WANTING to BE INDIAN: 1 What Is at Work Here Which Makes Sincere Spiritual Searching an Searching Spiritual Sincere Makes Which Here Work at Is What
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WANTING TO BE INDIAN When Spiritual Searching Turns into Cultural Theft RECOMMENDED FURTHER READING WANTING TO BE INDIAN: Fantasies of the Master Race - Literature, Cinema and the colonization of American Indians, by Ward Churchill (1992) When Spiritual Searching Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown (1971) Turns into Cultural Theft Blood of the Land, by Rex Weyler (New Society Publishers, 1992) A Basic Call to Consciousness: the Haudenosaunee Address to the West- ern World (Akwesasne Notes) by Myke Johnson Indians Are Us? by Ward Churchill (Common Courage Press, 1994) A Tortured People: The Politics of Colonization, by Howard Adams (1995) ANY PEOPLE ARE SEARCHING for a deeper spiritual engagement with the All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life, by Winona LaDuke Mworld, and feel a hunger unmet by the teachings and services of reli- gious institutions. Some have begun to take an interest in Native American Websites: spiritual practices, and one can easily find workshops and lectures offering http://www.newagefraud.org/ - native site about Plastic Shamanism Indian rituals and ceremonies to non-Indian people. However, many Native http://geocities.com/dont_pay_to_pray/ - “Don’t Pay to Pray” list of frauds people, including highly respected religious elders, have condemned such “borrowing.” They identify it as a form of cultural exploitation, gravely det- http://intercontinentalcry.org/ - Reporting on Indigenous Struggles rimental to the survival and well-being of Indigenous people. http://warriorpublications.com/ - Warrior Publications In this paper, I will be discussing the ethical questions raised by White http://wiinimikiikaa.wordpress.com/ - Revolutionary Indigenous Resistance peoples’ exploration of the religious ceremonies and beliefs of American http://indigenousaction.org/ - Indigenous Action Media Indians.1 What is at work here which makes sincere spiritual searching an http://blackmesais.org/ - Black Mesa Indigenous Support act of cultural theft? Why are Native peoples endangered by this interest in http://wsdp.org/ - Western Shoshone Defense Project their beliefs and rituals? How can we respect the cultural integrity of Indian people, and yet also honor deep-felt spiritual desires? (This list was selected by the publisher, not Myke Johnson. For Myke’s rec- comended authors, see Endnote #7.) First, I want to introduce myself in relation to this issue. I am a White wom- an related by matrilineal ancestry to the Innu people, called by the French Montagnais, who are indigenous to the land which is now called Quebec and Labrador. I grew up in White U.S. Christian culture, with fair skin and red hair, and only a reminder that we were “part-Indian” to link me to any other culture. To be White is to fit into the norm in ways that gives one cer- 1994 Sinister Wisdom #52 1995 The Brown Papers tain advantages denied to those who are not White. And yet the influence 1998 Responsible Ethics for Spirituality of my Innu great-great-great grandmother also shaped my consciousness in a 2009 Quiver distro - Santa Cruz, CA Métis way. Métis are the people and culture which grew from the intermar- [email protected] - PDF available online. riage of Indians and Europeans, especially French and Scottish. 1 This Métis consciousness makes it more complex and confusing to speak about this issue, even as it lies at the heart of my commitment and responsi- ENDNOTES bility to it. Even grammatically, I question how to use “we” and “they” when I might be included in both, but not quite contained in either category. I 1. This pamphlet is a revision of the article support Native women writers, I would rec- have heard many Indian people speak out about these issues. I have decided which appeared in Sinister Wisdom #52, ommend the books of the following Native that it is most useful for me to speak as a White woman, to raise the issues Spring/Summer 1994, pp. 79-88. writers, as a start: Paula Gunn Allen, Betty Louise Bell, Beth Brant, Maria Campbell, in the context of the feminist spirituality movement of which I am a part, 2. Andrea Smith, “The New Age Movement Chrystos, Louise Erdrich, Janice Gould, and Native Spirituality,” in Indigenous Wom- that we might be true to our commitment to the survival and liberation of Janet Campbell Hale, Joy Harjo, Linda Ho- an, Vol. I #1, Spring 1991, p. 18. all people. Furthermore, while for me there is an element of seeking my own gan, M. Annette Jaimes, Lee Maracle, Leslie Native heritage, the current phenomenon of outside interest in Native spiri- 3. From “Spiritual Hucksterism: The Rise of Marmon Silko, Anna Lee Walters. the Plastic Medicine Men,” in Ward Churchill, tuality is a phenomenon of