Author Topic: exposing Fake medicine man  (Read 20604 times)

Offline earthw7

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exposing Fake medicine man
« on: August 31, 2007, 05:05:51 pm »
http://www.yvwiiusdinvnohii.net/News2005-2006/Giago051107ExposingFakeMedicine.html
Exposing The Fake Medicine Men and Women
Opinion by Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji),
President, (NAJF) Native American
Journalists Foundation, Inc.
The Peoples Voice - Monday, November 7, 2005
Copyright © 2005 Giago/NAJF
All Rights Reserved



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


In the early 1990’s I asked my staff writer at Indian Country Today, Avis Little Eagle, to write an investigative series on fake medicine men and women. She tackled what turned out to be a 10-part series with trepidation.
It seemed that everywhere we turned in those days, there was another catalog or news story featuring medicine men and women of dubious distinction. An eerie similarity arose in the backgrounds of many of these would be healers and spiritualists.

So many of these new age shaman made similar claims. They had been adopted by a medicine man (it was always a man and he was usually Lakota or Cherokee). They had learned all of the centuries old methods of healing and ministering by these traditional teachers and when they felt they were ready, they set out on their own to spread the good news of Indian medicine and healing.

In the many catalogs where their ads were placed most had assumed names they presumed to be Native American (Blue Dove, Swift Deer, etc.) and set up shop. They developed a system of monetary charges for sweat lodge ceremonies, vision quests and so on. Of course, every true Lakota and Cherokee knows that there are no charges for the services of the medicine people.

Most of the new age shaman were not Indian at all. When questioned about their roots by Little Eagle they became angry and defensive. Many proclaimed their rights to practice Indian medicine by virtue of their adoption by Lakota holy men. Many would not, or could not, reveal the names of their so-called mentors.

Others said, usually quite vehemently, that they never enrolled with an Indian tribe and never would because it was the government’s way of keeping them down. They would say, “I don’t need a Bureau of Indian Affairs number to know who I am.??? Most didn’t understand or realize that it was an Indian tribe that considered who or who is not a tribal member not the BIA.

Little Eagle, who last month was elected vice president of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and who is the editor and publisher of the McLaughlin, SD, based Teton Times, a weekly newspaper that serves her tribe, began to grow more apprehensive as her weekly series progressed because she was now receiving outright threats.

One fake shaman, Harley Swift Deer Regan, became very vocal in his threats. He had just been featured in an HBO Special called “Real Sex??? in which he allegedly revealed the sex secrets of the Cherokee people. Then Principle Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller, protested the lack of authenticity of this show to HBO executives demanding a retraction of the shows contents. Of course, that never happened.

Regan’s phone calls to Little Eagle became more ominous. But he wasn’t the only one. Some of the women shaman exposed in the investigative series by Little Eagle also went from a defensive position to an extremely offensive stance. They also threatened Avis with lawsuits and worse. Of course, as the editor of Indian Country Today, Avis came to me with all of the threats and I had to really encourage her not to give up on the series but instead to let me handle the threatened lawsuits.

You have to understand that some of the false shaman professed to have extraordinary powers. They attacked Avis with threats of a curse or they told her that they would put bad medicine on her and her family. A series of personal bad happenings to Avis totally unrelated to the series or to the shaman only served to increase the fear that was developing in her mind.

At last Avis started to write Part 10, the final issue of the series. It was a summation of all the nine other parts of the series and her conclusions. As I walked by to pat her on the back as she labored at that last part she had a look of great relief on her face. Her lunch hour came right in the middle of it so she cheerfully headed home to eat.

Not five minutes had passed since her departure when her computer monitor suddenly exploded in smoke and flames. Wow! All of the staff still in the office reacted in horror. I immediately told the crew to get her monitor out of there and replace it with an exact duplicate. Of course all of the memory was in the hard drive so nothing was lost and her computer was just sitting there ready for her to resume the article when she returned from lunch.

I swore my staff to secrecy and no one ever told Avis about the mysterious fire that erupted in her monitor. In fact, this is the first time I am revealing this because Avis did finish the 10-part series that day and breathed a sigh of relief. I’m afraid she would have reacted quite differently if she knew what had happened while she was at lunch.

