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]:
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.
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.
Labels: New Age Fraud, Tamarack's Narcissism
posted by Nemeses at 6:08 PM
20 Comments:
Wish I could but I'm all the way over in Little old England!
Thanks for your clear analysis. I just saw the show on MTV, and my partner and I were just appalled. We thought we were gonna be watching a show about hooking up solar panels or something, not a bunch of young people soothing their guilt by pretending to be Indians.
There are plenty of ways to live with less impact on the environment without appropriating another culture.
there isn't anything wrong with trying to live off the land, and that practice isn't exclusive to Native Americans! How racist. We are all humans and crave that connection to the earth.
The problem with the show is that in this day and age, it is far more productive to work towards making better the mess, not simply staying out of it.
I loved the dramatic bit about eating the 'Elder Clam'. The guy was sitting in his tent crying about 'taking from the mother', and stole a coke from the litte internet hut they have. Ha-Ha-Ha.
That's right I ate the elder clam! I've got opposable thumbs Mother Fu*!er. I'll eat anything I want.
Ugh, you know, if you would only use your efforts towards something constructive other than trying to attack everyone else for not standing of to your perfections of being politically correct enough.
We have enough problems in the world, this civilization is killing the earth, what is your problem with people going to Teaching Drum trying to live a way of life that is sustainable? You dont' have to find it some wonderful thing, but give it up, you have a whole blog focused on Tamarack Song and your hatred for him. You're accusing him of being racist non-stop and as a result are undermining the seriousness of the real racist thought that is out there. There are groups of white people who still believe that the white race is superior, there are neo-nazi's, there are fascists, there are plenty of other people who are a lot more serious than some guy who is trying to live the way all of our ancestors did at one time.
Who gives a fuck about Teaching Drum. I mean, seriously. Do you really think it's this important to go on some whole crusade against them? 200 species a day are going extinct, there are native peoples everywhere who are becoming extinct or being forced off their lands and forced into settlement, there are people like the San of the Kalahari who are being threatened because of DeBeers wanting diamonds on their land, there are groups in the Amazon being threatend because civilization wants the "resources" in their area, there are sentinelese trying to resist this culture before it kills them, there are polar bears fighting for life, there is a culture that is killing the earth, and a culture which is responsible for the racism and sexism that exist. Do something worth while instead of posting on some fucking blog bashing on people who are trying to do something constructive with their lives to minimize their damage on the earth. Do something other than perpetuating the hatred against everyone who is white, accusing all white people of being racist. There are white people who are doing some fucked up shit, try focusing on them instead of generalizing all people into the same category for a change would ya? Do something constructive to show people the situation we are in and how fucked we are so we can do something about it, don't post on some pathetic little blog pouting about how Teaching Drum Outdoor School is still there.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
From here onward, anyone using the handle "anonymous" will be deleted.
Please chose a name for yourself so the rest of us can tell you apart and answer you individually.
Thanks.
I've known Tamarack Song for many
years. Probably longer then some of you have been alive. I knew him
well before he started his wretched
school. I know for a fact that Tamarack is a total fraud. Most of his life made up folks. He knew nothing about wilderness skills when I first met him. I spent a lot
of time and with Tamarack and during this time he never once mentioned She-Who_Talks-With-Loons.
Listen to someone who has been on
this Earth Ways path for many years. Stop defending this man and
and hear what Nemesis and I have to
say. Keep away from this narcisstic
freak and do something real to help
save the planet. Tamarack isn't real and has hurt many people in his quest to feed his narcissism.
Thanks all, for your support.
Yes indeed, Diemos, there is every reason to believe that Tamarack made up the She Who Talks With Loonies character. The white racist psyche seems to need an ersatz "Indian" to feel all authentic about getting back to nature.
Playing Indian helps whites get around their obligations to confront the genocidal culture that goes on killing real Indigenous people every day. Playing Indian keeps Euro Americans as far away from the front lines of racist violence as possible. And helps us feel lovey-groovey-peacey good about it.
