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

Wanna Play Indian? Give Tamarack $8000

Greedy little creep, ain't he?

In 2002, the Yearlong program only cost $3600.

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

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

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

Dear god, white people! WTF??!!

Four are surviving year in the North Woods wild

Excerpts from the article by Ana Davis:

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

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

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

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

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

Tamack Song, Catholic Golddigger

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

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

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

Catholic archdiocese could havespent gold to protect creation

Dear Editor:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tamarack Song

Three Lakes