Fantasies Of The Master Race Goes To Pandora

So far, the white liberal left has refused to publish this righteously outraged analysis of James Cameron's racist AVATAR. We're honored to have the opportunity to bring this work to our readers. Parallels to Tamarack Song's Great White Savior mentality abound for those paying attention.

Update: 12.29.09: For an analysis of District 9's racism, please see this post at Racialicious titled "District 9 Is Racist [Alternate Perspective]".

A Science Fiction Masterpiece for Liberals:

Fantasies of the Master Race goes to Pandora

by Val D. Phillips


If you wish to read copious praise for Avatar's special effects and political good intentions, kindly look everywhere else on the net. It's time we so-called radicals start talking about the failure of Avatar's good intentions and James Cameron's eyes-wide-open walk into racist storytelling.


I'm not going to restate the plot of Avatar here. If you're one of the five people on the planet who hasn't seen it yet, it's basically Dances with Last Samurai In Space.


Instead, I need to go straight to the question that has plagued me since seeing this film. Why is it cinema's indigenous peoples, no matter how wise, spiritually enlightened and physically fit they are, can somehow never figure out how to defeat whitey without whitey? And not just whitey as an advisor, a double-agent, who maybe can shed a little useful intel on the enemy, but as their leader?


Three months into his relationship with the indigenous Na'vi, Jake Sully, a grunt by his own admission, appoints himself general of the entire Na'vi resistance against their human invaders. Apparently, humans are so incredibly smart, so much more politically and militarily brilliant than their Na'vi brothers, that even a foot-soldier, a Marine corporal, can out-strategize the most experienced Na'vi warrior, a man chosen by his people to lead his people. Said warrior just steps right out of the way when Jake Sully steps up to speak because, after all, Jake Sully is...nobody in particular, not to mention the guy whose treachery just resulted in the complete destruction of the people's home!


Apparently there isn't a single Na'vi, male or female, who, having lived on Pandora an entire life, knowing its landscape and peoples intimately, raised as hunters and warriors in daily communication with Na'vi ancestors, spirits and non-humanoid animals, could lead the people better than this guy. Apparently native peoples simply can't figure out for themselves that they all need to work together to get rid of the genocidal imperialist bastards.


Apparently Tecumseh never made it to Pandora. Or any of James Cameron's classrooms.


Also, apparently, whitey need only exploit indigenous history (anthropogists call it "myth" if they're feeling charitable and "superstition" if they're not) to persuade a people still reeling from the trauma of brutal ethnic cleansing that despite his responsibility for said ethnic cleansing, he's really an okay guy and someone to be trusted with their very survival. Sweet they are, these Na'vi. Sweet, noble, and maybe just a tad naive?


Was I the only one who cringed deep into my seat when Jake Sully attempted to repair his relationship with his adopted tribe by "bonding" with the largest bird on the planet so he can convince the people he's really special and someone to be admired. This is the same guy who, upon "bonding" with his first, smaller bird-steed said, "you're mine now," showing that despite Na'vi princess Neytiri's patient tutelage, he still hadn't a clue about indigenous peoples' relationships to the natural world. Now, I can't claim to be a "Na'vi expert" (despite the fact that I'm white, and therefore an expert on all things indigenous) but it would seem to me the whole concept of "owning" an animal to whom you have made a lifetime commitment would be considered anthema to a people with a worldview like the Na'vi.


Apparently, the indigenous people of Pandora are so physically and spiritually inept compared to Jake Sully that while only 5 of their people in the entire history of their world have ever bonded with this creature, Jake Sully manages it so easily Cameron can't even be bothered to show us the struggle on film.


Narratively, in such a white liberal wet dream, it goes without saying that the gorgeous and brave Na'vi princess Neytiri, superior to Jake Sully in every way that Cameron explores, would, for no apparent reason, fall in love and mate for life with the man ninety days after she had first called him a child in his understanding of her world. The only criticism most folks seem willing to offer of this nonsense is that it's cliched. It's not just cliched; it's racist, not to mention ridiculous.


I'm guessing Cameron thought he could get away with this--if he thought about it all--because he put the white human in a blue Na'vi's body. In the 20th century they called this type of acting "putting on black face." Apparently in the 21st century we've evolved to "putting on blue face (and body)." Now there's a cinematic achievement.


Don't get me wrong. I love a good race traitor movie as much as the next person. And I really do appreciate some of Avatar's attempts to bring eco-consciousness and an anti-invasion sentiment to the youth of this country. Trudy, the Marine who turns against her own, is a fine heroine, and Neytiri definitely channels the more bad-ass side of Pocahontas. There are few things that make me happier than seeing imperialists successfully repelled, particularly the white, corporate, English-speaking variety.


But if you want to see a good film about a race traitor, the movie to see is District 9, not Avatar. With Avatar, James Cameron had the opportunity to create his magnum opus, a masterpiece of cinematic storytelling in which his technological achievements were matched by a truly eye-opening story. He not only failed, he reinforces with Avatar some of the most destructive racist myths written by white liberals.


Enjoy the 3-D, but don't the nifty glasses keep you from seeing it for what it is.

Censored News: 'Spiritual Vampires' Desecrate Sweatlodge Way Of Life

Now this is a development that ought to give Tamarack a few sleepless nights! He and his enablers call the Newgrange-looking structure above a sweatlodge and have had ceremonies they call "sweats" inside it. At a previous post titled "Masturbating In The Sauna: Tamarack's Non-Indian Sweatlodge" is an article written by Tamarack Song (Dan Konen) that describes the ceremony he conducts inside his lodges.

The article excerpt is from Brenda Norrell's website Censored News.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Floyd Hand: 'Spiritual vampires' desecrate sweatlodge way of life

BLACK HILLS SIOUX NATION TREATY COUNCIL
MEMBER RESERVATIONS
Cheyenne River
Crow Creek
Fort Peck
Lower Brule
Pine Ridge
Rosebud
Standing Rock
Yankton

Contact: Natalie Hand @ 605-867-5762
November 24, 2009
By Natalie Hand

Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

On November 2, 2009, Floyd Hand, Jr., (Oglala Lakota Sioux) Oglala Delegate to the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, along with Ivan H. Lewis (Pima/Maricopa/Yavapai), filed a lawsuit (Case No.: CV-09-8196-PCT-FJM) in the U.S. District Court in Arizona against James Arthur Ray and the Angel Valley Retreat Center.

In the petition, Hand and Lewis assert that Ray caused the desecration of the sacred Lakota ceremony, “Inikaga,” commonly referred to as sweat lodge, by causing the deaths of three participants. The suit contends that Angel Valley Retreat Center is culpable for allowing individuals like Ray to rent their property which offers a sweat lodge for paying participants. Furthermore, Ray and Angel Valley Retreat Center committed fraud by impersonating Native Americans and must be held responsible for causing the deaths of the victims and serious injuries to the survivors.

In the immediate aftermath of the deaths, Ray fled the scene and Angel Valley Retreat Center staff dismantled the sweat lodge, thus tampering with a crime scene.
Hand contends that the “Inikaga” and other ancient Lakota rituals is a way of life, not a religion.

“Ray is a spiritual vampire who will use whatever means necessary to turn a profit. He and others like him that profit from our culture must be held accountable for their continual fraud and desecration. This ceremony comes from the Lakota. We maintain our cultural identity today and people like Ray are trying to mock it as a means to acquire material possessions. They cannot hide behind the Religious Freedom Act. This is NOT a religion," stated Hand.

The Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1868 between the United States and the Great Sioux Nation is a legal binding agreement that is the “supreme law of the land."
Article 1 of the Treaty states that “… if bad men among the whites or other people subject to the authority of the United States shall commit any wrong upon the person or the property of the Indians, the United States will … proceed at once to cause the offender to be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and also reimburse the injured person for the loss sustained …”

Read the rest...

Recognizing Nuage Tricksters

Nuage Tricksters

"Needing to be an expert on everything is part of your indoctrination into Colonialism and White supremacy."

"Tricksters are good at shape shifting into a form that is familiar to his victims. What is more familiar to your corrupt society than the missionary?"

THE TRICKSTER

A trickster is a supernatural being and a hero who, through his cunning, often brings some form of good to his people; sometimes the trickster is a creator god. At the same time, he often appears as though he cannot tell the difference between good and evil. The trickster stands for the forces of mischief and destruction, but he can also represent less harmful horseplay, crafty trickery, or even bungling behaviour. In his more sinister form, he enjoys bringing chaos and disorder to the world. Tricksters in Native American myth include Great Hare or Rabbit, Raccoon, or other animals among the Woodland peoples of the Northeast and Southeast; coyote in the Southwest, West and Plains; and the raven, blue jay, or mink among the Northwest Coast peoples.

The trickster in our modern world most commonly takes the shape of the nuage religious fraud. Nuage tricksters can shape shift into some very appealing forms. They don’t seem bad. They don’t look bad. But they are all about destruction. They’re interested in exploiting people for power money and even sex.

In most indigenous traditions, the trickster reveals his tricks in the end of the story and a moral lesson is learned. This is not the case for the nuage trickster. They will do everything in their power to keep from revealing their tricks. They don't trick to teach a lesson. The nuage trickster tricks because he is all about power and control. It is precisely because he never reveals his trickery, that the nuage trickster is a hard one to walk away from.

How to Recognize Nuage Tricksters: How to Make Them Reveal Their Tricks

This is written for all those non-NDN sincere seekers who think that they can find anything spiritual on the internet.

The best way to find a fraud online is simply to type “sweat lodge”, “vision quest” or “shaman” into the Google search engine. Without fail, every hit that comes up is put up by an individual who is engaged in some type of fraudulent activity. Every single one is the leftist equivalent of Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts or any other tele-evangelist currently under investigation. There isn’t any significance difference. You are a fool if you think there is.

Legitimate Native American spiritual leaders DO NOT advertise on the internet. They DO NOT charge for ceremonies, and they are not at all interested in spreading the word or increasing the flock. Stop and think about it for a minute, this is a profoundly EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN activity. If you are truly seeking an ALTERNATIVE to Christianity, then why accept it in the exact same FORM as Christianity – proselytizing evangelizing and spreading the word through books? If you really desire an alternative, they why do you insist that everything be given to you in the same FORM as the religion that didn’t meet your spiritual needs in the first place? It is an unfortunate fact of human nature that most people are quickest to trust "one of their own." Consequently, there are thousands of “White shamans” out there who cunningly project a stereotypical image that is comforting to white seekers. All these nuage tricksters do is to reinforce racist stereotypes about native people – that we are all deeply spiritual and only interested in “sharing” ceremonies with whites that will undo the environmental destruction they have done to the planet in order to maintain their privileged lifestyles. We are NOT your spiritual servants. We DO NOT exist to meet your spiritual needs. We don’t talk about our spirituality anymore than we discuss our private sex lives. Our spirituality is a private matter. It’s a cultural thing.

For those of you determined to find that one legitimate teacher out there who can see how sincere you are in your spiritual quest. Get over yourself. To the indigenous mind, this is extreme selfishness and an evil state of being. Such selfishness is considered the main barrier to a true spiritual journey among legitimate indigenous spiritual leaders. You need to come to grips with the fact that you probably weren’t meant to be a spiritual leader in a culture that you weren’t raised in and that you know absolutely nothing about. Needing to be an expert on everything is part of your indoctrination into Colonialism and White supremacy. Nuage tricksters depend on this selfishness. Reading all those books about do-it-yourself ceremonies is like watching FOX news; the more you watch the less you actually know about the issues and the more vulnerable you are to those who want to trick you. (Google it, they’ve done actual studies on this) Trickster will always try to make you think you are the exception to the rule and that there is one legitimate teacher out there if you can only find that teacher by virtue of your exceptional sincerity. This is considered selfishness and a big vice in the indigenous worldviews.

Trickster will always try to trap you with the false promise of quick fixes and easy feel-good answers. Legitimate Native spiritual leaders are 100% committed to meeting the needs of their legitimate indigenous communities. Why would they abandon their own communities to meet the needs of the colonizers who are still bent on the total destruction of their way of life? Why would they choose their oppressors needs over the needs of their own people? They don’t have time to waste on outsiders who don’t know who they are. They don’t have energy to waste on outsiders who are so frightened and confused about their identities as white people that they are desperate to find a crutch – a false belief system that will ease their guilt if only for a little while. Without exception, there are NO LEGITIMATE SPIRITUAL LEADERS of any indigenous nation selling or advertising ceremony, sacred herbs or sacred artifacts to outsiders. This is what religious frauds do. Legitimate spiritual elders DO NOT go on world tours, offer workshops, issue certificates, or form non-profits to proselytize or engage in anything as ridiculous as “Shamanic counseling.” Tricksters are good at shape shifting into a form that is familiar to his victims. What is more familiar to your corrupt society than the missionary?

If you have already been tricked by these people in the past, then YOU have a lot to account for. You have a lot of self-reflection to do. You have a lot of work to do on yourself, before you will ever be ready to deal with things that are truly spiritual. You need to confront your colonial indoctrination, your whiteness, your skin privilege, and your sense of entitlement. You need to discover what is lacking in you that you can be tricked. There is a list of websites and videos that can help you, but it will not be fun and you will not be made to feel wonderful and special. That’s what religious hucksters do. If you are truly ready to begin any sort of spiritual journey, you must be ready to confront your shadow. You must be committed to deal with the revelation that your “born-again” neopagan experiences with some nuage trickster was more about your denial, your need to escape your white identity, your weariness with a alienating Capitalist society, your longing for community and your emotional vulnerability than with anything truly spiritual or indigenous. Your foolishness, your irrationality and your gullibility is your shadow. The trickster is always looking for ways he can benefit by manipulating that shadow. The trickster preys on guilty confused people who don’t know who they really are, but he is powerless against people who have to courage to acknowledge and confront their shadows. When you know your shadow, (your Colonialism) you can’t be tricked.

If you still continue to support and defend these religious hucksters then you are complicit in the spiritual genocide of the indigenous nations on this planet. You cannot escape the responsibility of this or the guilt of this. You can only find a more clever and more manipulative spiritual huckster to delay this painful self discovery. Spiritual growth isn’t about rainbows and crystals; it is about being painfully and intensely honest with yourself. It’s about knowing who you really are – not false piety, not an inflated ego or a need to go around telling people you’re a shaman or that you’ve studied with a shaman. This is disgraceful selfishness to the indigenous mine. This is a foreign state of being to a white person, but it doesn’t cost a penny and you don’t need a guru to get to a new level of honesty. All you need is a commitment to STOP lying to yourself. STOP the denial. Stop the flight into fantasy and live in the moment in the real world. We’ve met dam few non-NDNS who are willing to get that honest.

ADDENDUM:
Legitimate Spiritual Leaders speak their language, and perform their ceremonies in their language. They teach in their language, pray in their language, and sing in their language. They speak the language of the indigenous community that they serve, and they do not perform their ceremonies in the language of the colonizer, whether it be English, Spanish, or French. The only time they use English is to interpret for members of their community who no longer speak their original language.

A Great Letter to the Editor

A Dear Reader named "Friend" gives us a heads-up on a great Letter to the Editor in the comments section of our post "Playing Indian: White Racists Try to Hold 'Go Native' Party."

The letter is in response to the East Bay Express reporter's demeaning coverage of the Native American protest of the racist settlers' "Go Native" party in the article "Burners Torched Over Party."

Here is the letter:

Since the East Bay Express didn't print this letter to the editor, nor did they put it online, here is a response to the original article.

From: A group of Native and non-native allies concerned with holding the East Bay community accountable for ignorant acts that perpetuate racism. We envision building bridges, healing, and strengthening this community to support the free expression and survival of all cultures.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Letter to the Editor

The intention of this letter is not to further fan the flames of the conflict that has arisen over Visionary Village's party theme 'Go Native’ but rather to express concern and disappointment in the East Bay Express for allowing such a slanted, inaccurate, dismissive and historically ignorant article to be published in your paper, hidden in the April fools issue. While the article thoroughly chronicled the "lecturing", "blasting" and "excoriation" of the young Visionary Village representatives, it does little to uncover the reason behind the anger expressed by Native American and allied non-native community members. This lack of understanding, and apparent lack of interest in understanding why 50 or more Native American people would take five hours out of their Saturday evenings to speak to a gathering like this, highlights the very ignorance that angered people in the first place.

The dispute is depicted as though some foolish youth made a simple mistake and were then forced to endure strict punishment that outweighed the original infraction. However the 'go easy on them' sentiment expressed by the author seems to only extend one direction. It is not easily disputed that this country was founded on the genocide of Native American communities. And while Native Americans in this country continue to face the calculated cultural genocide of relocation, destruction of sacred lands, poverty and marginalization, they are expected to take lightly the further dismissal of their human rights by flattening their lives into party themes akin to aliens, cartoons, and fire dragons.

Regardless of the direction the party planners intended their party theme of "Go Native" to take, there must be some responsibility taken by the planners for its contribution to the pervading racist stereotypes of Native Americans common in this country. The article failed to recognize the tremendous restraint and compassion from the Bay Area Native community in generously taking time out to address this oversight with Visionary Village and instead depicted the 'real Natives' as hyper-sensitive or over-reacting.

Where are the hordes of outraged people asking Peabody Coal Company or Newmont Mining Corp to 'go easy on em' as they destroy the ancestral homelands of the remaining Native Americans who have survived over 500 years of genocide? In addition to the historical facts of small pox blankets, massacres of men women and children, broken treaties, Indian Schools, and relocation, the current struggles Native Americans face were not researched and presented as essential background information for the outrage at being dismantled and romanticized into a 'four directions' party theme. Without this information, the anger expressed at the event cannot be understood. It is irresponsible for East Bay Express to publish such an inflammatory, unprofessionally researched article.

The Visionary Village's party theme was a narrow-minded mistake. In all of the web wars that have resulted from this mistake being brought to Visionary Village's attention, little has been done to educate themselves to understand the Native American community's perspective, accept responsibility and apologize for the obvious ignorance, and move on to a place of greater understanding and true support for one another. This article did nothing more than provide a platform for further distortion of the facts by yet another unaccountable contributor to this growing conflict. East Bay Express reporters should accurately cover the history behind the anger, giving a balanced coverage of the tears and frustration on all sides, as well as offering solutions such as supporting the ongoing struggles of Native American communities like the Western Shoshone to defend their sacred places from Barrick Gold Corporation. How many Emeryville residents know they are living on sacred Ohlone ground where developers destroyed a shell mound and named a mall after it? The East Bay Express can spread awareness of the Shell Mound Walk that happens each year and provide links to for concerned people to get involved at websites like www.vallejointertribalcouncil.org, http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com, and www.blackmesais.org. The article also failed to cover the greater awareness and responsibility that is now being held by courageous and humble non-native individuals who stopped defending their ignorance, and have benefited from this wake up call.

Conflict can serve to transform peoples' understanding dramatically. Though the article represents a missed opportunity for that possibility, further pieces that delve deeper and honor the wisdom and experience of Native voices might perhaps offer some remedy to the oversights and misrepresentation in the article that was printed.

Comment by Hillary Violet - May 9, 2009 @ 09:00 PM

Mohawk Nation News: “NEW AGE” PSYCHOBABBLE BEING SWALLOWED BY A FEW

Though not mentioned specifically in this article, Tamarack and the Teaching Drum are very much a part of the racist New Age movement being called out by Mohawk Nation News.

Caveat emptor. Tamarack runs nothing but a glorified reading circle with himself and his fakelore tomes at the center. Now ask yourselves: Do you really want to spend $8000 to join an outdoor reading circle for a year?

From: Mohawk Nation News

“NEW AGE” PSYCHOBABBLE BEING SWALLOWED BY A FEW

MNN. May 3, 2009. A near death experience can cause tremendous fear and trauma and could overrule a person’s will. Such pressure is part of a colonial strategy to break us down. Most resist. A few give in.

The NAFTA Super Highway from Mexico is coming through the Mohawk community of Akwesasne. In June 2009 non-native guards, who have shown hatred for Mohawks, are being handed guns to intimidate and try to exercise absolute power over us in the middle of our community. RCMP, OPP, military and para military agencies are building huge facilities nearby. Cornwall Ontario will be a center for police activity. Nullifying resistance by Mohawks has been a longtime target.

Over the last couple of decades a new age ideology has beset Onowaregeh, Great Turtle Island. This new age movement is a tool to bring in one world religion for expediency’s sake. It’s a mishmash of Hinduism, Buddhism, Ghandi, Kabbalah, Scientology, crystals, reincarnation, Raelians, channeling, fortune tellers, seers and whatever else can be thrown into the pot. It’s sprinkled with Indigenous philosophy to give it credibility. This new age religion with feathers, beads and buckskins is being made palpable to Indigenous and others.

This false ideology is geared to direct the masses into the new age of one world government, one religion and one economic system to be run by war lords and their criminal handlers. People have to be indoctrinated to become obedient and to subdue their reasoning faculties.

The Kaianerehkowa, the Great Law of the Indigenous people is opposite to the new age doctrine. Our philosophy is based on a powerful relationship with the natural world. It strengthens our will, which is the watch dog of humanity. Nothing is supposed to enter that can harm, mislead or control us. This is the basis of democracy and can head off fascism. True democracy is equality and everyone has a voice.

To disarm the will, drugs, alcohol, hypnosis, incantations, spells, rituals, seances and trances help nullify the ability to say “no”. Eventually we can lose charge over our “doorkeeper”, our will, so that another mental process can be inserted inside us. It tells us, “I am your friend, your spirit guide, your master. Follow me and I can make you immortal”. It is disempowering. An undercurrent is the message, “I am strong and I can kill you”.

U.S. President Thomas Jefferson got the Quakers to help Handsome Lake whose will was overrun by alcoholism and visions. He started a revitalization movement based on these principles to mess up the Rotino’shonni: onwe, Iroquois.

Indigenous history and traditions have been cleverly mixed with new age concepts. We are told that other people inhabited Great Turtle Island before us, that some of us are extra terrestrials, that everybody should be vegetarians, that one world government is necessary and that, if we want peace, we shouldn’t be critical.

The Raelians say that our human creators from space brought love and peace through a combination of spirituality, sensuality and science. Scientists from another planet created all life on earth using DNA!! The extra-terrestrials will come back to check on us.

We are being told to forgive no matter how bad it is. They don’t suggest change. The victims become confused and weak so that all political, economic, social and military levers of power controlling society can be overtaken.

During the time of the drug culture, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau brought in new agers to run Indian Affairs in Canada. He had visited eastern mystics for enlightenment. Indigenous organizations were infiltrated. Healers and Elders were trained and sent among us and even among the non-native youth. It died out for a while.

After the 1990 Mohawk Oka crisis Indian Affairs set up the Kumik Lodge to train and certify a new slew of healers. It taught Pan-Indian cleansing, healing circles, sweat lodges and confessions. They went into our communities and jails to learn more about us.

Today new age covens are being formed in some of our communities. Ceremonies and meetings are frequently held. CDs on universal teachings are watched, studied and distributed. Some followers say they can’t move products or travel unless the stars are in the right place. The adherents call themselves “universal” persons, humans of another time or reality. Some have given up all their documents like driver’s licenses, birth certificates, Indian cards, medical cards, membership in their community, nation and confederacy. Psyches are being diverted. Their will has been weakened. We don’t know if they are giving up their properties or bank accounts.

Background: The new age movement ensnares susceptible people that are attracted by false spirituality, becoming “ascended masters” and speaking with “spirit guides”. Critic, Lee Penn, says: “New age is a pot pourri of beliefs and practices that fall outside of all faiths”. [www.leepenn. org/LP-NewAgeInd ex]

According to astrology, crystals, weird workshops and psycho babble, the earth will be cleansed of those who refuse to evolve. Traditional morality and families will disappear.

See list of big shots in the movement. At Maurice Strong’s Manitou retreat in Colorado, treatment includes everything being taken away from the follower to suck out the core of their being. Under the guise of meditation and sensory deprivation, they are confined into a small space to strip their identity. A low protein diet is part of this.

Barbara Hubbard says: “Your highest spiritual beings are telling you to access to an inner teacher… that through “initiation” you can transform yourself into an “ascended master”. Once our bodies, minds and souls are drained dry by free sex and trafficking with the spirit world, we ought to chose to die. In fact, it seems unethical and foolish to live on”.

These new age charismatic movements can affect participants in adverse ways. Intensely held religious or quasi-religious beliefs and ideology are imposed on members. They are promised emotional well-being and a sense of direction. They can’t make a free choice to leave the group. They are pressured to recruit new members, break with families and friends and to socialize mainly with the group.

On March 28, 1997, in Rancho Santa Fe, California, thirty-nine young men and women of Heaven’s Gate killed themselves. They believed that their human bodies were physical containers that had to be discarded so that their souls could be transported to a new level of being. Their souls were to meet up with a UFO that was trailing the Hale-Bopp comet passing Earth at that time. In their new plane of existence, they would inhabit new bodies and travel through different galaxies. The charismatic leader was an ex-minister who called himself Bo after Bo-peep who shepherded sheep. He was seen as an omnipotent godlike authority that diminished their anxiety, depression and alienation. Members were recruited personally or through the internet.

The Kaianerehkowa goes back to the beginning of time when we started thinking. We have our own stories about our origins here on Onowaregeh. We should remain with our own principles. This new age has nothing to do with us. We sent away our younger brothers because of their insane behavior and they came back worse than before. Some of us may drift away for a time from what a true human being is. For most of us, our will is our plan for survival. Everything goes back to our connection with the natural world.

Kahentinetha & Karakwine, MNN Mohawk Nation News, www.mohawknationnew s.com kahentinetha2@ yahoo.com Note: Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send donations by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much. Go to MNN “BORDER” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStore http://www.cafepres s.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews. com/news/ subscription. php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitio ns.com/petition/ Iroquois

Biggies in the new age movement: www.leepenn. org/LP-NewAgeInd ex: Robert Muller, former Secretary General of the UN; James Parks Morton, Dean of Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine NYC; Episcopal Bishop of San Francisco; William Swing, Rudolph Steiner Foundation, World Goodwill; Lawrence S. Rockfeller, whose fund has financed new agers; Mathew Fox, Barbara Marx Hubbard; power brokers ArcherDanielsMidlan d; CNN; Hewlett Packard; Occidental Petroleum; Carnegie Corp.; Kellogg Foundation; Rockfeller Brothers Fund; Georges Berthain, president the Tri Lateral Commission; Desmond Tutu; Gorbachev, Ted Turner; Fredrico Mayer of UNESCO; Maurice Strong and his Manitou Foundation in Colorado, and many other biggies.

Manitou Foundation spirit@manitou. org owned and run by Maurice Strong and his wife, Hanne. http://www.manitou.org/
Raelian Movement www.rael.org

Go To Shell

Every once and a while, it is good to be reminded that beautiful nature is also why we do this work. Our thanks to a contributor who wishes to remain anonymous for these lovely photos and captions.

"I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it we are going back from whence we came." - John F. Kennedy, 1962 America's Cup Speech

Great Egret and seagulls, Captiva Island, Florida.





How many times in your life do you find a sea shell with something inside? On Sanibel Island it happens often enough to warrant a prohibition against live shelling.



Hard core shellers at sunrise. Fort Myers, Florida is in the background.



Giant Heart Cockle. Yes, there is something alive in there.



Banded tulip. Yep, live shell. Sigh. Have to put it back.



Calico crab. Extremely rare find. Thank you, Sea Gods.



Osprey with fish.



Low tide at dusk. Get in that tidepool and shell like mad!



Heart cockle extends its "foot" to push itself back in the tidepool.









Close up, Heart Cockle's retracted foot is visible.



Florida Fighting Conch. Two eyes are visible at the end of the dark tubes as the conch fights to roll itself over and burrow in the sand.



Boy, Girl, Pelican. Is there anything else?

The Volunteer

A new short story from the aspiring writer in our little group.

The Volunteer

Within this picture, which stands framed in my memory as stark as a gallows, there were many moments that were photogenic, but pointing at them with a cold, blunt object - like an accusatory finger - felt an obscenity. I left the camera in the closet. I am tired of taking.

At the end of a two hour drive to come up to this distant mountain ranch, I am met by a barking dog and a barking mad old woman, who later will persist in calling me “Shelley,” though that is not my name. The other volunteers, trickling in one by one throughout the morning, do the same. Why correct them? On this her first day, “Shelley” would only be learning how to shovel shit and toss out hay. She also might not ever be coming back to this overrated, High Country dump again.

“What do you want?” yells the gray grandmother, twice as loud again in a pink and orange jogging suit, while I wait up the steep drive for someone to do something about the yapping dog.

“I’m the volunteer!” I holler back. “I emailed you last night that I would be coming.”

Damage control moves quickly into the open doorway in the form of a middle-aged woman in a bathrobe. She calls sternly to the dog, while track suit Lacey checks for approval, then waves me forward. The border collie falls silent, trotting back indifferently.

“I forgot you were coming,” the unkempt woman says with a defensive tone.

Tying her robe about her tightly, she retreats away from the open door as I step onto the porch.

“I’ve come down with a cold. Lacey will have to show you the place.”

She glances over her shoulder at her glowing computer as if for reassurance, then weakly waves me inside. Removing my boots before stepping over the threshold, I think - she’s small for a horse woman. I would not, of course, have thought this of a jockey. The wounded herd I spy beyond the house through a bay window waits with hanging heads inside too small and too sloping an enclosure. There is no grass, only mud and remnants of hay. I wince and try not to think - animal hoarder.

Winding up and up from the city through the mountains to get here, I had dreamed of wide open, alpine meadows for them. For me. I feel no real disappointment, though. Years of searching has left me with no illusions of rescue. It’s simply that I am afraid of horses, and I only want to learn not to be again. Powerful and explosive things have captivated me of late, only here on this small farm, hair-trigger decisiveness no longer belongs to me but to beings with far better instincts.

The owner edges closer to her computer. There does not appear to be a television.

“I haven’t styled my hair or put on any makeup this morning,” she says, as she produces a large rag from a robe pocket and blows her nose loudly.

“I wasn’t expecting a beauty queen,” I reply a little too bluntly, which seems to be happening more and more these days.

In the presence of a stranger, the owner does not appear to know what to do even in her own home. She offers me no introduction, no drink or food after such a long drive, nor does she show me where in her house I should stand or sit. My Southern family would be appalled. I hover near the doorway ready to bolt. No one moves.

Apologizing more forcefully than I need to, I take control and beg direction to her bathroom. Three arms come up to point at its location down the end of a long, wood-paneled hallway. Lacey’s two arms drop back to swing gaily by her side as I turn and almost stop dumbfounded beneath the paintings lining the walls. They are clearly the owner’s work. Who else but this closed-off white woman would paint herself over and over again, in garish oils, as a Native American princess surrounded by adoring horses? Buckskinned and bejeweled, her racist projection is the sole human in every one of her tribe-less scenes. The whip of a question sits ready on my tongue.

Why do you have to paint yourself as Native American in order to feel authentic?

I lock the bathroom door behind me and take a steadying breath. This house is suffocatingly warm, but I feel a deep chill down into my soul. The owner has made it painfully obvious that I am just one more in a long series of transient volunteers. Whether I stay for a few hours or for years, she will grow no warmer. Were I not on a mission, I’d confront the woman about her paintings this very instance. Such timing isn’t explosive, though. It has to build.

The two women are practically wringing their hands when I return from the bathroom.

One of them states worriedly “Most of our volunteers come in the summer.”

Her remark is a veiled suggestion.

From the cramped size of the place, it’s obvious they could give the promised tour in about five minutes before herding me back towards my hours-long drive to the city. I have no doubt they intend to do just that.

“I realize my timing is inconvenient, but I’d be happy to stay and help with whatever work needs to be done around here today.”

Crazy Lacey bursts out laughing at “Shelley.”

“So you want to shovel shit? Did you bring a pair of gloves?”

Yes. I am rarely unprepared. There is even a plastic flask of water in the pocket of my black down vest. I reach for it to make a point as both women exclaim surprise at my preparedness, and then delighted relief when a regular volunteer suddenly pulls into the drive.

“Oh, good! Ellen is here. Now she can show you around,” says the owner.

“I’ll introduce you,” chirps Lacey, as she leads me out the door - not towards the dumbfounded Ellen, who stops dead still by her car when she sees me - but towards the herd of horses.

So this is winter in the Colorado High Country. Not a lot of visitors up from the city, apparently. Like I said, my timing is awful. It’s why I passed on handmade bombs.

Lacey moves incredibly quick for a woman her age. “Spry” is generally the word used to describe such elder-motion. It’s the kinder of the descriptors I’m thinking. She’s already under the fence, over to the herd with bags of oats for the older ones, and calling for “Shelley” to come on before I can even work up the nerve to enter the enclosure. This horse rescue operation is renowned for its ability to gentle damaged horses and the humans who own them, but I’ve been given no etiquette or protocol lessons in how to be around the animals safely. I hurry over to stand close behind Lacey. Everybody wants to speed me on my way out of their space. Why should the horses be any different?

Lacey babbles in a stream of consciousness as she weaves through two dozen horses, calling each one by name, and telling me their type and story. Her memory is phenomenal. I only manage to recall that one is not supposed to walk directly behind a horse. The Appaloosas in my father’s field ran my brother and I out of their wide pastures enough times for me to remember to give them plenty of space, and ourselves a good head start. Those horses were sold, along with the land, to pay the debts on my father’s bankrupt smelting plant. I am no longer squeamish about horse manure now the way I was then. The fecund stuff of miraculous growth, it made my mother’s roses soar seven feet tall. She used to wave a shovel high in the bright, Spring air at me when I pulled into the drive after a day at high school. Pretending not to see her, I would bound up the porch stairs headed straight for my attic sanctuary that was plastered with pictures of famous people. Sorry Mother, gotta study for college. Got places to go.

Lacey points to a grey-haired, black-maned mustang that is watching us intently.

“That one’s still wild. A volunteer last summer almost got her gentled, but she’s forgotten it all by now.”

I nod and turn my back on the feral beast to pet a tame Palomino. The wind has come up, and it eerily shishes and creaks the towering conifers overhead. Several of the horses stamp and nicker, then move away from us. I struggle to keep the wind from whipping me blind with my own hair. As I turn to see where the retreating horses are heading, I’m surprised to find the wild mustang standing barely an arm’s length behind me. She has followed us, but Lacey does not notice. She’s cooing to a tall Arabian, covering his nozzle with wet, slurpy kisses. She has forgotten about me for the moment.

Very slowly, I reach out to touch the tender nose of the wild, grey mustang. She retreats just a fraction, and my outstretched fingers are left dangling in the air. She stares at me intensely. I turn to find Lacey; the wild mustang again follows.

Approaching the fence, Ellen - the regular volunteer - says “ I don’t know what’s got ‘em so spooked. Normally they would be all over you, following you around and being very social.”

“Must be the wind,” I offer. “Maybe they know a storm’s coming.”

Ellen does not extend a hand as I come up to the fence. She just eyes me. The wild mustang has moved off now.

“I saw your Native American license plates.”

She lets the statement hang in the air without further comment. She expects me to explain myself.

“Mmmm, yeah. That’s the Native Scholars plate. The fees from that plate go towards scholarships for Native kids.”

