliefs.
3. TRADITIONAL elders are very cautious about changing rituals
and mixing different customs, it does happen, of course, but
only after lengthy discussions that can take decades. FRAUDULENT operators are very casual and haphazard in what they do, in a
manner that shows they have no understanding of or respect for
the sacred.
4. TRADITIONAL elders DO NOT believe that any ceremony can be
done by anyone who feels like it. It's that same caution and
respect for the sacred. Yet these FRAUDULENT operators will let
anyone do their inaccurate version of a ceremony if they have
the money.
Vision quests, for example, are intended for young boys age
12 to 14, but boys don't have much money, so these FRAUDULENT operators sell "quests" for hundreds or thousands to
mostly middle-aged men and women.
There is also the matter of telling people they can be shamans
and charging them for it. If you were interested in Judaism,
would you pay money to someone who said he could make you a rabbi
in just one weekend seminar?
If someone did this and then claimed Jewish objections were
foolish, we would recognize he was being anti-Semitic. Think
about the lack of respect these operators show to native people
and beliefs, not mention their own followers, by defrauding people.
Native people DO NOT use the label Shaman.
Think also about how it makes it harder for natives and whites
to get along when whites have been given an untrue picture of
native cultures.
We have to learn to get along and we can't do that as long as
whites give support to operators who push a fraudulent version
of what we are like.
We (native people and our supporters) realize that most of you
do not know any better, at least not yet, but we hope you learn
about these matters from more reputable sources and in a more
respectful manner.
If it says New Age or Shamanism on the cover, it's not a good
source for learning about natives. Find out which authors can
be trusted before you pay money to operators who harm us all.
