Renee R. Bierbaum

[White Horse]

Renee R. Bierbaum  5012 Woodlawn Cir. Palmetto, FL 34221
Ms. Bierbaum is holding illegal Sweat Lodge ceremonies for $100, here is a synopsis of current events and she has "claimed" to be Choctaw?.

I contacted Ms. Bierbaum the week before Thanksgiving asking to have a meeting about the sweat lodge, I told her I had some concerns about the people running the sweat lodge and wanted to explain why it was wrong to have a sweat lodge ceremony and to see if a peaceful quiet resolution could be agreed upon.    Ms. Bierbaum asked to be contacted after the holiday, so I contacted Ms. Bierbaum again requesting a meeting and she immediately said I was harassing her and threatened to call her attorney.  Ms. Bierbaum also threatened to have me put in jail if I showed up at the event.  I pointed out that I have the right to protest as I have done for many years and I have never been arrested for protesting.   Ms. Bierbaum’s refusal to have any conversations about the sweat lodge forced me to seek other means to stop the sweat lodge ceremony,  I did notice that Ms. Bierbaum was running an illegal business and probably did not have any business insurance or proper permits.  So yes I did report Ms. Bierbaum to Manatee County and Manatee County saw Ms. Bierbaum was Breaking the law and shut down her business until she gets the proper permits. 

I am Assiniboine/Sioux and I take our Ceremonies very seriously, it is how American Indians practice Religion!  Non-American Indians performing our religious ceremonies is a mockery and slap in our face, that they have no respect for American Indian religion!  Under The American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, it was created to protect and preserve the traditional religious rights and cultural practices of American Indians, yes American Indians did not get our religious freedom until 1978 (http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~rfrey/329AIRFA.htm).  I would also like to mention that Chief Arvol Looking Horse the Sioux Nations Chief of Chiefs issued a proclamation to protect sacred ceremonies from Non-American Indians.   People have been injured and died in sweat lodges run by non-American Indians, something that Ms. Bierbaum probably knows nothing about or cares. 

Ms. Bierbaum is exploiting American Indian Culture and Traditions and it needs to stop.  Ms. Bierbaum should exploit her own religion and not steal our religious ceremonies! I encourage to share this posting before it is deleted by Ms. Bierbaum, who probably does not want anyone to know what she is doing is wrong!  American Indian Ceremonies are Not  for Sale!
Sal Serbin
Executive Director
American Indian Movement - Florida

***edited to remove link to Manatanka - a site full of wannabe fluff and ceremony sellers. Here is the statement http://www.newagefraud.org/olh4.html
 

[Smart Mule]

Here is her business fb page https://www.facebook.com/Ravens-Nest-Yoga-with-Renee-Ravencraft-Bierbaum-518519901608318/ and her personal page https://www.facebook.com/Reneerbierbaum?fref=ts . A gofundme page had aparently been set up to cover the costs of permitting. She seems to have more than a few ingnorant as well as racist friends.

[Smart Mule]

Donna Riggs?
to
 Renee Bierbaum
4 hrs ·

Renee, let's not give this idiot our energy. I know of no one that would give this fool a second thought. Continue with your GFM account and move forward. Take care of the legal responsibilities and move forward with your sweat lodge.
I'm not a lawyer, but it seems other than the money, there is an infringement on your rights on your private property.
And, if he gets too loud and obnoxious, that's free advertising for you.
Last I heard, we still have religious freedom in this country and native Americans do not have a monopoly on communing with Mother Earth.
8 people like this.
Comments

Renee Bierbaum - You are exactly right. I am not communicating with him any more. I am just defending myself against his attacks. I am feeling quite good at the moment as I feel all of the love and support from all of you surrounding me. He is just a pitiful soul and I almost feel sorry for him.
4 · 3 hrs

Donna Riggs - If he was smart, he would offer his help in an effort to educate people about his culture. Right now, many people think the American Indians are about casinos.
2 · 3 hrs

Renee Bierbaum - Agreed, but thankfully I know some REAL Indians who have been educating me for years now. One even calls me sister and she sits on the Council for the Cherokee.
1 · 3 hrs

[Smart Mule]

Women’s Yoga & Sweat Lodge Retreat

Cost: $75 if ticket is purchased before 12/11/15, $100 thereafter.
Retreat Facilitators - Renee Ravencraft Bierbaum - Certified Yoga Instructor - RYT-500

Nikki Heimann - Certified Yoga Instructor - RYT-200; Paddle Board Yoga Instructor

Hailey Neyland - Assistant, Raven's Nest Yoga

Donella Favorite - Women's Sweat Lodge Leader

Ladies, please join us for this unforgettable retreat! We will begin our time together building a traditional Native American Sweat Lodge, followed by a gentle, restorative yoga session. We will then share a delicious light meal before moving to our craft area to make our own, personalized malas. When our time of creative expression is over, we will spend some time journaling, writing out all of the things from 2015 we do not wish to bring into 2016 with us and then we will perform a releasing ritual to let go of these things and welcome the new into our lives through intention setting. As the day draws to a close and twilight covers the land, each will have some time to herself with her mala for prayers and meditations before we begin our Native American Sweat Lodge Ceremony. Our sweat will be presided over by Donella Favorite. Donella has spent 11 years in apprentice with Grey Ghosthawk, Medicine Man, Lodge Leader, teacher and healer who studied under Eaglebear, student of Sun Bear. Donella has been given her rights to pour and lead the women’s lodge and I am truly honored to have her perform this sacred, healing ceremony for all of you. Space is limited to 16 attendees so early registration is encouraged!