Ellen swings a shovel to me over the fence, then squeezes through the boards into the hilly enclosure. That license plate, and why I have it, deserves a lot more explanation, but Ellen clearly is not interested. We work our way around the enclosure, shoveling shit for over an hour, then laying out hay for the horses. The conversation goes fluidly somehow, but no comment I make, no matter how personal, engenders a follow-up question. I’m beginning to suspect many big city volunteers only come for the one visit. Trying to prove something, I shovel shit like a seasoned farm hand, but it does no good. I’ve come too early. I’ve interrupted the way of things.

On the drive back down the mountain to the metropolis sprawled across the winter-brown plains, I determine that I’ve only been tested, that the horse sanctuary will seem less desolate next time. The owner did finally offer me a glass of water and a slice of cheese. One of the women even volunteered to make sandwiches. I took the cheese and declined the sandwich as Lacey drank from both her glass of water and mine, then washed them out and put them away expertly in a kitchen not her own. I drank what little was left in my plastic flask after shoveling all that manure. My skin itched with impossibly lodged shards of hay.

“Bye Shelley” waved Lacey cheerfully from the porch as she brushed sandwich crumbs from her greasy, fleece jacket.

Once more, my battered chariot of a vehicle reliably returns me to my cramped, high-rise lair. Looking out over the wide plains back to the mountains, I watch a brooding storm slowly envelop the peaks and then the city. It has followed me like the black and grey mustang. I nod at the watchful face in the memory. Riveted, receptive, and deathly still, she saw what I am about to do. A warhorse’s knowing.

Playing Indian: White Racists Try To Hold "Go Native" Party

A Dear Reader named Melissa sends us a heads-up about Indigenous resistance to white racist cultural imperialism with this comment:

speaking of...have you guys read this?

Burners Torched Over Native Party

warning...it's painful to read and could be emotionally triggering on issues of race and appropriation.

Yes, we had seen it - at Brenda Norrell's site Censored News in the post "Obscene Racist Event: Burning Man's 'Go Native'". Thank you for the additional article, Melissa.

AIM West issued a statement to various media outlets, including Newspaper Rock, which posted it as "'Go Native' at the Visionary Village."

Brothers and Sisters,

Yesterday I was informed about an obscene racist event that will be hosted by a Burning Man crew. On Saturday, March 28th, an organization calling itself "Visionary Village" will put on a dance party called "Go Native" where participants are being asked to come in "native costume." They advertise that the event will raise funds for "neurofeedback research" in Native American Church members. THIS IS A LIE. Real NAC members would never consent to being "studied" during our most sacred ceremonies! Furthermore, their "theme rooms," as scheduled, will make a mockery of Native cultures, including the Anasazi and "Pueblo" cultures (as if there was a single, generic "Pueblo" culture).

In addition, they proudly advertise that their dance party will be held "in a bordello complex" built on top of an ancient Ohlone site! Adding desecration to this insult is outrageous!

The event organizers have been contacted by *many* people in the community, and in addition to being completely insensitive to the Native people who have contacted them, they have also been unable to establish any connection between their "fundraising event" and *any* Native American Church group or individual.

The follow-up from AIM:

'Go Native' organizer cancels event

Brothers and Sisters,

(Friday) Tonight, March 27th at the IFH Women's Day event, Visionary Village organizer Caapi and "Go Native" flyer designer Byron Pope stood before the gathered elders and community members. They respectfully listened while person after person publicly spoke to them about the injury inflicted on our community and the anger their "Go Native" event and promotion aroused. Speakers ranged in age from 8 to 80. When asked what could be done to rectify the situation, the gathered community unanimously demanded that the event be canceled.

In front of the assembled community members and recorded on video, Visionary Village organizer Caapi and artist Bryan Pope both signed an agreement that read as follows (spelling corrected):

"Visionary Village members Caapi and Byron have agreed to cancel the event at the Bordello on Sat, 3.28.09."

The paper was signed and dated by both men.
A photo of the agreement paper is attached to this email.
They also verbally agreed to and acknowledged the following:

1. They will be at the venue to turn away event attendees and explain the agreement reached.
2. There will be no DJs/music played at the venue, and no impromptu gathering of any kind.
3. Members of the Native American community will be present at the venue with them to ensure that their word is kept.
4. Members of the Native American community will still gather as planned for the protest to further ensure that they keep to their word. Should the agreement be perceived to be broken, the Native American community will move to stop the event.
It is imperative that the Native community still come as planned in order to support and ensure the cancellation of Saturday night's event. Visionary Village organizers Caapi and Byron Pope undertook the difficult task of facing the anger of the Native community. Tomorrow night they will face the disappointment and unpredictability of a potentially large crowd of party-goers. Our presence at the venue will both support them and reassure our community that our agreement is honored.

Following the successful cancellation of the event, a dialog can then follow to address ways we can further heal the rift between our communities.

Mark Anquoe
American Indian Movement

The story from a white settler paper:

Burners Torched Over Native Party

Local Native Americans go to war against insensitive Burners and win.

By David Downs

April 1, 2009

There was supposed to be a "private" Burner party last Saturday night at the Bordello in Oakland, complete with three hundred guests, twenty DJs spinning thumping techno and bass, dancers, a fashion show, micro-massages, raw food, an absinthe bar, and coconuts. Instead, the event ended in tears.

More than fifty Bay Area Native American rights activists converged on the historic East Oakland property at 9:30 p.m. to ensure the shutdown of popular Burning Man group Visionary Village's "Go Native!" party. The fired-up Hopis, Kiowas and other tribal members spent more than four hours lecturing the handful of white, college-class Burners about cultural sensitivity until some of them simply broke down crying. The emotional crescendo capped a month-long saga that started with a tone-deaf dance party flyer, led to an Internet flame war and a public excoriation of Visionary Village's young, neo-hippy leaders before real tribal elders in the East Bay demanded a cancellation of the event.

The strange saga all began in early February when Visionary Village — a loose group of artists and other young people who enjoy the annual Burning Man arts festival in Nevada — began routine publicity for a Burning Man-style "private event" at the Bordello on E. 12 Street in Oakland. The online flyer circulated on Tribe.net read: "GO NATIVE" in an Old West font set against a desert sun, and the dance party was advertised as a "fundraiser for the Native American Church." Native-rights activists got wind of it and publicized additional text from the VisionaryVillage.org web site indicating four "elemental rooms" would be themed: "Water: Island Natives (Maori); Air: Cliff Natives (Anasazi); Earth: Jungle Natives (Shipibo); Fire: Desert Natives (Pueblo)." Ravers were offered a discount off the $20 door fee "if you show up in Native costume," and the money would fund "neurofeedback research demonstrating causality between medicinal use [of peyote], improved brainwave patterns, and heightened mirror neuron activity in users." The 140-year-old Bordello property abuts Interstate 880 and an ancient Ohlone Indian site dated to the 12th century B.C., which was also promoted.

By Wednesday, March 25, Native Americans across the country were seething on the comment boards, especially IndyBay.org — a popular web destination for alternative news and culture. American Indian Movement West member Mark Anquoe, a 39-year-old San Francisco resident, said he'd never seen such a swift reaction. The Burners touched a third rail when they invoked the Native American Church, which has had to fight for legal status from the United States for years. The costume discount, lumping distinct tribes in with each other and the promise of debauchery next to sacred Ohlone land, only added gasoline to the inferno. Commenters demanded that the event be canceled, started a petition amongst rights groups, and some began threatening Visionary Village with arson and rape. Among the most incendiary comments received by the Village: "YOU FUCKING CRACKKKERS[sic] ARE THE REAL DEVIL AS SPOKEN IN THE SCRIPTURE! SHIT LIKE THIS DOES NOT SUPRISE ME ONE BIT, ... I PRAY TO THE MOST HIGH THAT A METEOR WILL FALL OUT THE SKY AND HIT 1247 E. 12th Street AND ALL YOU FUCKING DEVILS WILL BE BURNING MEN ALRIGHT!!!!"

Anquoe said the sum of the Burners' actions turned them into a focal point for latent Indian rage over things as broad as the Cleveland Indians mascot and the Boy Scouts. "This is so many different levels all at once that the whole community from everywhere went up in flames all at once," he said.

The Burners quickly backpedaled online, signing a petition to distance the event from any Native themes and stating: "The decorations in the Air Room include a parachute. Our organizers are dressing as time-traveling aliens, Nickelodeon cartoon characters, and fire-dragons because that is how they identify their native identity. That is their NATIVE ATTIRE/COSTUME. ... Please stop slandering our event and misleading people."

But the bonfire was too big. Real Native Americans promised to protest the event and some DJs egged them on. On Friday, March 27, IndyBay reporter and UC Berkeley attendee Hillary Lehr proposed a meeting of both sides in Mosswood Park to work out their differences. Visionary Village leaders "Caapi" and Byron Page attended the meet with Anquoe and others. The Native Americans persuaded the Burners to come to the Intertribal Friendship House on International Boulevard in Oakland that night. There, they got blasted by Natives young and old for their party idea.

"They were brave for even coming," said Anquoe. "They saw the real tears of the people there and saw the heat of people's anger. The Village Elders demanded a cancellation. There was a ten-year-old girl sobbing in front of them."

Caapi and Page offered to cancel the event to wild applause, but the Native Americans planned on showing up Saturday night anyway. The event had been promoted for a month and they wanted the chance to talk to whoever showed up dressed in "native costume." More than twenty partygoers would arrive Saturday night, some in pattern-printed Hopi T-shirts or rustic, Andean fabrics and cuts, but all of them fled after hearing what was transpiring inside the Bordello.

Within the dark, labyrinthine walls of the 140-year-old former brothel [a place where women whose survival options have been narrowed by patriarchy are rented out to be raped], old Native Americans were lecturing young Burners on what it meant to be Indian. Lit by dim lamps under red glass lampshades, tribal elder Wounded Knee DeOcampo — wearing a black T-shirt that read "original landlord" — stood over performance artist "Cicada" in her sparkly, sheer scarf and layered hipster garb, lecturing her about his grandmother's forcible kidnapping and rape at white hands.

"There's a lot of pain," he said. "I don't want you to agree with me, I want you to understand!"

IndyBay reporter Lehr was nearby saying, "I've never seen anything like this. Their grievance is very real and it wasn't reconciled, it was escalated. We're starting to go down a long road now. It's not like everything's going to be okay. We're not going to sit around singing kumbaya."

At 10 p.m., activists and party planners sat cross-legged in a circle in the main room, lit by a lone spotlight and led by stern Intertribal Friendship House director Morning Star Gali. Native Americans vented and asked questions, while twentysomething Caapi — dressed in a Baja surf sweater — apologized profusely along with his crew. Byron Pope — noted for his Asian-Native American heritage and piercings, said he recently moved from his native Canada and was stunned at the response to his flyer. "I offer my sincere apologies. It's a different world here and I'm really learning that."

Caapi said his team's hearts were in the right place and they did not intend to steal Indian culture. "I think everyone here and inside of our community at large know how poorly promoted this event was in its iconography, in its text, in the affiliations and implications. I think perhaps after tonight the intent will be recognized for the good heartedness it was and the absence of anything resembling cultural appropriation."

But for every apology, the group often inserted a foot into its mouth. Some Burners said they'd been trained by shamans to build altars, others sang racist childhood songs, or noted the lack of Native Americans at Burning Man (which occurs on an Indian reservation). Others asked for Indian help with their Burning Man projects, prompting a Hopi woman to go off.

"I'm trying to articulate my feelings as best I can without completely losing it," she said. "What we do is not an artistic expression. And you don't have artistic license to take little pieces here and there and do what you want with it. That's something you people don't understand, probably never will understand.

"Name your little villages whatever you want, but don't ever associate it with Native Americans. Call it the Crystal Ranch or something. Call it the Mars Ranch. If you want to be spiritual — go be a Druid or something."

The back and forth went on until 1 a.m. and everyone was emotionally beaten, exhausted, and silent. No further reparations are planned, but the topic still smolders on places like Tribe.net. The organizers lost thousands of dollars in party planning fees, and face the continued ire of the Natives as well as their own Burner peers.

"Elaine" on Tribe.net writes: "Dude, don't kiss anymore ass! [Visionary Village] did nothing wrong in the first place. This whole thing is blown completely out of context and out of control. The public apologies shouldn't have to be made. Its not like the theme camp was screaming some Michael 'Kramer' Richard shit at the tribe. Sorry this is just ridiculous."

Anquoe says the non-party was a rare example of effective conflict resolution that is unique to the Bay Area, and he commends Caapi for their actions. Those bystanders who claim overreaction should reverse the situation.

"If Indian people put together a fund-raiser advertised to benefit the Catholic Church where we did our version of a Catholic Church ceremony and there wasn't actually a fund-raiser — you know what the reaction to it would be in the white community!?" he asked. "People would take legal actions against us, it would be crazy, it would be far beyond not having a party. As it is, these kids didn't get to have their party and they had to listen to Indian people being angry and that's about right for the injury they caused the Native community."

Caapi maintains that the fund-raiser for the Native American Church was genuine, and will be providing the names and phone numbers of the event's beneficiaries as soon as he can collect them all.

The Good Food Revolution

Respect for traditional farmers is something bigoted, hunter-gatherer wannabees refuse to give. But that is surely no surprise. Whites have always used some excuse or other to disrespect Indigenous people and their traditions, all the while occupying - illegally - as Tamarack Song does - their traditional territories. Compare the narrow-mindedness of Dan Konen's fakelore writings with this wonderfully inclusive article about sustainable farming.

The Good Food Revolution

by Claire Hope Cummings

The lush landscape of Hawai‘i once offered abundant food. What can these islands teach us about food and sufficiency?



Hawai‘i’s lush environment once provided its people with abundant food. What happened? Above, community taro harvesting and replanting during an annual festival.

Photo by Scott Crawford, Kipahulu Ohana http://www.kipahulu.org/

The island of Kaua‘i is one of the most beautiful and fragile places on earth. From above, it looks like a vibrant green flower, lush and pulsing with life, floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The Hawaiian tourist industry calls it “The Garden Isle,” comparing it to the Garden of Eden. The image of Hawai‘i has always been sold as a “paradise.” But there is another side to life on this island, one that visitors rarely see.

The west side of this tiny island is home to the U.S. military’s Pacific Missile Range and testing grounds, part of the longstanding military occupation of the Hawaiian islands, and to the headquarters of giant agrochemical corporations Syngenta and Dupont. These corporations test and produce genetically modified crops on former sugar plantation lands here and throughout Hawai‘i, along with toxic herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers. It is the very worst of America’s “agrochemical military industrial complex,” imposed on the ancient homelands of a rich traditional farming and fishing culture, in the midst of some of the world’s most precious biodiversity.

When I visited the west side of Kaua‘i in 2006, the local newspapers were full of reports of children from Waimea Canyon School who had been sickened by chemicals used on nearby test plots. As many as 60 people were affected, including teachers and staff. It happened again in 2007, with school children suffering nausea, headaches, and dizziness. In 2008, for the third time in three years, chemicals being tested for industrial agriculture sickened children and adults and sent them to clinics and the emergency room with tears in their eyes, holding their heads in their hands, or vomiting. The corporations responsible for the tests deny any role in the incidences. But the open air testing of chemicals and genetically modified crops is a now a persistent worry for people living in this small rural community. Local activists have suggested that the welcome sign at the Kaua‘i airport be changed to warn tourists of what is going on there: “Welcome to the Mutant Garden Island.” Instead of being a source of health and well-being for the land and people, the American system of industrial agriculture has become a source of problematic food and even fear.

The connection to the military is the key to understanding how this tragedy came about. Most of the toxic chemicals used in agriculture came from the implements of war, such as nerve poisons and defoliants developed during World War II. And our military has been repeatedly used to impose our system of industrial agriculture on other lands, depriving traditional farmers of their livelihoods and redirecting their natural resources to the use of U.S. business interests. American plantation owners used the military to force the monarchy of Hawai‘i out of power. The takeover of Hawai‘i—the imposition of plantation agriculture on Hawai‘i’s traditional system and the conversion of the Hawaiian people to a Western lifestyle—is a case history and a warning for all of us concerned about the future of food. We are facing an urgent problem: Given global warming, growing populations, and declining natural resources, how will we feed ourselves?

Before colonization, Hawaiians had a sophisticated system of land, water, and ocean resource use that fed populations equal to or even greater than those on several of the islands today (excluding the urban populations of O‘ahu). Now, residents of Hawai‘i import 85 percent of their food. The descendants of the first Hawaiians, like most native peoples who have been colonized, suffer from some of the worst poverty and diet-related health problems of anyone living in the United States.

The food being imported into Hawai‘i is produced, processed, packaged, and transported using enormous amounts of fossil fuels. By one measure, the current U.S. food system uses 10 times more energy than it produces in the form of food calories. Even if you like industrial agriculture, its built-in obsolescence is a problem. When oil production peaks, and prices rise again, as they inevitably must, food in Hawai‘i will become unaffordable. What will happen when the gas pumps and grocery store shelves are empty? This is a question all of us will face, sooner or later, since we are all on what David Brower called “Earth Island,” a small planet floating in a sea of space.

A Storied Land
Mythologists like Joseph Campbell tell us that many creation myths are stories about how a food plant or animal came to people, usually as a gift from their creator. But invariably, these gifts came with instructions about maintaining respect for and reciprocity with the sources of one’s food, to assure its continuing productivity. These stories are central to the formation of a culture’s core values. And they affect us now, not just in how we feed ourselves, but in how we relate to the natural world and each other.

A Hopi creation story, as told by Frank Waters in The Book of the Hopi, is a good example, illustrating the values inherent in the choices we make. As Waters explains, the continuity of the Hopi people comes from these values and the way corn forms the sacred center of their lives, kept alive in ritual and practices to this day.

Since the beginning of their existence, the Hopi have emerged through several worlds. Whenever they were overwhelmed by wickedness or corruption, their world would be destroyed. Later, they would emerge into the next world. At each emergence, the Creator would give them corn for sustenance. When the people entered the Fourth World, the one we are living in now, the Creator decided to find out how much greed and ignorance there still was among these humans. Many ears of corn were laid out of all different shapes, sizes, and colors. The people had divided into many races, and each was told to choose, according to its wisdom, the corn they would take with them into the Fourth World. They rushed forward and took different corn ears—long ears, fat ears, and ears of different colors. The Hopi held back and waited. All that was left for them was the smallest ear. But, they said, it was like “the original humble ear given them on the First World.” They recognized that this corn would be the best one to help them survive the harsh desert climate where they now lived.

Traditional people worldwide have developed long-standing symbiotic relationships among themselves, their homelands, and their foods. And their farming practices are intimately adapted to the places they inhabit. All over the Americas, people developed corn varieties that were finely tuned to local conditions. According to Boone Hallberg, a botanist and one of the world’s experts on corn, some of these varieties were drought-resistant; some withstood wind, crowding, local pests, and different soils; and some even fixed their own nitrogen. These plants are evidence of an incredible genius at work in the reciprocal relationships among people, plants, and place. New Mexican activist Miguel Santistevan describes how, in the Pueblos, each type of corn “drank” from its own river, producing seed that was specific to its own watershed.

One of the world’s most influential creation stories comes from the Book of Genesis in the Bible. It is often told incorrectly, without the warnings and prohibitions that are in the story—as if the children of Adam and Eve were entitled to control creation. Whether you read this story literally or metaphorically, it has had a powerful impact on Western thought. Many scholars believe that our current environmental conditions came about because our society interpreted this story as a license to dominate nature. When told this way, the development of our military-industrial system of agriculture makes sense. We can see the long arc of history, the search-and-destroy missions throughout the ages, including manifest destiny and the conquest of native peoples, their lands, and their well-developed integrated food systems.

And the good, no, the really wonderful news, is that all over the world, people are engaged in relearning traditional ways, weaving them into new life-enhancing technologies, and making essential ecological and economic reconnections.

We can see the gradual and painful dismembering of North America. Europeans brought with them a fragmented system of agriculture, breaking the sod, fencing, and buying and selling parcels of land. Piece by piece, they went about destroying the natural systems that gave this land its enormous fertility. Their ancestors had deforested many European countries, and they continued seeking sustenance by taking more than was returned, depleting the resources they used, and then moving on. After using up the larger landscapes, they now have turned to smaller frontiers—genes and molecules.

When Corporations Rule Our Food

The problem with corporate food—by the numbers

SIDEBAR: Just the Facts

Genetic engineering in agriculture was developed as a way to squeeze more from corn, wheat, and rice, turning these plants into little machines. We demanded that these plants put out more and more for us, and pumped them full of chemicals and hormones. Now, almost 80 percent of corn grown in the United States is genetically modified. The rest is contaminated with GMOs, and the parent seed lines of corn are privately owned by the agrochemical companies. If we cared to learn, corn would have been able to teach us about generosity, adaptability, and resiliency. But rather than learn from nature, we still believe that our limited human imagination is sufficient and that we can solve systemic problems in mechanistic ways.

This approach is fundamentally flawed. Production-based solutions to hunger have failed miserably. And yet the urge to control nature seems unbounded. Farmers at the beginning of the 20th century could make a decent living. They saved and exchanged seeds, and bred their own crop varieties.

Then, in the 1920s and 1930s, a growing private seed industry used the new medium of radio advertising to heavily promote commercial hybrid seeds as the way to increase production. Hybrids can be bred to increase vigor, but they do not produce seed that is “true,” meaning that each year new hybrid seeds have to be purchased and planted. On-farm seed saving and plant breeding began to go out of fashion. Not content with just a good share of the seed market, seed companies began pushing for changes to the law, and by the end of the 20th century, farm-based seed saving and plant breeding ended. Now, sexually reproducing, living plants can be patented—a moral, biological, and legal outrage.

American commodity agriculture has become a bloated industrial machine dependent on chemical inputs and government subsidies to survive. Commodity farming is not about food for people. It’s an extractive industry, often compared to mining. It mines the soil and pollutes the water and creates mountains and rivers of waste. Soil regenerates on a slow natural timescale, about one inch of topsoil in every 500 years. The United States is losing topsoil 13 times faster than it can be replaced, costing the nation an estimated $37.6 billion in productivity losses each year. According to a recent U.S. Geological Survey, the one billion pounds of pesticides that American farmers use every year have contaminated almost all of the nation’s streams and rivers, as well as the fish living in them, with toxic cancer-causing chemicals. Fertilizers pour off farms into the Mississippi watershed, stimulating algae blooms in the Gulf of Mexico and creating a “dead zone” where nothing lives.

If science had remained publicly funded and in the hands of land grant universities committed to conducting research in the public interest, production-based innovations might have added another useful tool to farm technology. Instead, private commercial interests hijacked the research agenda and privatized its technologies. Corporations and a few foundations took over the social mechanisms for problem solving, leaving us with only for-profit solutions in the form of products. Government not only deregulated many toxic technologies; it abdicated its responsibility to protect our health and safety.

There are no brakes on this runaway technology train. The continual expansion of corporate power poses even greater looming dangers. Biotechnology, especially as used in agriculture, has been harmful enough, but nanotechnology and synthetic biology, now being developed for biofuels, promise to do far more harm than good.

Industrial agriculture contributes almost 17 percent of all greenhouse gases, along with accelerating deforestation, desertification, and profligate water use. A study released in January this year in the journal Science predicts that half of the world’s population will face food shortages by the end of this century as rising temperatures, drought, and loss of soil moisture depress crop production. Who, indeed, will be feeding us then? Monsanto, with its patented “climate-ready” crops, or the organic farmer who sells at your local farmers market?

As a Native American friend of mine used to say, “Here’s a little bit of native wisdom: If we don’t change direction pretty soon, we’ll end up right where we’ve been headed!”

At the Waipa Farmers Market, in an empty field just outside of Hanalei town on Kaua‘i, neighbors buy food from each other.
Photo by Wolfgang Schubert

Severing and Remembering
Another way to look at this rather dismal story is this: At every step of the way, we have disconnected and dismembered the intricate relationships that form the web of life. Recombinant DNA technology, for instance, cuts a genome, inserts foreign material, and severs the original evolutionary lineage of that organism.

The solution to all this severing and disconnection is re-membering, meaning “to put back together.” This is the fundamental lesson traditional peoples keep trying to teach us. They often say that they are minding the rituals that hold the world together. They say that if we want to save the places, peoples, and plants we love, we have to remember their stories. They know that the answers we seek are already available, once we begin reweaving the social and biological webs that sustain us.

Independent science supports this interconnected approach to solving problems. The biotechnology industry asked several major international institutions like the U.N. and the World Bank to study how best to feed the world. After a four-year global study, 400 experts prepared a peer-reviewed report, adopted by 60 countries, known as The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development. Ironically, the report said biotechnology cannot feed the world. There is now a consensus in government and the scientific community that small-scale farming, traditional knowledge, and a focus on local economic vitality and adaptable agro-ecological methods are the optimal way forward.

And the good, no, the really wonderful news, is that all over the world, people are engaged in relearning traditional ways, weaving them into new life-enhancing technologies, and making essential ecological and economic reconnections. Young farmers, urban activists, cooks and chefs, teachers and students, community organizers, and faith groups are bringing local organic food, seed saving, and sustainable work projects into the mix. The values of the natural world—diversity, integrity, adaptability, and resiliency—are reemerging and re-entering the cultural exchange, just when we need them the most.

On Kaua‘i, too, there are people engaged in remembering and reconnecting. Unlike the dry west side of the island, the North Shore is a lush place of almost heartbreaking beauty with a vibrant, racially mixed local culture. There, the Waipa Foundation hosts a weekly farmers market selling organic local food to support its work reviving traditional foodways. Like many Native Hawaiian organizations, they have a Hawaiian-language immersion school that integrates traditional food, farming, and fishing into their curriculum. They connect local farmers with schools, which are getting young people out of the classroom and into the mud of the taro patch. Activists on the island and throughout Hawai‘i are working toward food security. They achieved a ban on genetically modified coffee and are bringing back the original “gift economy” of exchanging traditional varieties of taro.

Just up the road from the Waipa farmers market, Limahuli Garden is restoring the traditional Hawaiian land-use system called an ahupua‘a. Kawika Winter, an engaging young ethnobotanist, Native Hawaiian, and the garden’s director, says the name lima huli means “turned hand.” It refers to a Hawaiian proverb which, roughly translated, says, “If your hand is turned up, you will be hungry; if your hand is turned down, toward the soil, your belly will be full.” The up-turned hand, Winter says, is not a positive symbol for Hawaiians. It is a sign of supplication. The down-turned hand, however, represents the hard work of cultivating the land.

Winter explains that the work they are doing there is all about remembering that the land is our ancestor. “We know that the way to get through difficult times is to use what was left to us—our land and our traditional knowledge. That will carry us into the future,” he says. “This is also our gift to the world.”


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Claire Hope Cummings wrote this article as part of Food for Everyone, the Spring 2009 issue of YES! Magazine. Claire is an environmental lawyer, journalist, and the author of Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds (Beacon Press, 2008

Stop Racism Against Native Americans In Children's Books

Stop Racism against Native Americans in Children's books

Racism in Waldorf Alphabet Book

Please let Bell Pond Books know that it is racist to place Native American people in the same category as objects and animals.

Bell Pond Books is the publisher of "Waldorf Alphabet Book". It is an alphabet picture book with an "Indian and two "Inuits" as part of the images for the letter "I". All other images in the book are of animals, objects, or of non human beings such as a mermaids and a gnome.Imagine if we replaced the culture of these images. "N" is for Negro "J" is for Jew. It does not read very well does it? This kind of objectification of Native Americans directs the young mind of the reader to view them as sub-human, etching a stereotype into their little psyche's that will shape how they view Native People's as they grow into adults. This has been an acceptable form of racism in American culture for years and it is time to stop it NOW.

What you can do

1. Email the CEO of Bell Pond Books and let him know that you want the images edited out or the book to stop being published all together.

Gene Gollogly gene@booklightinc. net

Here is a sample that you can copy and paste (or you can write your own letter).

Dear Mr Gollogly,

It has come to my attention that one of your publications, "Waldorf Alphabet Book" has racially inappropriate images of Native Americans in it. Due to the socially damaging impact of these images, I ask that you promptly edit out the images or stop publishing this book altogether.

2. Email the bookstores who carry this book and ask them to remove this item from their catalog.

Here is a sample that you can copy and paste:

It has come to my attention that one of the books that you carry in your store has racially inappropriate images of Native Americans in it. It is titled "Waldorf Alphabet Book".

Under the letter "I " it depicts an "Indian" and two "Inuits". All other images in the book are of animals and objects. This subtle form of racism objectifies Native Americans making them sub-human in the minds of the young reader.Imagine if we replaced the culture of these images. "N" Is for Negro "J" is for Jew. It does not read very well does it?

Due to the socially damaging impact of these images, I ask that you promptly remove this book from your catalog and help the world see all people as equal.

SUBMIT FEEDBACK THRU SITE: http://www.escapade direct.com/ contact.html

http://www.littlebi ts.com/product_ info.php? item_number= L839
EMAIL: info@littlebits. com

http://www.spiritua lityandpractice. com/books/ books.php? id=15643
EMAIL: brussat@spiritualit yandpractice. com

http://www.blueberr yforest.com/ reading_nook/ waldorf-alphabet -book.htm
EMAIL: customerservice@ blueberryforest. com

http://www.palumba. com/product/ 107
EMAIL: hello@palumba. com

http://www.overstoc k.com/Books- Movies-Music- Games/Waldorf- Alphabet- Book/2390332/ product.html? cid=123620&fp=F&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=10625960
EMAIL: feedback@overstock. com

3. Make online review of this book

4. Boycott the book

5. Share this email with others.

I have corresponded with Gene Gollogly CEO of Bell Pond Books about this matter. The response was no. If you would like to see the original correspondence with him let me know and I will gladly email it to you.

Thank you
Mary Betsellie
dreamstar360@ yahoo.com

-----

Teresa Anahuy
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/FirstPeopl esNews

The Pudgy Indian: Our Great White Savior[s]!

Cheers to the wonderful Pudgy Indian (Eugene Johnson), who acting on a tip from his wife Shusli Baseler-Johnson, has linked to us in his post "Our Great White Savior[s]!"

Eugene's righteous outrage leaps of the screen in disgust at Tamarack's website and the self-absorbed writings found there.

Indeed, the subject of any of Tamarack's writing is always and ultimately Tamarack himself. He just uses fakelore, wannabe atmospherics to try and give his fraud an air of authenticity, which never fools real Indigenous people, as the Pudgy Indian clearly demonstrates.

Here's an excerpt from the post:

Great White Saviors:

Shusli turned me on to this fella she found on the internet calling himself Tamarack song. Another white guy who knows more about being Indian than any silly Red Nigger types. She found him in visits to some of the informative websites she visits. She is awesome in the way she can find these things.

Before I get into Tamarack, as it were, let me just tell you that I've seen this type of behavior not only in Red Nig...er...Indian Country with Great White [Male] Saviors, but also in the alleged Peace community and SO MANY OTHERS. Some white males seem to want to be the saviors of the world instead of just seeing themselves as part of the solution. They get an attitude of: "my way is the only way for "I" am the Great White Savior of the World! KNEEL BEFORE ME (especially you hot looking hard body college girl types)."

I hate reading about how people like Tamarack Song talk about themselves (and say quite often that they are not), so I'll leave it up to you to read the supplied links. The hipocracy, the attitude, the self-glorification. Throughout what I could stomach of Tamarack's website, he talked a shitload about himself and very little about what he actually does, other than write books he wants you to buy. And, of course, his knowledge is supplied to him via Indian folks. He exploits it and glorifies himself.

When Winona Laduke stands on the podium, she does not talk about what a great person she is. She talks about the issues of her peoples and the world that we as fellow humans should be made aware of and need to take care of. Same with Vandana Shiva. Same with Arindati Roy. Same with Howard Zinn. Same with Shusli Baseler-Johnson. Same with James Craven. Same with so many others.

Read the rest...

More Of The Beautiful Guadalupe

In response to our post "Reclaiming The Virgin Of Guadalupe," the fabulous Cristina Acosta left us a link to her website and breathtaking Madonna paintings. Amazing isn't it? the wonderful people who come to visit when you move as far away as you can from racist losers like Tamarack Song.



Here's the comment:

Cristina Acosta said...

I've painted quite a few versions of Madonnas -- Guadalupe, Conquistadora and others of my own. Many of these have American Indian symbols as part of their design structure. Raised Chicana and Catholic in Los Angeles, CA, I live in Bend, Oregon. The Madonnas I paint are on wood panels in the form of a retablo (altar). They are rooted in the traditional Hispanic form of the retablo -- I've diverged to create images that are centered on the Feminine Divine.

http://cristinaacosta.com/Exhibits/Hispanic_Culture_Exhibit/

12/15/2008 2:33 PM

Reclaiming The Virgin of Guadalupe

"Portrait of the Artist as Guadalupe" by Yolanda Lopez

Truly respectful learning and sharing with Indigenous people begins when THEY invite those of us outside their culture to join in THEIR traditional celebrations or acts of resistance. The key is that they INVITE us. We do not go barging in, or perverting their culture for our own selfish ends as Tamarack does. Below is an example of cultural respect in action sent to us by a contributor in Colorado. The first mail list circular is an invitation to join a traditional celebration, and the second further explains the meaning of the Indigenous goddess at the center of the ceremony.

We were especially delighted by the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and the work Chicana women have done to reclaim her as their own from the Catholic church. As feminists, they have taken great care to see that recovering the true meaning of this Indigenous female role model also includes a demand for justice for women. As they emphasize:

"... the Virgin of Guadalupe can only be truly transformative if the demand for social equality is made. Female divine figures do not insure social justice for women, as the example of Hinduism with its pantheon of gods and goddesses demonstrates. In addition, there must be a "social expectation of equality." (Wessinger 6) One way in which Chicanas are doing this is through a re-interpretation of the Virgin of Guadalupe. By asserting the power within the Virgin, Chicanas are acknowledging the power within themselves. By creating publicly consumed art and literature utilizing the powerful Virgin, Chicanas are demanding social equality for women."

Euro-Americans should follow by Indigenous example; we have many ancient ceremonies, symbols, and role models of our own "hidden in the church so as not to be lost" that need reclaiming from Christian patriarchy, which co-opted and perverted them for its own selfish, and male domineering, ends. We have never been the same since. Time to get to work!

Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2008 22:34:10 -0700
From: davidbyoung@ gmail.com
Subject: Re: Hermanas de Color Unidas Para Educacion

Mis parientes,

Next Friday, December 12th, is the day that our community celebrates and honors our beloved mother Tonantzin Tlalli Coatlicue, aka the Virgen de Guadalupe. The Kalmeka Aztlan will hosting a ceremony beginning with a meal at 5pm and the velación at 6pm at Sisters of Color United for Education Aztlan Cultural Healing Center located at 2895 West 8th Avenue in Denver. You are invited to attend and to bring your friends and family.

We are asking people to bring a potluck dish, a bouquet of flowers and/or a donation to pay the woman that will be cleaning up afterwards. But if money is an issue for you just show up. This is a community ceremony. You are also welcome to bring a vela (candle in a jar) if you like.