White culture, and this White phenomenon 8. Joy Asham Fedorick, “Fencepost Sitting Fantasies of the Master Race: Literature, affects all of us who find ourselves interested in Native Americans. It has and How I Fell Off to One Side,” in Give Cinema and the Colonization of American Back: First Nations Perspectives on Cultural been important for my search to get inside this White thing about Indians, Indians, (Monroe, ME: Common Courage Practice, (North Vancouver, BC, Canada), to explore and understand how it works in White people, of which I am a Press, 1992) p. 217. Originally published in Gallerie: Women Artists’ Monographs, Issue Z Magazine, Dec. 1990. part, so that I can understand how it affects Métis people as well. 11, 1992, p. 42. 4. Pam Colorado, quoted in Wendy Rose, Since childhood, I have been a spiritual person. As I was becoming an 9. Paraphrase from a lecture. adult, the values of the gospel led me into political activism on behalf of “The Great Pretenders: Further Reflections on Whiteshamanism,” in M. Annette Jaimes, 10. Joanna Kadi describes how cultural ap- justice and liberation. This path of justice activism led me to understand- The State of Native America: Genocide, Col- propriation treats objects as “ahistorical and ing the oppression of women, and of myself as a woman. One of the places onization, and Resistance, (Boston: South culturally empty.” See “Whose Culture Is It where women experience oppression is in the area of spirituality and reli- End Press, 1992), p. 405. Original quote in Anyway?,” Sojourner Vol. 18 #2, October gion. So feminism instigated for me a spiritual search and a transformation, Ward Churchill, “A Little Matter of Genocide: 1992, pp. 5-6. Native American Spirituality and New Age and with many other women I began to seek and create what we called 11. Andrea Smith, “For All Those Who Were Hucksterism,” Bloomsbury Review, Vol. 8 Indian in a Former Life,” Sojourner, Vol. 16 women’s spirituality. This is when I also began to be interested in Native #5, Sept/Oct 1988, pp. 23-4. Her tribal affili- #3, Nov. 1990, p. 8. American spirituality. ation was mentioned in Indigenous Woman magazine. 12. Jewish White women are an exception here since Judaism, like Indian religions, is a 5. One account of the vision quest is given THERE IS A PHENO M ENON in White culture which affects any interaction be- community based religion. in Black Elk, The Sacred Pipe, (New York: tween White people and Native Americans. White culture has created an Penguin Books, 1971), pp. 44-66. 13. Jane Caputi, “Interview with Paula Gunn image and called it “Indian.” But this image is a stereotype, and not really Allen,” Trivia 16/17, Fall 1990, p. 50. 6. Churchill, Fantasies of the Master Race, informative or accurate about real Native Americans, who are of many di- pp. 216-7. 14. From the poem, “Shame On!” in Dream verse cultures. All of us could give details about this stereotype “Indian.” An On, (Vancouver: Press Gang, 1991). important aspect of this stereotype “Indian” is that it has two sides, like the 7. For those who would like to learn more about the experience of Indian people and two sides of a coin. One side of the stereotype Indian is the Hostile Savage - the dangerous, primitive warrior who attacked the settlers of the West, or the irresponsible reservation drunk who couldn’t be trusted, the Indian of which it was said, I dedicate this paper to my German-American paternal grandmother, “the only good Indian is a dead Indian.” The other side of the stereotype In- born Mary Lucille Heisler, who died March 9, 1995, at the age of 98. dian is the Noble Savage - the innocent primitive who was naturally spiritual 2 responsibility? How is this different or the same for Black people of partial Native ancestry? Is there a legitimate calling from the ancestors which draws us into connection with Native spirituality? How do we sort through the culture’s racist and distorted images to find access to something we can rely on? Does biological heritage make a difference here, or is our adoption into White or Black culture the primary kinship in which we must make com- munity? And for those of any descent, how does ancestry influence spirituality? How does it shape our spiritual and ethical responsibilities? What about those women who were adopted or in some way cut off from their biological roots? What is the interplay between biology and community and spiritual- ity? What about for those who have been abused by their kin? How do gay and lesbian people reconstitute family and kin in the face of rejection for sexual orientation? Are there certain responsibilities for those who go be- tween various cultures and classes of people? Despite the complexity of these issues which are raised, I believe the journey we embark on is not so difficult or unwieldy. It is rooted in a com- mitment to the life of the people, and a trust that we are not alone.