***eta Donella Favorite http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=4768.0
           Grey Ghosthawk http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=33.0

[Smart Mule]

I've been reading both her and her business page and she and her supporters are incredibly entitled, ignorant and privileged. It would seem that simply because she is a recent widow that she should be allowed to do whatever the heck she wants to do regardless of how or why she does it.

[Diana]

Copied this from her FB page. Looks like she got shut down by code enforcement.

https://www.facebook.com/Ravens-Nest-Yoga-with-Renee-Ravencraft-Bierbaum-518519901608318/

Raven's Nest Yoga with Renee Ravencraft Bierbaum


Yesterday at 9:28am · Crystal Springs, FL ·
.

ATTENTION - ALL CLASSES CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE! I am so very sorry to report that Raven's Nest Yoga is CLOSED until further notice. I am devastated and gutted to my core and at this juncture, unsure on how to proceed.

There is a Native American man named, Sal Serbin, who found out we were planning to do a sweat lodge here. He is totally against "white people", who are not natives, doing sacred Native American ceremony. He contacted me over Thanksgiving and voiced his objections to my holding the sweat lodge here. I told him that it was going to be conducted by trained people who had been performing lodge for over 16 years. He did not care. His beef is that white people have no right to do Native American ritual and "steal" his culture. He threatened me and I blew him off because I felt he was prejudiced, mean spirited and a trouble maker.

In the meantime, he has gone to the Manatee County code enforcement and lodged a complaint against me saying I am not zoned to be running a business from my home. I am not zoned commercial, but I checked with my homeowners association before I ever built my yoga pavilion and began teaching here and they were all for it. Many of my neighbors take yoga classes here and they even advertise for me in the monthly news letter.

This morning a Manatee County Code Enforcement officer came out and shut me down completely. She said not only can I not have the women's yoga retreat here, but I am no longer allowed to even teach yoga classes here until I get an Administrative Permit from the county to run a business from my home. This permit costs thousands of dollars that I do not have and it takes over a month to obtain, even if I had the money and they approved it.

So, this man has basically put me, a widow woman who is trying to eeek out a living teaching yoga, OUT of business. I hope he feels very proud of himself that he has taken away the living of a widow and her child. I am so very sorry. I thank you all for your trust in me as your teacher. Maybe one day I can get the permits required and we can try again at another time

[Defend the Sacred]

Even if, for the sake of argument only, we leave aside the issues of white people profiting on yoga for the moment...

If she was good at what she does, she could get hired by a real yoga school, studio or spa. Usually people who teach this stuff from their homes are trying to avoid paying overhead to a studio, so it's mostly about the money. The same people usually aren't trained well enough to get a job at a center or studio. Untrained yoga teachers can injure people.

She's started a GoFundMe to get the money so she can sell sweats.

As for the white people profiting off yoga thing... I think it's part of the slippery slope. She's already culture-vulturing from South Asian people so, like for many of these nuagers, stealing from NDNs is just as casual for them. They've already decided they're entitled to other peoples' Indigenous knowledge, and entitled to profit from their limited understanding of it.

She signs the GoFundMe with "So mote it be!!!" Which is a Wiccan/witch thing.   

[Smart Mule]

https://www.facebook.com/Reneerbierbaum/posts/10205188929954956?pnref=story

Renee Bierbaum has apparently spoken with the media. Hopefully the media spoke with Sal as well.

[Smart Mule]

https://www.facebook.com/Reneerbierbaum/posts/10204887191611686

I'm pretty certain she's providing kids with illegal feathers.

[White Horse]

Robby Soave from Reason magazine called, I hate the fact that people don't get that selling ceremonies is wrong and they ask us to explain it?  Thank you for all your help.  Sal

[Diana]

Hi White Horse,  be sure to let everyone know when and where we can read the article. I pray to God it has a comment section. Lol.

Robby Soave from Reason magazine called, I hate the fact that people don't get that selling ceremonies is wrong and they ask us to explain it?  Thank you for all your help.  Sal

[White Horse]

Mr Soave promised to send me a link when the story is published, sounded like an on-line magazine.  Sal

[Smart Mule]

https://reason.com/blog/2015/12/21/how-cultural-appropriation-and-zoning-la

And as it turns out, a certain member of the public—a Native American activist who militantly believes Bierbaum is appropriating his culture—is determined to stop her from realizing her vision.

Sal Serbin is a member of the Sioux nation and an activist with the American Indian Movement in Florida. He doesn’t object to the yoga portion of Bierbaum’s class—yoga has South-Asian Indian origins, not Native American origins. But Bierbaum intended to incorporate a sweat lodge into her routine, and that aspect of her class represents a pilfering of Serbin’s sacred religious beliefs, he tells Reason.

"It is my right as an Indian to preserve and protect our culture," he says.

Serbin, who alerted county officials to the illegality of Bierbaum’s practice in the first place, says he will use every means at his disposal to prevent her from appropriating his culture.

"The law helped me in this case and I took advantage of that," he says.

[Smart Mule]

The comments on that article are really racist. There's a couple of people trying to reason but my gosh. There are even threats of violence. So sorry you're having these things said toward you Sal.

[White Horse]

Thank you, I never got a link to this story as promised, I am surprised so when I protest an event it is now called heckling? I don't see any reference to Ms. Bierbaum being a black belt that teaches a woman's self defense class also, and she has 3 law enforcement officers as friends, and also threatened to contact an attorney? Apparently everyone that outs fakes and fights to preserve and protect American Indian culture, traditions and ways of life is a militant.  I really do not understand the people that are exploiting our culture are Victims? This really does noy make sense to me can anyone hear explain it?  Sal