Some people may outright reject this very old traditional ceremony on the notion that it is a Christian ceremony. It is not. It is an indigenous ceremony that has been hidden in the church so as not to be lost. When the Christians/Spaniards arrived they had a calendar that was off by ten days. The Aztec people were celebrating the month of panquetzaliztli (raising of the banners) and the day of celebration fell on the winter solstice (December 21 or 22). Huitzilopochtli and our mother earth Tonantzin Tlalli were being honored at the same time that the Church was celebrating the day of the immaculate conception (December 12). The Christians later adjusted their calendar and the day moved back 10 days. The Aztec people just followed the Christian calendar rather then continue to hold their ceremonies on the solstice and today the old ceremony of renewal and honoring of this change of season falls on the 12th of December.

The ceremony that we invite you to attend is rooted in a very old practice of using flowers to create a prayer, wiping the people down and cleansing them and then celebrating with a dance of prayer. This is what we will be doing in the ceremony on the evening of the 12th. We are hoping that you will join us to learn a little bit more about your culture, your people, your heritage, your music and your roots. We don't usually open up our ceremonies but this is a rare opportunity for you to experience, rather than read about, a tradition that has survived 500 years of colonization. You may want to dress in white or whatever traditional clothes you have. We will not be running on "Chicano time" we will begin the meal at 5pm and the ceremony at 6pm and we will go til about midnight.

If you bring kids, you may want to bring a sleeping bag for them to sleep
on if they get sleepy.

Call if you have any questions. No drugs or alcohol please this is a family and ceremonial event.

Looking forward to seeing you at the ceremony. A flyer is attached that you are welcome to print, copy, distribute.

Kalmeka Aztlan, The Apache Tribe of Colorado and Sisters of Color United
for Education

*********************************

From: Olga Gonzalez
Date: Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 12:24 AM
Subject: Best explanation of Tonantzin

As we celebrate "El Dia de La Virgen de Guadalupe" (Tonantzin) on December 12th, I wanted to share a more modern, feminist take on the meaning of our beloved mother and protector of Indigenous Mexican people.


I love these images and explanations about Chicana Feminist/Artist, Yolanda Lopez's interpretations of Tonantzin. I have used them in presentation in the past! My favorite is the first!

Portrait of the Artist as Guadalupe (Yolanda Lopez, 1978)

(The active and empowered Chicana! She is confident and athletic (Check out the running shoes). She is not bound by the virginal, passive images we have been led to believe represent women and their role. She has the snake by the head and steps over the "angel" (man) who got in her way! Yolanda stated that it is not a "baby angel," but rather a middle aged man by the receding hairline! -Olga)

This painting by Chicana political artist Yolanda Lopez caused a scandal when it came out.

I don't think La Virgen minded.


Lopez also portrayed her grandmother and her mother as forms of Guadalupe. I couldn't find good color prints of those portraits. Here are black and white versions.

Demanding Social Equality:
A Feminist Re-Interpretation of
the Virgin of Guadalupe

by Rhonda L. Barnes

As part of my project for Chicana Cultural Expressions, I explored a few issues surrounding la virgen de Guadalupe and especially her social role. One can see that the religion and culture of Mexico are both patriarchal. How unique, then, that the image of a woman brings the people together, and according to some, gives them their strength. The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe not only unifies and identifies Mexican culture, it is also powerful as a liberator for her people, and since the 1970's, the Chicana artist has taken up the virgin's image in her work. In this way, the traditional image is used to change the community's assumptions about women's roles and to challenge them to action.

Though a far-reaching female figure may seem to give Mexican-American women an inspiring role model, her image cannot be used for positive change unless there is also a demand for social equality. Chicana artists are doing just this. They are raising people's consciousness with a new perspective on a traditional image. And now with technology booming on the Internet, which you must know if you are reading this now, la virgen morena has a new place for potential expression.

Images of the Virgin of Guadalupe

Soon after her appearance, la virgen de Guadalupe began to eclipse all the other male and female religious figures in Mexico, and eventually in the southwestern United Sates as well. (Anzaldúa 29) Now people on both sides of the border between the United States and Mexico consider her to be their own and her image gives a follower her/his identity. (Randall 115) "Through Her intercession, a Mexican remains Mexican in California, an Indian remains Indian in Mexico." (Martínez 101) Thus her image has many meanings for her varied believers and it is tied to the indigenous past of a conquered people.

It is the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that has the power to bring people together. Boys and girls in Texas wear her image on their t-shirts; truck and bus drivers keep her image with them as they drive; pictures and altars are created in the homes and workplaces of her followers. (Olivera) (DePalma) She is the most omnipresent symbol of the Mexican-American people and serves to identity her followers as an unique community.

The character of the Virgin of Guadalupe is multi-faceted and has been used for various purposes by all strata of Mexican and Mexican-American people. When the Virgin first appeared over four hundred and fifty years ago, she was morena, brown-skinned like the mestizo race and has thus been considered to announce "the foundation of a new race." (Gonzalez 11) Traditionally, the Virgin of Guadalupe has been seen as a mother, a nurturer, and a mediator. She mediates between the indigenous and the Spanish, between Chicanas/os and Anglo society, as well as between the divine and humanity. (Anzaldúa 30) In addition, the traditional Virgin protects the family and brings people together. (Martínez 107-108)

Re-capturing the Image

The image of la virgen de Guadalupe has become a symbol of hope and liberation for her community. She is no longer a passive mother figure. Her image gives the oppressed people dignity and energy to resist assimilation. (Rodriguez 1996, 48) She shapes who the Chicana/o community is and empowers those who turn to her for guidance. (Cisneros 50; Rodriguez 1994, 146) She is "a role model of strength, enduring presence and new possibilities." (Rodriguez 1994, 160) Her image has a liberating effect on women. (Rodriguez 1994, 161) "She's the woman that puts the Mexican macho in his place." (Martínez 107) For the women who have searched for an escape from bondage, turning to la virgencita and re-thinking her image, has given them a tool for social change. (Randall 123; Rodriguez 1994, 164)

La virgen hearkens back to an indigenous goddess, and many feminists, such as Sandra Cisneros and Gloria Anzaldúa, have re-claimed the indigenous attributes for the Virgin. Cisneros sees Guadalupe as containing enduring sexual power and as being both creative and destructive, because within her is a pantheon of mother goddesses which combine together to create Cisneros' own identity. (Cisneros 49-50) Anzaldúa write eloquently about la virgen de Guadalupe as Coatlalopeuh, who is descended from "earlier Mesoamerican fertility and Earth goddesses." (Anzaldúa 27) It is with these strong Serpent Goddesses that Anzaldúa identifies and draws strength. Although her image had been manipulated for the purposes of vanquishing the polytheistic beliefs of the mexicas, pre-Hispanic elements remain in the Virgin and her image has been re-claimed and re-vitalized by the Chicana/o community. (Favrot Peterson)

However, the Virgin of Guadalupe can only be truly transformative if the demand for social equality is made. Female divine figures do not insure social justice for women, as the example of Hinduism with its pantheon of gods and goddesses demonstrates. In addition, there must be a "social expectation of equality." (Wessinger 6) One way in which Chicanas are doing this is through a re-interpretation of the Virgin of Guadalupe. By asserting the power within the Virgin, Chicanas are acknowledging the power within themselves. By creating publicly consumed art and literature utilizing the powerful Virgin, Chicanas are demanding social equality for women.

The Feminist Chicana Artist Re-Claims la virgen

In the 1970's, the Chicano movement experienced a surge in women artists, partly as a result of the privatization of Chicano art. (Goldman and Ybarra-Frausto 90) Not only that but women no longer felt obliged to take passive or secretarial roles in el movimiento. Chicana feminists became ever more visible through their art work and their activism. (CARA 322) "From the beginning, positive images of active women appeared." (Goldman and Ybarra-Frausto 90) Chicana artists focused on their cultural identity and made art that is self-affirming and empowering. (Mesa Bains 131)

One such artist is Yolanda Lopez, whose re-making of the Virgin's image defies tradition and orthodoxy. (Ehrenberg 176) Lopez's work uses feminine images in a way that emancipates women. (Mesa Bains 137) Portrait of the Artist as the Virgin of Guadalupe shows the Virgin in running shoes. The image is one of an active woman in control of her surroundings. Snakes have a strong traditional meaning in indigenous cultures, as Cisneros' and Anzaldúa's writings attest, and this portrayal of the Virgin plays on the notion of Guadalupe as the incarnation of Caotlalopeuh, "She Who Has Dominion Over Serpents." (Anzaldúa 27) By holding the snake in her hand, Lopez demonstrates that Guadalupe is still Coatlalopeuh and thus ties Mexican-Americans to their indigenous roots. By making la virgen active, Lopez demonstrates the power that all women have, that they no longer need to be passive. Her painting calls women to action and reminds them of the power in their indigenous past.

Yolanda Lopez also has a series of paintings of the Virgin of Guadalupe as an older woman, perhaps a grandmother. Margaret F. Stewart: Our Lady of Guadalupe depicts an older mestiza, sitting on a bench which is draped in the Virgin's blue cloak, as she holds the skin of a snake in her hand. Again, the image hearkens back to the Serpent Goddess of pre-Contact Mesoamerica that Chicana feminist writers describe. Not only does this abuela-as-Virgin have dominion over serpents, but she has actively killed and skinned the creature. Viewers see her as an active woman, a woman with whom they can identify better than with a virginal, celestial mother of god.

In Victoria F. Franco: Our Lady of Guadalupe a middle-aged mestiza is mending her blue cloak at a sewing machine. The little angel is sitting at her feet, looking bored as a child might while waiting for his mother to fix his clothes. One of the most recognizable symbols of la virgen morena, a bunch of roses, is lying on the floor beside the angel. The impression a viewer may get from this painting is that of a back stage preparation. The woman is mending things as if she were getting ready for an important event - maybe la fiesta on December 12th. The Victoria F. Franco portrayal of the Virgin is much more realistic to women's every day lives, and thus makes a better role model for women in a practical society.

Through her re-interpretation of the image of la virgen de Guadalupe, Yolanda Lopez is constructing a new ideology and is re-defining "the feminine in a feminist context." (Mesa Bains 137) She is re-claiming an image to which all Mexican-Americans identify and using it to challenge their assumptions about women's roles in society and calling women to be active.

The Virgin on the Internet

A new forum for interpreting the Virgin's image is the fast-growing Internet. The World Wide Web provides nearly infinite space which Chicana feminists can utilize in their social critiques and evaluations. However, most of the web pages devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe are religious and support the traditional view of the Virgin. They are mostly faith-based and anti-choice and do not represent the Chicana feminists interpretation of the Patron Saint. Chicanas have not taken advantage of this new medium of expression and placed their thoughts on the information superhighway. Clearly as technology becomes increasingly more important in every day lives, the re-claiming of the Virgin must extend onto the web. The next generation must be aware of what was illustrated and asserted before them, so that they can build on the foundation of Chicana feminist interpretation and continue to demand a social expectation of equality.

Conclusion

Despite Christianity' s patriarchal nature, the image of a woman has gained considerable strength and power among Chicanas/os and Mexicans. The Virgin of Guadalupe, Patron Saint of Mexico, and the incarnation of the goddesses of indigenous culture, unifies and identifies her people. Her followers see her as wielding power and as a part of who they are. But rather than maintaining her traditional image as the virginal, nurturing mother, Chicana feminists have re-claimed her image. Without their demand for social justice, la virgen would not command and inspire change -- both for the Mexican-American community and for the women themselves. By re-interpreting her image, artists like Gloria Anzaldúa and Yolanda Lopez are challenging society's assumptions about women's roles and are demanding justice for women. The next step, then is to integrate technology and the Internet into their work and to bring the new images into a new medium of communication.

Que Viva la Mujer!
-Olga

Real Healing: A Video About Black Mesa

From the Black Mesa Water Coalition, a moving and succinct video about the corporate destruction of Dineh and Hopi lands.

Written and narrated by the Indigenous, the video presents a striking contrast to anyone familiar with the new age hokum that is Tamarack Song's body of work. Unlike Tamarack, when Indigenous people speak for themselves, they do not fail to center their spirituality and culture within the context of struggle against white supremacist imperialism.

Healing and Redefining Our World

Big Mountain Matriarch Risks Life To Defend Traditional Dwelling

Tamarack and his white customers at the Teaching Drum like to make a fetish out of earth lodge building. Here, however, is a story about what happens when real Natives try to build traditional dwellings on their own land in the midst of an illegal Occupation by marauding foreigners.



Can you imagine Tamarack and his half-starved, cult-minded groupies putting up a fight like Grandma Pauline does when they come to bulldoze her hogan?

Scathing in her rebuke of our materialistic society, she spares neither Non-Indian environmentalists nor Indian activist-poseurs nor Obama voters.

“Where is that activism? Especially, indigenous activisms like AIM or other urban Indian bands of activist? Is activism only a fashion or an expression trend?”

$8000 for the Wilderness Guide program while Elder Pauline, an Indigenous woman of color, faces Vichy tribal police and the white man's bulldozers. No need to go all the way to Palestine for apartheid atrocities; we have plenty right here in America.


Navajo Big Mountain matriarch Pauline Whitesinger stands next to her earth lodge that began collapsing in late 2007. Photo copyright Bahe Katenay.

Bahe Katenay: On Big Mountain, building the earth lodge

By Bahe Katenay
Sheep Dog Nation Rocks

BIG MOUNTAIN, Black Mesa (Arizona), November 18, 2008 – A nice peaceful morning in the Dineh resistance stronghold known as Sweet Water was again disrupted by a uniformed officer from the Office of Hopi Lands. This officer who had a badge that indicated he was with the Hopi tribal police claimed he was not serving a “noticed” on behalf of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, nor the U.S. government. The small 82 year old matriarch, Pauline Whitesinger, was trying to speak in the Dineh language to the thick and tall Indian officer that cannot understand Dineh and who was ‘assigned’ to meet with (grandma) Pauline about her “unauthorized” reconstruction of a traditional earth lodge.

He had photo-copies of Pauline’s earth lodge with some additional documents that he referred to as ‘complaints’ from a recent officer that discovered this construction in May 2008. As another Dineh gentleman showed up at the scene, the officer immediately walked over to seek a translator –something he should have seek within his own law enforcement department. The officer only wanted two questions answered:

‘Why is she building this hogan without Permission?’

‘What is she going to do with this hogan or why does she need it?’

...

“Why she does this without permission is because she does not recognized the authority of the U.S. government or (your) alien and foreign authority,” the Dineh man clarifies.

“Grandma, here, still recognizes the supreme authorities of the local deities and she also honors her ancestors’ legacies. She truly and deeply believes that is where she receives the ‘official’ authorization to rebuild this traditional lodge.”

The translator adds, “The hogan is part of her ancient culture and it is necessary to her being. Not only is it for ceremonial purposes but it is her home where she will be warmer in the winter as opposed to that cinderblock and un-insulated house. There, you have heard the same repeated answers to your same concerns!”

Read the rest...

Ways you can help:

Black Mesa Indigenous Support

Holocaust Holidays In The USA

Holocaust Holidays in the USA

June Terpstra, Ph.D.

November 26, 2008

Did you ever notice how most major USA holidays celebrate genocides and holocausts? The first official Thanksgiving Day celebrated the massacre of native American men, women and children during one of their religious ceremonies.

"Gathered in this place of meeting, they were attacked by mercenaries and English and Dutch. The Indians were ordered from the building and as they came forth were shot down, The rest were burned alive in the building-----The very next day the governor declared a Thanksgiving Day.....For the next 100 years, every Thanksgiving Day ordained by a Governor was in honor of the bloody victory, thanking God that the battle had been won." (Professor Newell)

Then there is Columbus Day. He was a terrorist according to today’s definition. Las Casas, a priest traveling with Columbus tells how the Spaniards in the Caribbean "grew more conceited every day" … They "rode the backs of Indians if they were in a hurry" or were carried on hammocks by Indians running in relays. "In this case they also had Indians carry large leaves to shade them from the sun and others to fan them with goose wings." Total control led to total cruelty. The Spaniards "thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades." Las Casas tells how "two of these so-called Christians met two Indian boys one day, each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots and for fun beheaded the boys." (Howard Zinn, Peoples History of the USA )

There is the Fourth of July. Those revolutionaries would be tortured at Guantanamo or water-boarded in a CIA prison in Poland or Romania today. The American revolutionaries of the 1700’s sponsored a new nation with a constitution built on "Indian removal" and genocide of an estimated 11 million natives and slavery of Africans. The figures from the 18th Century Slave Trade show approximately 5,000,000 people transported and 8,100,000 people died.

Then there is Memorial Day celebrating the deaths of all the men that bought the military industrial complex’s war propaganda. The United States has sent troops abroad or militarily struck other countries' territory at least 216 times since independence from Britain . Since 1945 the United States has intervened in more than 20 countries throughout the world. Since World War II, the United States actually dropped bombs on 23 countries. These include: China 1945-46, Korea 1950-53, China 1950-53, Guatemala 1954,Indonesia 1958, Cuba 1959-60, Guatemala 1960, Congo1964, Peru 1965, Laos 1964-73, Vietnam 1961-73,Cambodia 1969-70, Guatemala 1967-69, Grenada 1983,Lebanon 1984, Libya 1986, El Salvador 1980s, Nicaragua1980s, Panama 1989, Iraq 1991-1999, Sudan 1998,Afghanistan 1998, and Yugoslavia 1999. Post World War II, the United States has also assisted in over 20 different coups throughout the world, and the CIA was responsible for half a dozen assassinations of political heads of state.

My personal favorite holiday is Labor Day. Here are some highlights from Illinois , my state of residence demonstrating how much the USA government values its laborers:

14 July 1877
A general strike halted the movement of U.S. railroads. In the following days, strike riots spread across the United States . The next week, federal troops were called out to force an end to the nationwide strike. At the " Battle of the Viaduct" in Chicago , federal troops (recently returned from an Indian massacre) killed 30 workers and wounded over 100.

Haymarket on 11 November 1887, four anarchists were executed. All of the executed advocated armed struggle and violence as revolutionary methods, but their prosecutors found no evidence that any had actually thrown the Haymarket bomb. They died for their words, not their deeds. A quarter of a million people lined Chicago 's street during Parson's funeral procession to express their outrage at this gross mis-carriage of justice.

5 July 1893
During a strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company, which had drastically reduced wages, the 1892 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago 's Jackson Park was set ablaze, and seven buildings were reduced to ashes. The mobs raged on, burning and looting railroad cars and fighting police in the streets, until 10 July, when 14,000 federal and state troops finally succeeded in putting down the strike.

3 February 1930
"Chicagorillas" -- labor racketeers -- shot and killed contractor William Healy, with whom the Chicago Marble Setters Union had been having difficulties.

30 May 1937
Police killed 10 and wounded 30 during the "Memorial Day Massacre" at the Republic Steel plant in Chicago.

For over five hundred years whether it’s Europeans calling themselves Catholics or Puritans; Europeans calling themselves Zionists; or the democratic crusaders of the USA it’s never a good thing for indigenous populations to have invaders "settle" on the stolen land to which they say they have a divine right. . The Puritans embraced a line from Psalms 2:8, "Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heather for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." Their mantra of "God told me it’s mine" means the shit is hitting the fan for the people of the land.

I attempted to explain this history recently to my grandchildren while discussing natives and pilgrims. The four year old who has not had the benefit of public school programming said those Europeans should never again steal the land from the natives! Her five year old brother, who is being programmed in the public school system told me the pilgrims were the good guys and that I would understand when I go to school someday.

I understand alright. In June 1637 John Underhill slaughtered a Pequot village in a similar manner to that described above.

"The Pequot had a festival to welcome in the new harvest. At that point, the pilgrims came over and ambushed and slaughtered them. The next day the pilgrims went to church and gave thanks to God for the food and success. That's how Thanksgiving started." Sundust Teocuauhtli Martinez

Read the rest...

A Reader Comments On Cultural Appropriation

This spot-on, intelligent comment was written in response to our post "A Victory In The Struggle Against Cultural Imperialism." We've forwarded it to the front page because the writer sums up in a few paragraphs what has taken us almost an entire blog to articulate.

I'm Jewish and I don't want him either. Direct descendent of Aaron, my ass. Aaron lived in 1200 BC, something tells me that genealogy.com doesn't go back that far. Hah.

I think that because white culture is seen as being empty (having no race of ethnicity), white people get hungry for personal cultural significance - especially when "ethnic minorities" seem to have it - and develop a sort of desperation to find some "ancient, tribal roots". (This can happen before, after, or in conjunction with attempts to ingratiate ourselves into, or appropriate, Native cultures.)

In other words, we're jealous. Which can be a legitimate feeling, if a bit misconceived, but it often gets expressed in totally illegitimate ways.

You can tell us to just come up with our own rituals or use the shit of our own identities, but either it's too authentic (i.e., mainstream, like Christianity or Judaism or generic European, and therefore less special) or not authentic enough (i.e., doesn't already exist in another culture).

If you tell us appropriation is wrong, we don't care - we're sure that Native ceremony is just about "what feels right" and isn't grounded in any actual procedures or history. That anyone could do it. Which is funny because it betrays a basic disrespect for the practice; that we don't have to worry about fucking up or ruining the ceremony because it wasn't anything seriously spiritual anyway, it's just "what you make of it".

There's this attitude that as long as we say "please", Native peoples should share. And if they won't, it's just because they're paranoid or "reverse racists" or misunderstood us or thought we were like those "other white people" who are assholes (not us!) and so it's probably cool to go ahead and do that sweat lodge ceremony anyway.

I really don't know what to do about attitudes like this. When someone feels entitled to something, how do you make them understand that they're not?

*sighs*

11/15/2008 1:19 PM

Our answer to your great question - "When someone feels entitled to something, how do you make them understand that they're not?" - is -"By any means necessary" for as long as it takes to either stop them completely, or at least limit their predation.

A Victory In The Struggle Against Cultural Imperialism

After a thorough search of both the main Teaching Drum web page and Tamarack Song's own personal page, we have noticed the disappearance of the wretchedly fake sweat lodge article Tamarack wrote called "Gifting Path," which was lambasted in our post "Masturbating In The Sauna: Tamarack's Non-Indian Sweat Lodge."

Apparently, Tamarack has buried the beast, as its rotten, racist smell (and our criticism) had become too much for even him to bear. We have no idea if it remains a part of the Wilderness Guide Program materials, but if so, the article is not advertised in the contents list.

Maybe, too, the fact that Dan Konen has at last discovered and acknowledged his ancestors has left him less inclined to co-opt (steal) from Indigenous cultures (a process we recommend for all non-Natives). Oh, he's still pimping some hokey version of "native" on the Teaching Drum's website, but hopefully with a few more years of our relentless, withering critiques, he finally will dump even that culturally imperialist abomination.

Thanks to Dan Konen's own words, we have learned that his father's lies about his family's true origins encouraged Tamarack to become a self-hating Jew. This, we believe, is the personal root of Tamarack's racist pathology in relation to American Indians - he was ashamed of his own heritage so he created a New Age Indian-wannabe persona with which to bury it. This is likely also a key motivation in his choice to change his name to Tamarack Song.

Ancestors

"When as a child I asked my father what he knew, he would proudly--and defensively--state that we were German. I sensed that he was hiding something that he himself may not have completely understood. 'Why was most of his side of the family dark-skinned?' I would ask myself. 'And why did kids at school ask if I was Jewish?'

My mother’s ancestry was shrouded by another veil: the shame of illegitimacy. No one seemed to know--or at least was willing to tell--where her mother came from. Her birth certificate was fabricated to look as though she was the product of a normal Christian marriage.
...

The ancient tribes of North Africa's Nile Delta are my father's people. Originally pastoralists, they migrated to the fertile lands of the eastern Mediterranean, where they gave up their nomadic ways to become the first agriculturalists. Perhaps my father would have been proud of his ancestry had he known he was a member of the kohan, the Hebrew hereditary priestly caste. If genealogical and Biblical records are correct, my father is a direct male descendant of Aaron, elder brother of Moses and the first Kohan Gadol, or High Priest."

Sadly, Daniel still cannot seem to get history right. The ancient Hebrews were hardly the first agriculturalists, as agriculture has been practiced around the world for over ten thousand years, and possibly much longer.

And why would a hunter-gatherer wannabe be proud his father's people were "the first agriculturalists"? Desperate still for some relevance, however far-fetched? You betcha.

Still, we celebrate a victory today. That horrible, fakelore sweat lodge article is no longer available for purchase.

Dan Konen's struggle to speak his own truth reveals even more deeply the genocidal nature of a racist America that wants non-Natives to deny their ancestors and become white, all the while stealing and perverting real Native American culture so that this land's Indigenous peoples will be less Indian.

Don't buy it, Folks. Find your own ancestors. It's a key step in destroying whiteness.

Tamarack Trys to Explain His MTV Pimp Job

The more he writes the deeper he digs the hole.

Frighteningly, the narcissitic nutter actually thinks MTV has provided him with a "vital audience." When you're a self-absorbed guru hungry for any scrap of attention from any vapid corner, we suppose that is probably true.

The Teaching Drum dramas highlighted in the special were certainly NOT the fault of the program, as Tamarack asserts, but a normal consequence of shallow whites - with more money than sense - playing Indian for $8000 a pop. If Dan Konen really thinks white settler youth are experiencing "depression, drug abuse, and suicide reaching epidemic proportions" he should see what's happening to Indigenous youth. Their rates of suicide are THREE TIMES that of whites. See this New York Times article "Indian Reservation Reeling in Wave of Youth Suicides and Attempts."

Euro-American creeps like Tamarack Song stealing Indigenous culture for his own psychological and financial gain have everything to do with the genocidal conditions prevailing at the concentration camps otherwise known as Indian reservations, no matter how blithe a spin he tries to put on his own motivations.

Greetings folks,

This is going out to everyone in my address book

Now that the hoopla's died down, I'd like to share some of my perspective on this experience. I'm told that various blogs and chat groups are abuzz trying to figure us out, with most opinions conveying either wonderment or damnation and little in between. We're either a doorway to self discovery and hope for the future or puritanical extremists/an isolationist enclave of clueless relic hippies/a lockstep guru-adoring cult. (One thing has held true from day one of the Teaching Drum: nearly everyone is stirred in some way by our reawakening focus.)

Only a minority saw through the program's media hype and personal dramas to the underlying themes. Some viewers got stuck because they took it personally and judged themselves (or felt they were being judged); while others, judging the medium, blinded themselves to the message.

So why the media hype and MTV-style format? To reach a vital audience. "This business can be challenging, " explained the program producers to me. "[We would have to] greatly simplify the Teaching Drum program [for] the young audience who is used to high-paced, overly dramatic programming while also introducing them to a lifestyle that is unique and thought provoking."

My reply: "Of course the program would have been given a different spin for a different audience. People need to be reached where they're at. No matter what the message, it does little good if it's delivered in a foreign language."

It all began with the MTV producers coming to me with a challenge: Do you think you and us can put together a program focusing on the Year-long experience that will help our lost youth see that there is more to life than they've been given? "I'm painfully aware of the audience this program would be geared for and its demographic, " I responded. "With depression, drug abuse, and suicide reaching epidemic proportions, this is a vital group to reach with the message that there are options in life. Whether or not they ever live in the wilderness, they could benefit so much from this program's underlying message that life is not just what you see, but what there is to discover."

Believe it or not, I haven't yet seen the program. While folks here went out to find a TV so they could catch it (remember we're a puritanical isolationist enclave), I took advantage of the precious quiet time to do some writing. Of course I'll watch the program eventually; to me it and whatever its content or slant is secondary -- what I most cherish is the fact that seeds were planted.

Cubbs, our ascended virtual reality avatar, says you can have your very own copy of the program via Torrent download: http://www.mininova .org/tor/1893218

Fair warning: this program was just a warm-up -- there's more to come. I'll post again soon.

Tamarack

Tamarack Song Pimps The Teaching Drum to MTV

Live from the Northwoods of Wisconsin -- it's Cheesehead Survivor!

Just when you thought he could not get any more desperate for attention, new age fraud Tamarack Song takes his phoney, playing-Indian program to a whole new, vapid level.

MTV?

My, my, my. So primitive! But Dan Konen would be the first to condemn REAL Natives who dared stray from the hunter-gatherer, buckskin party line.

We doubt this brief media exposure will help the Teaching Drum's Wilderness Guide Program much, considering how seriously in the toilet is the white settler economy these days. Not a lot of people are going to have the extra income for these kinds of self-indulgent, masturbutory experiences in the future.

[Cap doff to the contributor who sent us the email]:

Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 9:21 PM
To: Tamarack@teachingdrum.org
Subject: two stars are born

Greetings friends,

A lot is happening in my life and here at the Teaching Drum, and the first thing I'd like to share with you is that on Sunday, October 5 at 7 pm ET/PT (6pm CT, 5pm MT) the Wilderness Guide Program is being featured on the season premiere of MTV's True Life. The show focuses on Derik and Ginny, two current participants in the Program. Move over Survivor!

In the near future Canadian Public Television will be airing its own special on the Wilderness Guide Program, and there is much else taking shape that I'll fill you in on later. In the meantime, if you have something you'd like to let me in on, I'd be glad to hear from you.

In Balance,
Tamarack

UPDATE OCTOBER 6, 2008: Here's a link that has the Teaching Drum video from MTV. We'll do a review in another post soon.

Understanding Prejudice: Test Your Native IQ

Tamarack likes to call himself and his cult-minded groupies "natives." We think it a safe bet, however, that not one of them could pass this Native IQ test, even after spending $8000 for the Teaching Drum's yearlong "native" program.

Test Your Native IQ

Psychologists sometimes speak of native (inborn) intelligence, but this test is something quite different: a chance for you to test how much you know about Native American history and contemporary life.

Why are the Washington Redskins, Jeep Cherokee, and Red Man Chewing Tobacco popular names when the Washington Brownskins, Jeep Chicano, and Black Man chewing tobacco would be considered offensive? Why is the Cleveland Indians baseball logo, Chief Wahoo, acceptable when other racial caricatures, such as Little Black Sambo and the Frito Bandito, are not?

The answer, in part, is that anti-Indian prejudice does not receive as much attention as do other forms of racism. To counter this lack of attention, the following 10-item test will probe your knowledge of Native American issues. At the end, you will be able to compare your "Native IQ" with other people's scores, and you will receive a free gift as a bonus for completing the test.

Earth First Journal: We See Color and it F*cking Matters

Whites like Tamarack Song so often presume to speak for People of Color. In stark contrast is this fantastic essay that evidences how much more wisdom, originality, and authenticity results when the oppressed are not prevented from speaking for themselves.

"It is crucial that we simultaneously confront issues of white supremacy within our organization and work to build solidarity with POC-led organizations and campaigns.

There are many POC-led organizations working on transformative campaigns that EF!, as a predominately white movement, could support. Indeed, some examples of this kind of solidarity include support for indigenous resistance to the 2010 Winter Olympics and EF!ers marching with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers for fair wages and working conditions."

We See Color and It Fucking Matters

By the People of Color Caucus, EF! 2008 Winter Rondy

Any serious discussion of race within our movement must begin with the candid recognition that Earth First! is a predominantly white movement. Following this recognition, a spring of interesting questions will naturally begin to arise from the curious, anti-racist, environmental activist. “Why are people of color so few in EF!? What patterns are perpetuated within EF! today that inhibit people of color from getting involved, and how can we change this? How can we better illustrate the connection between the struggles of people of color and ecocide? How can attitudes of white domination be dealt with openly and positively? What can I do?”

This was the general tone throughout the Anti-Authoritarian People of Color (POC) caucus at the EF! Winter Rendezvous in February. Moreover, we consistently came to the shared understanding that strategies for combating this not-so-invisible form of oppression are still in their infancy.

Why Caucus?

While many of us are tired of having to hold white people’s hands with regard to recognizing privilege, the fact remains that there continues to be a simple misunderstanding—as well as outright ignorance and intolerance—about the need for an exclusively POC space.

Here’s why we caucus: POC-only spaces serve as safe spaces in which those of us most directly affected by white supremacy can find solidarity with each other’s shared experiences without having to deal with accusations of “reverse racism” and outbursts of white guilt. Moreover, they serve as a kind of social pressure valve where we may safely air our grievances. That way, outside of these spaces, we can have more productive conversations—keeping these feelings bottled up is emotionally and psychologically unhealthy, and is certainly not conducive to getting shit done.

So, for a few hours at the Winter Rondy, a voluntary and temporary line was drawn around a plastic tarp in the Everglades with about a dozen POC in attendance. During a simultaneous white auxiliary caucus, white allies gathered to discuss how they could use their privilege to support the struggles of people of color and oppose white supremacy in movements they are a part of. When we all came back together to continue with the gathering’s workshops, we had a slightly better understanding that, although we are all inheritors of a long racist past, we have also inherited generations of hard-won progress in breaking free of that past. We shouldn’t bring that progress to a halt by acting like we’ve already won, pretending that race is now a relatively negligible issue or claiming to be “colorblind.”

White Dominance in EF!

Proceeding from the recognition of white dominance in EF!, the question arises of how historically dominating aspects of white culture are still embodied in EF! culture. White culture has been nurtured, defended and imposed by the forces of imperialism for centuries. This is the inescapable reality of white privilege: It has been bought with blood. Wherever white privilege is in use, without being understood and acknowledged for what it is, patterns of white supremacy are not far off. To the extent that white dominance and supremacy prevail in EF!, the movement will continue to be marginalized by enemies and potential friends alike as a movement stuck within its bubble of white privilege.

To illustrate the patterns of white dominance and supremacy experienced by participants in the POC caucus and by POC in the environmental movement as a whole, we have included a brief run-down of tendencies POC have consistently run across.

Dealing Constantly With Unchecked White Privilege—This ranges from the absurd assertion that “we are all colored” and/or “tribal” (own up to your whiteness, honkies) to the equally ridiculous claim that POC can “drop out” just as easily as white people (by squatting or dumpstering, which many POC do anyway as a matter of survival), to the insulting declaration that white people “know what it’s like” or “understand” because they had the privilege of spending a Summer in Chiapas or some other “exotic” community of color. Also, white activists who live in “marginalized” subcultures still have white skin privilege and the ability to choose whether or not to remain marginalized, a luxury that people of color do not have.

Rampant Cultural Appropriation/Fetishizing Indigenous Cultures—This ranges from white people and their “tribal Earth rituals” and dreadlocks, to the war cries you hear at every protest, to the wolf howls at gatherings (which has the potential for being pretty disruptive to local wildlife patterns). You have your own culture(s) and ethnic roots that date back over millennia; research and embrace them instead of stealing ours. Added to this is an obsession with what is essentially the “noble savage” myth and the recurring imagery of POC with spears in literature that is not even about actual indigenous struggles.

Tokenization—This includes asking us for our “unique” opinion on something as if we could speak for the global community of POC, expecting us to do the necessary outreach to POC communities and expecting us to bottomline anti-racist and environmental justice organizing within our movement. These phenomena are annoying and offensive.

The unfortunate reality is that none of these things are new to POC within EF! (or the radical environmental movement as a whole). Our individual experiences echo those written about in the article, “Facing Off the Radical Environmental Lynch Mob” (see EF!J September-October 2004).

