General > Welcome & News

Re: Elder's Meditation of the Day August 1,2005

<< < (3/3)

debbieredbear:
Matt,

None of that was directed at you. What was referred to is a person, who finds they have some Indian ancestry, and then becomes an instant "traditional." Seen it tooo many times.The sad thing is that nuager wannabes will listen to someone like that over someone who has been raised traditional. A couple of weeks ago, a local fraud told my fullbloof friend "I've been in the 'Indian business' (???) for over twenty years now." My friend replied "I have been in the 'Indian business' since birth." The wannabes listen to the fraud and discard any part of what my friend says that they don't like.

And for the record, yes I did insult that idiot woman. She reads things into what is posted and pays no attention. It's all about her her her.

AlaskaGrl:

--- Quote ---"nuagey types in San Diego started calling themselves made up names they recieved from their 'spirit-totems', or 'spirit-guids'. ? I did not know if I should laugh at what I herd, or berate them. None were ndn, most were wiccans looking for a new mask. ?  ?  ?  

--- End quote ---



I would bet they were Hollywood nuagey ? **Pagans** and not Wiccans. ? I don't know of any "Wiccans" who call themselves by ndn names and who do ndn "style" things in order to appear ndn ? hmmmm ? but those "totem animals" seem to be in now with just about everyone Wiccan or Pagan by all the books out on the shelves now. ?  ? But lots of people like to blame things on Witches and Wiccans alone. ? It's an easy term to grab but it is not always correct. ?

Addendum:
Debbie mentioned to me that where she is ? Wiccans are doing various Native things in an attempt to emulate. ? That even goes against the initial information that Gerald Gardner taught (who started Wicca). ?

Again, I have to lay the blame on the wannabees & plastic shamans  who proliferate online, in the book stores and new age shops.  And ok, on those people who don't take the time to LEARN about what it is they want to do.  It's such an instantaneous society. ? It is not right and it certainly goes against anything I was taught or believe but then i'm an old fashioned, hereditary, quite opinionated Witch who is an activist on many levels.... ?

But it is real hard to shovel it sometimes ? LOL

Linda

educatedindian:
A lot of people are in your situation Matt, including some other members of NAFPS. Vance has a Yahoo group, Chickamauga Researchers, that you might be interested in.

I've tried coming up with a term than wouldn't offend people. Some Natives use "thinbloods" but some are offended by it. And I don't care about BQ anyway. So I talk about people of distant Indian ancestry (PODIA) , meaning most of the time it might be several generations since anyone in the person's family had contact with the culture. And these are the people who are esp vulnerable to people like not just Sonier and McCullough, but the dozens of would be "Cherokee tribes" and all the fake shamans, since they often don't know any better.

If anybody has an idea for a better term I'm interested to hear it.

Matt_Bowerman:
Thanks for replying to my message everyone.  I have learned allot from the posts in the forum, and hope to learn more in the future.  It is an honor to listen to what all of you have to say on these issues. My Great grandfather and his family were from the Red River Station area in Texas, and Stonewall, Oklahoma.  I have only been with and around Lakota at any length regarding culture.  Some of that culture was freezing my but off during the winter of 1994 in Manderson. I stayed with Sam Tall, and visited his aunti-Margret (not his real aunt) not far from the post office.  When they say the homes are not winterized they mean it man.  Thank good for the pot belled stove, but due to the cracks in the old wooden plank floor, the stove really didn’t do much good. I would love to let some of these ‘nuagers’ go live on the Pine Ridge reservation one winter.  That will nip any of their dreams of grandeur right in the bud.  Sam used to joke with me and call me a ‘half-breed ditch dog’ so ‘watered-down’ is fine with me,  I just want to make sure I do not come off as a 'want-to-be because I am interested in learning about my Great Grandfather’s (5th) Cherokee and Lenape culture.  Part of learning this is respecting it.  Part of respecting the culture is participating in groups like this.  At least that is what this one ‘half-breed ditch dog’ thinks. (grin)    

Respectfully,

Matthew  

Matt_Bowerman:
I forgot to mention that my wife’s family is also mixed white and Cherokee, but Kelly has a lot more Cherokee blood than I, as her Grandfather (John Johnson) was ¼ .  I hope to ensure that our boys have a healthy respect for their fore-fathers, and their culture.  My wife and I have been talking about moving to Oklahoma City in a few years.  We hope to then start taking the boys out to Stomp Dances.    

Matt

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page