NAFPS Forum

A message in our guestbook recently got me thinking. Like a lot of whites enamored of Nuage frauds, it was a very pollyanna sweetness and light kind of post, suggesting we try to be more positive. But underneath the fluff there was a good point.

We should try to steadily build up a list of books, websites, authors, musicians, organizations, etc, that each of us personally like or admire. Trish already has something like this on her site, but I hope we'll see each of us add to the list.

And for newcomers, esp whites or other outsiders who are curious or don't know, feel free to add or ask about titles author etc you've heard about.

My own recommends:

Authors- These are gonna be mostly history from me, naturally.

Vine Deloria (Lakota)-God Is Red, Red Earth White Lies, Custer Died for Your Sins

Phillip Deloria (Lakota)-Playing Indian

William McCullough-After the Trail of Tears

Clifford Trafzer-As Long as the Grass Grows and Rivers Flow. Landmark work, the first history survey book centered on NDN history.

Keith Basso-Wisdom Sits In Places. He's a white anthropologist with a good grasp of Apache ways of talking about history and land.

Tom Holm (Cherokee)-Strong Hearts Wounded Souls. Native vets of Vietnam, and the only book out there on Native vets I recommend without reservations.

Musicians-This is the funnest part of the list.

A Carlos Ortega-Apache blues/traditional

Floyd Westerman-Lakota country/folk/traditional

Sharon Burch-Navajo folk

Jerry Alfred-Dine rock/traditional. That's Dine of northern Canada, not Navajo, though the people are related.

Rollin Fox-Apache hip hop

Blackfire-truly asskickin Navajo metal/punk. W/the late great Joey Ramone guesting on vocals.

More later.

I recommend Suzan Shown Harjo. So much better than a certain man who's so small and unworthy he's not even worth being mentioned or large enough to be noticed.

For Musicians I reccommend Jim Boyd. He's a Colville Folk/Rock singer/songwriter. If you have seen Smoke Signals, you have heard Jim.  And seen him, he's in one scene playing guitar.

I also reccomend Kieth Secola. Especially INDIAN KARZ!

And Blues Nation. Hope they crank out another CD!

More books and authors:

Natives and Academics edited by Devon Mihesuah (Choctaw)-for anyone wondering why Native history gets treated the way it does.

Decolonization Methodologies by Linda Tuwahi Smith (Maori)-how to guide for anyone in academia trying to overcome the ways they treat Native history.

Dancing at Halftime-on the mascot issue, recommend it to anyone who just doesn't get why they're offensive.

More music-Robbie Robertson (Mohawk), esp his later stuff. Everything from folk rock to all kinds of traditional music, even sampling the latter into the former.

Walela (Cherokee)-traditional w/a strong dose of gospel

Activists and their sites-James Starkey. Yep, as obnoxious as he was to us when he was a member, I gotta admit I agree with almost everything else he argues on his site.

Honest Injun-by one of our own NAFPS members, with lots of good information on state recognition.

You Might Be a Twinkie If...-still pretty damned funny.

Spiritual Abusers Anonymous-recovering Nuagers's site, set up like a 12 step program.

In the category of music there is also the  great rock/blues group Indigenous (don't know if I  spelled it right).

Even though they only did one tape, Without Reservation is a great Native rap group.

Hey someone mentioned Keith Secola, don't forget about his classic "Fry Bread"

A good non-fiction book is "Celluloid Indians" by Jacquelyn Kilpatrick. It is about the portrayal of Indians in movies since movies started.

Another is called "The Killing of Ned Christie: Cherokee Outlaw" by Bonnie Stahlman Speer. It is a good book but what is interesting about this book is a footnote in it. Christie was accused of killing  US Marshall Maples. The footnote states that the site of what once was Maples' farm is now the corporate headquarters for Wal-Mart. Thats all it says but Speer nust have known about Wal-Marts uncanny knack for choosing ancient Indian burial sites for building thier stores (4 that I know of).

Joseph

I would highly recommend "American Indian Contributions to the World: 15,000 Years of Inventions and innovations"   by Emory Dean Keoke & Kay Marie Porterfield.   Checkmark Books.

Ray Evans Harrell

Well Ray,

I don't care what anybody says, driving down the road to get work or to the grocery store or wherever I still like to listen to Keith Secola. His music just makes me feel good. Nothing wrong with that the way I see it.