With examples like this, it is not hard to see why POC often haven’t found EF! to be a welcoming and inclusive place. Understanding the ways in which a culture of white dominance excludes POC from participating in radical environmental movements is crucial when asking why those movements are so white. It’s not like POC are less affected by environmental destruction than whites: Worldwide, environmental injustices are more often committed against communities of color. POC, as a socially and economically marginalized group, live in neighborhoods with the worst environmental conditions and countries with the lowest environmental standards. Within a bubble of white privilege, EF! is in a weak position to combat this problem and redraw the connections of environmental issues to issues of race and economy.

Typically, EF! is identified as a wilderness protection movement, fighting for the remaining unspoiled and undeveloped areas of the Earth. It’s not hard to see how this complements the image of EF! as a white, middle-class movement—the folks who get to enjoy the wilderness are usually folks with the economic means, leisure time and social background to do so. It seems that, as long as the definitions of radical environmentalism extend only to the unspoiled or “uncompromised” landscape, its demographic will extend mostly to whites.

Beyond Tokenism

With these difficulties in sight, and a shared understanding of the long-term nature of this discussion, POC and whites have a lot of work to do in confronting white cultural domination in the movement. While many POC within EF! want to work on anti-racist organizing and are often more aware of patterns of white supremacy, exclusivity and racism in the movement, it is imperative that they are not expected to take on the bulk of the burden of dismantling said patterns. White allies must work to be aware of these issues, using their privilege to challenge them and ensuring that there is an active anti-racist organizing component to EF!.

Developing this anti-racist framework within our movement will also help avoid tokenizing POC. Too often, white-dominated movements believe that the first step in anti-racist action is bringing in POC. This can stem from a belief that a movement that is multiracial will also be anti-racist. It ignores the dynamics of white cultural superiority that create a movement that is not truly inclusive, and it trivializes the organizing in which POC are already engaged. It is crucial that we simultaneously confront issues of white supremacy within our organization and work to build solidarity with POC-led organizations and campaigns.

There are many POC-led organizations working on transformative campaigns that EF!, as a predominately white movement, could support. Indeed, some examples of this kind of solidarity include support for indigenous resistance to the 2010 Winter Olympics and EF!ers marching with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers for fair wages and working conditions.

Looking Ahead

With the last few minutes of the POC caucus, participants brainstormed how to make future Rendezvous more open, inclusive and hospitable to the rest of our POC comrades. Sitting in the middle of a swamp, miles away from the nearest urban body, it wasn’t hard to imagine how attending this conference could be far fetched for people of some demographics: The ability to get enough time off from work to go out into the woods for a crazy camping trip is a privilege many folks in cities can’t afford. While zero caucus members advocated having fewer conferences in swamps, the idea for an urban environmental conference, focusing on urban environmental issues, sparked plenty of excitement. Possible plans for a radical POC environmental/animal liberation gathering also surfaced. The call for strong anti-oppression and anti-racist workshops at every Rondy, including more caucuses of this type, was echoed around the tarp.

It is also important to honestly evaluate the culture of EF! and identify ways that it perpetuates white privilege. This will help ensure that the transformations that need to happen in order for EF! to become an inclusive movement don’t just end at the Summer or Winter gatherings. For example, the EF! focus on civil disobedience at actions creates a situation where POC, who are often targeted by the police, may not be able to comfortably participate in actions. To help with this, we need to have more open conversations and analysis of our movement’s culture.

In closing, it’s necessary to emphasize that, while this report sets out to demand recognition of the unpleasant realities of white domination within our movement, it is not the intention of POC to stir up more feelings of white guilt within EF!: Guilt is never proactive. Instead, POC in EF! hope to further the conversation around developing a strong anti-racist framework within our movement and encourage our white allies to act on these issues.

It is also not our intention to establish the fight against white supremacy above or before fights against other forms of oppression: In fact, in short fragments throughout this article, the word “white” could have been substituted with words such as “male,” “straight,” “middle-class” or “able-bodied.” We also encourage people within the radical environmental movement to realize that we cannot build a strong and powerful movement to oppose environmental destruction without incorporating a deep understanding of the links between ecocide and all other forms of oppression. The habit of separating race, class and environmental struggles with contrived divisions is a privilege that we, as one movement in a shrinking world, can no longer afford.

Tamarack Writes Former Student, Again.

The racist, sexist creep just can't help himself (pathological addictions are like that). Exactly a year and a half since the last communciation, Tamarack Song pleads yet again with a female former student, who he once harassed with a bizzare correspondence, to join him at his Playing Indian outdoor school for whites who want to be "Native".

The Mystery Student assures us that she declined his unmanly proposition in no uncertain terms.

And thanks again, Miss, for sending us Tamarack's twisted attempts at public relations. He makes our case against him far better than we ever could.

From: Tamarack Song

Subject: checking in

To: Mystery Student

Date: Friday, June 20, 2008, 7:24 AM

______,



And now another turn of the seasons, another coming and going of pervading winds. Would you like to rejoin with us?


Tamarack


-----Original Message-----
From: Mystery Student
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 5:48 PM
To: Tamarack Song
Subject: Re: checking in



Why would I want to do that?


--- On Fri, 6/20/08, Tamarack Song wrote:


From: "Tamarack Song"
To: Mystery Student

Because your heart is here.


"The Eye of the Viper was many things, but above all it was Remember. And so I remember, despite how greatly it hurts sometimes. Though much was lost, the Way of the Viper remains, and it is the Way of the Viper that I wish to walk into my path. [It] is this: patients and precision, subtlety and stealth, unpredictability and wise retreat, a deadly reputation for quickening surprise, a sensual fidelity to sun and water, and the silence and timelessness of eternity."

Uh sorry, Jackass. Looks like her heart is with us. You run along now, cuz we know you have much better things to do - like taking a food drop out to your starving "Seekers". They're hungry, they're bored, and they're waiting....

New Survivalists Prepare

There's no need to mystify the great changes facing us with some sort of playing-Indian, new-ager hokum; it's really rather simple. Stay close to your landbase, know and help your neighbors, learn survival skills like midwifery and food-growing, prepare to defend your territory, with arms if necessary. Recover / Remember and honor the sustainable ways of your ancestors, which are universal.

And above all, DO NOT give Tamarack Song and the Teaching Drum Outdoor School thousands and thousands of dollars to teach you next to nothing about how to feed and shelter yourself in concert with people who will stick around to see everyone through the hard times. Eco-tourists come and go; real knowledge endures forever.

Energy fears looming, new survivalists prepare

By SAMANTHA GROSS, Associated Press Writer Posted Sat May 24, 2008 11:12am PDT

Peter Laskowski stacks firewood at his remote home in Waitsfield, Vt., Friday, April 11, 2008. Convinced that the planet's oil supply is dwindling and the world's economies are heading for a crash, people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn't prepare. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

BUSKIRK, N.Y. - A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.

That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.

Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds. She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.

"I was panic-stricken," the 50-year-old recalled, her voice shaking. "Devastated. Depressed. Afraid. Vulnerable. Weak. Alone. Just terrible."

Convinced the planet's oil supply is dwindling and the world's economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn't prepare.

The exact number of people taking such steps is impossible to determine, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the movement has been gaining momentum in the last few years.

These energy survivalists are not leading some sort of green revolution meant to save the planet. Many of them believe it is too late for that, seeing signs in soaring fuel and food prices and a faltering U.S. economy, and are largely focused on saving themselves.

Some are doing it quietly, giving few details of their preparations — afraid that revealing such information as the location of their supplies will endanger themselves and their loved ones. They envision a future in which the nation's cities will be filled with hungry, desperate refugees forced to go looking for food, shelter and water.

"There's going to be things that happen when people can't get things that they need for themselves and their families," said Lynn-Marie, who believes cities could see a rise in violence as early as 2012.

Lynn-Marie asked to be identified by her first name to protect her homestead in rural western Idaho. Many of these survivalists declined to speak to The Associated Press for similar reasons.

These survivalists believe in "peak oil," the idea that world oil production is set to hit a high point and then decline. Scientists who support idea say the amount of oil produced in the world each year has already or will soon begin a downward slide, even amid increased demand. But many scientists say such a scenario will be avoided as other sources of energy come in to fill the void.

On the PeakOil.com Web site, where upward of 800 people gathered on recent evenings, believers engage in a debate about what kind of world awaits.

Some members argue there will be no financial crash, but a slow slide into harder times. Some believe the federal government will respond to the loss of energy security with a clampdown on personal freedoms. Others simply don't trust that the government can maintain basic services in the face of an energy crisis.

The powers that be, they've determined, will be largely powerless to stop what is to come.

Determined to guard themselves from potentially harsh times ahead, Lynn-Marie and her husband have already planted an orchard of about 40 trees and built a greenhouse on their 7 1/2 acres. They have built their own irrigation system. They've begun to raise chickens and pigs, and they've learned to slaughter them.

The couple have gotten rid of their TV and instead have been reading dusty old books published in their grandparents' era, books that explain the simpler lifestyle they are trying to revive. Lynn-Marie has been teaching herself how to make soap. Her husband, concerned about one day being unable to get medications, has been training to become an herbalist.

By 2012, they expect to power their property with solar panels, and produce their own meat, milk and vegetables. When things start to fall apart, they expect their children and grandchildren will come back home and help them work the land. She envisions a day when the family may have to decide whether to turn needy people away from their door.

"People will be unprepared," she said. "And we can imagine marauding hordes."

So can Peter Laskowski. Living in a woodsy area outside of Montpelier, Vt., the 57-year-old retiree has become the local constable and a deputy sheriff for his county, as well as an emergency medical technician.

"I decided there was nothing like getting the training myself to deal with insurrections, if that's a possibility," said the former executive recruiter.

Laskowski is taking steps similar to environmentalists: conserving fuel, consuming less, studying global warming, and relying on local produce and craftsmen. Laskowski is powering his home with solar panels and is raising fish, geese, ducks and sheep. He has planted apple and pear trees and is growing lettuce, spinach and corn.

Whenever possible, he uses his bicycle to get into town.

"I remember the oil crisis in '73; I remember waiting in line for gas," Laskowski said. "If there is a disruption in the oil supply it will be very quickly elevated into a disaster."

Breault said she hopes to someday band together with her neighbors to form a self-sufficient community. Women will always be having babies, she notes, and she imagines her skills as a midwife will always be in demand.

For now, she is readying for the more immediate work ahead: There's a root cellar to dig, fruit trees and vegetable plots to plant. She has put a bicycle on layaway, and soon she'll be able to bike to visit her grandkids even if there is no oil at the pump.

Whatever the shape of things yet to come, she said, she's done what she can to prepare.

___

On the Net:

Peak Oil: http://www.PeakOil.com

A Student's Essay For Admission to the Yearlong Program

A former student kindly loans us a copy of her essay that Tamarack required for admission to his Wilderness Guide Yearlong program. His creepy harassment letters and a ticket to the hell that is the Teaching Drum Outdoor School were the result.

Somehow we doubt the admission essay was ever really necessary. As long as suckers are willing to give Dan Konen money, he will oblige them with an admission to his phoney, playing-Indian school.

Yes, indeed. It takes a long time and a lot of work to grow up. The Tamarack Song's of the world are what happen if you don't.

His face masked, arm raised, fingers open, his body clad entirely in black - a moment frozen in a photograph of a broken chunk of pavement just gone through a storefront window. A thousand pieces of bottle green glass all over the sidewalk.

A merchant's corporate window shattered.

At this photograph in a magazine held open in my hands, I stared and stared, bleary-eyed from a four-day trek across America from the deep South to Portland, Oregon. Four days earlier was November 30, 1999. The first day of the anti-WTO uprisings in Seattle.

At this stark photograph of a man in mid-riot I kept staring as two words, two questions kept flying around and around in my head - Shattered, Why? No quick answers came. I put the magazine back down. Only terrorists wear masks. Did they not know that?

Anyway, what did it have to do with me? Activism is a bumper sticker "Save the Whales, Save Tibet, Save our Salmon". Single-issue. Single attack. That's it. You broadcast your message to an anonymous authority who somewhere, somehow is supposed to change things. That's it. Stick a bumper sticker on it. You're done. Or you make a sign and march passively from one end of town to the other. But never ever under any circumstances do you commit violence - especially not property destruction. That is a sin. Property has papal infallibility, the divine right of kings, you will go to Hell if you question it.

The next day, I went back to that magazine and looked at the photo again. Now there were others - pictures of people my age, my background, kicked, beaten, gassed, pepper-sprayed - their suffering blatantly exposing the falsification of history that tells us that the circumstances creating police states and riots happen only in the past, only in the ghetto. Only in the Third World. But I did not fully understand that yet. I just liked the photo. A raised arm. A brick through a window. Shattered glass. It must have felt good.

I put away the magazine once more and picked up the first secretarial temp job I could find. Fourth temp that company had had. They all kept quitting. Not enough to do. No one really caring if anything got done. Unsupervised and unwanted. With internet access. Click, click. Where in the world do you want to go today? Seattle.

It took a while. There were a lot of "isms". The WTO, global finance, third world debt - not exactly easy reading. Then somebody tossed me a lifeline with these three words that came across my monitor like three wise men:

Property is theft.

Come again?

Property is theft.

Is that so? Prove it.

And I was hooked. Like a hound dog on a track, I followed anonymous tips back to the scene of the crime - back to the image of the black clad window-smashers - but this time the image had a newly-minted caption to explain it all Anarchists. Anarchists? Yes, anarchists said the bruised corporate media in Seattle. And they are all from Eugene. I got out my month-old Oregon map. Eugene is one hour and fifty minutes from Portland. Jeesshh. Anarchists in Oregon.

Why?

Around the corner, the boss' footfalls clomped. Away went the map and the internet, up went Microsoft Word on my computer screen. Without comment, the boss disappeared into his office and picked up the phone. My heart pounded. He sat down in his big chair, engrossed in a phone call with his boyfriend. A sigh of relief - I was free again for several hours. Still, better to look busy for awhile. I started typing into the Word document.

Believe it or not, finding jobs like these is not hard, their main attraction being the loads of free time they allow one to dream, to surf, to write. Writing was the reason I moved to Oregon, because once there, I intended to finish a novel about a woman lost in an ancient and deadly forest where the only way out is to learn how to love. But the tale needed a setting and Oregon promised to be a land of mystic oceans, volcanoes, old growth forests. Above all, I needed a forest.

How the story initially took shape and why is beyond the scope of this relating, but it honestly can be said that the main impetus came from a near-death experience. Quite literally, one radiant Fall day, I felt the Angel of Death pass through the room; his presence hovering just long enough to impart one word:

"Ppssstt."

In the wake of his leaving came turbulent thoughts about the reality of my own passing. I imagined being rowed across the river Styx. What would I say to Death should he ask me about my life? The question elicited an indifferent shrug, then a sullen scowl, then smoldering anger, hot tears, and finally beneath it all - despair.

To recuperate powerful emotions threatening to overwhelm everything, I put Death in the book and gave him a brother - the God of Love. To the woman in the story I gave four guides - a condor, a wolf, an owl, an opossum. To her adventure - a forest haunted by love and death and the dawning hope that nothing is as it seems. The book was an attempt to face the grief of a lost home and a broken family, to recuperate the energy of a looming nervous breakdown, to try to understand why I am so alone. I became convinced I was nuts.

Yet how was I to explain the three or four great horned owls that moved into the woods outside my apartment window, the opossums in the yard in the middle of the night, the vultures surfing the air rising up from the hollows into whose folds my apartment complex was built, and then one day, a snake lying across the sill of my door when I came home. Not too long after, a large stray dog shot out of the woods and clamped massive jaws onto my ankles and wrists in a terrifying hold whose meaning I still do not understand.

As it all unfolded, possessive relatives began to cling more and more tightly as I tried to pull away for the psychic space necessary to write. Unable to escape their empty conflicts, their golden cages where anything may be had but personal growth and freedom, I ran away. To Oregon. To a land of mystic forests.

But most of all, I was writing to convince myself that wilderness is only a story; I was writing to silence the nagging doubt that the artist gives to her art what she cannot give to her life. Then somebody threw a rock through a window. Shortly thereafter, I drove to the Hoh Rain Forest on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. Spellbound, standing beneath old growth Elders in the Hall of Mosses, I felt a message come loud and clear: You cannot justify cutting down even a single tree for a novel that will never describe a forest as well as Nature can.

As fast as I could, I got away from those trees, and for a little while longer fought their wisdom. A great novel had to be written; I wanted to become famous and wealthy. How else does a person get out of meaningless McJobs, isolation, banality? Without money, one cannot have a thatched cottage by the sea in a Gaelic-speaking county in Ireland. Without money, one cannot grow bamboo for a Zen hut to be built beside a hidden spring in the heart of Florida. Without money, one cannot....

But I was not really convinced. Fame and money rarely change anything - certainly not isolation and banality. A few days later, a terrible case of writer's block set in. Still I slogged on. The block got worse until finally, exasperated, the Angel of Death lost his temper. Grabbing me by the back of the collar, he dragged me to the door and rasped gravely, "Get out!"

I went to a protest. Gaping like a tourist, I saw my first in-the-flesh anarchist giving a fiery speech on class war. Homeless, he was a resident of Dignity Village - the self-governing tent city in Portland that once every few months gets evicted from their campsites on public land by armed eunuchs of the State - evicted because the presence of a tent city in the neighborhood drives down the price of real estate.

The struggles of Dignity Village increasingly embodied everything I was learning about the economic and spiritual violence of capitalism, and about the resistance to that violence that Dignity Village modeled in their anarchistic selfdetermination. Anarchist theory poses a question, how can we live our lives without domination, coercion, violence? Without hierarchies and pyramid schemes? In Dignity Village, and in street protest as well, I saw what the Zapatista Marcos meant when he said we are fighting for communal spaces against market forces. Yet there was an unspoken barrier between Dignity residents and their supporters - we could help but we were not homeless. I kept reading.

As my faith in the system steadily unraveled, at night sometimes, I went to bed shaking, pulling the covers up over my head. I am going to Auschwitz. They are going to put me in Auschwitz. Because I don't believe in Them anymore. Because I can see what They do. For seeing the truth, for wanting to leave Them, we are all going to be beaten and imprisoned. War is the health of the State. Yes, I know. I remember childhood.

On and on I read, the books piling up beside my couch as a great, nagging fear that some collapse, some terrible reckoning, is just around the corner would not let me rest. What could a person do, how would one survive when it came? Survivalist books shot to the top of the reading list. Meanwhile, the corporate media was still looking for someone to blame for Seattle. They found John Zerzan - the primitivist writer from Eugene. He was to blame for the property destruction in Seattle because he and "his" tribe hated Civilization. How wicked!

Off the library shelves flew the books by Zerzan (and others), who page after page, methodically demolished the sacrosanct, civilized ideologies of time, technology, language, number, agriculture, art, and industrialism. It was exhilarating. It was as if something long dormant, scarcely to be believed, but there all along came springing up like hearty weeds through the cracked pavement.

The mists of pre-history clearing away, an enlightened picture began to emerge of the people who lived before the conquest of civilization. Particularly inspiring were their intimate ways with the natural world, their freedom from time and toil, their refusal of accumulation, and a marked absence of exploitation and hierarchies. Just as surprising came the evidence that there are still primal peoples living the old ways; that it is even possible (and desirable) to do so.

Yet this idea was terrifying in its implications, in its risks. America's ongoing policy towards Old Way peoples has always been nothing less than exterminationist. With my own eyes I have seen a measure of this kind of intolerance in Portland's treatment of Dignity Village. If Native Americans got genocide, if Dignity Village's homeless cannot even have a communal place to pitch their tents, then what chance do any of us contemplating this lifeway have?

Then I remembered the radical's challenge that if it does not revolutionize your daily life, it isn't revolution. And in this day and age of ecological and spiritual devastation, anything less than revolution is death. Perhaps it is too alarmist (or hopeful) to say that civilization is collapsing. I really do not know. But it has collapsed inside of me.

That our feral natures and primal selves are eternal and irrepressible is miraculous news yet not really new, for it seems that for so long the natural world has been trying to make contact. Only just recently have I learned that this understanding has a name: Dodem. It is the only way I know how to explain what I wish to become. This is our story:

Unfazed by concrete, suburbs or social climbers, the Relations were not long in appearing. That first house in the South where we lived when I was a toddler was adjacent to a piney woods, and one day while I was playing in the yard, a copperhead came slithering towards me out of the woods. My mother managed to intercept the creature with a garden hoe just in time to prevent the occurrence of what most likely would have been an interesting conversation. Despite my mother's hostility, the viper clan was not deterred.

A few years later, we moved to another Southern state, and one day my father took the family out in a boat on a popular lake. As lunchtime neared, we anchored about twenty yards off a small island during an unusually humid May afternoon. My mother, when she relates this story, says that there was something about that island and the unusual weather that just felt "snaky". The island was covered in thicket with shady trees hanging low over the water.

Ignoring her intuition, my mother began to pass out sandwiches to a hungry and cranky crowd. Next to me, a red can of Pringles potato chips sat on the right side of the boat nearest the island. Suddenly, like a dark flash of lightning from the shore came a tremendous, black explosion through the water. A serpentine missile, it drove towards the boat with great speed and blasted the red Pringles can head first, knocking the chips into the water.

Gape-jawed, I sat with half a sandwich clutched in my hand as the water moccasin slammed into my side of the boat again and again. Had she chosen to, this water viper easily could have slithered into the boat as she was well able to raise her head high enough over the edge to knock out the Pringles. My father gunned the motor into reverse and we fled. That was our first welcome to the area. There were more to come.

At eight years old - scrambling hand over hand up an embankment above a rain gully - I was just about to place my hand on the next hold when something inside said look. I glanced down in time to keep from placing my hand on a baby moccasin hidden under a brown leaf that he had just raised up enough with his head to look me straight in the eye. My heart stopped in my chest. Then I fled.

To no avail.

At ten, my childhood friend and I were running across a long-abandoned railroad trestle that passed over a wide creek in the woods below our house and fields. Way ahead of my friend and flying over the thick, rotting ties I felt a voice again say look. I glanced down and saw - a step away and easily within striking distance - a tremendous water moccasin sunning himself on a support tie below the top of the railroad. He had to have been at least six feet long as his fist-sized head was propped up at a forty-five degree angle between several coils, his tail placed coyly under his chin. I will never forget the look that viper gave me. I turned and ran.

Incredibly, we came back a few months later to hunt crawdaddies sure to be lurking beneath the hardened slag under the railroad trestle. Finding a particularly promising slab about three feet in diameter, I instructed my friend and his sister to ready themselves on the other side for all the crawdaddies that were sure to come flying out and into our pails as soon as I tipped the slab on its edge. Heaving the tall slab back, I could not immediately see what was under the capstone, but looking across into the shocked faces of my friends, I knew we must have hit the mother lode. I grinned and peeked over the edge of the slab. It was horrible.

A slimey, graybluegreen mass, the medusa's head beneath the capstone seethed and twisted and writhed like the living viscera of some monstrous animal. There must have been thousands of them. Looking up at my friends whose color had blanched completely out of their faces, I managed to choke out a single word: run. Slamming the capstone back onto the nest, hundreds of writhing, seething missiles shot out on the enormous splash towards the backsides of my fleeing companions.

Barely escaping with our lives, we never played together in that creek again. Two decades later I happened across a specimen of the monster in a natural history museum. At last, the beast had a name: Gray's crayfish snake. Perfectly harmless, and as fond of crayfish as any child.

Nonetheless, the water moccasin got the blame and the woods and creek remained abandoned with the approach of adolescence. Sixteen came and I was again in the yard of our house, only this time no happy toddler, but a distant, sullen teenager working on the only thing that really mattered - a perfect tan. A radio headset covered my ears shutting out all the world. Turning over to bake the other side, I saw something flutter in the corner of my eye. It was a blue jay hopping madly beside my mother's rose garden (which she watered obsessively, causing both the frog and nesting bird population to shoot up dramatically and thereby attracting predators fond of said populations).

A black whip cracked maniacally at the blue jay's head, and the jay slashed back at the water moccasin with its sharp claws. Undeterred, the viper continued heading straight towards me. I shot out of the yard and onto the porch and into the house.

Then away to college at a big university, then off to LA for film school, then to a Pacific island resort to teach American sports to Japanese tourists, then up to Kyoto to teach English, then home once more to join the military, then to months of physical therapy for permanent injuries from that dumb stint, and then lots of temp jobs and a vain attempt to explain through a novel why my father went bankrupt and lost everything including our home and why my parents divorced so brutally.

Nevertheless, these temporary diversions have utterly failed to convince me that the viper in my mother's garden and the viper on the railroad trestle were not one and the same. Civilization's complicity in keeping this fact from coming to fruition has not succeeded either; its war against memory has failed. The ancient Eye of the Viper has looked into me and revealed just how deep primal memory goes. After all, these reptiles watched the dinosaurs die.

Now maybe water moccasins cannot really help to explain what is happening to me, and maybe I am about to overstate their importance to revolutionary Return, but when all else failed, they remained. They remained when the wolf and the Indigenous were murdered, when the trees were taken and the land exploited, when labor was enslaved and dissent silenced, they remained.

They remained to remind the genocidal South that you cannot control what is wild. They remained to retreat to some of the most god-awful hot and humid places ever created. And they flourished. And in these places where they flourished, they built a reputation for legendary unpredictability. In their numbers and in their stealth, they became the reason why we call some swamps hell.

The wolf and the Indigenous temporarily beaten back, the oppressors let down their guard and the moccasins began pouring out of the swamps - into swimming pools, into log piles, into basements, into rose gardens, into barns and boats and bathrooms. Everywhere. To walk anywhere in the South is to feel that you take your life in your hands; it is to know that you had better look before you reach or sit or step or lift. It is not that the moccasin is a fierce or particularly deadly creature. It is that s/he is so unpredictable that little can be said definitively about their nature.

Sometimes when threatened they vibrate their tails like a rattlesnake. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they warn before they strike by exposing the inner white of their mouths (giving rise to the alternative moniker cottonmouth). Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they inject venom when they bite. Often they don't. Sometimes they swim out with their heads up like periscopes to bite people who have fallen off of jet skis. Usually they don't.

Highly territorial during the mating season (May/June), they are sometimes aggressive. Sometimes they can be counted on to be lethargic in the wintertime. Often not. Sometimes docile, water moccasins occasionally have been picked up and handled without incident. Some people do the same and lose a limb. Experts claim that snakes do not crawl into sleeping bags to warm themselves up next to folks. Sometimes pit vipers wait near sleeping bags for mice seeking crumbs to drop by. Solitary creatures, moccasins usually travel alone. People who have fallen into nests of them say it is like wrestling with a ball of barbed wire.

Cottonmouths have a reputation for dropping out of overhanging tree limbs and onto canoers' necks. Perhaps sometimes, this is true, although the responsibility largely falls to the agile, tree climbing, and harmless water snake who, cloaking herself in the water moccasin's reputation, is the same color and shape. It takes an expert to tell them apart. Not to be outdone, water moccasins have also been known to climb trees. Sometimes boaters reaching around trees to tie up their lines have been bitten.

Armless, legless and deaf, pit vipers hunt in the darkness with profound subtlety relying almost solely on heat sensitivity (which they register through pits located between their nostrils and eyes). Elliptical, cat-like pupils are at the center of their night hunter's vision. A precious commodity, venom is reserved for prey and used only as a last-ditch defense in the most dire of circumstances. Bloodless in combat with one another, their skirmishes leave the loser to fight another day and the winner to procreate.

Despite their unpredictability, water moccasins are usually forgiving. In fact, I am alive today because a certain cottonmouth took mercy on my childhood carelessness and chose not to instigate a deadly fall from the top of a railroad trestle. On that momentous day, the look in the Eye of the Viper was many things, but above all it was Remember.

And so I remember, despite how greatly it hurts sometimes. Though much was lost, the Way of the Viper remains, and it is the Way of the Viper that I wish to walk into my path. As far as I can discern from limited research and personal experience, the Way of the Viper is this: patience and precision, subtlety and stealth, unpredictability and wise retreat, a deadly reputation for quickening surprise, a sensual fidelity to sun and water, and the silence and timelessness of eternity.

Wanting only this, no amount of face-masking, fist-raising, black-cladding or rock throwing at military formations of riot-geared eunuchs is ever going to mollify the recognition that they are not what's in the way. Besides, I cannot learn from an enemy I do not respect; I want my own fear not theirs.

And it is in the forest, not the streets of civilization, where I want to face this fear; it is there that I want to understand how to deepen love. Even if it means at first to be like an ungainly, near-sighted, omnivorous opossum with little for defense but playing dead in a musk of offal. Perhaps Nature will be forgiving. After all, the bumbling opossum has an immunity to cottonmouth venom up to ten times the dose that would kill a man.

When attempting to explain to the human Relations nearest me my desire to live and learn in the Wild, I am most often met with a sad or cynical "Well, that is all very good, but in the end we cannot go back."

And they are right.

We cannot go back.

But we can come full circle.

Like the snake swallowing its tail - the symbol for eternal Return.

Tamarack and Lety Want Your Children

These people have absolutely no shame or accountability for their past schemes that haven't worked, so they just make up some new ones, all the while the list of failed schemes continues to grow - the 2002 & 2007 Yearlongs that lost 22 people, the wolf sanctuary, the warrior way website and gatherings, unpublishable books, the yahoo group forum, etc, etc, etc.

Now we ask you, would you really want your children around a writer as bad as Lety Seibel? Or around a woman so desperate to be seen as the eternally-giving, unquestioning earth mother that the first thing we want to do when we read anything she writes is check her basement for decomposing bodies.

What do ya'll wanna bet that her own children aren't in the best state of mental health?

$8000.00?

To: teaching_drum@yahoogroups.com
From: "Lety"
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:43:03 -0500
Subject: [Teaching_Drum] We need your help

Greetings Friends and Relations,

The cozy white blanket of snow over the Mother's bosom keeps getting replenished by one after another Spring snow storm. When the warmth melts snow and uncovers the Earth's skin to the shining sun, another snow cloud repairs the brown holes with new patches of white. The tug-and-pull is fully on! There have been days in the woods when the smell, the light and feel of the air were those of a full-fledged green season day, except that the ground wore a thick layer of white! On another green-season- feeling occasion, the sound of the Spring Peepers filled the air until the realization struck that this was a lucid dream! Under these signs, sugar bush was set up early during a cold-night, warm-day spell which quickly turned to a quarter moon of solid storms.

Eventually, the sap started flowing in earnest and we boiled down over two gallons of syrup. Then more storms, which truly bewildered all the newly arrived and emerged Relations, and now the sap is flowing again. Who says our moods and whims are not modeled after our Mother!

At Mashkodens, the Wild Moon experience continues to flow and evolve as the second group of Wild Mooners say their gigawaabamins. Before long a new group of Seekers will be arriving for their turn of the seasons at the camp where the Old Ways return. And here at the support camp (Nad'mad'ewining), we are revving up the energy to bring a couple more families to complement our budding children's culture.

Would you care to help us? If you do, would you take a look at our invitational link
http://teachingdrum .org/childrenscu lture.html and forward it to families with children that might have an interest in checking out the possibility of being here?

Miigwech and rich transition time wishes,

Lety

A Reader Has Questions

And they are very good ones.

Before we attempt to answer, we think it would be a good idea to allow other readers out there to consider, and perhaps sound off with your own take on the question of white privilege and drumming circles.

Hi, I have a question about drum circles. A lot of my friends - mixed races - like going to drum circles. They take place outdoors and consist of people from the community showing up with drums (mostly djembes; African-derived hand drums), and drumming while others dance inside the circle. Most of the attendees - probably from 60% to 80% - are white. Every time I go, everyone else seems to be having a great time, getting "lost" in the music or whatever, but I just can't get over my discomfort. They don't understand why I can't have fun - most of them are socially and politically conscious, they enjoy drums, they enjoy dancing, they have anti-oppressive politics, so what's wrong with that?

And I can't come up with any good responses. It just feels wrong in my gut. I feel like they're romanticizing the idea of "tribal culture" or something, or that they just want a sense of "tribal community" - but again, as they point out, even if that's the case - what's wrong with that? When white culture is increasingly shallow and consumerist, what's wrong with them trying to infuse their lives with something that feels physically, mentally, and maybe spiritually invigorating? They're good people, and most of them are culturally aware. I'm not sure that they are directly ripping off anything. So I don't know why I can't just get over it.

I feel like if they're going to have a drum circle, they ought to pay some kind of dues to indigenous cultures - but how, who do you credit drums to? And even if they all started standing in solidarity at Native road blockades for land rights, I still wouldn't feel comfortable at drum circles. I'm white, and maybe this discomfort is just overdeveloped white guilt or something, but when I see these drum circles I can't help comparing them to powwows back in my hometown and I just feel sick inside.

I'm also worried that I might be totally racist - that all I really want is to feel like I'm at something "culturally authentic", which would explain why I don't feel uncomfortable at Native powwows. Of course, I don't feel like I "belong", since I don't, but at least I don't feel nauseous.

I'm asking what you think because I guess this has to do with cultural appropriation and you seem like an expert.

Obviously it's totally okay to respond that this questionable is inappropriate and racist or that I'm inappropriate and racist.

I hope all is well.

addicted to your blog,

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A Reader With The Write Stuff

Now THIS is how to ask the right questions about anything or anyone associated with the Teaching Drum. In response to Tamarack's Craigslist ad for an editor, our dear contributor (who asked to remain anonymous) astutely observes why there is something seriously wrong with a writer who wants a live-in editor.

Great follow-through, anon. We shiver everytime Tamarack writes that he is looking forward to "our sharing." You've spared yourself a lot of grief and given us yet another good chuckle at Dan Konen's loony desperation.

"A liberal percentage of royalties..."? Oh, please. Tamarack self-publishes. You'd make more money looking under the sofa cushions!

Hi there. I just wanted to say, thank you so much for your website. I just wanted to share with you why I came across it.

-cut-

I'm looking for a job in the editing or writing field. I came across this post on Craigslist.

http://madison.craigslist.org/wri/598355561.html

Writer-Editor--Earth conscious material
Reply to: see below
Date: 2008-03-07, 8:22AM CST

This is a full-time, live-in position in northern Wisconsin. Established book writer needs writer-editor to assist with organization and structure, proofreading, and research. Topic matter includes social change, personal healing, Native spirituality, and nature writings. You'll be working on and off with another editor and an award-winning book designer.

Writing talent and organizational skills are required; will teach editing. Compensation is a liberal percentage of royalties and a small monthly stipend. Room and board (modern or rustic cabin, organic food) and vehicle use provided. Please submit two writing samples (resume optional but preferred) to tamarack@teachingdrum.org

* Location: Three Lakes (four hours north of Madison
* Compensation: Compensation is a liberal percentage of royalties
and a small monthly stipend. Room and board (modern or rustic cabin,organic food) and vehicle use provided.
* This is at a non-profit organization.
* Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
* Phone calls about this job are ok.
* Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
PostingID: 598355561

-----------

I'm badly in need of a job and decided to respond looking for more information. I didn't want to send my resume or writing sample because I don't know this person, who knows what kind of creep he or she may be (I was once a New Yorker so I'm pretty paranoid on the whole). Also, the fact that they are looking for a live-in editor, prior editing experience not required, set off alarm bells in my head. Most editing can be done over the phone or email; I can't think of one professional writer who -lives- with an editor. That seemed a little ridiculous. Anyway, I responded to the ad listing my qualifications and also asking for more information about the project itself. I received this email in return:

Greetings _,

You have the training and experience I'm looking for, so yes, I would like to explore possibilities with you. I think it might be easier to fill you in on the job by phone, as I could answer your questions directly. If you will provide me your number, I can call you at your convenience, or you may call me at 715-546-2944. I look forward to our sharing.

