There’s been much confusion over my lifetime over which tribes are my ancestors. Word of mouth over the generations has it that I’m Cherokee both maternally and paternally. I identify most with the Cherokee woman who married a French Canadian in the 1700’s. In my heart, I know her.
The other bloodlines, I’m told, are Shawnee, Blackfoot and maybe others. These are my mom’s side. It’s obvious that Native American blood runs on the maternal side of my family tree, as so many of my relatives and ancestors look “Indian”. According to my mother and aunt, who have searched for years to find a paper trail to a tribe, it was custom to destroy records of Native Americans by the Christian Church. My personal history has been erased.
Long before I heard that, I was angry. Interestingly, I have a son who is also angry. Whenever one of us hears of injustice to Native Americans, we grieve. When he learns American history in school, he comes home with questions that come from an emotional place.
You don’t have to be a full blooded Native American to connect with them on a Soul level. I’ve had visions and experiences that prove to me that I am related. But they are mine and I know that most people can not believe me; including some Native Americans who insist on being full blooded to “count” as one of them.
This story, New Age Tragedy in Sedona: Non-Indians in the Sweat Lodge, in the news recently, caught my eye because it points to an issue long held by many Native Americans. They feel as though, and in my opinion rightly so, that everything has been taken from them. Their land, their customs, their way of life, their ancestors, and now their most sacred practices such as the sweat lodge.
So-called “New Agers” have conducted sweat lodges for years. They use it for purification purposes. Some are taught and guided by someone from a tribe but many are simply done incorrectly. Such was the case of the one in Sedona in which two people died.
The article brought up some interesting points.
First of all, there’s the question of the relationship of Indian religion to American culture. Non-Indians have been making a lucrative business out of the appropriation of Native ceremonies for years. Ray’s weeklong event in Sedona cost each participant more than $9,000. A search of any number of Web sites advertising these “Indian ceremonies” will turn up sweat lodges that average over $100 per event, and four-day “vision quests” going for around five hundred dollars, “all meals included” and “Visa and MasterCard accepted.”
Indians all across the country are upset, saying white people stole the land, killed the buffalo, and now want to steal the religion. The trouble is that most indigenous people in the Americas identify as Christian. Even the Native American Church, that features peyote as a “sacrament,” is incorporated as a church and uses the Bible as part of the altar display.
I’ve never known a sweat lodge that wasn’t free of charge. The same goes for dancing, drumming and practicing any number of traditions. There was always a tremendous humility that we felt and for me, trying to reconcile who I am today with who I feel I am as Soul.
I have friends who devote themselves to providing provisions for reservations and assisting wherever they are needed. It’s hard for me to have sympathy for “wealth creation guru James Arthur Ray”, who exploits Native American ceremony.
It is said that many Native Americans are angry at those who would rob them, imitate them and otherwise dishonor their culture. I understand and feel this with you. My hope is that some of them remember that some of us Remember and want peace. We reach out for what is familiar and true to us. We no longer look like full blooded tribe members, but should that matter?
Did you not learn from what was done to you?
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
While my ancestry can’t be traced back to any Native American bloodlines, I certainly empathize. There’s nothing worse than having to witness others profiting from beliefs, ceremonies and traditions they’ve stolen from other cultures that they don’t even understand.
Unfortunately that is the modus operandi of “the white man” and Christianity in general. When people refuse to abandon their traditions and beliefs, Christianity simply steals them and passes them off as their own. That is the only tradition that truly belongs to Christianity.
My mother and I enjoy a feast of Chinese food every Easter Sunday to raise the proverbial middle finger to Christianity for having stolen and bastardized the Pagan tradition of Eostere. It’s a small thing that never fails to amuse us.
“Eostere.” sounds interesting. Can you describe?
I am not a member of any religion because there is too much hypocrisy among members and leaders. I’ve investigated so many religions and teachings and though I do attend a non-denom. church on occasion and am deeply spiritual, I find many traditions are too limiting and restrictive for me.
I feel as you do about organized religion. It has been my experience that once a belief system becomes organized the focus turns away from the belief itself and toward the preservation of the organization and manipulation of the masses.
I spent a lot of time in the Christian church growing up and, like you, found the unparalleled hypocrisy absolutely maddening. Since then I’ve researched a lot of different religions and belief systems ranging from Paganism to Islam. I have to say that Buddhism more closely resembles my beliefs more than any other.
Eostre (often also referred to as Eostere or Ostara) is a Pagan Goddess of Spring. In the Pagan and Wiccan religions the Spring equinox is celebrated with a festival featuring a hare and colorful eggs that were said to symbolize rebirth or fertility.