A coincidence? One would suppose so, but no doubt those who delve into the dark regions of illicit shamanism do so for a reason. Evil can be manifested in many ways and in this day and age of modern technology; many of us do not understand the depths of spiritualism, real and imagined.

The series by Avis exposed many false shamans and she believes to this day that the new owners of Indian Country Today should retrieve her series from the dust bins of the newspaper morgue and re-publish them because there are still many false shamans out there.

(Tim Giago is the president of the Native American Journalists Foundation, Inc., and the publisher of Indian Education Today Magazine. He can be reached at najournalists@rushmore.com or by writing him at 2050 W. Main St., Suite 5, Rapid City, SD)
In Spirit

Offline littlefeatherspiri

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Re: exposing Fake medicine man
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2007, 06:27:03 pm »
Hi Earth,

I am K. Wesho-Bauer, good to see you in this forum and thanks for posting this article!

It would be interesting if they were  to write a follow-up article to see if these same people are still conducting those ceremonies, if they are still into being Indian and if their business is still making $$ for them.

I know many of us appreciate you for speaking out on many of the current issues going on today.



Offline earthw7

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Re: exposing Fake medicine man
« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2007, 11:23:43 pm »
Avis Little Eagle is our Vice Chairwoman of our tribe today and yes, they did a long
series of articles. I will try and find them.
Avis end up with death threats to her and her children
It was a hard time for her but she is a strong woman.
In Spirit

Offline debbieredbear

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Re: exposing Fake medicine man
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2007, 01:36:59 am »
I sent the one she wrote about Buck Ghost Horse to Al and it, or parts of it, are in the archives.  No one could ever find out "GFhost Horse's" real name. He admitted to a Florida reporter that Ghost Horse wasn't it. He died last year. But his group, The Ghost Horse Nation, lives on. 99% white people. Who all think they are more Indian and have the right to call themselves Lakota.

Offline earthw7

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Re: exposing Fake medicine man
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2007, 02:18:18 pm »
I talked with Avis and she said you can write to Lakota Times and get the completed story
she researched from them. She said that these people very vicious when you exposed them.
In Spirit

Offline debbieredbear

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Re: exposing Fake medicine man
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2007, 04:17:07 pm »
Oh, I know. You are taking away they're money pot. There is one scumbag here  that slandered a bunch of us and has got his people to believe we are nasty scorned women because we tried to expose him. He fondled one of my friends and pushed another in a corner at a pow wow and tried to grab her breast. At the time he was a Methodsist moinister! So much for his belief in Christianity. Says what he believes of his "shaman" stuff.

Offline Moma_porcupine

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Re: exposing Fake medicine man
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2007, 09:32:44 pm »
People who's identity is based in lies - even if it's just a few lies mixed with truth - tend to get completely
threatened by anyone who gets close to the truth . Reality does have this way of constantly threatening to intrude into their deception .

How can anyone possibly be any kind of Spiritual leader if they are threatened by reality ?

Anyone who knows the Elders these people falsely claim as their teachers will be seen as a threat and are likely to be attacked . Anyone with a real connection to the tribe they falsely claim as their own will be seen as a threat , and are likely to be attacked. Anyone who is knowledgeable , honest and respectful of traditions will be seen as a threat and is likely to be attacked .

From what I have seen, these people who lie, or make exagerated claims about being Spiritual leaders are not "ethical" . Unless they are totally clueless , they know what they are doing is deceptive and dishonest . When they are threatened these exploiters don't have any sense of fairness, truth, or concern for the well being of other people.

It isn't just a matter of people having different belief systems . Just because for many non native people , Native peoples and cultures exist only their imagination , doesn't mean Native people and culture only exist in peoples imaginations and one imaginary belief system is just as good as another imaginary belief system .  Native people are real and there is real cultural standards and norms which are not just in peoples imaginations .

No sector of the Catholic Church advertises and sells tickets to communion or confession over the internet .

No sector of the catholic Church has nude mass.