In Balance,
Tamarack

More alarm bells. At first, I thought Tamarack was a fake name. Secondly, the man required no training or experience, so how is it that I have what he's looking for? And finally, what can't be said over email that can be said over the phone? So I decided to do a little digging. I started with public records then did some general Google searches. Everything seemed okay - he seemed a little kooky but nothing out of the ordinary.

-cut-

Anyway, I can't remember how I came across your website, but I am so glad that I did. I just wanted to thank you for putting that information out there before I wasted more of my time following up on his ad. There is also a copy of the ad on his website as well.

-cut-

Wanna Play Indian? Give Tamarack $8000

Greedy little creep, ain't he?

In 2002, the Yearlong program only cost $3600.

According to the Wisconsin State Journal, twelve out of fifteen people have quit the 2007-2008 Yearlong so far- a impressive number that almost beats the title holders from Yearlong 2002, which saw two survivors out of fourteen.

Can ya'll say "More money than sense"?

Look, we tried to warn you folks, and now each and every one of you twelve are out $8000 a piece. And Tamarack Song is laughing his racist, playing Indian, new ager ass off all the way to the bank. As the article clearly states, Tamarack and his phoney outdoor school aim to "teach traditional American Indian ways" - a racist, culturally imperialistic purpose if ever there was one. Only REAL Native American traditionals with deep roots in their own Nations can teach authentic, indigenous ways. Imagine if Tamarack claimed he could teach you traditional Jewish ways. The uproar would be pandemonious.

Dear god, white people! WTF??!!

Four are surviving year in the North Woods wild

Excerpts from the article by Ana Davis:

"THREE LAKES -- As dawn breaks over the icy North Woods, four shapes are beginning to stir inside a small, dark, birch bark shelter built deep in the heart of the forest. It's well below zero outside, and the trees and ground are covered in snow."

"The aim of the program, now in its eighth year, is to teach traditional American Indian ways and how to live in harmony with nature, without the comforts and distractions of the modern world."

"The tiny lodge, with its gently puffing campfire, earth floor strewn with pine needles and thatched walls covered with drying socks, has been home to Corley, Bastion Barucker, 24, and Armine Wetzel, 28, both of Germany, and Denise Bosak, 46, of Underwood, Minn., for the past nine months.

They are the last survivors of a group of fifteen who entered the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in May on a yearlong wilderness program organized by the Teaching Drum Outdoor School in Three Lakes."

"Program cost: $8,000 for the year, including equipment, clothing and supplies Starting this year, the school will also offer monthlong internships for those who wish to experience living in the wilderness but cannot commit to a full year, at a cost of $850 per person."

Another Playing Indian Song

Alas, not Tamarack Song this time, but Tim McGraw, who pretends to be an Indian while repeating some of the worst, anachronistic cliches about indigenous Nations imaginable. You Tube the song if you think you can stomach this much racist phoniness in one listening. We can just see New Age nutter Tamarack dancing around in his greasy buckskins to this one.

TIM MCGRAW LYRICS

"Indian Outlaw"

I'm an Indian outlaw
Half Cherokee and Choctaw
My baby she's a Chippewa
She's one of a kind

All my friends call me Bear Claw
The Village Cheaftin' is my paw-paw
He gets his orders from my maw-maw
She makes him walk the line

You can find me in my wigwam
I'll be beatin' on my tom-tom
Pull out the pipe and smoke you some
Hey and pass it around

'Cause I'm an Indian outlaw
Half Cherokee and Choctaw
My baby she's a Chippewa
She's one of a kind

I ain't lookin' for trouble
We can ride my pony double
Make your little heart bubble
Lord, Like a glass of wine

I remember the medicine man
He caught runnin' water in my hands
Drug me around by my headband
Said I wasn't her kind

Cause I'm an Indian outlaw
Half Cherokee and Choctaw
My baby she's a Chippewa
She's one of a kind

I can kill a deer or buffalo
With just my arrow and my hickory bow
From a hundred yards don't you know
I do it all the time

They all gather 'round my teepee
Late at night tryin' to catch a peek at me
In nothin' but my buffalo briefs
I got 'em standin' in line

Cause I'm an Indian outlaw
Half Cherokee and Choctaw
My baby she's a Chippewa
She's one of a kind

Cherokee people
Cherokee tribe
So proud to live
So proud to die

A Note From A Warrior For The People

And one of our heroes. The Angry Indian is the editor of the finest indigenist newswire on the Internet. He kindly reposts our better work, and we thank him heartily for both his acknowledgement and his editorial leadership. The Struggle would be so much harder without the Angry Indian's truly international spirit.

Make the time to read indigenous-centered news from InteligentaIndigena Novajoservo (International Indigenist News). You will learn so much.

To: nemeses.united@yahoo.com
Subject: Good coverage
Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008

Congrats for keeping the light on those that exploit the people.

The Angryindian

Confused Naming Dodems Lose Who Tamarack's Impregnated

Who's yer Daddy? Inquiring New Ager "dodems" wanna know!

The letter below comes courtesy of a contributor who forwarded the handwritten piece to us for publishing. The front of the document contains a note from Tamarack to one of the Teaching Drum cult's basecamps. The other side is a page of writing from a chapter titled "Gifting Path," and is covered with red editor's marks in Tamarack's own handwriting. We've done our best to translate how he intended the story to read, but who knows? He makes up so many things at once, that he can't even keep straight which Dodems (T.'s imaginary friends) are supposed to visit which impregnated earth mother when.

Eh??? No wonder all his editors quit.

Aaniin Folks,

Ken will take you out Spruce Root gathering. He's been doing it for years, & I've shown him how to do it well & right. He'll also show you, after you get back to camp, how to process it (strip the bark, split & coil) and store it.

Could one of you scoot over to the other side to get Niingaabian? If anyone is close to done working out a hide, perhaps you could finish it quickly, or take it off the rack & finish it by hand.

Have big fun!

Tamarack

Back of the note:

My son's name, for which I Quested, is given voice only on the most sacred and private of occasions. Zhingakwe and I normally call him Wabibineshi (Algonquian for Little Morning Bird) in Honor of the Bird who brought his spirit, and who sang every morning in the Moon before his birth from a Tree just to the Southeast of the Birthing Lodge. The song was unique; it was not heard before from a bird of his kind and it quieted immediately upon the birth.

On the waning of the fourth White Season following, the Morning Bird returns, resuming his perch and singing his unique song, but it is garbled. Why is he back and what is to be made of his distorted voice?

Upon reflection I grow fearful: He came with clear voice to bring Wabibineshi forth; might he now be here with muddled voice to call Wabibineshi back? In the next few days, I find that Zhingakwe, who I am no longer with, is to have a child in another place of another Dodem, yet she was still mated with me, under the guardianship of my Dodem.

[Huh? Bub's mum, Lisa, is under Konen's guardianship, but he doesn't know she's preggers and about to have a child?]

Morning Bird had been confused; at the behest of my Dodem, he came to his old perch near the Birthing Lodge to announce and guardian the coming of a new Clan member. Owl apparently knew of the new life within the woman, and assumed I was the father, so requested of Morning Bird that he come sing the new arrival. However, Morning Bird sensed some imbalance with his own presence, which was reflected in his song. Still he honored Owl's request, for that is the way of things in his realm.

Once fully aware of the situation, Morning Bird left, returned Owl's Petition, and Balance was restored.

Our name is our banner; it travels before us and lingers after us, acting as both introduction and legacy. With Native People it signifies their primary connection with the Greater Circle, or with a particular being. Sometimes a name identifies culture, Clan affiliation,

--- end of page ---

When Cornered, Blame The Dodems

In addition to writing about the sweat lodge ceremony for attention and profit, Tamarack Song also uses his hokey fakelore to excuse his sexist behavior. In the first letter to a former student who inquired about his romantic history, he tries to explain away his failed relationships by blaming something he calls "dodems."

A few years later, the same student confronted him on his e-list about his anti-Indian racism and hypocrisy. The result: banishment from the e-list. And more dodem-blaming.

From: "Tamarack Song"
Subject: the stuff of life
Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 13:50:57 -0800

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Well, Rainy Day Woman, you asked if I would share with you what happened to me eight years ago. I will. I was in the middle of a year of celibacy, taken so that I could break my intimate relationship patterns and gain the wherewithal to begin anew under the auspices of my more balanced self. Lisa, with whom I just parted (and who is the mother of my son) was of Dodem Turtle - an extremely hard energy for me to be with. I knew that I was to be with a woman of Hawk Dodem, so that year also gave me time to gain perspective and clear the way for her. I did that, and four women of Dodem Hawk - four powerful illuminators of the dark side of my Moon - visited me in quick succession. It is because of them that I have the Balance I have today; I am so grateful for what they brought me. They were the last to know me the victim and me the enabler. They were the first to taste the ethereal me, the first to know me in a pluralistic sense. I am ever indebted to them for the life transition they helped me through.

But I was a fool: they were my teachers, not my peers. As each flew way I wanted to hold on to her, in order to hold on to the gift she gave. I didn't trust that I carried it within myself, that I could be self-sustaining. I feared that I would sink back into my treachery without them. At the same time I feared that they would torment my mother, and I did not deal well with that.

In the end I rejected each of them when they flew back and tentatively circled over. I did so because, in my faltering way, I recognized them as of a bygone era in my life.

Sortly thereafter it came to pass that I was told I could safely be with one of my own Dodem. I think that in knowing and accepting myself, as Hawk had guided me to do, I could then open to such closeness in relationship. I still don't know that I have the trust to do so, but I have the awareness - the first step.

Me

Anytime Dan Konen is called on his bullshit, he claims it's a personal vendetta, then blames some more dodems. No one here is trying to hurt poor Konen's feelings; we are trying to warn others to run like hell from this racist, sexist predator.

To: teaching_drum@yahoogroups.com
From: "Tamarack Song"
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005
Subject: [Teaching_Drum] Will the real Teresa please...

Greetings Folks,

In spite of how it might appear, "Teresa" is a kind and loving person. I care for her dearly, and I am glad that all of you are being respectful of her. Old Buzzard and David, I'm particularly grateful for your thoughtful and non-reactive responses. If anyone treats her disrespectfully, you'll be hearing from me.

"Teresa" has a deep and genuine concern for the issues she presents, and at the same time it appears to be quite difficult for her to carry on an open discussion around them. This is not the typical "Teresa;" if you were a part of our sharings of old, you would probably not recognize the bright, insightful, inquisitive woman she was then, as the same person you have now come to know.

What happened? "Teresa" has a personal vendetta against me that goes back a number of years. She is trying to hurt me by doing as much damage as she can to what is dear to my heart. She has been waiting for her time to strike, and the issues of Andesvirgo and others have given her a platform. Her anonymity allows her to feel safe, and her denial of the truths of others, enables her to keep clinging to her own truth in order to justify her vengeful deeds.

On top of that, she and I have a unique dodemic relationship, which causes her to feel threatened by me, and me to be wary of her.

How is all this affecting me? My first concern is for "Teresa," because I know how long and hard this has been eating at her heart. I'm glad she is finally able to get something out, disguised and twisted as it might be. I've been praying that she could some day step out of the shadows and begin speaking her truth, and I'm elated at this beginning. My second concern is for all of you. I'm used to being on the firing line -- it goes with the turf; however, you folks have been drawn to this circle for other reasons, and I am concerned that you are not getting your needs met. Issues like this tend to take over and suck up the group energy.

Because this is ultimately about me, I'm hoping that "Teresa" will soon feel safe enough, and have the courage, to come to me with it. If some of you want to keep eavesdropping on this drama, that's OK with me, as I have no secrets. On the other hand, I know that some of you are getting fed up with it. Please let me/us know what you think.

In Balance,
Tamarack

----- Original Message -----
-snip-

Yes, they do practice Ojibway culture both materially
and spiritually at the Teaching Drum. They also
engage in sweat lodges, which is a sacred American
Indian religious practice. When I was visiting there,
a terrible storm came one night and blew a tree down
so close to one of these lodges that it almost
destroyed the structure. I recall Tamarack having
admitted that it was a sign that violations against
this sacred ceremony had been committed.

To do these things on Ojibway land without further
educating people about the abysmal conditions facing
Ojibway people in the Teaching Drum's area is an act
of cultural imperialism. It is racist at its core.
Once again, white folks are putting themselves above
the law. That land the Drum is on is bound by treaty
to the Ojibway people.

Somebody needs to "awaken" themselves to the domestic
and international laws that do indeed bind us to honor
any agreements our ancestors made with American Indian
people. To try to put yourself beyond those treaty
laws by claiming you have no particular ties to the
land you are standing on is a deeply political act.
Once again a white man says: the law does not apply to
me. It is especially offensive when coming from a
white man who owns and profits from a very particular
piece of land that was never his to buy and sell or
profit from in the first place.

Readings on Cultural Respect

This essay by Andy Smith challenges the anti-Indian racism that underlies cultural appropriation by white, feminist new agers - a category that fits the majority of Tamarack Song's female customers.

Readings on Cultural Respect

Andy Smith is a Cherokee woman, a co-founder of Women of All Red Nations (W.A.R.N.) and is active in the anti-sexual assault movement. This article appeared in the Winter 1991 issue of Women of Power. Other versions have appeared in various places. It is hoped that those of male gender reading this do not feel excused because it speaks only to "feminists" and white women. This version was written for a feminist publication; however, Ms. Smith did not intend to exclude anyone.

FOR ALL THOSE WHO WERE INDIAN IN A FORMER LIFE

By Andy Smith

The New Age Movement has sparked new interest in Native American Traditional spirituality among white women who claim to be feminists. Indian spirituality, with it's respect for nature and the interconnectedness of all things, is often presented as the panacea for all individual and global problems. Not surprisingly, many white "feminists" see the opportunity to make a great profit from this craze. They sell sweat lodges or sacred pipe ceremonies, which promise to bring individual and global healing. Or they sell books and records that supposedly describe Indian traditional practices so that you, too, can be Indian.

On the surface, it may appear that this new craze is based on a respect for Indian spirituality. In fact, the New Age movement is part of a very old story of white racism and genocide against the Indian people. The "Indian" ways that these white, New Age feminists are practicing have little grounding in Native American reality.

True spiritual leaders do not make a profit from their teachings, whether it's through selling books, workshops, sweat lodges, or otherwise. Spiritual leaders teach the people because it is their responsibility to pass what they have learned from their elders to the younger generation. They do not charge for their services.

Indian religions are community-based, not proselytizing, religions. There is not one Indian religion, as many New Ager's would have you believe. Indian spiritual practices reflect the needs of a particular community. Indians do not generally believe that their way is "the" way, and consequently, they have no desire to tell outsiders about their practices. A medicine woman would be more likely to advise a white woman to look into her own culture and find what is liberating in it.

However, white women seem determined NOT to look into their own cultures for sources of strength. This is puzzling, since pre-Christian European cultures are also earth-based and contain many of the same elements that white are ostensibly looking for in Native American cultures. This phenomenon leads me to suspect that there is a more insidious motive for white "feminists" latching onto Indian spirituality.

When white "feminists" see how white people have historically oppressed others and how they are coming to very close to destroying the earth, they often want to dissociate themselves from their whiteness. They do this by opting to "become Indian." In this way, they can escape responsibility and accountability for white racism.

Of course, white "feminists" want to become only partly Indian. They do not want to be part of our struggles for survival against genocide; they do not want to fight for treaty rights or an end to substance abuse or sterilization abuse. They do not want to do anything that would tarnish their romanticized notions of what it means to become an Indian.

Moreover, white women want to become Indian without holding themselves accountable to Indian communities. If they did, they would have to listen to Indians telling them to stop carrying around sacred pipes, stop doing their own sweat lodges, and stop appropriating our spiritual practices. Rather, these New Agers see Indians as romanticized gurus who exist only to meet their consumerist needs. Consequently, they do not understand Indian people or our struggles for survival, and thus they can have no genuine understanding of Indian spiritual practices.

Read on....

The Anti New Ager Pledge

Going back through our old posts, we found this gem. It no longer appears to exist on the internet, and regretfully, we have lost the name of the person who wrote it. If any of you know the original source of this pledge, please forward it to us and we will add the author's name and a link.

1. I recognize that New Age Imposters and Exploiters posing as Native Medicine People and Native Elders is a huge problem and very damaging to Native Peoples and Causes.

I realize now I contributed to that problem, perhaps unknowingly.

2. I recognize that TRUE Native Peoples, Native Activists, Native Medicine People, and Native Elders are overwhelmingly OPPOSED to such Impersonation, Exploitation, and Abuse.

I realzie now I contributed to that problem by Ignoring Native Voices in favor of empty feel-good beliefs or false versions of Native Ceremonies.

3. I recognize that New Age Imposters and Exploiters posing as Native Medicine People and Native Elders DISRUPT Native Communities by trying to build their own power bases and in some cases cults.

I pledge to avoid being part of or contributing money or support to such cults.

4. I recognize New Age Imposters and Exploiters posing as Native Medicine People and Native Elders spread RACIST STEREOTYPES of Native Peoples that make it hard for others to see Native Peoples as they TRULY are, diverse, adaptive, and unbeaten.

I pledge to no longer believe in or pass along such stereotypes.

5. I recognize now that New Age Imposters and Exploiters posing as Native Medicine People and Native Elders are very disrespectful towards Native Beliefs when they sell Native Ceremonies, or False or Inaccurate Versions of them, for profit to outsiders.

I pledge to NEVER PAY TO PRAY AGAIN.

This includes any and all:

Ceremonies (including Sun Dances, Sweatlodges, and Naming Ceremonies)
Workshops
Seminars
Readings
Healing Sessions
Apprenticeships

6. I recognize that Ceremonies are VERY SACRED THINGS, and potentially, VERY DANGEROUS if done by those who are not Trained, Authorized, or Respectful.

I realize that Native Ceremonies have NO Place or Value outside of the Traditional Context of their Native Communities, or practiced by Outsiders with little understanding of their History or Place.

I PLEDGE TO NEVER SEEK TO TRY TO BECOME A WANNABE NATIVE OR SHAME- ON, or to pay someone seeking to exploit my misplaced desires.

7. I Do Hereby Pledge to Always Listen to Native Voices First, and to Show Respect and Honor for Native Peoples, Beliefs, Values, Traditions, and Cultures by Working WITH Them on This and Other Issues, and Not by Working AGAINST Them Based on Misplaced, Selfish, or Fantasy Images of What I Would Like Them To Be.

Lety Speaks

And speaks and speaks and speaks, etc.

Ever wonder why all that happens at The Teaching Drum Outdoor School becomes a soap opera? Because these people have absolutely nothing better to do.

Lety writes so much like Tamarack we were tempted for a time to believe HE had written this new-agey junk. The student who sent us these letters assures us, though, that the letters came from Lety's personal email account, and we don't think Tamarack computer savvy enough to have broken into it.

In any event, Lety channels T's evasive self-absorbtion like no other.

First of all I want to thank you for sharing Tamarack's e-mails to you and for opening channels for this exchange to happen.

While waiting for your package to arrive, I asked to read the piece you included with your application for the year long program... I was delighted by the fluidity of your expression - I found myself hoping it would go on and turn into a novel. Your writing created vibrantly colorful images in my mind's eye. Your style is the kind I hate coming to the end of. How could Tamarack not fall in love with this Spirit?!

When your package arrived I felt very open and vulnerable, I wanted to be so, that I may truly receive what you were offering me, in a clear vessel, rather than one cluttered by my own preconceptions. When I read "I need to melt the ice, hold my breath and immerse myself." - Tamarack's passion, turned in your direction. I had to breathe and sit with my feelings.

Here I need to backtrack:

When I came to the yearlong program, I had been separated from Tom, my husband, for almost 2 years, celibate for the same amount of time, fulfilling a long ago promise to myself from which I had taken many detours: to Know MySelf, in my wholeness, the intrinsic and unchangeable, in balance with the moody, temperamental and ambunctious personality. All the aspects and levels which make me Me, connected to the volume of I AM.

My experience at Nishnajida allowed me to poignantly feel a wound up mechanism, which, though rapidly unwinding within the safety and relatively uncluttered mental space I was in, was nevertheless, always within me, acting as a barrier between me and Me.

During the darkness of the Solstice, alone at Wabanon while Seekers were away for the holidays, the wound-up mechanism inside me, unwinding at its own pace, finally came to its last turn - and with tear filled, shimmering eyes, I witnessed and Experienced Me!What I saw and felt filled me with the most reverent awe. How could I
not fall in Love, in love with the Beauty and Glory of the omnipotent immortality nestled in a fragile, soft, perishable shell that was me.

My Joy knew no bounds. The Fruits of my fulfilled Promise intoxicated me with their Nectar. Peace permeated my inner world just as the glimmering white snow quilt covered and warmed the Mother's bosom. I felt freedom from my own relentless judgements of myself; from my trying (though not wanting) to be 'someone' in one of society's domesticated molds, and from my compulsion to justify my every action, thought and feeling by the nebulous rule of good vs. evil.

The Relations from the Natural and Ethereal worlds Celebrated with me, nay,as me. And me as they; my lungs were the trees, breathing for the Mother. The lines of separation disappeared, and yet, I was still in a definite and finite body. Thus, I walk since those days, with a perception which is all inclusive though within the parameters of my own limitations. This is both my challenge and my Gift now.

Early January, Seekers began returning and I began the process of reintegrating to the human community. It was then, that I began noticing Tamarack with different 'eyes'. Up to this point there had been nothing to warn or prepare me for the outpour and intensity of feelings towards him that broke my carefully protected feeling dam. Neither he nor I expected what was to come, and it literally blew us out of the water.

The recognition that we were 'intended mates' felt like Something, other than us had selected us to be together - we were not even each other's 'type', and had not fathomed that we could be attracted to each other in the way that unfolded. I was terrified: "but I only came to Wisconsin for ONE year - NOT to spend the rest of my life!!!" I lamented, realizing how deep my roots had grown in New Mexico.

This would be a terrible blow for Zinnia, who just wanted her mom to return home (Zinnia had left the program around Dec. 11) and to have her old life back. And for my mother, who secretly hoped Tom and I could be reconciled. And all my friends, who are more like my chosen family...and all for what??? for a 'recognition' which I could not explain in words, but which was clearer than anything I had ever perceived. To deny it would be akin to refusing to inhale my next breath.

I decided to fast for five days to gain the strength and perspective that I needed to walk the path unfolding before me. I fasted in the earth lodge at Winter Camp with the support of my group + Jill and Jonas, who heated rocks morning and night to keep the lodge warm. It was early February and temperatures were below zero. With the end of my fast I released my celibacy vows and embraced my future as I had come to embrace my Present during my lone Solstice days.

To put things into chronological perspective: I started to feel drawn to Tamarack the first couple of weeks in January. By around the third week I had realized this was not a simple attraction. After much trepidation on my part and with much encouragement from my inner Voices, I wrote him a letter basically letting him know that if he felt the same signs I did, I wanted to walk our Vision together. We were spending more time together including some nighttimes. I was committed to my time at Nishnajida - so he would sometimes stay at camp with me. We slept together, but he respected my desire to remain celibate. (I am using the word celibate to mean not
engaging in sexual intercourse.)

When things started to feel clearer regarding our intendedness, he told me that he and you had been exploring an important connection between you, the purpose of which had not yet been clarified.

- CUT -

I know Tamarack feels deep caring for you and admiration for the beautiful womin that you are, as well as sadness that you be in pain. Anger and hatred can hurt the people acted upon with these intense feelings, but the damage inflicted on the hated cannot begin to compare with the destruction that the feelings in themselves wreak on the person holding them within.

In the time I have shared with Tamarack platonically and intimately, I have known him to be a kind person of integrity and high moral values. He encouraged me to 'interview' his past mates regarding him, his character, his healing history, etc. when we first got together, so that I may know him from a wider perspective. Even though I do speak with both Jill and Lisa, two of his latest relationships, I have not 'interviewed' them, but I believe I will do so now in honor of the situation that has ensued between you and Tamarack and which is gifting me with a reminder of the importance of full and open communication, of a flow that connects us with all aspects of being, and not only the positive ones. Tamarack's cherishing of my 'flaws' and 'weaknesses' together with my 'joy' and 'wisdom' encourages me to reciprocate the Gift toward him and others...

Besides, I too, care about you as the brilliant person that you are and want to help in any way I can, to alleviate affront or injury, if there be such; to serve as a sounding board, if one be needed, and to also hold your shadow side in respect and honor for the important role that it plays in the grand scheme of life. I am open to talking on the phone or in person and extend an invitation to you to visit in person if you should desire it. Our home is your home and our hearts are open to you. Not one of us can truly return Home until we are all healed and restored to our intrinsic balance.

Even though I may not understand exactly where or why the rift began between the honorable feelings you and Tamarack shared, I feel unconditional love towards you as well as towards him. Perhaps because I have come to love myself in this way.

Everything in my reality mirrors to me how I truly feel about myself. If someone or something shows me ways in which I still despise or judge myself without mercy; that person or situation does me great honor by opening my eyes to a place within me which needs integrating and cherishing. I therefore owe that person or situation a great debt of gratitude. The beauty of this reality is that by paying my debt, I restore the balance that was missing and which blesses not only me, but the whole.

I sincerely hope that your wish, which is my wish also, comes true and that we may always be blessings to one another. Lety

Good Morning ____, Back after another night rich in dreams and Guidance. Wasn't able to send this letter last night and this morning realized why. Wanting to integrate the following awarenesses into the body of the previous letter, I recognized the need to share them in the order in which they are becoming apparent to me.

First of all, I most sincerely hope that my words do not feel like a condescending shpiell. My intent is to communicate that this exercise of examining my feelings and motives is timely and takes me to explore my own perceptions and hidden agendas once again. Every time I hear myself giving 'advice' to someone, or thinking that I'm helping someone else figure something out, I surely find down the line that those words fit me to a tea and help me to expand my awareness and knowing of myself. Of course, if these words happen to help clarify or heal, then the blessing is multiplied.

On my life journey, I found that I held a very deep and strong belief that I was intrinsically evil, and that my least possible denominator surely was dark and low - I stalked myself as I extended that perception about myself to everything and everyone about me. I was even suspicious of the most enlightened people I met, for they too carried within them that 'original sin', and like myself, were so fallible.

As my walk continued, understanding dawned that without forgiveness, I could not experience my own Divinity, that I would be unable to see the Divine within me unless I was able to forgive that which I believed not to be Divine. Forgiveness expanded my perception: my Shadow, as a vital player in my creation - gave texture, dimension and perspective to an otherwise flat landscape. As I was able to forgive myself for that which I was not (the shadow my light cast), then I was able to experience my truest Essence, my Divinity, and consequently, the Divinity of all.

No longer needing to charge an 'eye for an eye', because that 'other eye' is also mine. Relief floods me, there IS justice.

Cherishing this opportunity to recognize the perfection that we already are, I thank You and hold you in my Heart.

Somehow They Always Find Each Other

Isn't it amazing how REALLY bad writers (and dressers) always find each other?

Lety, the woman Tamarack was getting his "intended to be mated" on with while sending "love" letters to a female student, was later sent copies of the letters. She asked the student for further explanation about what really transpired. The student complied. This is an excerpt from Lety's return response.

She do sing a twinkie song, don't she?

Thank you so much for your sharing, for extending your Trust to my listening.

You have strong Wind Medicine in You. The tempest of your turmoil has shaken me to my roots. Branches from my tree have been ripped and shattered at my feet. Green leaves as well as brown ones form a carpet on the sacred ground I stand on. I have put myself in your shoes and reveled in the rich texture of your complexity, and bled with the anguish of your Secret Voices, the ones that haven't found true resonance.

I looked in the mirror and realized it was really me I was looking at. The clamorous din pervaded my being, each Voice weighing heavier than the other, my back sagged, my knees buckled. My eyes flooded over with the thought fueled emotions. There was no hope, the Secret Voices were being drowned by the shrieks of love forsaken ghosts screaming for retribution, for restitution. I realized they were after my flesh, so I gifted them with it, grateful that there was something I could give for their pain. With a prayerful sigh, I capitulated. Death washed over me with its healing balm.

The Present moment was the only reality left, New Life coursed through my veins, and renewed hope filled my awareness.
...........

Caveat Emptor: Key Issues to Consider When Encountering New Age Frauds & Plastic Shamans

From New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans

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:

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.

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.

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.

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" AKA 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?"

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.

Please understand the following points about native spiritual ways:

Native belief systems are COMMUNAL, not focused on the individual's faith like Christianity, and are TRIBE-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.

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.

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 anti-Semitic. Think about the lack of respect these operators show to native people and beliefs, and to 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.

[originally posted 12.30.05]

A Recommendation From a Reader

From time to time, we get requests from readers for recommendations on outdoor schools that are either run by indigenous people or are respectful of them. A year and a half ago, we received one such recommendation from a reader who preferred to remain anonymous. The link for Nuuhchimi Wiinuu Cultural Tours is also on our blogroll.

How to go about finding good instruction on living respectfully with your landbase/bioregion is a perennial question. A lot of people work through a patchwork process until they reach a critical mass of understanding. Your city's urban garden program can show you how to grow a tomato between the concrete, local indigenous activists can awaken you to the realities of the Anglo-occupation they face - and struggle against daily, a hiking club can teach you map and compass and link you up with other outdoor types, volunteering at an animal rescue ranch/farm can teach you compassion and support for non-human ways, midwives can teach you medicine, herbologists can lead you to plants, a running club will introduce you to the miracle of your body moving in rhythm with the ground, and the land herself - if you will take the time to approach her respectfully and with sincere interest - will provide you a homeschooling like no other.

The key is to hang in there and don't give up if one approach doesn't have everything you are looking for. An investment of time will lead to rootedness in your local landbase. While you are busy learning, volunteering, or just being - the land is working on you, slowly weaving her spirit into your soul. Often the best approach is just to ask - what does my landbase need? How can I support First Nations' peoples in their struggle for sovereignty?

And yes, reputable outdoor schools and intentional communities in your area can show you basic primitive skills or back-to-the-land techniques. Just be sure to do your homework by visiting with them or asking around about their reputation. The point is relationships, and the sooner you get to making some, the better.

Lastly, don't overlook your friends and family. They know you like no one else, and might be able to point you in a direction best suited for your own personality and temperment.

Readers who have further suggestions are welcome to contribute their ideas and experiences.

....
The reason I'm writing to you is to let you know about David and Anna Bosum. They're native Canadians who run cultural trips from their village of Oujé-Bougoumou, Quebec. Maybe you could put a link to them, or mention them on your blog? People who want to learn about the bush might be interested in learning from folks who were born in, and have spent their lives in the bush.
.....
Here is the link to David and Anna Bosum's site.

Masturbating in the Sauna: Tamarack's Non-Indian Sweat Lodge

Looks more like a primitive Newgrange than a sweat lodge!





Mothers and Wombs and Fathers and Mating and Blood and Semen and Naked Bodies…

Dear god.

“…to enter the Lodge is to return to the Womb of The Mother and be as a newling in its soft nourishing embrace”?

Clearly, this is one sick fool who does not want to grow up.

“Let us choose a well-worn Path back to the Womb,” Tamarack advises.

Well, who do we know who already has worn a path well to the sacred spiritual rite of the sweat lodge? European-Americans? Hardly. Tamarack is plagiarizing damn near everything he knows (and perverts) about this sacred ceremony from American Indian sources. Don’t hold your breath for the credits, though. Tamarack fears you might just go straight to Native American elders and spiritual leaders for the truth, and he does not want you to do that; he wants you to make everything all about him.

We recognize that far better critiques than ours regarding New Age plastic shamans' cultural theft can be read at sites such as Blue Corn Comics, Oyate.org, and more. But we would like to emphasize some points as well.

Note as you read the sweat lodge fake lore included in this post how often Tamarack fails to accept warning signs from nature about the dangerous risks he is taking, which easily could have killed one or more participants in his perverted, phony ceremonies.

Absolutely no source material for his historical assertions about the sweat lodge is given. We ask you to ponder - could Tamarack have written this same fake lore account using only European source materials? Of course not. Without stealing and remixing many ceremonial details from Lakota and Ojibwe peoples, he cannot write this corrupt trash. It’s a sales pitch, not a sacred text.

Please recognize that real sweat lodge ceremonies are not conducted in English, and never are instructions about the ceremony or participation in the ceremony for sale! Tamarack is only tossing in a smattering of Ojibwe words (which he labels Algonquian) throughout the text to give it that Indian ring of authenticity, which only a fake lore phony needs.

Lest there be any fact-checking with authentic cultural or spiritual leaders, Dan Konen completely eliminates from his fake-lore tall tale, any reference to specific First Nations' peoples - such as the Lakota - and their diverse approaches to the sweat lodge ceremony.

Eliminating origins does several other things for Tamarack as well:

1) it prevents indigenous community oversight, responsibility, and accountability for the safety and preservation of this religious ritual that has been handed down from generation to generation - often at great risk, 2) it allows a white man the racist pleasure of stealing a sacred ceremony from indigenous people, 3) it allows him to sell a corrupted version of the ceremony for profit on the internet or as a part of his Wilderness Guide program, and 4) it keeps all the attention on Tamarack as the official purveyor of the stolen wisdom.

Remember, Tamarack Song is always the point of anything written or run by Tamarack Song.

Eliminating this continent’s indigenous Nations as the originators and owners of their own ceremonies is always and everywhere an act of genocide. Unless you want to commit a war crime, don’t buy it! The sweat lodge is not for sale.

[Editor’s Note: This abomination was included in the Wilderness Guide program’s student packet from several years ago. Tamarack sells a newer version here on the Teaching Drum website. We are reprinting the older copy in full for anti-racist educational purposes only.]

Gifting Path / Tamarack Song

The caterwauling carried on for nearly half the night - scratching, hooting, and wing-flapping. The thin walls of my friend’s tent might as well have been non-existent for all the sleep he got. He was a dozen paces from the Sweat Lodge, which served as that night’s wailing perch for the reputedly silent nocturnal hunter.

Around the campfire at breakfast my bleary-eyed friend bemusedly lamented his scant sleep. Feeling compelled to apologize for my winged brother, I explained to my friend that he was just in the wrong place at the right time. He ended up being the unwitting recipient of a scolding intended for me. But, I assured my friend, his full and colorful recounting of the episode made me feel just about as sleep-deprived as he was.

For some reason he found little comfort in my empathizing gesture. Yet, with more than a hint of a smile, he still found within himself the benevolence to whip us up a generous batch of the bannock he was noted for.

Whether my Dodem’s bluntness is because of his nature or mine I don’t know, but I do know enough to observe the wisdom of his word. I called a long-overdue Sweat Lodge Ceremony for the coming Moonphase.