Joseph

Joseph,

Nothing wrong with old art or new traditional crafts.  Entertainment is rewarding, moving and relaxing.   Art very often is disturbing because it is difficult to understand at first.   I think of the Huichol sculptures that effected Jimmy Durham.   Or the Bacon paintings that stirred Fritz Scholder.   I have heard Indian people claim that Louis Ballard was not composing Indian music  because the only "Indian" music was traditional powwow.     Powwows are wonderful social festivals but there is little complex art there because it doesn't sell or trade.   On the other hand Scholder's Wounded Knee painting and Ballard's Wounded Knee suite are wrenching contemporary Indian expressions of our feelings.    Joe Geschick's "Going Back Song" haunts the people who see it because it is so real.    Like the magnificent stage performances of Jane Lind, an international Aleut Artist recognized by Peter Brook and Andre Serban but too often ignored by our own people.    She performed the Greek Trilogy as Clytemnestra at the Greek theater at Epidoris.    She knows more of our traditions than most Medicine people that I have met and when they meet her they acknowledge it as well.    But, instead of her working constantly, we see the entertainers and local people who know little.    The last I heard, Tahlequah blew it when they could have had a great traditional Artist do their "Trail of Tears" show.   I had hoped they would have made a good choice but..........!   Art is brutal and demands both truth and exceptional maturity.

Entertainment is great and is commercial.    Real art is very rarely commercial, whether Indian or European.     Real Art makes you grow and see your world through a more true vision than you would normally achieve by yourself.

It was John Fire Lame Deer who said that "Artists are the Indians of the White World."

I agree with that.   John Fire was one of my father's two Sundance teachers.    My father knew great art as well.    Great art is always complex and has problems to solve.    Entertainment is relaxing.

donada gohv'i

Ray Evans Harrell

For anyone getting discouraged: I did a search last night, "plastic shamans." Found so many good sources and so much evidence the word is getting out to many people.

Good links I found with like minded people-

Plastic Shaman Tribe
http://www.tribe.net/tribe/d06cceac-a52e-4d73-8df1-c7a808a77d69

A lot of good people at Occult Forums who appreciated what we do.
http://www.occultforums.com/archive/index.php/t-9079.html

"Captain Granny" and a pretty good set of links.
http://groups.msn.com/RNOCNEBIGathering/cowboysplayingindian.msnw

The second half of the article Plastic Shamans and Astroturf Sundances, on the left.
http://www.thefting.info/identity-theft/20257.html

Rise of the Whiteshaman 25 Years Later
http://oncampus.richmond.edu/faculty/ASAIL/SAIL2/142.html

What others can do instead of being Nuage.
http://wanderingnative.bravehost.com/pages/Shortresponse.html

A Nuage Recovery Page which lists looking for warnings on frauds as one of their steps.
http://www.sparklinglotusink.com/newagerecoverypage2.html

And a pagan glossary. I include this only because they're using the word plastic as an insult too, plastic witch, etc.
http://www.denelder.com/glossary/p.html

http://www.4world.org
The Fourth World are a great bunch who've helped quite a bit, are very involved in repatriation issues with the Swedish museums and support for the Sammi people.

There´s a site with a similar address who are not part of the Fourth World, thefourthworld.com, which sells Native art and seems to be run by someone whose part of a "Feather Clan gathering". Vaguely Nuagey from what I can see.

My favorite musicians are Kashtin and also John Trudell & Jerry Alfred and the Medicine Beat.
also:
this is a great link about MikMaq culture & languages for anyone interested in this nation.

http://www.nativelanguages.org/mikmaq_culture.htm

teaching the language and history.  there is even an online talking dictionary, which is great.  my grandmother grew up on a MikMaq reserve in Maria capes, Quebec.  she remembers some of the language, but this is a great resource to learn how to speak some of the dialects in this language.  I think that studying the true histories and languages are much more genuine and worthwhile than paying some Nuage phoney baloney to teach about "native" ways.

also forming correspondences and relationships with people and learning about their lives and their histories and whatever they want to share about themselves is great too, bringing us closer together.

yep, I know that some people sound "fluffy" and have a *naive* sort of sweetness about them and I admit I was one of these Pollyanna types lolll...but its good to learn and experience things and become the wiser through them.  and its good to be positive and openhearted.  that way, we learn what's what, who's who and if we carry RESPECT for all people and cultures and educate ourselves then we can be connected in a very good way despite our race and differences.  there are many good and well meaning people in the world, but its good to get beyond yourself and know how your actions affect others!!!

http://www.geocities.com/fakemedicinemen/

A lot of good links, articles, and advice on this site. It mostly focuses on avoiding sexual abuse by plastics, and how to recover from it.

The only thing I dont like is quoting from Ed McGaa´s book. And actually the advice itself is sound, but it could give people the false impression he´s not a fraud himself.