No sector of the Catholic Church has tarot card readings as a part of the church service .

This isn't a matter of different belief systems, this is a fact . If someone went to a country where people knew nothing about the Catholic Church and claimed to be a Priest , and claimed nude mass was a Catholic ritual
anyone who stated this person is a fraud would not be attacked and accused of being intolerant and overly controlling .

People would not be expected to show they were some important authority within the Catholic Church before they could state the obvious.

If the Catholic Church said the person was not a Priest , no one would try and dismiss this as "just be an opinion".

So why isn't there the same amount of respect for the structure of Native societies and cultures ?

 

Offline Defend the Sacred

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Re: exposing Fake medicine man
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2007, 09:36:07 pm »
Excellent points.  (And I'm still laughing at the image of the Nude Mass.) 

Offline tachia

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Re: exposing Fake medicine man
« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2007, 09:58:43 pm »
good points indeed .. can you imagine something like this:
"You're Catholic?  Wow, I love Catholics, you're all so cool and spiritual!  Hey, who's your patron saint?  I'm 1/32nd Catholic, you know.  I can't prove it, but my mom always told me my great-great-great-grandma was an altar boy.  Can I come to your church and run a Mass?  Why not???!!  Father Supercool High Pooh-Bah Popeman Two Saints made me a priest last Tuesday at a Zen Catholicism Tarot Crystal workshop!  Look, here's my official priesthood rosary, it's realllly super sacred!  what?? I am NOT being disrespectful! Anyway, you're just a bigot!  Stop judging me!  Crapping on your heritage and belief system is my spirituality. I had a vision where Jesus told me to do it and it makes me happy!  By the way, can I touch your holy medal?"

would this be acceptable? ..
(i do not remember who sent this to me, but i thought it was a good way to show others just how we feel.. )


Laurel

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Re: exposing Fake medicine man
« Reply #9 on: September 05, 2007, 10:20:09 pm »
good points indeed .. can you imagine something like this:
"You're Catholic?  Wow, I love Catholics, you're all so cool and spiritual!  Hey, who's your patron saint?  I'm 1/32nd Catholic, you know.  I can't prove it, but my mom always told me my great-great-great-grandma was an altar boy.  Can I come to your church and run a Mass?  Why not???!!  Father Supercool High Pooh-Bah Popeman Two Saints made me a priest last Tuesday at a Zen Catholicism Tarot Crystal workshop!  Look, here's my official priesthood rosary, it's realllly super sacred!  what?? I am NOT being disrespectful! Anyway, you're just a bigot!  Stop judging me!  Crapping on your heritage and belief system is my spirituality. I had a vision where Jesus told me to do it and it makes me happy!  By the way, can I touch your holy medal?"

would this be acceptable? ..
(i do not remember who sent this to me, but i thought it was a good way to show others just how we feel.. )



'T'was me, Laurel.  Glad you liked it.


frederica

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Re: exposing Fake medicine man
« Reply #10 on: September 06, 2007, 12:32:05 am »
What happen to Debbie and her associates is a common way these people attack women. Part of it sounds close to sexual battery. But it's not about sex, it's about control. And they can't have you messing with their money. Sending Porno is another favorite. Christians by history do not have a good track record over time, so I would never rely on that. These are such a conglomerate of beliefs, it's hard to day what they actually believe. Besides there sense of entitlement, I just think there is something wrong with them.

Offline Sparks

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Re: exposing Fake medicine man
« Reply #11 on: July 10, 2018, 08:45:02 pm »
http://www.yvwiiusdinvnohii.net/News2005-2006/Giago051107ExposingFakeMedicine.html
Exposing The Fake Medicine Men and Women
Opinion by Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji),
President, (NAJF) Native American
Journalists Foundation, Inc.
The Peoples Voice - Monday, November 7, 2005
Copyright © 2005 Giago/NAJF
All Rights Reserved

The original link does not work anymore, but the same introduction was published in the first two posts in this topic. I will update that topic with new links that work:

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=483
(Notes from Indian Country - Exposing the fake medicine men and women)