During the Ceremony as I was addressing my Dodem, he landed on a branch above the Lodge and gave four calls four times in succession. That was the invocation to a Bird Clan Ritual that, unbeknown to the four of us, the Grandfather Rocks had planned for that evening.

As the Lodgeflap opened for the last time, the Loons who kept vigil on the Lake gave seven calls, and we knew to keep the silence of the Lodge!

The Sweat Lodge is the Mother Lodge; to enter the Lodge is to return to the Womb of The Mother and be as a newling in its soft nourishing embrace. To leave the Lodge is to be birthed - to begin anew. It is an opportunity to be cleansed of the soil and scars and burdens which have accumulated since we left the Womb - to leave the past behind - and to be reborn with a clean body and a clean slate. “Don’t look back”, was my direct instruction from one Elder. What we leave behind is kindly absorbed by The Mother; what we are given in return by Her and The Father is the blessing of their renewed presence within our Heart-of-Hearts.

Because one Walks a complete Life path - entering the Door of Death and emerging through the Door of Birth - within the Ceremony of the Mother Lodge, it is a unique Rite of Transition in that it can be repeatedly experienced. This is fortunate, as it is a strongly empowering renewal to the purpose and clarity of our Gifting Path.

The Grandfathers have told me that The Mother Lodge Ceremony itself is in need of renewal, as it has largely disappeared in the face of Civilized intolerance and repression. They said that Balance will be restored to the Land when Lodge Circles return to all the communities of People and their Sacred Fires again light the Breast of The Mother like Fireflies dotting a warm evening’s Meadow.

Some form of Rebirthing Ritual is common to virtually all Native Peoples, and remnants, adapted or newly-created forms exist with most Civilized Peoples. The Mother Lodge Ceremony is the form indigenous to the area in which most of us dwell. It appears to have originated in the Northcountry on one shore of the Atlantic in times long past, and was early on carried to the other shore, spreading inland on both sides.

An early form, which consists of enclosing a Fire in a small Lodge to create sweat-inducing heat, still exists on the western fringes of North America. It has been largely supplanted by the form which relies upon the pouring of water over preheated rocks to form steam. In pre-Civilized times this form was found in Northwestern Europe and the majority of North and Central America. (This, being my indigenous form, and the one with which most of you are familiar is what we’ll be referring to from here on).

In those times, the Mother Lodge on both shores of the Atlantic was of virtually identical form - small and dome-shaped, covered with hides or sod. As the People on the Western shore became Civilized and later Christianized, their Lodges became square in imitation of their houses, and their Ceremony became secularized as did the rest of their lives. Today it lives on as the Sauna, used mainly for communal socializing, stress relief, and muscle relaxation.

In the Old Way the Lodge could be used for either sacred purpose or physical cleansing (referred to by some Natives as Inner or Outer Sweats). Few Peoples use the Lodge for the express purpose of physical cleansing, yet it is one of the natural results of both Inner and Outer Sweats.

Sweat Lodge is the common contemporary term used to describe both the structure and associated Ceremony. Although I use the term in public for purposes of communication, I prefer other terms which are more appropriately descriptive. One does sweat in the Lodge - profusely, in fact. Being one of many results, it falls short of conveying the essential spirit of the Lodge. Other terms used are; Purification Lodge, Cleansing Lodge, Rebirthing Lodge, Stone People Lodge, Healing Lodge, Mother Lodge. I feel that all these terms give Honor to the Lodge. As you know, I personally prefer to use Mother Lodge, because it is Her Womb, no matter what the reason for entering.

In Ceremony the Mother Lodge is called upon to aid Healings, Dreamquesters and others in their Rites of Transition, Thanksgivings and Honorings, conflict resolution, Prophetdreaming, relations with Dodems and Gifting Objects, and ritual bonding, amongst other things. Here we will respect the place of each of these Ceremonies by leaving them to the People who take part in them. We will here come to know the ancient heart, or essence, of all Mother Lodge Ceremonies, bereft of its cultural flesh and specific purpose. I will speak a small generic part of what I have been given by the People of the Mother Lodge - the Native Northern Germanic, Slavic, Baltic and American Peoples.

The Preparation

The Lodgesite

First we seek a quiet place, preferably near Water, which engenders feelings of security and nourishment. Water is the Blood of the Mother and ritual cleanser. In lieu of such a place, it is more important that we have a Lodge than an ideal location. Friends of mine who live in the suburb of a large city have a Lodge in their back yard. Citing their constitutional right to Freedom of Religion, they have been given zoning and ordinance waivers to allow for the structure and associated open Fire.

Then we lay out a circle of Stones to mark the perimeter of the Lodge, which is basically a small, low-roofed Wigwam. The size is gauged to accommodate just the appropriate number of People, leaving enough clearance above and behind each for air circulation. Although usually small, Lodge size can vary dramatically, I’ve been in Lodges that fit just me, that held sixty People, and a variety of sizes in between.

A flap of hide or some other material is hung over the Door to make a tight seal. The Lodge is a complete sphere, comprised of all seven Realms (Directions). Half is unseen, symbolizing the twin - the ethereal aspect, the unknown, the unrevealed. The Lodgepoles, which are anchored in The Earth, reach up and bend to form the arching walls, then join in the center. They are the Cradling Earth, encompassing those inside with Her Blessing energy. Some Peoples build a new frame of live branches for each Ceremony so that Her Blessings will find an easy Path.

Poles reach out in all directions from the top of the Lodge, speaking of the Blessing Circle reaching beyond the bounds of the walls. Many Peoples have multiple doors in their Lodges, even though they only use one (sometimes a second door is used for egress) themselves. These Doors are so that the Realms can bestow their Gifts, and so that Those Who Walk Beyond feel welcome to come and sit amongst.

Sometimes the Human Door faces East, and sometimes West, depending upon culture and ceremony. In the Directions chapter we became more aware of the Gifts of these Realms, so we already have some understandings as to why the Doors are so placed.

A Firepit in which to heat the Rocks is prepared a short distance from the Lodge Door. Consideration is given to nearby vegetation and overhanging branches that might be scorched by the Fire. A firebed is laid and Rocks are added atop, their number depending on need and symbolism. The roundest Rocks are chosen, as angular Rocks are more prone to cracking because of uneven heating. Volcanic Rocks or those with a homogenous structure are much preferred to porous or layered (sedimentary) Rocks. The latter may either crumble from the heat or explode as the water within them turns to steam. Flying chunks of hot Rock are dangerous! To accommodate the Rocks, a small, shallow pit is dug either in the center of the Lodge or off to one side.

The Rocks might be periodically replaced to signify changes of season or cycle, or to meet the needs of a particular ceremony.

Some folks come early to help with preparations for an upcoming ceremony. They may bring firewood, Rocks, or food for the Feast. The area around the Lodge is cleaned up, any needed repairs are made to the Lodge and covering, old coals are raked from the Firepit, and new boughs are lain on the Lodge floor (Being plant related, this is usually done by women). Out of respect for the Motherwomb and the coming Grandfathers I remove all crumbled and sharded Rock from the Firepit and the pit within the Lodge.

For some Peoples, once the Fire is lit, the Ceremony has began. For others, a banner o the laying of a line of demarcation to signify the Ceremony’s beginning and the area to be avoided by non-participants and pets. When the Ceremony is ended, which may be indicated by the removing of the banner or the line of herbs or stones, etc., most Peoples no longer consider the site to be sacred and allow common access.

To empower the Fire, it may be lit just as The Sun Father rises. For certain ceremonies the Fire is lit just as Sun retires, to maintain His continuity of presence and bring His Gift to the center of the Ceremonial Circle. Lighting the Fire when Sun is still with us could be considered disrespectful of Him, as it would be competing with His sky-presence.

The sacredness of the Fire is respected by not randomly tossing in sticks or other debris, leaving care of the Fire to the Fire tender (if there is one), and asking her either for permission to lay on Offering on the Fire or to do it for us. We ask much of Fire, by feeding him well he will feed us well.

The Rocks are usually considered of The Earth, and therefore of female energy, until they are heated. They are then imbued with the Sun Father and emanate male energy. They are know variously as the Stone People or the Teachers or the Old Ones or the Grandfathers. The People honor them for their many Blessings, to some they are the returned Ancients who initially gifted the Mother Lodge to the People.

The Lodgecircle

I was tutored in the Ways and Ceremonies of the Mother Lodge for twenty Winters before I was first called upon to Pour the Water (our term for guiding the ritual) on the Grandfather Rocks. As if in affirmation of my tutelage being completed, twice at the conclusion of those first Ceremonies, Moon in Her pregnant splendor entered the Lodge and bathed the tired Grandfathers in Her lush, cool luminescence.

In that time I was Petitioned to Pour the Water for a Healing. I was anxious and fearful, as I wasn’t sure whether it was my time or place to do so. My Dream spoke of the type of Healing I might someday facilitate, but now?

The Wood burned with such an intense blue flame that we had to stand back from the Fire further than usual. It burned as though it was being fed underneath by natural gas. The Rocks sucked in the scorching heat as though they were insatiable, and kept demanding more Wood. (Later I found out that the Wood is from a rare type of Tree who ferments after dying, then releases alcohol when burned.)

Just as the Door was flung open at the end of the Healing, a powerful Wind came out of the East and entered the Lodge. The evening air was still before that, and grew calm again after that momentary blast.

Twice shortly after those early affirmations I was given powerful lessons about the tremendous responsibility I incurred. The first one came when I allowed someone into the Lodge who was not in Balance with our Circle. In my tradition, we are asked to not take any alterants for four days prior to Ceremony. I made an exception, feeling it was justified because this person was in dire need of return to The Loving Mother. Knowing I made a decision on behalf of the Lodge Circle, and that in doing so I subjected them to any repercussions, I asked to alone be held accountable.

Midway through the Ceremony the Grandfathers stilled and I felt an ominous, ghostly presence envelop the Lodge. I calmly asked everyone to slowly leave the Lodge and walk to the house. When we went in, a woman who was helping prepare the Feast told us that she just heard on the radio that we were in the direct path of an intense , violent Storm. She said they were calling it “deadly” before it even hit, and that she had never heard a Storm warning worded that way before.

Deadly it was. Trees were down all around us, blocking roads and destroying buildings. Somehow our immediate area was spared - with the exception of one large Fir Tree which fell just short of the Lodge, pointing directly at it.

The second lesson came deep in the following White Season, when again as Waterpourer I made a decision affecting the Circle. The Lodge was covered with a thick blanket of Snow, to which I didn’t give a second thought after I checked out the Lodge’s integrity prior to Ceremony.

Shortly before the roof caved in, the utter blackness of the Lodge interior turned a milky white, but this time I didn’t have the clarity to read the sign to Prophet-Shadow the event. (For more on Prophet-Shadowing - the ability to predict an imminent event - see the Primary Senses section of Book I’s Sensory Attunement chapter).

From outside, the Lodge looked like a doughnut - the center of the roof sagged down and rested above the Grandfathers. We were untouched inside, as the walls maintained their integrity. The Doorkeeper went out to scrape off some of the Snowload and brought in a couple sticks to prop up the interior just enough so that the Grandfathers weren’t smothered.

We then continued with the Ceremony, and I Gave Thanks to the Grandfathers for Honoring me with their patience and the opportunity to grow in wisdom.

Besides the Doorkeeper, Waterpourer and Firetender already mentioned, there may be a Lodgekeeper, who cares for the Lodge and immediate environs, and assures that there is an adequate supply of Wood, Water, and Rocks. In the event that someone outside of the Lodgecircle wishes to use the Lodge, this is the person who is petitioned for permission. If there be chance of disturbance during the Ceremony, a Lodgeguardian is petitioned to watch over the Lodge environs.

The Firetender has a number of other responsibilities associated directly with the Ceremony, such as passing the heated Rocks into the Lodge at the Waterpourer’s request, and assuring that the Ceremony is not interrupted or disturbed. The Waterpourer is the voice of the Circle and servant of the Ceremony. This person, as a facilitator and catalyst in Ceremony, must be attuned to the pulse of the Circle and the attendant Energies. She is the one who calls the Circle together for Ceremony. As representative for the Circle, Petitions are presented to her to conduct special Ceremonies.

Those who prepare the Feasts, watch the children, and keep the Homefires burning, even though not a physical part of the entire Ceremony, are still just as much a part of the Circle and are referred to in the Lodge as though they are present.

All are Honored and valued positions; rank and prestige have no place unless they are afforded to all. Each person is a helper and a keeper and a tender - a servant of each other, and of The Mother and Her Ceremonial Circle. Joined hands and shared spirits form the Circle; its strength is limited to that of the weakest hand or spirit, so each brings an equally vital Gift.

A person might have a great ability to share his Gift when acting alone, yet when in the Circle, his contribution will be limited to that which complements the Circle and what the Circle can support. If his Gift in its fullness is deemed necessary by the Waterpourer, she can possibly overcome this limiting factor if she is willing to extend herself and assume the debt of compensation for the ensuing imbalance within the Circle. In order to do so without exposing the Circle to more than it is capable of handling and at the same time not making herself vulnerable to repercussion, she must have the wisdom of perspective and the skills to later release what she has assumed.

There is a feeling of sharedness, a tugging at the marrow that gives a sense of something between those of the Circle that is thicker, more primal than their individual beings. Each person becomes an organ to a greater organism; they join and meld to become one ceremonial being, with one identity and one consciousness.

Amongst those of a Lodgecircle is the feeling of Kinship. Their sharing, though centered on the Mother Lodge, usually extends to other aspects of their lives as well. For example, a member in need of shelter, comfort, or support often finds it readily offered.

Usually, the larger the Lodgecircle, the more evolved is the division of labor. The smaller the Circle, the more apt is everone [sic] to chip where needed.

What we’ve just shared is as it exists in my tradition, and I haven’t found it to vary much in other traditions with which I’m familiar.

Personal Attunement

Personal preparations and considerations seem to be similar amongst varying traditions as well. Having passed out twice myself because of inadequate preparation, I’m glad for this opportunity to pass on some of what may help save you from the need to learn in the same way. Those new to our Circle usually hang around the perimeter for the first time of two before actually joining in Ceremony. So they gain much of the following by observation.

The physiological demands of a Lodge Ceremony are intense. Participating when tired, fatigued, overstressed, or just after eating, is inviting overload. Heartrate sometimes doubles and blood circulation increases (but not blood pressure), because vessels dilate to bring blood to the skin surface to cool the body. Organ function is stimulated and toxins are released. In particular, food in the stomach is best avoided, as it is yet another demand on this already hardworking system.

A half to a full day Fast, depending on the individual and what is eaten, is usually adequate, along with an hour’s Fast from water. Prior to that hour, a quantity of water should be drunk in preparation for profuse sweating.

Those with heart, circulatory, or respiratory imbalance, who are pregnant, or who are unable to Fast, need speak with the Waterpourer before coming to the Lodge. As the Motherlodge can be a place of healing, imbalances do not necessarily preclude joining the Lodge Ceremony. Those of us who are out of shape could have difficulty; which an aerobic exercise routine may take care of. If we smoke or have a physiological imbalance that might be aggravated by the Ceremony, we could be putting ourselves at great risk.

Jewelry is best removed, because it can attract heat and restrict circulation. Hairspray, perfume, nail polish, and scented deodorants ought to be avoided also, as the moist heat draws off and magnifies their essences, which can be nauseating to some.

People new to the Lodge are often concerned about proper dress; feelings range from uneasiness to actual fear. Native People are generally more accepting of the body and more trusting of each other than Civilized People, so in Old Way Circles attire is not a concern. Recognizing the Civilized imbalances and conditionings which have betaken us, my Circle encourages those who are more comfortable covered to remain so without imposing their way on the uncovered, and vice-versa. Some Circles follow a preexisting tradition and some establish their own. It works well for each Circle to discuss the issue and either set a policy or leave it up to personal preference, and convey that to newcomers so that everyone can feel at ease.

Barring other considerations, perhaps the best attire is no attire - to return to the Womb clad as we left it and to be reborn clad as we were when first born. The Blessing Steam can circulate and touch all of the body when uncovered and hair is loose. And sweat can flow freely to rinse the body. One customarily undresses before the beginning of the Ceremony, and because of the weather or consideration of prudence, one may wrap in something easy to drop once inside the Lodge.

If a Lodge is to be used repeatedly I would suggest using something absorbent to sit on lest the Lodge take on the odor of sweat. Those of my Circle each bring a heavy towel or something similar.

Those who know the Mother Lodge are less prone to physical imbalances (particularly viral, such as the common cold) than those who don’t. Yet those with more severe communicable imbalances, because of the close quarters may want to consider not joining the Circle. A return to the Womb may well help restore Balance, yet this is best done in a Healing Ceremony assisted by just the Medicine Person and whomever else she deems necessary.

Occasionally I hear concern voiced as to whether or not conditions inside the Lodge are conducive to the spread of infective organisms. Because factors other than the quantifiable contribute to the Lodge environment, I usually suggest that these People consider what their Heart-of-Hearts tells them and encourage them to act in accordance.

To their pondering I do contribute that many of the tiny People who find us to be a comfortable living place thrive only within the narrow temperature range of our bodies, and are killed by a rise in temperature (the reason we have fevers). The temperature inside the Lodge can rise to almost twice that of the body, making it safer in this respect than normal living environments.

Approaching a Lodge Ceremony properly attuned has much to do with what we can gift the Circle and what we receive. About 15 minutes before entering the Lodge I become quiet, breathe slower and deeper, and slow my pulse rate. By the time of the Ceremony I’m in Circle Attunement (when self-identity meshes with circle consciousness; more in Book I’s Circle Attunement chapter) and centered in my Heart-of-Hearts (Coming to Oneness, the meditation form covered near the end Book I’s of [sic] the Spiritual Attunement chapter, is a great aid.)

Entering Her Womb ill-attuned might be taken by Her as such a sign of disrespect that She could make us feel quite unwelcome. If so, the heat might become oppressive, we’ll feel faint and not able to catch our breath. Our heart will pound in our head and claustrophobic fear will trigger the urge to bolt for the door. The only respite will seem to be outside.

The Mother does not welcome Her children back into Her to have them suffer. Waterpourers generally check periodically to be sure that everyone is comfortable, and get a consensus opinion before the Lodgedoor is closed. So there is usually the opportunity to voice distress, and if not, it should be voiced anyway.

When we leave the Lodge out of turn we disrupt the Ceremony. This may be alright in some instances and not in others, such as certain Healings, which would have to be started over. (To avoid such, Medicine People usually ask those well-familiar with the Mother Lodge to be part of the Healing Circle.) Instead of disrupting a Ceremony we might first wish to welcome the imbalance and embrace its lesson.

Becoming attuned at this point is much more difficult than doing so beforehand, but it is possible. The first and most vital step is to consciously accept the steamy heat not as adversary, but as the healing, cleansing Breath of the Grandfathers. With acceptance and invitation we can become one with the warmth, let it become our breath and essence.

Then we need to regain centeredness. We can do so by feeling our breath and listening to its movement. Notice how our quick, arrested inhales and short, incomplete exhales reflect our agitated state. They also contribute to it.

Let us slow down; take a deliberate deep, relaxed, full breath, all the way down into our gut. Cup hands over mouth to temper the air if it feels too hot. Pause, then exhale slowly and completely. (Though we may slow our inhale we yet tend to exhale quickly and incompletely.) Relax a bit before taking the next breath. After several breaths, our balanced breathing will likely begin to draw our whole self back into Balance, and our discomforts will begin to alleviate. Then we can allow the Ceremony to draw us into attunement.

If, after a period, we are feeling better, we can lower our head, or lay down if necessary, as the air is cooler near the ground. The Waterpourer will probably assist, and if it appears as though we’re not able to attune and gain control, she’ll likely acknowledge that it be best for us to take our leave.

I know of two people who have suffocated in the Mother Lodge. Old Way Lodges are covered with natural materials which allow adequate ventilation. The use of contemporary materials could make an airtight structure, which does not allow air exchange. If anyone feels tired or falls asleep in the Lodge, it could be from lack of oxygen. Let us choose a well-worn Path back to the Womb.

The Grandfathers are usually blown or brushed off before being passed into the Lodge, yet the first steam that rises from them can contain some ash. And there may be some smoke from residual organic matter in the pit which the Grandfathers quickly burn off. So as not to be irritated, we can close our eyes and hold our breath or bend low until the air clears.

Water is poured on the Rocks for ceremonial reasons as well as to create steam to increase humidity and intensify the heat. Without Steam, the hot dry air could irritate the mucous membranes of the throat and lungs. The heat opens pores and increases perspiration, which cleans oils and dirt from the skin.

Depending on tradition, Water may or may not be drunk inside the Lodge. Some feel that not drinking Water helps to maintain the distinction between the Womb and the outside and that the Water is the intended sacred food of the Stone People. Others pass drinking Water during a specific Round or between Rounds (Also called Doors. A Ceremony may be one or several Rounds/Doors, between which the door flap is usually opened for a ritual break and for fresh air).

Those outside the Lodge who are giving support to the Ceremony usually don’t drink Water or smoke, so as to give Respect to the Water, Pipe, and/or sacred herbs being used inside the Lodge.

After the Ceremony a relaxing cool down period is customary, which may begin with a dip in the adjacent Lake or Stream, or a rinse with a bucket of Water. The White Season invites a roll in the Snow or a quick dunk in cold Water, which can feel great to a superheated body. However, those of us not in prime health know that such indulgence contracts the blood vessels, rapidly increasing blood pressure.

After a long ceremony a rinse off is probably unnecessary. The body is already well rinsed by sweat, which gets cleaner the longer it flows.

If one feels faint coming out of the Lodge, sit down immediately, as one stands a good chance of passing out. Sometimes ill-attunement can be struggled through in the Lodge, only to call its due when one makes the effort to stand up.

Occasionally someone will have a sore throat after a Lodge Ceremony, which could be caused by swollen lymph nodes. Circulation within the lymphatic system is slow, which makes it particularly sensitive to dehydration. More Water needs to be drunk before the Ceremony, and maybe in general.

Dehydration can also cause headaches which are experienced after the Ceremony.

Immediately after being so stimulated and its pores being so opened, the skin could be very sensitive. So brushing hair, for instance, might feel best done more softly than normal and we’ll want to be careful with what we put on our skin.

That all my [sic] maintain trust in the integrity of the Mother Lodge Ceremony, tradition asks that what occurs within the Lodge be left there - that we not later speak of it either within or outside the Circle. Some ceremonies are so fragile in their bestowing that the imparting of word or allusion in reference could shatter their Blessings.

When I was young to the Mother Lodge I thought I had a grasp of the above tradition. In short order it proved quite rudimentary. Further tutelage came about through my observation of the effect upon new participants of such statements as, “Did you see that light hovering near the top of the Lodge?”, “Did you feel the chill breeze when that spirit entered as Andy was chanting?”. These sharings (which more often than not strike me as being ego-serving and patently stereotypical) confuse and segregate many who are new to the Lodge. In the flush of their inexperience they might not realize the source or motivation of such statements and take them at face value. The newcomers could thus be made to feel spiritually unattuned or unworthy. A class distinction evolves: The new folks, not having their own experiences validated, become aspirants, wishing and praying for, and sometimes imagining, the same visions as those of the vocal veterans.

When new to the Lodge I was similarly confused by the role of heat in the Ceremony. I was convinced that the hotter the Grandfathers, the greater in the gifting. Therefore, the more intensity I could tolerate, the greater would be my blessing. That may well have been the case for me at the time, because I imagined it to be so and thereby in part created by my own reality.

In retrospect I now realize - just as with those who voiced their visions - that I was affecting the experience of the newcomers. Statements like, “Boy, that was a scorcher; I barely made it through the Door (or Round)!” or “I wish it was hotter”, gave a basis of comparison for the newcomers which again influenced their own experiences.

Yet I learned through my unwitting disrespect: What I consider intense or mild is not necessarily the experience of the next person. What I perceive as heat must have some gifting aspect other than straightforward quantifiable temperature; some of the ritual experience must not be dependent upon the degree of heat. My preoccupation with heat is interfering with my presence - my giving and receiving - and with the communion of the Circle. In emulation of the wise of the Circle, I may best serve by acceptance of what is intended.

In response to their first time in the Womb with the Grandfathers some express either feelings of euphoria or lament the fact that they do not feel such. My impression is that this is an expression of ego voicing its need to be in control. We who are Civilized often look to emotional sensation to confirm that we are having a spiritual experience (first words of Book I’s Spiritual Attunement chapter) No matter how profound, an emotional experience is not necessarily a spiritual experience. But it is an ego experience, so the ego is content - without having to relinquish control she has pleased our Beast (Our ego looks upon us as a plodding, inept being which she must protect, give purpose and guide. The ego has little sense of our whole being as exemplified in our Heart-of-Hearts, nor of the Greater being - our Lifecircle - of which its Beast is part.)

The ego is even more pleased if her Beast is displeased for lack of euphoric experience, for she wasn’t forced to step aside by her Beast’s communion with the Greater Circle. No emotional high means that her Beast could desist from further participation in the Ceremony.

On occasion we may feel out-of-sorts, moody, depressed - we just don’t feel like joining the Lodgecircle. For me such feelings are my cue that I need to join the Circle; I’m weighed down with debris and could benefit greatly by giving effort on my part that I might receive the gift of cleansing.

We have just gained a fuller awareness of the Gift of the Mother Lodge Ceremony and of the personal involvement she requests of us. As with other activities of similar intensity, we face little risk and have no need to fear when we are attuned and prudently prepared. In fact, we may know more risk and fear by not Returning to The Mother-Belly. For countless generations our Ancestors have gained nourishment of spirit and renewed strength in the deep, gentle Cradle-Womb of the Earth. Now they are honored as we again join with them.

The Ceremony

The Gift of the Mother Lodge Ceremony comes from the Fertile Union of The Father and The Mother - the Mating of Earth and Sky that occurs when the Rocks are placed in the pit in the Lodge.

The glow within the Grandfather Rocks is the living Semen, and the oval of the Grandmother Pit is the living Egg. The Semen travels the Sacred Path - the Gissis Mikana (Algonquian for Sun Trail), from hot, bright, open Fire to cool, dark, secluded Earth. The eternal rhythm of union and parting, the endless Loop which draws everything upon itself, is contained in the Ceremony of the Mother Lodge.

The child of the Union is the rising Steam, which is imbued with the balance of energies from both Parents, and infused with the Gifts of the Realms. The Steam is the breath of the Stone People, the potent Living Air (see Sacred Sites chapter) which can pass through a person and knows not the bounds of the Lodge.

Water, Fire, Rock, and Air - the four Elements - come together in the Lodge in a ritual of which we are but the servants and peripheral observers. We hear the Elements’ Song of Balance in the Grandfathers’ low chant upon being gifted with Water.

Some begin the Ceremony with a Smudge - of the Lodgetools, the Lodge, and perhaps themselves. Depending on the reason for the Ceremony, other preparatory rites may be performed.

Now that we are prepared to enter, some of us might feel some shyness or apprehension. This is typical when standing at the doorway of a Rite of Transition, as it is a major turn in the Hoop of Life. Some say the feeling is similar to that on the eve of their Marriage or Dreamquest.

We reenter the Womb close to The Earth, just as when we were first born from the Womb. By crawling in we acknowledge our humility and reverence for The Great Mother, returning to Her as the little children we are. This also helps eliminate whatever may have distinguished us from each other out in the world, as we all enter on the same level and in the same garb. In the absolute dark of the Lodge all are aspirations of the same Breath.

In my tradition, and in some other familiar to me, an expression of our relationship to Bimadisiwin (all Life; Algonquian) is uttered when crossing the threshold, either going in or out of the Lodge. This giving of our different voices to the same recognition helps to put individual identity into perspective while drawing into the Circle.

In most of the Lodges of my experience, the circular motion of all things is honored after entering by crawling Sunwise around the perimeter and taking the farthest place. The Lodge is exited by either retracing the entry or continuing Sunwise to the Door. The ceremonial sharing rotates Sunwise (another reason the parts of the are called Rounds) and ritual items passed into the Lodge are handed Sunwise completely around the Circle to reach the Waterpourer. In this way also everyone takes part in the providing and presenting of the ritual items.

The Waterpourer may have some preference as to the order of seating within the Lodge. She could select individuals attuned to particular Realms to sit at their Doors, so that those energies would have the best mediums for entering the Circle. She will ask one to be Doorkeeper, who is to open and close the door flap when appropriate, tend to the needs of the one who pours the water and be her intermediary if anything is needed form outside the Lodge. Perhaps she would have women sit on one side of the Lodge and men on the other, as is the custom with some People. (As I know the Realms, women are of the South and men are of the North. In my way, Balance comes to the Circle when men sit in the women’s Realm and women sit in the men’s.)

With both men and women in the Lodge the Waterpourer might choose a couple in Balance or a person of both female and male energy to sit between men and women. This helps to form a continuum within the Circle.

The Pourer of the Water usually enters either first or last, although certain ceremonies require that he sit in other places in the Lodge. This is particularly true of a Healing, where the Medicine Person may choose a place that will align himself with the Gift most conducive to the Healing. In this case he might not be the Waterpourer; he could have others assisting.

There are ceremonies that also require people to take certain positions outside the Lodge, perhaps performing particular functions or touching the Lodge to help feed the Ritual Circle inside.

The floor of the Lodge may be covered with an herb, such as evergreen boughs who release their essence and vitality to the Ceremony as they are rested upon. By assuming an erect posture and not using the Lodge as a backrest we, Honorably address the Stone People, encourage alertness and allow for good circulation and breathing.

Mood and manners within the Lodge are in keeping with the sacred presence. The atmosphere is deep and meditative, and can be spiritually and emotionally intense. (This is not to imply that levity has no place.) Words are addressed only to the Stone People. We are their guests, their servants.

At the request of the Waterpourer, the Firekeeper will pass Stone People into the Lodge at the time and in the number appropriate to the ceremony. Each Stone Person may be given a greeting (Some of us of the Bird Clans raise our wings in salutation, as well as to catch the Gift of the First Steam), and may be festooned with sacred herb or anointed with a drop of sacred oil. The Stone People could be placed in a special order in the pit, perhaps in Honor of the Realms or to help empower a specific ceremony.

If a Stone Person is dropped on the ground in transit from Fire to Lodge, the fertilizing flow of Sun into Earth into Sun has been interfered with. The Stone may be returned to the Fire and another taken.

On occasion, a Stone Person breaks into pieces in the Fire, choosing not to Walk the Sun Trail. This could mean the Stone has a Teaching for someone in the Lodge, or different Teachings for more than one. The Stone Person decided that the Teaching was of such value and timeliness that he gave his life to empower it. By the end of the Ceremony, the Teaching will have been received by the intended.

In its essence, the Mother Lodge Ceremony is a Water Ceremony. Women, being the Keepers of the Water, often provide and perform ritual on the Water for the Ceremony. Like the Grandfathers, Water may be greeted upon entering the Lodge. In some traditions the Grandfathers themselves greet water. In Honor, Water is the last thing brought into some Lodges and is passed out before new Stone People are brought in and before anyone (Human or otherwise) enters or leaves. Some Lodge Ceremonies are begun and ended with a Water Smudge.

When Drum is in the Circle, He is the facilitator and the Waterpourer is Drum’s helper. Drum’s unifying heartbeat is a powerful force in helping us to let go of our personal needs and draw into the givingness of Circle awareness. Our goal is to rest the ego, to become as one in voice and body. In this way we lend ourselves fully to the intent of the ceremony, which may well be beyond our understanding of the moment. In trusting we are entrusted; the Wisdom of the lodge knows the greater need and will gift accordingly.

When Drum is in the Circle, He is the facilitator and the Waterpourer is Drum’s helper. Drum’s unifying heartbeat is a powerful force in helping us to let go of our personal needs and draw into the givingness of Circle awareness. Our goal is to rest the ego, to become as one in voice and body. In this way we lend ourselves fully to the intent of the ceremony, which may well be beyond our understanding of the moment. in trusting we are entrusted; the Wisdom of the lodge knows the greater need and will gift accordingly.

As beyond self as some of us strive to be, some of us still succumb to plying the grandfathers with a personal question. Perhaps we are so desirous of guidance that we overlook the fact that a question can get in the way of the answer. The question sets up an expectation which could color what we hear in response. Yet more elemental, our question is usually not what we actually want to ask, either because we are not fully in touch with our need or because we are too shy to voice what actually needs asking. As we know, the greater Wisdom knows our need, whether we do or not; what we need to know is trust.

Those new to the Lodge have a tendency to speak and chant at a fast pace, which can dominate and accelerate the flow of the Circle. it can also pull people out of Circle attunement. When we give ourselves time to find our place within Drum’s rhythm, we better speak as one.

Our perceptions in the Womb are not as they would be outside the Womb. Bodily smells are not noticeable. What we hear as crying is not for pain or hurt, but for cleansing. Some of what is spoken seems to make no sense to another, yet it gifts the Circle. What we see may still be seen when we close our eyes. it may not be visible to the next person, or to that person it might look entirely different or appear at a different time.

For example, the illustration which began this Journey - chapter is an imaginative rendering bearing little resemblance to what anyone actually saw and experienced in the Lodge. if it was a graphic depiction it would not appear here, as it could put some of the experience’s Blessings up for grabs. Francene, the artist, and I created the illustration to give a non-verbal feel for the Rebirthing Energy of the Mother Lodge Ceremony.

As the Ceremony nears its end, the way of the Lodge to which I belong is to wait through the Stone People’s ever-quieting voice until they have spoken their last. This is out of Respect for their giving efforts, and because we do not want to miss a single word.

A Feast follows - a Celebration of Birth!

In leaving this step I again feel regret for not being able to share more with you. I know the need, and I know some of you are ready for more at this time. Yet this is as far as words can take us. I ask you not to attempt a Mother Lodge Ceremony on the basis of these scant notes. Go to the Elders in your area, or find a Lodge Circle which honors the Traditions.

Teaching Drum Non-Indian Adult Summer Camp Pics

Our thanks to an intrepid contributor who sends in these photos of hunter-gatherer wannabes setting a good example for the town of Three Lakes, Wisconsin during the Teaching Drum's Wilderness Guide program circa 2002. Ice cream and canoes make Tamarack Song's Playing Indian summer camp so much fun!

Our photo donor states that the person eating ice cream on the right kept that tub on reserve at the store for use during his frequent, in-town visits. We've heard of that being done with bottles of alcohol at bars, but never ice cream stores! Man, you gotta be some kinda bored with the Teaching Drum's Wilderness Guide program for a trip into Three Lakes to put that kind of a smile on your face.

Pathetic.



Extreme tourism has its perks - like nice shiny new canoes:

How To Become a Famous Outdoor Guru

We've been digging through our archives and found this gem, originally posted in June 2006. Raise your hand if you think Tamarack made up the "She Who Talks With Loons" character in his book Journey to the Ancestral Self.

Our thanks to Tim Smith of Jack Mountain Bushcraft and Guide Service for permission to reprint this hilarious post on outdoor gurus. You will probably find it sounds all too familiar.