Kehoe, Alice Beck. Shamans and Religion: An Anthropological Exercise in Critical Thinking. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press. 2000. ISBN: 1-57766-162-1

An anthropologist's to-the-point introduction to the history of a Western fantasy. A century ago, Western spiritual types were enthralled by 'the mysterious Orient'. Nowadays they're mesmerised by tales of a new and equally invented Other: the shaman. Kehoe blows down shamanism's hippie-dippy funhouse, exposing its foundations: racism, lazy thinking and lazier scholarship.

Some more music. Not Indian musicians as far as I know but I think the themes are relevant:

Pulp - Common People

The 90s Britpop smash: there's a hard-rockin' cover version on that William Shatner album 'Has Been' (yeah, I know: William Shatner and 'music' don't seem to go together, but give it a spin if you get the chance).

http://www.lyricsdepot.com/pulp/common-people-extended-lyrics.html

QuoteI took her to a supermarket
I don't know why, but I had to start it somewhere
So it started .... there
I said "Pretend you've got no money."
But she just laughed an said "Oh you're so funny."
I said "Yeah?
Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here...

Sing along with the common people
Sing along and it might just get you through
Laugh along with the common people
Laugh along even though they're laughing at you
And the stupid things that you do
Because you think that poor is cool.

The Maytals - My New Name

Classic ska from 1964: I always think of this song whenever I hear of yet another Chief Eagle Spider Crystal Dolphin Moon Hawk.

http://maytals.net/lyrics/080.html

QuoteDon't ask me how I got my name
I told you how I got my name
I got this name way back in Spain...

MC 900 ft Jesus with DJ Zero - Truth Is Out Of Style

Standout track from their 1990 album 'Hell With The Lid Off'. Contains samples of bizarre 'increase your psychic powers' records, and the video's hilarious. Look out for ear candles!

Can't find the lyrics online for this one:

QuoteI was on my way to work one day when I spied a rocket ship
Some aliens abducted me and took me on a trip
To a previous existence on another astral plane
And I met a real nice lady there named Shirley MaClaine
"Truth is not an obstacle for someone such as me," she said,
"Because, you see, we all create our own reality.
And if a problem should arise the best thing you can say
Is 'don't worry, be happy, and have a nice day!' "
I thanked her very kindly for the excellent advice
She said she'd bill me later at a reasonable price
Then the aliens brought me back and beamed me down into this bar
But I could not go to work because Bigfoot stole my car

WHO IS AN "ELDER"?
Some thoughts on dreamkeepers.net from Harvey Arden:

I'm often asked how I "choose" the Elders, the Dreamkeepers, the Wisdomkeepers I have featured in my books and now on dreamkeepers.net.As a white man raised and educated in an urban society, it's not in my power to choose who is an indigenous Elder and who is not. There is no position of "Elder" in American society at large. We have "Senior Citizens"--of which I am now proud to be one--but no "Elders," in the sense of spiritual Elders respected and revered by their People, and given a central role in their Nation's ceremonial life and political decision-making.

When I first began this work in 1981, while still a staff writer for National Geographic Magazine, I had the idea of writing an article about Native American "Medicine Men" -- a common misnomer. But I soon found out, as I traveled among Indian communities - and I've visited more than a hundred since then -- that what I should be looking for was not "Medicine" (better translated as "Power") but "Wisdom"--another indefinable term, yet one that totally changed the focus of my search. I myself wanted no "Power" nor "powers" of any kind, but I did crave with all my soul this indefinable "Wisdom" that many Elders have generously shared with me and which I have tried, in turn, to share with as many others as possible in an age when that ancient yet thoroughly modern "Wisdom" may be the saving "Power" for all of humankind.

Early on in my travels, I had the great good fortune to meet Lakota (Sioux) Elder Mathew King-Chief Noble Red Man---and he explained the indigenous concept of Elder to me: "In our Way," Mathew told me, "the Elders give spiritual direction to the People. The wisdom of thousands of years flows through their lips. In our Way, when we grow old, we become Elders." And he spoke those words with a radiant pride. Then he looked at me, shaking his head sadly, and said: "In your way, Harvey; in white man's way; when you grow old; well; you just grow old..."

Another wonderful Elder, Onondaga Chief Louie Farmer, told me this: "You want to know who's a real 'Medicine Man'? Well, I'll tell you: He's the one who doesn't say 'I'm a medicine man.' He doesn't ask you to come to him. You've got to go and ask him. And you'll always find he's there among his own People. He doesn't go off to the city and open an office. Once a medicine man leaves his own territory, he loses most of his power. All the sacred plants he knows are where he comes from. He doesn't know the plants of other places. The Creator gave him his gift so he could help his own People, not somebody else. The people he's supposed to help are where he's from. So he stays home and helps them. That's who a real medicine man is."
http://dreamkeepers.net/3765/Elder/General_General.html