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 harrassment 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.

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

We Have A Critic

Someone recently sent us an email with the following response to our new website. Boy, we sure get the feeling somebody does not love us. Or our uppity language. Well, what can we say but gosh darn it to heck. And we were trying soooooooo hard to be liked.

-snip-

Well, I read through the entire blog, and while I can see that you spent quite a lot of time on it, I have to say that I was quite disappointed.

Though you may have been correct on the fact that Tamarack Song adopts the Ojibwe culture and language selectively, your accusations of racism are a straw man. It's ridiculous, really, and I am prone to believe that through your venomous spewings in italics, name-calling, and cussing, that you are more for hating the man than helping him. Even if Tamarack Song would agree to offer books and an inclusion of the current conditions of local Indians, it wouldn't be the end of your hate. It seems more likely that you have something on a more personal level with him, and you are blinded by that hate.

My advice is to find something else to pick on, and leave Tamarack Song alone. There are plenty more targets of a political nature that would be much more on the level with you. Even if he isn't 100% there in your opinion, he is probably at least half way there. How many more people out there in the US are no where near the understanding that an average green anarchist is at? In other words, pick on someone your own size will you?

Just being honest.

Honey, the use of Ojibwe language and culture selectively is racism, straight up. There's no room for hedging there. And nobody here is trying to "help" Tamarack Song. The twisted creature is beyond help. Belive us, the overwhelming emotions we have for Same Ole Song are disgust and pity. If we "hate" anything at all, it is his behavior, not his person. And if you have better targets for our "level" then name them. Until then, you are going to have to offer a much more thoughtful response to our charges than "you hate him," because if there is anything we absolutely cannot stand, it is the intellectually lazy.

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
haveit within the next week.

In Balance,
Tamarack

We're Banished!

Folks, looks like Same Ole Song seems to think we are playing Dungeons and Dragons, with him (and only him) deciding which characters live or die! Whatever. In any event, the rumour of our deaths has been greatly exaggerated. We can assure you that Angry Uppity Bitches United and the Kill Whitey Coalition are most alive and well and looking forward to a long and fruitful Tamarack takedown. In fact, we hear just today that he is begging for help in setting up a website to counter our offensive.

Rest assured fans that it is up to Yahoo email to decide just how many characters are playing in this game, and so far, the sky is the limit.

And dear god! Is that Ojibwe he is butchering at the bottom of this email? Are clanindigenoushuntergathers even allowed to use technological tools like Ojibwe-English dictionaries?

Yes, Same Ole Song, we have "returned" from our banishment. Now the real question is - just how many email handles do we have at all your Yahoo groups, and are you talking to any of them right now? We sure think so!

Glad you like our "teachings" whitey, cuz we are gonna be taking you to school for a very long time!

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 Circle

Please visit our website at http://www.teachingdrum.org/

Statement of Purpose

Greetings All:

Welcome to As The Teaching Drum Turns blogspot. The contributors to this blog are people who have been involved in one form or another with Tamarack Song and/or the Teaching Drum Outdoor School, which is a wilderness skills, 501c non-profit corporation that seeks to educate students about Native Lifeways.

This blogspot was set up to challenge the school's lack of basic education around indigenous issues, as well as its self-absorbed, overblown, new-agey style of teaching and writing, which just has to be read to be believed. From the Teaching Drum's curriculum and classes you can learn Ojibwe earth skills such as canoe, shelter, and bow making as well as a white man's sweat lodge ceremony, but you will not find hide nor hair of educational materials on the school's website, or in its current materials, about the genocide past or present that American Indians living in Occupied Wisconsin have faced. What you will find is a whole bunch of writings by Tamarack Song about his favorite subject - yep, you guessed it: Tamarack Song!

The school proposes to get you in touch with the Native you. We here at As the Teaching Drum Turns absolutely reject the school's use of the word Native for non-Indians. More about that in an upcoming post.

But dare to bring up any of these subjects on the Teaching Drum's Yahoo Groups mail list and you will likely be called a white-bashing, self-hating, angry, extremist, holier-than-thou activist who has a personal vendetta against Tamarack Song, the school's owner, headmaster, and vanity press publisher. All this just for requesting that the school provide a more complete education concerning indigenous genocide and indigenous people's current struggles to resist/remember that genocide.

To paraphrase the infamous words of one of the school's lap-poodle spokesmen, they don't do "political activism". They are 501c afterall. And because of that stupid excuse for a reason, you will not hear about Wisconsin-area concentration camps (reservations), scalp bounties, boarding schools, forced removals, treaty rights, or American Indian-led resistance in the Teaching Drum's area. The school's educational materials mention none (or very little) of the above, or the fact that ALL United States citizens are responsible for the actions of their government, and are required to confront genocide, as stated in no uncertain terms in international treaties like the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, or the Nuremberg Principles developed after the defeat of Nazi Germany.

It is our intention at this blog to challenge the school's lack of an honest education for its students and to expose the white supremacist reasoning behind its refusal to do so. While the issues raised here are very serious, we hope also to achieve a tone of supreme ridicule and yes, humour, as those also are effective ways to confront the narcissism and exceptionalism so prevalent in white, non-Indian, alternative communities in the United States.

Please understand, we are none of us here experts in indigenous issues, just people of conscience who care about living closer to the earth, challenging white supremacy, and stepping up to our responsibilities to prevent genocide. Through this website and our confrontation of the Teaching Drum Outdoor School, we hope to educate ourselves further about the realities facing indigenous people, not only in the Wisconsin area, but on Turtle Island and beyond. That's a very big task.

We hope you will join us and share what you know as we grow together in understanding.