How to Become a Famous Outdoor Guru

If you work as a guide or teach wilderness survival for any length of time, someone, or more often lots of people, are going to ask your opinion of those individuals who have elevated themselves to celebrity status in this type of work. I duck these questions and avoid these types of conversations, if only because after years of exposure to them I've never seen anything positive come out of them.

A few years ago a friend and fellow Maine Guide told me his thoughts on this while we were on a remote riverbank waiting for sourdough biscuits to cook in a reflector oven. He had figured out a theory as to why these people (and there are a few of them) are able to capture the attention of the public. He found what he believed to be a common thread running through the stories of many of them. He then explained it to me as a series of steps I should take if I wanted to become an outdoor guru and get rich.

The steps he defined are as follows:

1. Apprentice, study, or learn from an experienced practitioner in the field who is getting on in years. If their ethnicity is other than yours, all the better.

2. Upon their passing, write a book about their profound effect on you as your mentor, as well as how they passed their wisdom, which has become lost in the modern world, onto you.

3. Position yourself as the only way for the public to access that lost knowledge.

Through reading your book, the public will be hungry for the type of lost knowledge they can now only get through you. As a result you've defined yourself as an expert in the field, or more appropriately, the expert, because you're an expert in that lost knowledge.

After thinking about it for a while he seems to be onto something bigger than he realizes. It isn't a complicated formula, but it does take time. Those without the time necessary have simply invented their guru in their writings, either in physical or spiritual form. But it doesn't stop there. The "guru express" can be ridden third and even fourth-hand these days, as people are busy promoting themselves as having studied with the person who studied with the guru. It will be interesting to see how far down the line it goes.

Of course, if all of this is too complicated, you can always star in your own TV show. Then you'll be an instant guru.

In the end it doesn't matter who you've studied with or what they've done. It matters what you've done.

Tamack Song, Catholic Golddigger

Isn't that just rich? In this letter to the editor, Tamarack Song advises the citizens of Three Lakes Wisconsin on protecting stolen land. When he says "our" he means whites. He has no intention of recognizing the land as belonging to Ojibwe people by both treaty and tradition. He only wants to use snatches of Ojibwe language and old way culture to give his Playing Indian outdoor school that ring of Native American authenticity only white, new age burnouts would buy.

Throughout the world, the Catholic Church illegally owns tremendous amounts of stolen indigenous land. In this letter to the editor, Dan Konen the Catholic does nothing to remind white, Amerikan squatters of this fact. Dan Konen DOES live in a gated community! Anywhere outside an Indian reservation, barrio, ghetto, battered women's shelter, or prison is a gated community protecting marauding, Anglo thugs from those they have subjugated and dispossessed.

Don't be fooled. Except maybe his own image, there is nothing Tamarack Song loves more than other people's land and money.

Catholic archdiocese could havespent gold to protect creation

Dear Editor:

As a born and raised Catholic, acolyte and former seminarian, I would like to comment on the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago’s sale of its 900-acre parcel surrounding Clearwater Lake in the town of Three Lakes.

Because the archdiocese utilized the property only for a youth camp, the lake has remained largely undeveloped. In this day of intense shoreline development, this 358-acre crystal-clear lake stands out like a rare jewel — a pristine relic of what all of our North Woods waters were once like.

Would it not seem reasonable to preserve Clearwater Lake for our children and our children’s children, so they, too, could experience the serenity and majesty of nature that lured our parents and grandparents northward?

Instead, the archdiocese chose to go the route of a hush-hush sale to a developer. Yes, the proposed low-density condominium development is better than the squeeze-out-as-many-lots-as-possible approach. However, you and I will never see that lake — it is going to be a gated community, with no public access.

“Look at the money it will bring into the area,” I hear over and over. Are we ever going to stand up and say, “Enough! Our children’s birthright is worth far more than just another bag of gold.”

I understand the financial troubles of the Catholic church. My home diocese is going bankrupt, and my parish is merging with three surrounding parishes, in hopes that together they can keep the doors of one church open. Meanwhile, one of our local North Woods parishes is putting the finishing touches on a brand-new $9.6 million church.

Do we really believe that pieces of gold and an extravagant new building are going to buy our salvation? I wonder how much more it would count if we were to spend some of our gold on protecting the glory of God’s creation.

Tamarack Song

Three Lakes

Hunter-gatherer Wannabe Tamarack Song Gives Business Advice To Tiny Town

Thanks to a series of letters to the editor that Tamarack recently has written for the Vilas County News-Review, we can see there is no pole dance Dan Konen won't do to get money and attention. Remember as you read the business advice about trucks and budgets Tamarack is giving the citizens of Three Lakes, Wisconsin, that this is the same fool who has students at his glorified fat farm out foraging for berries and roadkill to feed themselves so that they can be more hunter-gatherer.

We've said it once; we will say it a thousand times. Tamarack makes his living off tourism and tax breaks, not hunting and gathering. He calls himself and his cult "natives" yet ignores the oppression of real Native Americans because they aren't hunter-gatherer enough. But budgets and trucks and town planning (yes, TOWN planning) are not a problem as long as the town is run by whites and will give him the attention he so desperately craves.

Sick.

Good budget ideas rejected in the heat of hearing

Dear Editor:

An open letter to the citizens of Three Lakes:

Now that the dust has settled on the Nov. 29 Annual Budget Meeting, I’d like to offer a few comments. I think the budget, as a whole, was solidly engineered and a credit to the members of the town board and involved citizens. They stretched the limited available revenues to cover, not only necessary services but some of the unique features that make Three Lakes a special place to live and visit. Just as importantly, they dedicated resources to the future vision of our community.

There is yet one area where we could improve — town planning. This was brought to light over the issue of the new trucks needed by the road department. Two trucks were requested. The board decided to write one into the budget as a cash purchase and perhaps purchase the second one next year.

At the budget meeting, John Olkowski made a motion that we purchase both trucks this year by financing them. He emphasized that financing major purchases is sound business practice. The motion carried.

There was only one nay vote, by Supervisor Dave Hapka. And there were several abstentions — I was one of them. It wasn’t that I disagreed with Olkowski, because he brought up a valid point (along with several other good proposals). My concern was that when major issues come up, we have a habit of often either making knee-jerk decisions or the discussions degrade to shouting matches.

I think we need to show more professionalism. With an ever-increasing annual budget and new services being demanded by an expanding leisure-recreation population, Three Lakes is growing and we need to grow with it.

We have a great group of wise, experienced and dedicated people; we just need to learn to work together. We have to listen to the voices of all our citizens, whether we like what they have to say or not. Diverse opinions are needed to keep us sharp, make sure we are considering all angles and meeting all our citizens’ needs.

In the case of the trucks, the momentum of the moment buried Hapka’s voice, and I think we are all the poorer for it. Both Hapka and Olkowski had good ideas that should have been given adequate research and consideration. Also, we should have consulted the Wisconsin Towns Association for advice. Their expertise, based on the experience of the state’s 1,266 towns, is always available to us.

How could this be accomplished? One way is with a one-time focus committee, comprised of those who have interest and expertise on the issue. The committee would research the issue, pass their information on to the town board, perhaps with a recommendation, and then disband. The board would then be adequately educated so they could make an intelligent and informed decision.

Were I on the truck purchase committee, here are the considerations I would have brought up, based on my experience running five for-profit businesses and 30 years’ involvement in the nonprofit sector:

Nonprofit and for-profit corporations need to be budgeted and financed differently. A principle of for-profit business is to use someone else’s money, for two reasons:

• The interest is tax deductible.

• Unspent money can be reinvested to increase profits.

This does not apply to nonprofits, because they don’t pay taxes. The interest comes out of the nonprofit’s pocket, which in this case, is the taxpayer’s pocket. Because a nonprofit is not in business — it does not reinvest to make profit — the saved money is usually allocated to goods and services. This artificially inflates the budget, which is near impossible to bring back down in line in following years. The upshot: the more money that is borrowed, the bigger the budget grows.

Simultaneous purchases of the same piece of equipment are usually not recommended; they are staggered because:

— replacement will then be staggered, which spreads out capital outlay and maintains a stable budget;

— varying-aged aged equipment keeps maintenance at a constant, rather than peaking and bottoming, as with same-aged equipment; and

— overall fleet reliability is maintained.

I welcome talking with anybody who would like to explore ways of improving the management of our already good-running town.

Tamarack Song

Three Lakes

Mystery Guest Dishes Dirt on the Teaching Drum

A dear reader chimes in on the post "What's the problem here? Why "New Age Fraud" Fits Tamarack Song to a T" with alleged drug arrest and child support information s/he says was found in county court records. While none of us here are close enough to Rhinelander, Wisconsin to go down to the court house and confirm the info, we found the comments worthy of front paging as they fit a pattern of dirty secrets so prevalent with all things Teaching Drum.

Anonymous' comments reminded us of the rumors that used to swirl around the house and the camps about the first few Yearlong classes Tamarack ever held. Due to Tamarack's complete incompentence and lack of outdoor leadership experience, the first Yearlongs were said to have been nothing but drug and booze parties in the woods. The story was that he actually kicked the students off "his" land! He did finally manage to put a stop to all the wild parties and give the program a little more structure, but just barely. The rumors that constantly dog Tamarack Song and his school are a direct result of Tamarack's intentional mystification of his origins and training and relationships - a sure sign of a guru/cult leader if ever there was one. There's no trail of accountability. No one can verify anything he asserts.

As for the child support tip from Anonymous, again it's not something we ourselves have confirmed, but it dovetails with a rumor once prominent at the house and camps. Apparently Dan Konen waged one of the most bitter custody battles that Oneida County Wisconsin has ever seen. The settlement gave Konen possession of Wabibineshi (Morning-Bird, aka Rabin, aka Bub, aka Dan Konen's white child with the Ojibwe name). The court battle was so acrimonious, it was said, that people in the town of Three Lakes were shocked beyond belief that such a seemingly peaceloving man could be so violent. Of course, only Konen's former wife can confirm the scuttlebutt. Since we have not contacted her, take all reported here with a grain of salt and make up your own minds.

That Dan Konen avoided the Vietnam War does not appear to be in question: he pretty much says as much in the only book he has ever been able to get published by someone other than himself - and that was way back in 1994! Anonymous took issue with Tamarack wearing military style garb - to convey militancy apparently - yet never having served in the armed forces. While we would not encourage military service in any of this country's race wars, we do agree that it is wrong to don the garb of the imperial forces to try and look all badass. It's kinda like a white person shaving his head to the skin, then enjoying the sense that others perceive him as a dangerous skinhead to be given a wide berth. In any event, the time is long past since white peaceniks wearing military gear was seen as subversive.

Here are the relevant comments:

Anonymous said...
Perhaps just informing the people of Konens past in Tigerton WI with the Posse .... Or the fact he was a Vietnam conscience objector, yet proudly stands in photos from his school of ill repute wearing military clothing! Or perhaps the drug raid in 2007, where an arrest was made at the Teaching Drum! He is a Koresh or Rev. Moon brainwashing wannabe!! Need to know more??

1/15/2008 2:15 AM

Anonymous said...
Someone needs to ask Konen why is he in such poor health, if living is way is so healthy? Maybe all that mosquito training now makes him in need of his cardiologist?? It sure wasn't from working hard, that drone is too busy mating. Dude, lay off the sex and shrooms!

1/15/2008 2:23 AM

Nemeses said...
Wow Anon! With tips like that, you so need a better name than Anonymous. We'd like to front page your findings, but can you tell us where/how you found the information?

And yes, yes, yes! We'd like to know more.

1/15/2008 10:04 AM

Anonymous said...
Much came from MANY hours reviewing public court records, and years of trying to reveal the core of this slime! Recent court records show the income he "claims" to draw from the "school" as he receives child support from his exwife! OH what a man!! Dorothy must be so proud of her son!! As far as the drug bust, Oneida County Sheriffs Dept.

Since we're talking about Tamarack's hypocrisy, it seems like a good time now to resurrect the Banishment issue to illustrate how cult-minded the Teaching Drum circle is. Back in Fall of 2005, one of our contributors confronted Tamarack's racist refusal to stop calling himself and his followers "Natives," as well as his refusal to expose his students to authentic Ojibwe history, culture, and contemporary people at his "school" - which would reveal just how far his overprivileged customers are from real Native Americans. The confrontation resulted in the Banishment of the person who dared to challenge Tamarack, which just goes to show that his claim to respecting "truth-speaking" is as phony as everything else about him. Confront him and he will ritually kill you off. Note that not one of the Teaching Drum's sycophantic, transient bootlickers (including Warrior Glenn) stood up against this blatant act of racist, sexist censorship:

To: teaching_drum@yahoogroups.com
From: "Tamarack Song"
Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2005 14:28:21 -0600
Subject: [Teaching_Drum] A death in our group

Greetings to my Kin,

As an elder of the Circle, this person has been asked to inform everyone that "Teresa" has Passed Over (died). In her life she had brought us a tremendous gift -- an awareness of the preciousness of Truthspeaking. She had also struggled with recognizing that what really matters is not what we do, but how we do it. This made it very difficult for her to speak the truth of her heart and honor the truths of others. She has chosen to Walk On, so that she would no longer torment her people, and so that she could reconnect with who she really is, and find healing. If and when that happens, she will come back to life and return to gift her Circle with the intrinsic beauty of her person and the balance that she walks. We will then hold a great celebration, welcoming her back as a long-lost sister.

As her kin, we support her in her Passing Over by recognizing that she has become invisible. Her spirit will want to linger, because it finds comfort here among us. This is good and necessary, because it gives us the opportunity to participate in her journey by consciously sending her off. If she stands in front of us, we are to look through her; if we hear her voice, we are to ignore it completely, so that her spirit will not be fed. If a "From TF" e-mail comes, it gets deleted without even opening it. Any acknowledgment at all, of her existence, will keep her here, rather than embarking upon her healing journey.

"Teresa," we are grateful for your time with us and we honor you for the powerful teachings you have brought us. We wish you blessings on your walking, and we await your return.

Mashkigwatig w Nagamon nindizhnikaz, Gookookoo neen dodemTamarack Song, Owl clan,on behalf of the Teaching Drum CirclePlease visit our website at http://www.teachingdrum.org/

A year later, the guru sends the following e-resurrection notice to the Banned One, which she kindly forwarded to us:

"Tamarack Song"
Subject: Folded Wings
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006

Greetings ***,

When I first met you, I recognized something you couldn't disguise: the quick flash of connection that shot from your eyes every time you keyed on to something that resonated with you. As quiet as you attempted to be, I still learned much about you. We got to know each other, even though it didn't -- couldn't -- happen in typical fashion.

Yes, there was all the standard stuff I picked up on. And then there was the quality I've seen in only a few people spawned by this culture -- an organic awareness of one's essential self that was neither stomped out nor did it need to be revived by some conscious process. Was it some genetic anomaly, or perhaps an early-learned adaptation or self-protective mechanism that allowed you to remain functional and at the same time not lose yourself?

The reason didn't matter; I just felt blessed for the privilege of knowing you. Obviously we were intended to meet and join our energies in some way, and I'm still convinced of that. I am inviting you to come and join our Circle. We would be honored to have you.

Tamarack

Well, sorry you hypocritical Creep, you cannot have her back; she belongs to us now, and we thank her for her unwavering support. May her terrible experience be a warning and a lesson to us all.

Follow-up 1.17.08: More tips from Anon:

Check out the: Wisconsin Circuit Court Access web page also known as CCAP. This has all court records from all counties in the state of Wisconsin. These are all open to the public! Konens Case # 1994FA000090 and 1994A000090 , Oneida County. Also in search of his many bogus appearances, is the hearing where he had his named changed. And where did this money come from?? Konen moved here with no pot to piss in, now he has more then the working man!!

1/17/2008 2:02 AM

Go to it, Dear Readers! Phonies can lie, but they can't hide their court records.

Fellowship of the Fakelore Phonies A Flop

The Fellowship of the Fakelore Phonies, otherwise know as The Guardian Warrior Fellowship of the Old Ways, is apparently a bust. Guardian Warrior Glenn has absconded to the very radically hunter-gatherer University of Alaska, and Guardian Warrior Dan Konen (acting as Tamarack Song) continues to beg for help titling fakelore books that no one but himself will publish.

The Guardian Warrior Fellowship of the Old Ways website states the following as its "Vision for the re-emergence of the guardian way & the creation of the fellowship":

1. Build common cultural understanding via information
& discussions through this website.

2. Individuals begin laying the core foundation for
training (connecting to our native selves).

3. People linking up & coming together for intermittent
training (via gatherings, informally, etc.,).

4. Formation of viable guardian traning camp(s) &
fellowship(s) in active service of the people.

After months and months and months of the existence of the Guardian Way website, a whopping total of twenty-nine posts were made for the ENTIRE year of 2007 at the online hunter-gatherer primitivist yahoo group set up to facilitate their warrior vision. Replete with fakelore galore, the website - like everything else Tamarack Song - shows what happens when Anglos separate indigenous wisdom from the community of real Native Americans to who it belongs. Tamarack's writings posted on the site are a bizarre mix of re-worked, Native American-esque themes and tales whose real origins are obscured so that Dan Konen can claim credit for (and sell) the stories without being accountable to the very specific, Native American nations for whom these themes have helped create cohesive societies for millenia.

Of course, the last thing Dan Konen and his Teaching Drum groupies want is accountability and cohesiveness, as evidenced by the number of white tourists - like Warrior Glenn - who just come and go as they please. Nothing speaks more directly to the nature of white privilege than the capacity to pick up and leave whenever "The Old Ways" become financially, emotionally, or intellectually inconvenient or uncomfortable.

Despite the warrior website's flop, however, the white males playing Indian at the Teaching Drum Outdoor School have managed to dig themselves a very nice hole of late. Note the butchered Ojibwe they use to give their mud hole and support camp that ring of Indian authenticity that every white wannabe just must have.

More Half-Truths From Tamarack

What Tamarack Song (Dan Konen), our little hunter-gatherer wannabe, whites-can-be-natives propagandist fails to tell his readers in the letter below, is that as a 501c3 non-profit, the Teaching Drum gets tax breaks from the US government. It's how he is able to own Ojibwe land.

He's a purist about his food, but not his blood money. Once again, Tamarack is lying. He does NOT get his tax breaks from hunting and gathering. He gets his tax breaks from the violent, authoritarian, Euro-American, United States government.

To: Teaching_drum@yahoogroups.com
From: "Tamarack Song"
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:40:27 -0600
Subject: [Teaching_Drum] The Mother's bounty

------Original message from Roger-------

Remember, oranges, oatmeal, purchased whole grains, bread, pasta all come from farming, unless you harvested the grains and fruit yourself from the wild, also cotton, most wool and silk are from farming. How much of the food at the house area and at the primitive camp area is actually purchased and from farming/agriculture -?

I don't have a problem with that, I am just curious how practical is it to think of living completly off the land, hunter gatherer, all food, clothing and shelter?

------Tamarack' s reply------

Roger, I know you from this group, but unfortunately I can't remember your visit. My guess is that it was a while ago if you saw oatmeal, grains, bread, and pasta here, because the School hasn't purchased any of that stuff for years and years. If you'd like to see what we're like now, you're welcome to come and visit anytime.

You asked how much food is purchased here at the "house," which perhaps shows how loooooong since you've been here. The house has grown and multiplied: we now have a log cabin office, a guest cabin, four staff cabins, and a library-bookstore. We're 20 people altogether, including three children, and we forage all of our meat and fish and purchase almost all of our fruits and vegetables. During the Green Season the year-long seekers hunt and gather all of their own food for a period, and receive food drops of mostly purchased food every three days during the rest of the year.

You asked how practical it is to have food, clothing, and shelter needs met off the land. For those who know what they're doing and have a balanced relationship with the Hoop of Life, it's simple. A couple of weeks ago we were netting Whitefish and Cisco, and in an hour we had over 100 pounds.

Right now we have bushels of black walnuts drying in my living room -- all we had to do was pick them up off the ground. At our camps, shelters are made entirely from gathered materials -- no cost, no mortgage, no taxes, and completely earth friendly. Clothing is just as easy -- skins and furs, and no clothing when it's not necessary. Buckskins are so durable they last decades, rather than years, and furs are the most warm and luxurious White Season clothing I've ever come across. The physical aspects of living natively are seldom the problem -- it's what we carry in our heads. Beliefs, preconceived notions, erroneous information, and defeatist mindsets doom most return-to-the- Old Way ventures before they even start.

Does anyone else have something to add? This could be the beginning of a great discussion.

We Get Mail

The correspondent below is reacting to a post we made over a year and a half ago. The webpage it references no longer contains the relevant information. Our first concern of course is where our correspondent stands on the issue of Tamarack Song, not NAFPS drama. However, her comments highlight the often complex nature of ally work, and we appreciate that Ms. Archer wants to explain her growth. We don't get the sense, however, that she has read much of our website. Otherwise, she would know who Bryan is. We sure don't.

Look before you leap, dear. It's our theme, afterall.

Hi Bryan,

I was looking at the webstats for the Iladurarrak page, and I noticed you had visited. And I followed the link to your blog discussion. I left a posting, but also wanted to email you personally.

I just wanted to offer a couple of things. I don't know you - and so I'm offering these things in a good way, for clarity.

First, before you make any judgments about me personally, or the Iladurarrak pages - I would ask you to visit the organization I helped to found and coordinate - Four Directions Solidarity/Indigenous Network. The address is www.eswn.org

I don't think any sort of plastic or wannabe would be able to pull off this sort of effort with as much Native support as we have had.

I was also a member of the Indigenous Delegation to the US Social Froum held this summer in Atlanta. I was invited by other Indigenous people in attendance to help draft the Indigenous Declaration to the Social Forum.

Also, you might be interested to know that I am an adopted member of the Oglala Lakota Cante Tisa (Strongheart Warrior Society) led by Duane Martin Sr. I think it says something that I have been adopted into one of the most traditional, hard-core warrior societies on Turtle Island. If I was some fake - this would have never happened.

Duane Martin was at Wounded Knee 73. Russell Means is also a Strongheart, as are the hip-hop group Savage Family. They also led the protests at this years Columbus Day protests in Denver with CO AIM. I think I stand in some pretty good company.

I don't like talking about myself. I'de rather not have to share these things. But I also feel like the awakening of people of European heritage back to their ancestors is a critical part of this age. So I have some sensitivity when people just decide to try and destroy the work I've been doing.

I don't charge money for any traditional work or ceremony I do - regardless what others may have said. Any confusion of this stems from about 2.5 years ago when I was just trying to figure out how to reach other people of Euro-heritage. I since I have changed the way I do this work based on traditional teachings.

I try not to criticize others. I will say my experience with the New Age Fraud/Plastic Shaman group was really saddening. I joined that group because we (myself, Stronghearts, members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee)are talking about putting on a Forum on Appropriation down here in NC. I thought they (NAFPS) would be allies. How wrong I was.

I offered to speak with anyone on the message boards with concerns about what I do by phone - and all I received was insults and piling on. It was clear the 'truth' wasn't a goal of this group - scorched earth policy was.

I even told a good story - a powerful story to people who know about traditional things - and all I got was flamed. I'de be pissed if I didn't feel so much sadness. It's hard to believe there are people like that saying they are working for Indigenous people and issues.

It was clear there was no understanding of traditional things. And everyone hiding behind screennames? This is activism? Who is this group accountable to? What Nation? What traditional council or government? These things trouble me.

When I realized they had close ties to Arvol Looking Horse - then some things made more sense to me because Duane and the Stronghearts were asked by the Grandmothers to speak with Arvol about some of his recent decisions and actions. It has been a contentious issue within the Lakota Nation, and Arvol was upset. But that's Lakota business. But maybe the people on this list knew this - and felt like they needed to attack. I don't know.

Ironically, Duane and I met at World Peace and Prayer Day at Elk Creek in 2005 - where we worked together with a few other people to make that event happen for Arvol, when other people failed to do what needed to be done. I arrived in SD several days before the event to help set up. I was proud to help make that event happen - and it has led to my present work.

So, without going on further - sometimes things aren't as simple and black and white as some people would like. You can't know a person, who they are, what they do by the goddamn internet. These people are indigenous?
C'mon.

I work in a traditional way, with other Indigenous people who fight for sovereignty and strength of Native people during this great time of change. I'll continue to do this in the best way I can with the spiritual guidance of my people and our Spirits.

I hope what I've shared with you has been helpful. Maybe you don't care about all this - but I feel I need to defend my Ancestors, and the work I personally do to bring their wisdom back - and to support the traditional sovereignty and strength of other Indigenous peoples.

If these are things you are interested in - I would invite you to learn more about Four Directions and get involved if you like. We need good people who care about Indigenous resistance, preserving traditional culture, and bringing people from the Four Directions together in a good way to help heal our world.

Take care,
Naomi Archer
828-230-1404
fourdirections@riseup.net
www.eswn.org

Fakelore Phony Tamarack Song Begs For Writing Help

Nothing can help this chronic racist's writing. It's why he's had so many editors come and go over the years. Tamarack's work is new age junk and most people (eventually) know it. The title's below were submitted by Tamarack to the Teaching Drum list with the request that his white wannabe hangers-on choose their favorites.

The book titles reveal that Tamarack is a thinly veiled, authoritarian Christian who's made Agriculture his fakelore philosophy's Original Sin. Since most Native American culture's were/are agricultural, Tamarack naturally judges them unworthy of respect, and as we have seen in earlier posts, he uses this justification for his racist, narcissistic cultural imperialism.

Note also from the titles that Tamarack is still trying to sell to Anglos the white supremacist idea that they can become Native/Indigenous.

Book 1 Title Possibilities

Dominion

How We Went from Kinship with All Life to Purveyors of Death


Why We Work

How We Abandoned Fields of Plenty for Factory Toil


Devolution

Our Plunge from Endless Abundance to Chronic Scarcity


Exodus from Eden

On Our Devolution from Children of the Earth to Planet Rapists


Weep for Eden

Why We Traded the Beauty Way for Shame and Drudgery


Greed

How We Traded Foraging for Factories


Banished!

How We Lost Paradise and Found Despair


Alpha Predator

Why We Enslave Animals, Turn Meadows into Killing Fields,

and Endure Lives of Constant Sorrow


What It Was to Be Human

Why We No Longer Run with the Wind and Dance to the Drum


The Daily Grind

Why We Abandoned the Bliss of the Now to Toil for Trinkets


The Troubled Ape

How We Traded the Beauty Way for Lives of Constant Sorrow


Hell for Life

How We Brought Misery to the Jewel of Creation


The Terrible Revolution

How We Transformed Abundance into Scarcity and Bliss into Misery


From Freedom to Factories

How We Plunged from Kinship with All of Life to Plunder and
Annihilation


Our Twisted Journey

Why We Raped Our Mother Planet


The Price of the Plow

How We Traded Dreaming and Dancing for Drudgery and Depression


Plague of Humans

How we made our Mother Earth an Alien Planet


Grub and Hoard

How we traded the freedom of the wilderness for the shackles of the
city


March of the Human Horde

Why We Take, and Take, and Take


Fall from Balance

How We Became Refugees from the Beauty Way


The Slaving Ape

How we went from free-roaming clanspeople to beasts of burden


Where the Wild Things Aren’t

How Conquering the Planet Conquered Our Spirits


Paradise Trashed

Why We Dragged a Plow across the Face of Our Mother


Invasion

How We Became life's--and our own--worse enemy


Rape

How We Became Blind to Endless Abundance and Now Can Never Get Enough


Arrows to Bullets

How We Traded Freedom and Frolic for Endless Work and Blind Obedience


Plows, Towns, and Kings

How Our Shift from Gathering to Gardening Brought Never-Ending Sadness


Trinket Lust

Why We Abandoned Dancing in Eden for Dragging a Plow


Bitter Journey

How We Were Blinded by Baubles and Estranged from All Life

Book II Title Possibilities

Become your Your Nature

The Tears and Joys of Returning to Your Primal Self

Rouse the Sleeping Bear

On Shedding Our Urban Skin and Donning the Beauty Way

Our Forgotten Nature

A Roadmap for Awakening the Native within

Original Instructions

On the Shift of Consciousness from Programmed to Spontaneous Being

The Second Coming

How to Reawaken the Native Within

How to Be Human

On Returning to Our Indigenous Way of Being

Waking to Your Nature

Relearn What It Is to Be a Native Human

Go Native!

How to Do It and What to Expect

Dance the Moon, Shake the Thunder

On Rebecoming Your Natural Self

Conjuring up Your Lost Nature

A Travel Guide to the Heart of Being Human

Invoke Your Inner Native

How to Blossom into Your Intended Self

Return of the Wayward Ape

How to See Life through Native Eyes

Book III Title Possibilities

How to Start a Native-style Community

A Roadmap through the Consumer Way to the Gifting Way

Living like a Circle

How to Start a Gathering-Hunting Community

Return to Eden

Practical Guidance for Living the Old Clan Way

Crying for Community

How to Live like a True Child of Earth Mother and Sun Father

Return to the Mother

How to Leave the Greed and Live in Community the Native Way

The Original Instructions

How to Live in Community like Your Native Ancestors

The Journey Home

How to live in Balance with Our Kind and All Our Relations

Walk the Old Way

Start Your Own Earth Community

Return of the Clan

A Manual for Re-Creating Our Ancestral Culture

Back to Creation

How to Recover Our Indigenous Social Culture

Tamarack's New Dog

Apparently, the business of selling fakelore, whites-can-be-Natives books is not making quite the blood money it used to, so Tamarack has decided to begin mining "Zen" for fun and profit.

We guess the Warrior Way website and the Wolf zoo he was hoping would draw in more suckers did not pan out. It would not surprise us if Tamarack closed the Teaching Drum as a wilderness guide program and re-opened it as a "Zen" monestary (money-stary) in the near future.

To: Teaching_drum@yahoogroups.com
From: "Tamarack Song"
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:49:40 -0500
Subject: [Teaching_Drum] Why Zen?

----- Original Message from Andrew------ --

Tamarack, you wrote: "It appears to me that any consolidated approach to spirituality will evolve similar structures: canons, hierarchy, and methodologies to assuage fear of death. If we want this type of medicine, it probably doesn't matter which one we pick, as they all do the same thing."
From this I wonder, why *have* you picked Zen then? What about Zen is different from these other consolidated approaches, to make it such an important part of your own discoveries?

Good morning Andrew,

Great question! In actuality, I have picked Oneness rather than Zen. When Jesus says we do not need to toil or reap because we are provided for, I am one with Jesus; when Buddha suggests we not worship likenesses of others, I am one with Buddha; when my neighbor looks up at the Moon and comments on how her moods change with the Mooncycle, I am one with her.

So why have I written a book on Zen? It is on Zen, the universal concept, rather than Zen, the religion. Knowing that language conveys culture, I did etymological research on the term "Zen," tracing it back to the Pali (pre-Sanskrit) culture of ancient India. The term, both then and now, simply means "awareness." Today the term can be found in most Eurasian and American cultures. "Sign" is our way of pronouncing "Zen," and what is a sign other than a way of increasing awareness?

Of course, in our materialist culture we have secularized the reading of a sign. And yet, even here in contemporary America, I can still be given a sign and it will be a profound, mystical experience.

So why have I written a book on Zen? Because it is a book on awareness. The term is merely a touchstone -- an awareness-raising tool. In the book I explain in detail what I have touched upon in the paragraphs above. I could have written the book on any of a hundred other topics and it would still be the same book, the same words.

If I can clarify more, give me a holler.

Tamarack

A Lap Dog, Quitter, and Perpetual Tourist Leaves the Teaching Drum

Helkenn's outta there!

Yeah, surprise surprise. The racist tourist's reputation now sinks to an all time low as he leaves yet another "community" for supposedly greener pastures, which makes him kinda like a creepy priest looking for a new parish, if you ask us. We guess Tamarack will be putting the word out soon for a new errand boy to take moldy food drops out to the Seeker-Suckers, as well as provide the requisite dewy-eyed ego massages.

Helkenn's parents obviously raised him to be an unaccountable white male supremacist who bails at the first sign of real, long-term committment (let alone accountability to indigenous people) - and he continues drifting aimlessly on along in that vein. As a dorm Resident Director, he is little more than a white overseer in charge of indigenous students. Why couldn't the University of Alaska find an Inupiaq person for this position? The answer of course is racism, you know, the kind that always puts anything but an indigenous person in charge. And Glenn Helkenn is johnny-white-guy on the spot to take the job from a real Native person.

Surprise, surprise.

To: teaching_drum@yahoogroups.com
From: "Glenn Helkenn"
Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2007 04:04:57 -0000
Subject: [Teaching_Drum] Alaska

Hi all,

For those that haven't heard, I left the Drum about a month ago thinking I was moving to N. Carolina to work as a wilderness guide for an adult addictions therapy program. After one very disappointing shift on the job and two very worthwhile weeks with old friends down there, I was offered another job in Alaska and took it.

I'm now in Fairbanks working for the University of Alaska as the RD of a dorm for natives (mostly north slope Inupiaq) coming in from the remote rural villages for their first year on campus. The job looks like it will be quite a challenge, but hopefully one I'll be able to rise to in a good way and learn a few things from. On the nice side, the job gives me two months off in the summer (in addition to normal
vacation time), free tuition to grad school to study part time, and the possibility of being able to teach some primitive stuff for the university through their outdoor adventure program.

At any rate, it's both wonderful and a challenge (a wonderful challenge perhaps?) to be moving back to my homeland. It's been 16 years since I lived in the land of my birth, and the major part of my desire to return is to reconnect with this land and my family. Since my parents raised me to be a conservative evangelical Christian farmer on "the last frontier", things are a bit different upon return (i.e. to put it mildly ;-) ). At any rate, wish me "luck" eh?

wild peace,
Glenn

A Kalinago Reader's Comment Regarding Columbus

A fantastic comment in response to our post Tamarack Song and Christopher Columbus was left by a kind reader who is justifiably outraged by Euro-American attempts to fig-leaf their own acts of genocide with lies about the lifeways of the indigenous people Columbus murdered.

Pepper said...

I know this is an old post but I had to comment. I am Kalinago Indian, one of the tribes that Spreace alleges practiced cannibalism and slavery. We never practiced cannibalism. Period. I get tired of saying this. I have no clue why people seek to define us by this one act. We didn't have a less elaborate social structure we had a "different" social structure, where as the community helps each other as a whole rather than specific class levels. We had "slaves" but they were more like servants. It was NOTHING like the slavery practiced in the US. Our lives did NOT center around warfare and cannibalism. I don't even know why Americans celebrate Columbus, he's a man like any other, and he never even set foot on the American continent. He didn't discover America, he "stumbled upon" the Caribbean. Him and is followers are guilty of disgusting and horrifying atrocities against the Taino people. Why would someone celebrate that? It's like celebrating Idi Amin or something.

Spreace needs to take a good look at this man he wants to celebrate.

Bad Publicity: The Teaching Drum in Stevens Point (WI) Journal

The reporter on this story, Shenandoah Sowash, was kind enough to contact us for a statement before publishing this account of the Teaching Drum Outdoor School. Unfortunately, the Stevens Point Journal does not allow anonymous sources, so we declined. Part of our strategy is to keep Tamarack Song (Dan Konen) and staff guessing at all times who our many contributors are.

