Batshit Crazy Sweat Lodge Killer Released On Bail

What we would not give to see Tamarack Song in an orange jump suit just like this sweat-lodge stealing, manslaughtering nutter!

[To see why, please read our previous post Masturbating in the Sauna: Tamarack's Non-Indian Sweat Lodge.]



After his arrest, James Arthur Ray's bail was set at $5 million dollars, but his lawyers eventually got it reduced to about half a million. While whites continue to steal sacred ceremony from indigenous people, we are betting that these deaths, and James Ray's incarceration, have given many would-be thieves considerable pause - a very welcome development.


James Arthur Ray looks at people in the gallery during the second day of his bond hearing in Prescott, Ariz. on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010. Ray is facing three manslaughter counts for deaths that occurred during one of his retreats near Sedona, Ariz in October 2009. (AP Photo/Pool, Jack Kurtz)

Guru in Ariz. sweat lodge deaths released on bond

(AP) – Feb 26, 2010

CAMP VERDE, Ariz. — A motivational speaker charged with manslaughter in the deaths of three people at an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony is out of jail.

Yavapai County Jail Sgt. Dee Huntley says James Arthur Ray gained his freedom Friday, one day after a Yavapai County Superior Court judge reduced him bond from $5 million to $525,000.

Ray had to surrender his passport. He also cannot organize, supervise or conduct any activities that might harm others.

Ray has pleaded not guilty to three counts of manslaughter stemming from an October sweat lodge ceremony that was supposed to be the highlight of a five-day "Spiritual Warrior" retreat.

Prosecutors allege Ray recklessly crammed more than 50 people inside the sweat lodge, a small heated enclosure used in traditional American Indian ceremonies.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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