Listen
What is your bottom line issue here Nemesis?I mean YOUR issue. Why are *you* so affronted by what Tamarack and the students are doing at Teaching Drum? What is *your *fear, here?
As for Indigenous ways - all of us in North America are living on what were native lands. What are *you doing* - other than critiquing - to make life better - for them - or anyone? And critiquing is ohh so
easy, especially anonymously on a free blog.
How are you being proactive and let's see your web site.
****
If those young people choose to live and learn in nature in this way for a year - is it harming anyone? Is it harming you? Do you think native ways can not teach us all much?
I saw the MTV program. Do you honestly think that program would not be of interest or inspiration to anyone?
Ohh are you ever mistaken if you believe this would not be very compelling.
So let's have it. Where is YOUR WORK. Let's see it.
signed,
Woman who speaks.
here i am again, not as Anonymous so -
Listen
What is your bottom line issue here Nemesis?I mean YOUR issue. Why are *you* so affronted by what Tamarack and the students are doing at Teaching Drum? What is *your *fear, here?
As for Indigenous ways - all of us in North America are living on what were native lands. What are *you doing* - other than critiquing - to make life
better - for them - or anyone? And critiquing is ohh so easy, especially anonymously on a free blog.
How are you being proactive and let's see your web site.
****
If those young people choose to live and learn in nature in this way for a year - is it harming anyone? Is it harming you? Do you think native ways can not teach us all much?
I saw the MTV program. Do you honestly think that program would not be of interest or inspiration to anyone?
Ohh are you ever mistaken if you believe this would not be very compelling.
So let's have it. Where is YOUR WORK. Let's see it.
signed,
Woman Who Speaks.
"As for Indigenous ways - all of us in North America are living on what were native lands."
WERE Native lands?
Are you intentionally lying or just that monumentally uneducated?
By treaty, tradition, and international and US domestic law, Occupied Turtle Island is sovereign Indigenous territory. Always has been, always will be.
Whether you do not know this FACT, or have intentionally obfuscated it, we want nothing to do with a racist like you, Woman.
Take your sour-faced contempt and ugly arrogance someplace where apologists for racist and sexist predators like Tamarack are welcome. The KKK and/or Hugh Hefner likely have some sites that will make you feel right at home.
As for us, we will continue our humanitarian work of modeling the setting of healthy boundaries - and the fierce defense against predators of those boundaries - without which there can be no sustainable community of any kind.
from Woman Who Speaks...
I've read some posts on your blog and see you have an obsession with this one man Tamarack and his little group in the woods.
Clearly it would appear that you, or someone who is very close to you personally, has been very wounded-affected by being at Teaching Drum or in close association with this person or group..
What can I say.. I'm sorry for you, and hope you can find your own healing. Get well, move on.. Call YOUR spirit back - to you. Right now so much of it is wrapped around that little group, couched in anger and anonymous fear.
This obsession with Tamarack - where will it lead? There is a huge world out there. Is there not something proactive - rather than so micro cosmic and reactive that you can focus on?
And citing these anonymous 'emails' in you blog deriding Tamarack. I mean how immature and probably illegal as well. Have you talked to a libel lawyer recently?
And what makes you feel you can speak for this woman who had been at Teaching Drum - the woman you seem to think Tamarack has an amorous feeling for? You are NOT the voice of that woman. Nor do you speak for women especially as you do not have the courage to come out with your own name. If she, this woman wants to write about her experiences she can write her own blog, If she has a legal issue she can take it up.
You cite KKK , Hugh Hefner, you must be very young. and again so reactive and naive.
And finally whose- Nemes-I-s - do you think you'll be? Remember that with your one finger pointing at Tamarack, four fingers are pointing back at you. Heal yourself. What will move you forward is being CREATIVE, PROACTIVE, not obsessing about an obscure man with a small group, in the woods and students living off the land, for one year.
be well, go heal.