Overall, we find the story satisfying. The legendary, come-apart Yearlong class of thirteen is highlighted with special emphasis on the dysfunctional nature of throwing mostly white kids together in the woods with total strangers for 24/7.

Note how both Luke and Jacob Brault blame themselves (and other students) for Tamarack's failures, as if sitting around all day and thinking about yourself and your problems is going to solve this culture's chronic narcissism, a narcissism readily apparent in both Tamarack's hokey, fake-lore writings and teaching style.

"I wanted to fulfill these dreams of pursuing alternative learning," said Jacob Brault, who participated in the 2002 program for five months, "but I had a romanticized idea of living off the land, a hippie dream, the Native American way."

Yes, that is the essence of our apartheid, white supremacist society, isn't it? A romanticized view of Native Americans. Now, who do we know girls and boys who peddles in his books and essays a romanticized view of Native Americans? That's right. Tamarack Song. And every other Twinkie-fied, white New Ager in this country writing about Native American "way" (as if there is some unified Pan-Indian way in the first place), while having next to zero contact or relationship with contemporary indigenous peoples and their struggles. Tamarack Song gasses on and on about relationships, but does he or anyone at his school actually have a committed relationship to Ojibwe people and resistance in his area?

The answer, of course, is no.

Our assessment of this article is mostly positive. Clearly, the Teaching Drum Outdoor School has been stung enough by our and others' criticisms that they are on the defensive now. After reading the story, please check out for yourselves additional eyewitness testimony from another student in the disasterous 2002 Yearlong.

To affirm the not-so-veiled undertone of this story: Yes, if you take part in the Teaching Drum's Yearlong, you may very likely end up in the woods with crazy people.

Posted July 8, 2007

Wilderness school builds self-knowledge

By Shenandoah Sowash
Central Wisconsin Sunday

Winter is the "White Season." Earth is the "First Mother." Fire is a male being. Welcome to the Teaching Drum Outdoor School in Three Lakes.

"On the surface, it looks like we might be just a primitive skills school, but we're truly about exploring the inner self. These skills mean nothing unless they're integrated into honoring relationship," said Tamarack Song, founder of the school.

Relationship is a term one hears often when speaking of Teaching Drum. Song believes relationship refers not only to the self, but to others, plants, animals and the earth.

"We want to guide people in the Old Way. So if someone asks a question, you ask a question in response," said Luke Brault, a staff member from Fond du Lac.

Founded in 1987, Teaching Drum offers a year-long immersion experience called the Wilderness Guide Program.

For one year, participants (also known as Seekers) learn vital survival skills and explore the Old Way, a reference to a Native American spiritual path. Alcohol, tobacco, firearms, caffeine, domestic animals and drugs are prohibited.

"I wanted to fulfill these dreams of pursuing alternative learning," said Jacob Brault, who participated in the 2002 program for five months, "but I had a romanticized idea of living off the land, a hippie dream, the Native American way."

Brault, who is Luke's brother, experienced physical difficulties during his time in the program, including an intestinal disorder referred to as Drum Disease.

"Being exposed to the elements 24/7 was really hard. Some of the things your body goes through are difficult," Jacob said.

Luke experienced comparable challenges in the program, though his were of a more emotional nature.

"The yearlong program takes you on an inward journey. I left because I ran into a wall of full personal depression. I couldn't deal with it out there," said Luke, who completed eight months.

According to Luke, the 2002 program started with 13 participants and only two completed the full year.

"It was a strange mix of people, a dysfunctional group," he said.

All volunteers or program participants must sign a liability waiver and agreement stating a licensed medical doctor has verified their physical health though a doctor's signature is not required, nor is there any mention of mental health history or status.

Despite Luke's experience in the program, he currently serves on staff as a carpenter and assists in running the school.

"What separates us from other schools is that we learn how to live as a clan," Luke said.

In such a setting, conflict and personal growth are inevitable.

"People come to the program with so much history that they're sifting through. Their personal history is hidden. There will always be tension when you put a group of people out in the woods together," Jacob said.

Still, the Braults believe such conflict should be worked though, not ignored.

Jacob looks back fondly on his experience, but not without ambivalence.

"When you're faced with it, you realize pretty quickly that it's not as romantic as you dreamt it would be," he said.

A Yearlong Student's Account of the Teaching Drum Outdoor School

One of the members of the Come-Apart Class of 2002 gives a brief glimpse into the realities of the Yearlong.

What went so wrong? Well, it would probably take a novel to lay out all the details, but I think I can sum it up best just like this: Tamarack asks for truthspeaking, seems to listen intently, and then does absolutely zip except blame the truthspeakers for the problem. This first became apparent when both camps began experiencing food shortages in the first month of the program. T. was more than happy to have as many Talking Circles about the problem as your heart could desire, but no matter how much we talked, he refused to take any concrete steps to solve the chronic shortages and missed food drops, nor would he take any suggestions on what could be done to end the problems. Finally, both camps agreed that those who possessed vehicles would go into the school every three days to pick up our food as no one at the house could be relied upon to consistently and adequately supply us. This did not change until _______ came onboard in September. I think he was taken aback by how grateful we were to finally have some real help with the food.

As for T.'s "guidance" it basically comes down to this: stay in the house all day and write, take the writing to the camps, stay for an hour to discuss the last writing handed out at the last visit, leave, do more writing, repeat. Well, I don't know about your perceptions, but as a role model, T. makes an excellent example for would-be writers, but he does not make a good example for people longing to live interdependently in the non-symbolic world of Nature.

A number of times, the two camps reached consensus on our desire to see T. spend more time actually living the lifeway he proclaims by being physically on site for extended periods of time so that we could model his Old Way behavior. That is my understanding of the way the Native Elders taught, and still do teach, their young people - by living example. Do you know I have never even seen T. build a fire? Come to think of it, I have never seen T. actually do any of the skills he proposes to teach. When both camps expressed our desire to see him spend more time modeling the lifeway on site with us, he refused.

And I don't even want to get into the simplistic contempt T. expressed privately to me for the present-day struggles Native peoples of this continent are facing. It is just too painful.

Ten New Seekers Going Hungry at the Teaching Drum

As much as these clowns obsess about food and how its gathered, you'd think Tamarack and Co. were afflicted with eating disorders. Actually we really do wonder if anyone in Lety's or Tamarack's family has ever been diagnosed with an eating disorder. It would be interesting, certainly, if something like that could be confirmed, and it would explain a lot about the sick, controlling mentality that marks the philosophy behind the Teaching Drum. In any event, we have no doubt that food is quite the weapon around the Konen family table.

Enjoy the road kill and handful of berries, Suckers - um - Seekers. Remember, the staff at the Big House gets first dibs on the tasty treats YOUR money bought. You get the moldy food drops.

Particularly heartening to see in this broadcast from Lety is to what great effort she goes to explain away criticisms of the school from those who have experienced it in the past. We concur with her however that if you are interested in paying $6000 to eat roadkill and go hungry while living 24/7 with dirty, cranky strangers - please do go visit the school first.

To: teaching_drum@yahoogroups.com
From: "Lety Seibel"
Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007 06:36:52 -0500
Subject: RE: [Teaching_Drum] Re: This years Wilderness Guide Program

For those of you curious or interested in the WGP, the first step is to get a WGP information packet which goes over description, philosophy and logistical details. You can order it through our webpage wwwdotteachingdrumdotorg (I'm writing it like this to minimize spammers collecting the 'ready-to-click' address)or by calling the office here 715-546-2944.

The second step is to visit with the current participants for a full week and be completely immersed in the experience, this is the only way to dispel myths and get a glimpse into what it is really about. This step is so vital that it is required before an application can be submitted.

To tackle Nick's questions: the year-long is going great! There are 10 Seekers in two camps, 4 of them women. There is way too much to say about what they are working on right now as the physical, mental, emotional & spiritual aspects of being are all involved in the process of re-awakening,so will give you a synopsis.

Right now they are living in tents, they are gathering material for and building bark lodges. They are foraging all their drinking water, greens and protein, the School is still providing them with fruit, along with a small amount of starch and fat. The berry season is beginning, so soon they will be providing all their own fruit. So far they have made baskets, wooden bowls and eating utensils and are working of making fire by friction. They have learned about wilderness hygiene and first aid, direction
finding/lost- proofing, and many other foundational skills. Breaking mental patterns, awareness and attunement exercises & truthspeaking are integrated into the everyday until they cease to be 'exercises'. They will likely begin hide tanning soon.

Every year's process is very uniquely tailored to the people participating and we discourage comparisons from one year to the next because it sets people up for disappointments and reinforces the 'future/past- projecting' mentality which is already so rampant everywhere. One of the great challenges for people is to be fully present in the moment and that is one aspect which is emphasized and nurtured in this experience. Outwardly the timing and skills practiced during the WGP may seem to vary, and yet the core concepts are fully covered every year. After the year's experience we encourage Seekers to test out these universal concepts by applying them to the next step on their journeys, thereby reinforcing them and having them as
allies for the rest of their lives.

A couple of people from Australia have visited the School in the past including a man who took the Program three years ago; I could check with him and give him your e-mail address if you'd like to get in touch with him.

Lety

Chronic Misogynist Tamarack Song Makes Warrior Website For Men

The women of Oaxaca, on the front line for their people.



Tamarack Song, and co-delusional lap dog Glenn Helkenn, are mustering all the misogyny they can to promote their latest dog, a website for keyboard commandos. As if playing Indian wasn't bad enough, now they wanna play Warrior (without those uppity women, of course, whose gender and fighting spirit is completely invisibilized by the sexist language of the website).

Pompously titled "The Guardian Warrior Fellowship of the Old Ways," the androcentric site opens with this gem:

The guardian serves and protects the well-being and vitality of the people while looking on to the unborn seventh generation and harkening back to the subtle wisdom of the ancestors. The guardian is not a soldier or warrior in the civilized sense, and is not concerned with vanquishing or conquering enemies. The guardian serves no rulers, rather, he serves the circle with guidance from his elders. In the old ways of our hunting and foraging ancestors, the guardian serves not only his human kin, but all his kindred -- all of his relations. Only when the whole circle is strong can the lasting well-being of the people be assured.

His, his, his, his, his!

The rest of the site is just more of Tamarack's self-absorbed, Fake-lore writings. One of the stated purposes of the site is to enable white poseurs to link up and come together for "intermittent training (via gatherings, informally, etc.,)" and "formation of viable guardian traning camp(s) & fellowship(s) in active service of the people."

This from the same crowd of perpetual losers who could not even get enough folks to come together for the third annual Spring Gathering, which was subsequently canceled.

Talk about intermittent!

You Are Out To Destroy Me! I Love You!

One of the difficulties in confronting gurus sick with terminal narcissism is their self-congratulatory ability to take every form of confrontation as a validation. Rest assured that despite Tamarack's paranoid and violent assertions to the contrary, not a single contributor here has expended even an iota of excess energy trying to "destroy" him. He is perfectly capable of doing that himself. We just facilitate his flow (7th letter).

In light of the previous post defining sexual harassment, consider Tamarack's description of the student's "excessive" reading. Do you think this shutdown during the Yearlong program might have been a perfectly understandable response to the harassment she was undergoing?

Personal responsibility, Mr. Konen, as you claim to be taking here, does not mean falsely accusing the victim of being "angry," "spiteful," or "vindictive" when she rightly calls you on your gendered violence.

From: "Tamarack Song"
Subject: Fw: Email list Removal
Date: March 2003

Greetings _____,

In an hope you are well. I'm glad to hear you have settled in amongst new friends. It should prove to be a nourishing, supportive environment for you. I want to thank you for opening up to Lety and sending her copies of my e-mails to you. Your letters helped tremendously in gaining a portal into your reality. They gave a real feel for your anger and spite -- no wonder you were out to defame and destroy me!

I am deeply sorry for my role in hurting you. In retrospect, I wish I had spoken more directly with you over the Green Season when you were here. At the time it seemed so important for you to do what you were doing (in terms of attacking me) that I decided to step back. I also didn't want to embarrass you with facts that might have contradicted your assumptions, in front of your cohorts. And, before your letters to Lety, I wasn't aware of some of the assumptions you had made. Also, I found out later that other people had passed their assumptions on to you, which probably fed your growing anger as well

I guess I didn't help the situation either, because I'm quiet about my private life. You should hear some of the rumors and gossip that get passed around and exaggerated! I usually just let it go, unless someone comes to me with it. I've come to realize that, for better or worse, bigger-than-life hearsay and criticism go along with being a public person. I can now see how, if somebody told you it was so, you would believe that Lety and I had a sexual relationship before I said anything to you about her and me. It never dawned on me that you would doubt my integrity, so it didn't occur to me to tell you that Lety had, three years prior, taken a Vow of Celibacy.

It was not until sometime in February, perhaps a few weeks or a month after I told you about Lety, that she was released from her vow and our relationship became intimate. This is perhaps an example of how rumors and misunderstandings begin, take on a life of their own, and become accepted as truth. I have to take personal responsibility for this one -- for not being more communicative, for not foreseeing the potential for misinterpretation and hurt, and for not confronting certain individuals when I suspected that they were jumping to conclusions and spreading them as fact.

It seems also that some of my actual attempts at communication may not have been very clear. In my early e-mail to you, I thought I was clear that, although I hoped that our intended sharing would be a mated one, I wasn't sure what it might be. I mentioned that it could also be Dodemic, for healing, or maybe for some other reason. Perhaps I should have been more explicit? Or emphatic? At the time, there was no one else I had the remotest interest in getting to know intimately, Jill and I had officially concluded our relationship on Nov. 6, and I had been told that it was time for my mate to come.

So when you manifested before me, and as beautifully as your inner light shone, naturally I would be suspect, and hopeful, that it be you. In fact, I was full of hope -- I had been living alone and waiting for eight years! That hope continued through our first couple e-mails and phone conversations. As beautiful as our initial sharing was, as deeply and personally intimate as it was, it was not romantically intimate. You and I didn't talk about whether we were seeing or had an interest in someone else, and we didn't express the desire to meet so that we could share personally. We didn't become sensual or intimate over the phone or in our written correspondence, nor did we talk about it.

In fact, our sharing went in reverse: our communications became more sparse and sporadic, you asked me to slow down, and I grew more distant, more confused as to what this intendedness, this energy between us, was all about. When Lety and I woke up to each other and realized our calling, I took it has confirmation that something else was intended for you and me other than matedness. As soon as Lety wrote me the letter that signified our realization as to who we were to each other, I contacted you about it. I felt clear -- I then realized why you and I didn't click in the way that I had hoped. It didn't feel to me as though there was overlap between you and Lety. You were each quite different people in my life, in different roles.

I have a couple other close friends who I am intimate with, though we are not sexually or romantically intimate. If you and I had become sexually-romantically involved, I don't think it would have affected how things unfolded. Had desire brought us together, I don't think it could have kept us together, if we were not intended. And, proper or not, whether or not it be the best timed, when revelation comes, it comes. The awareness of my matedness with Lety was so immediate, clear,and strong, that it would not have mattered what was or was not going on.

Regarding your reaction to my reaction to your reading material, I think you may be misinterpreting me. For example, I have high regard for John Zerzan; I think he's right on. I feel honored that my writings are appearing next to his in journals. I'm asking him to write the preface for my next book. My comments were not directed at your reading material per se, but at the fact that you read so much. Besides my general concern that we all talk, read, and watch movies, too much, I was concerned for your personal unfolding.

If you had your nose continuously in my writings, I would have felt same way. It's not that I don't have some ego attachment to my writings or that I don't feel hurt when they are criticized or ignored. Yet, as a believe you know, my overall feeling about the written word applies to mine is well --that it can get in the way of the real Guiding Voice, that it reflects my own prejudices, that it is no substitute for direct experience and is at best a signpost, and that it is expendable and should be passed on as soon as it no longer serves.

There are no doubt other misunderstandings between us that could be cleared up with communication. And then there are likely some genuine differences. That is okay with me, as I've had at least some differences with virtually everybody I've ever known. I'm okay with our differences. Were it not for differences, I would not be blessed with new ideas and perspectives, I would not be challenged to grow. I would not be the person I am today.

Perhaps our challenge is to sort out our genuine differences from the misperceptions, misunderstandings, misinformation and tittle-tattle. Then perhaps we could accept and honor each other for who we are, and maybe even begin to grow from the cross pollenization of our "differences". Believe it or not, I see beauty and purpose in your viciousness and criticism, and in your efforts to defame me and destroy my relationships, the School, the Year-long program. You are helping to make me stronger. A Tree that grows in the lee of the Wind may look good, but is weak-rooted and will topple in the face of the first Storm that sneaks around the backside of the Hill. The Tree that grows on the Bluff and is buffeted by all that the Thunder Beings can throw at him, grows wise, resilient, and long-lived.

I know that in all criticism there is a kernel of truth, so I accept it with graciousness, and give thanks to the source. I am thankful for what you have brought me, and I ask you to continue. I will only grow stronger, more self-aware, and hopefully a wiser and better person. In fact I encourage you to speak more of your truth. I think you are holding back, I think you have more to offer. Of course, I wish it were to my face and not behind my back, and I wish that more of it could be constructively, rather than destructively, oriented, and I wish that we could deal with the feelings directly, and work on healing the hurt they have caused, rather than letting the wounds continue to fester and feed the disharmony.

Without dialogue, without empathy and understanding, there will continue to be war. Interpersonal or international, it's all the same. At this point, I'm not going to go public with the facts, or with my personal feelings and reality around our relationship. It's not my way. And again, I don't want to embarrass you. Or contradict you in front of others. I want to honor what you consider to be right and just, even though it may appear to conflict with my ways. I know that you are doing what you feel you have to do, and I encourage you to continue. A River must run its course.

If it is wrong to love you, then I am guilty. Yes, you were right in feeling love from me. It is not romantic love, but it is love. And it is a strong, undying love. No amount of venom you have spat at me has yet tarnished it. In fact, it shows me that you care also. You would have long forgotten me otherwise, and you wouldn't be wasting your invaluable energy on me. I still believe that we were drawn together for a reason. When your Journey is over, I would welcome again sharing with you, so that we might offer to others the promised gift of our sharing. I hold no animosity toward you. I still believe in you, and look upon you with wonder and awe, just as I expressed in my first e-mail to you. You are always welcome here.

In Balance and Healing,

Tamarack

PS I believe you were taken off of the e-group mailing list. You received the mailing below because you were in my personal address book. Occasionally I'll send something out that I'd like to share with those I know, that is not directly related to the School. If you wish me not to have your e-mail address, please let me know and I'll remove it.

Sexual Harassment in Education

The laws are very clear about sexual harassment in an educational setting. Remember, Tamarack Song offers a yearlong course, upon the completion of which, he certifies students as Wilderness Guides. He wants himself and his school to be taken seriously as a 501 c3 non-profit, educational institution offering instruction in wilderness skills. To EVER hit on a student in this context is against the law, for reasons that are defined in no uncertain terms below:

Sexual harassment in education

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sexual harassment in education is unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature that interferes with a student’s ability to learn, study, work or participate in school activities. In the U.S., it is a form of discrimination under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. [1] Sexual harassment involves a range of behavior from mild annoyances to sexual assault and rape. (AAUW 2002, 2006,Dzeich et al, 1990) See Sexual harassment: Varied behaviors and circumstances for examples.

Most sexual harassment is peer-peer, but sexual harassment by teachers and other school employees has also been reported. (AAUW 2002,2006) While sexual harassment is legally defined as "unwanted" behavior, many experts agree that even consensual sexual interactions between students and teachers constitutes harassment because the power differential creates a dynamic in which "mutual consent" is impossible. (Dzeich et al, 1990)

Teaching Drum Spring Gathering Canceled

Nobody wants to play Indian with a bunch of self-absorbed white poseurs running around calling themselves "natives".

To: teaching_drum@yahoogroups.com
From: "Glenn Helkenn"
Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 17:17:54 -0000
Subject: The Gathering is Canceled.

The spring Gathering here at the Teaching Drum has been canceled due to a lack of people. Instead, the circle here at the Drum will be doing a work project on lodge building (reconstructing the display lodge out by the road in front of the school) from the 2nd through the 9th of June and if anyone is interested in that, they can email us about coming as a normal visitor or volunteer.

wild peace,
Glenn

Where oh where have all the alumni gone?

To: teaching_drum@yahoogroups.com
From: "Glenn Helkenn"
Date: Sat, 05 May 2007 02:03:09 -0000
Subject: Spring Gathering at Teaching Drum!

It's official! We're having our third gathering for friends, family, acquaintances, and alumni of the Teaching Drum. Come join us around the fire hearth for food, fellowship, work and play from June 2nd through the 9th. Folks will be camping in our primitive camp, cooking and eating a native diet, participating in spontaneous workshops, and coming together to build a summer wigwam. Cost for the gathering is $10 per day to cover food. Email me at redwolfreturns@ hotmail.com to register and let us know you're coming. Space will be limited to no more than 20 people in order to maintain an intimate family atmosphere, so please register early.

Again, that's June 2nd - 9th, $10/day, $70 for the week. Email redwolfreturns@ hotmail.com to RSVP. Come join us around the fire!

What We Live For

An anonymous poster has left a comment thanking us for the heads-up on Tamarack. Giving other people an insight into the fraud that is the Teaching Drum Outdoor School is why we do this work. It is our deepest hope that others will not make the same mistakes we did in ever having anything to do with the criminal phoniness that is Tamarack Song and his associates. We always appreciate knowing that our site has been helpful.

There goes $6000 dollars T and Co will not be getting to play Indian this year. Cheers Anon!

Anonymous said...

I am glad I've found your website here. My girlfriend's heard about this Teaching Drum and after I checked out their website my bullshit/wannabe/poser alarm started going off in my head. Glad to find some real evidence of this to show my woman. Thanks

5/29/2007 3:34 PM

Tamarack Admits He Approached Female Students and Volunteers

"Approached."

Otherwise known as sexually harassed. Can you imagine the fallout if he had "approached" male students, volunteers, and staff in this way? Why do you think he felt so comfortable with this heterosexual male entitlement? Patriarchy? You betcha.

The following letter was sent as a matter of spin control to the female student he once "approached" when students in the Wilderness Guide Program began questioning Tamarack's treatment of both her and other women. The whole, sordid tale had finally come out, adding even more drama/trauma to that year's Wilderness Guide Program, a program that twelve out of fourteen students would eventually quit in disgust.

Conveniently, Tamarack forgets in this letter to add Lety Seibel to the list of women he hit on. She was a student in the previous Yearlong at the time they began their romance, and eyewitnesses have stated that she was more than an occasional visitor to his house that winter, when Tamarack was also writing the applicant/future student.

From: "Tamarack Song"
Subject:
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002

Greetings *****,

I've lived alone for the past nine years, since Bub's mom and I parted. In that time I've known three women: ___________ in 1994 - 95, _____________ in 1998, and ________ in 1999 - 2000. They were long distance relationships (______ lived in Texas and Hawaii, ______ was from Illinois, _______ hailed from Madison) and none of those women were associated with the School. Prior to you, I have not approached, nor had involvement with, a student of the School.

When _________ first came to the School as a volunteer, I wrote her a letter, she responded, and we each quickly realized that we were different people. Perhaps it is sheer coincidence, perhaps not, that you and her - the only two women I have opened to here at the School in the 15 years of its existence - are here at the same time, in the same camp.

I think you are aware of this, I think you know me. My hunch is that many (if not most) of you at camp (you included?) have made more romantic overtures, and had more intimate partners, than me, in the past 15 years, even considering that some of you have not been sexually active that long.

I have high regard for your intelligence and astuteness. My hunch is that you know me, that you are aware of the above. And I think you likely remember how I approached you, what I was clear about and what I wasn't. In the same breath I wish to state that I feel you need to do what you are doing, so I offer no judgment or resistance.

Tamarack

PS If/when you might like to connect, I would probably be willing.

No judgment or resistance, aye? OK, we're gonna hold you to that when we move into the Banishment phase of your "approach" to those who dare resist your depredations.

He Gets His "Intended to Be Mated" On With Sexual Harassment

Poised to overwhelm.

Alright then. In the last few posts we've looked at some of Tamarack Song's white supremacy, and we've examined his anti-activist hypocrisy, so what ought to be up next? We thought about launching into his Fake-Lore writings, but... yuck. We just did not have the stomach for that much New Age, wannabe phoniness this weekend.

It seems timely and appropriate now to go ahead and publish some of the letters Tamarack sent to a female applicant to the Wilderness Guide Program while he was still in the process of deciding who would be chosen to attend his school. Note that in the last letter in this post that what Tamarack terms the female student's "reluctance" is a classic sign of a woman backing away from a harasser. This same student will later be accused of having a "vendetta" against Tamarack when she declines further participation in his fraud. Cult leaders often hit on female seekers precisely for this reason - that they may later claim the woman-scorned defense against any females who confront their lies.

Previously published letters will open in their own separate web page. Our original remarks from those posts are in italics.

Lecherous Boy That He Is, Part I

After a visit to his school back in early Fall 2001, one of our contributors received this in their inbox. Looks like Song Boy is getting an itch he's a gonna wanna scratch, folks. "Screaming for release..."?

Now aren't you just dying to know which part of the Wilderness Guide Program covers that one?

From: "Tamarack Song"
To: No Name Necessary
Subject:
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 20:03:36 -0700

Greetings ____,

Good to hear from you, and glad you arrived safely back. I think your time here was well chosen and well spent. I believe you may well be ready to face your fears and grow further into yourself. Knowing you even as slightly as I do, I'm clear that then you will have much that is uniquely you to gift back to the Healing. I caught glimpses of you that are screaming for release. And I think your personal background will lend itself to what you can contribute to your comrades as you all grow together. If it be intended that you partake in the Yearlong Program, you will grace it well.

I'll ask Rusty to send you the initial paperwork forthwith; you should have it within the next week.

In Balance,
Tamarack

Next is the handwritten letter that Tamarack mailed to the female applicant in November 2001, after receiving her required essay on why she wanted to participate in the Wilderness Guide Program. It has been rumoured that this woman was not the only one to receive such a letter over the years.

Let Me Immerse Myself in Your Breadth

Freezing-over Moon
waxing full

I don't read many peoples' works; in fact I don't read much at all anymore. I read your piece twice. It's not your depth of awareness that caught me, it's your breadth of awareness. Do you know how rare that is? Do you know how rare you are?

You gave me a window into your substance, clear as first-formed ice. I need to melt the ice, hold my breath and immerse myself. I respectfully ask if you will continue to share your breadth with me. I am willing to do same.

In Balance,
Tamarack

A Taste of Your Touch On the Fabric of Balance (this has not been previously published, so there is no separate web page).

From: "Tamarack Song"
To: Name Withheld
Subject:
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001

...cut...

I’m pensively preoccupied this morning, along with being touched by the seldom Sun -- a good time to share with you.

Your name, as I am guided by the dictionary, tells me that perhaps you are a woman of grace and honor. I already knew you well enough to suspect that. But I don’t know you well enough. Not near well enough. The voice of my dreamself urges me to come before you and respectfully ask if you might open yourself to me, and to offer the same of myself to you. You have approached me as a Seeker; perchance I will be your Guide. It may also be that we, as peers, will be both Seeker and Guide to each other.

It has been a long, long time since I’ve known someone who senses the synergy inherent in the meeting of compassion, the Spiral of Life and the intrinsic self -- and who can express it with a cadence resonant to mine. I cherish that you have gifted me a taste of your touch upon the fabric of Balance.

I believe we have been guided each to the other, for a reason that both encompasses us and reaches beyond us.

...cut...

As to what might be intended for us I have not even a faint glimmering. But I am enlivened at the prospect of the unfolding, and I trust in it. From the onset I would like to be a Truthspeaker with you -- I will hold no secrets and will strive to be fully open to you and to the Voices.

...cut...

Getting His Intended to Be Mated On

We wonder what would happen if a student applying to the University of Wisconsin received a letter like this from the Dean of Admissions. Slapped with a sexual harassment lawsuit, perhaps? You better believe it.

By the way folks, we think Same Ole Song's hitting on female students anticipates the need to deflect any future criticism with the "spurned woman" excuse. Rumour has it that several women over the years have received one of these "intended to be mated" letters. We are putting the word out for copies.

We were in fact contacted by a woman who had also been on the receiving end of Tamarack's sexist abuse, but she asked that we not publish her story because she feared his retribution. As a survivor of male violence and the potential victim of more, she had every right to ask that of us, and we will continue to honor her request.

From: "Tamarack Song"
To: Name Withheld
Subject: This and
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2001

So, you say it's been a while since you've met your match in a man. The same is true with me concerning a woman, and that may currently be changing forme as well. As you know, I felt some powerful resonance with you as I indulged in the piece you sent along with your application, and the timing of its arrival and a couple other signs involving you only reinforced the impact.

We may have been guided to each other for one of several reasons;one may be that we are intended to be mated. The prospect alone excites me, as I have lived alone for eight years now and I dearly miss the dimension a woman of shared spirit could bring to my life. Oh, there have been women,and I know women now, but I haven't known one with the rare courage and vision it would take to Walk beside me. Nor have I known a woman I have been able to be myself with in the fullest sense.

Better than a turn of the seasons ago I, quite by happenstance (yea, right!)found myself the holder of an appointment slot with Dr. Gregory Antonym, an intuitive healer from Russia. I expected a medical reading; I got clarity on my relationship lifepath. In a nutshell, he described the spiritual landscape of my aura and said that my mate will need to be someone also of expansive landscape. He cautioned me against seeking a "pretty face",stressing that I open myself only to a woman of spiritual sensitivity. There's more, much more, but that is the essence of what I feel important to share with you right now.

I didn't entirely connect with Dr. Gregory's approach or perspective, yet he did reinforce my own awareness. I know what is intended for me, and I would rather remain alone than compromise that in order to be with someone. In an important sense I believe you and I know each other well. In many other ways we are virtual strangers. So I have only an intuitive impression as to who we might be to each other.

I am aware that my impression could also mean something quite different than matedness. But clearly it is a strong and beautiful enough impression that I want to continue exploring it with you, no matter what we find our intended relationship to be. I'd like to know now, of course, and yet I would not wish to be deprived of the joy of discovery. The mystery of a gift is enhanced by its careful unwrapping, and to me you are already a gift such that I don't believe I've ever beheld.

Me

I Feel A Tug

Meanwhile, ole T is romancing a student, Lety Seibel, in the current (2001) Wilderness Guide Program! He acts like her letter is such a surprise, but eyewitnesses in the Guide Program later told us that the romance had been going on for quite some time.

From: "Tamarack Song"
To: Name Withheld
Subject:
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002

Greetings ***,

There's something I feel the need to tell you right away: I received a letter from Lety (I believe you'll remember her) asking if I would be her mate. I viewed our relationship quite differently - as Seeker and Guide, and I knew her to be celibate besides, so I am taken aback. A doorway has been opened that I didn't know existed.

I know you and I have just begun to crack the 'strangers' shell, and we know not how our sharing might unfold, and at the same time I am clear that you are a singularly unique, cherished and vital person to me, guided to me for some special reason. That may have nothing to do with the present unfoldment regarding Lety, or it may. All I know now is that I feel a tug, a need, to open to you this new state of my being.

You are far away; hard as it would be, I would feel much more comfortable sharing this with you in person. I am concerned about your feelings; I will honor your needs in whatever way will best serve you.

Me

Feed My Bloated Ego With That Woman-Energy Stuff

From: "Tamarack Song"
To: Name Withheld
Subject:
Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2002

Greetings Be Woman Being,

You've been known to delight me, on specific occasion you've amazed me, and now you brandish both at once! I am deeply grateful for your perspective, your self awareness, and your acceptance. It is an honor to know you as I do. My affection and regard for you has not changed, could not change; it will just manifest in a different way.

You mentioned that over the past few weeks there were personal signs or indications that were causing you some uneasiness around our unfolding. If you would feel comfortable sharing that with me, such as how they manifested and your way of being (there's that woman-energy stuff again!) with them, I would surely enjoy the broader knowing of the ways of your feelings and sensitivities.

The Activist piece that I had in mind to send you is, as I now look at it, far from even a rough draft. It's more a stream of consciousness and collection of notes. And yet I will send it, because it is timely and topical, and because I would like to share that aspect of myself with you. And, most importantly, I send it because I promised! After all, what is a man if he is not a man of his word. Yea!

Blessings to you,
do-wop a doin' man

PS This weekend I am making determinations regarding enrollment in the year-long program. I would be honored to have your participation. You'll be getting some paperwork in a few days. And I promise that you'll learn how to catch Fish. (There I go giving my word again . . .This time you have it in writing, so you can hold me to it!)

And now we've ALL got it in writing. Jackass.

Overwhelming, Consuming, Chasing (Violating ) You

Tamarack thinks women are given to him to "facilitate my flow." The female student's reactions that he is describing in this letter reflect a perfectly natural response to sexual harassment. He uses the accusation "overwhelm" as a self-compliment rather than its intended indictment by those, who in the past, have experienced his gluttonous, desperate violations.

God what a self-absorbed creep.

From: Tamarack Song [tdrums2@newnorth.net]
To: Name Withheld
Date: Thursday, January 31, 2002

Greetings ****,

When I first became aware that something special might be intended for you and me, my natural impulse was to get together with you to explore and discover what that might be. I thought I might ask you if you also be desirous of such, and if you might be able to take a short break from work.

My friend, Fox, suggested instead that I rather allow some time to see what might unfold. That made rational sense to me, as after all we barely knew each other in a conventional sense, and to boot I have a history of overwhelming people.

In short order our early history seemed to verify Fox's advice: I perceived most of your correspondences as being sparse and guarded, and some of them painfully slow to come. And then there was your admission that you were feeling overwhelmed and request for me to slow down.

After that your signals grew mixed, or so was my perception. So I relaxed into that, deciding to allow our sharing to find a dynamic that was comfortable for both of us. That to some degree stifled my spontaneity and my ability to list to and honor the Voices, but it seemed better than the not-so-unlikely tradeoff - consuming you. The upshot, the cost, was that I lost, or partially lost, the continuum with you. It had nothing to do with you being second choice. It had to do with fear -fear of overwhelming you, of chasing you away, and of hurting you in the process. I believe that Lety may in part have been given to me in order to spare you and to facilitate my flow.

In retrospect I would have respected Fox's advice, and yet followed my own guidance. I would not have tried to second-guess your actions-reactions, as another's reality does not validate or invalidate mine. Perhaps I would have completely overwhelmed you, and that would have been OK. And then again perhaps we would have blossomed into our sharing. Because of my negotiating with the now, we will not know that. I should have known that you were capable of many and wondrous things, in fact I was aware of that, but my fear of the possible fallout, and my caring for you, overshadowed that.

Now I am in a place of acceptance. I feel sadness and I feel joy. I wonder what might have been and what will be. My main desire is to be in the moment, to realize that things unfold as they are intended, and to glean the teachings from my choices. My biggest overall regret is that I do not know you as a whole person. I do not know how to relate with you, listen to you, share myself with you, in a way that I feel confident is true and full. Such a dichotomy: you have been so close and yet so far away. I don't believe I will make that mistake again.

... cut ...

Me

Anti-Activist Hypocrite Tamarack Song Becomes an Activist to Save the Trees

Whites calling themselves "native