Gee, Woman Who Speaks.
Jealous much?
I'm the student who forwarded Tamarack's letters to this website for publication, and thank you very much for your phonie concern, but I've found nothing heals like justice. Or helping other people not make the mistakes I did.
And if you think Tamarack has it rough, you should see what happened to the next poor sap in my life who tried to send me "love" letters.
Tamarack's marriage and carreer, such as they are, are still intact. The other poseur's had a white boy come apart that's the stuff of snarky newsroom legends.
Twenty yards, lover. Twenty yards.
I knew that would eat you alive.
You got close. but I got closer.
PS: Yes, I have talked to a lawyer. Tamarack is a public figure and as such has virtually no recourse in the courts to complain about any critiques of his fictitious performances. In any event, he hasn't got hundred dollar bills to light on fire with a nuisance lawsuit, even if he does charge eight thousand dollars for his program. Still... I'd love it if he - or any other man who wants to shut me down - sued. Now that would really give my story legs, aye?
Can you say "Book Deal"?
PPS: I'm forwarding Tamarack's latest letter to me to Nemeses for publication. In it, he claims I've done what I've done because, he says "I chose Lety over you."
Ha. He really thinks he's the one I love. But... self-absorbed losers are like that.
from the Woman Who Speaks...
Hello woman student
The rapidity of your response yesterday makes be believe there may be a close connection between you and the blogger Nemeses..
....
So let me try to be succinct and brief.
First, yes indeed I can feel compassion for a person in pain. Why not.
Then.. I've never met Tamarack, nor have been at The Teaching Drum. I heard of the Teaching Drum through an interested third party, and hence I watched the MTV program, and not the entire program at that. But I've found it all interesting enough to research it a little further which led me to this blog. At first glance this blog seemed extremely reactive and belligerent, when I read a bit longer I could feel the pain beneath the posts.
******
About your personal experience with Tamarack woman student. I know next to nothing of it, I'm sorry you suffered, I hope you're receiving good support to heal and get on with your life. Indeed at times seeking justice is the most redemptive course, other times it can be very energy draining and self destructive. You've heard the saying 'choose your battles well'. I hope you'll know what's best for you and will act accordingly.
Our entire life is a journey of learning.. the difficult people in our lives can provide us with the biggest lessons possible, if we are able to learn from them. In the long run 'forgiveness' is the biggest gift we can give not to them, but to ourselves.
*****
My intention was not to linger on this blog, I wish you well, and I hope you can make something creative for yourself and your life here and now, and that you can replenish yourself from your experiences in the beauty of nature.
take care
"My intention was not to linger on this blog..."
Yeah, right.
Do you always take years to say goodbye?
I felt sorry for Derik when he left the TD. So what if he couldn't quit his cig or sugar caffeine habit? I had the great privilege of attending a Grand Medicine Lodge Ceremony many years ago at the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation in Wisconsin. There was copious use of both tobacco coffee and tea. And if my information is correct maple sugar
is/was a major food item in the
dietfor centuries. As for the eating the elder clam I seriously doubt if any real wild animal-human or otherwise-would be as discerning about the age of the clam. A raccoon or a bear doesn't care about the clams age. It just wants to eat and survive. Another prime example of Tamaracks bullshit.
When Derick decided to leave I think it was his inner vision screaming at him that something was
terribly wrong. Derick wasn't a bad person or student. Derick had bad teachers. I hope that he will be able to heal from this experience and find a real way to
to live with the Earth in a good way.
Well said, Deimos.
Tamarack's a narcissistic authoritarian who uses a mish-mash of fakelore hokum and cult-minded rules to gain control over gullible young people and their money.
You're spot on with your comments about Derick. He came to his senses and regained his right mind - a process also known as "growing up".
We ought to know. We had to do it, too.
:)
mmmmmmmm...roadkill...
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