NAFPS Forum

Sedona is so beautiful - and, correct me if I am wrong - a sacred site for many southwest ndn Nations.
It´s very sad to see the commersialism in such a place!

http://www.mastersofsedona.com/MastersVisionQuest/VisionQuest.htm

This is what you bring on their "vision quest."


Be sure to call our office (928-567-2291) before your arrival to get updates regarding local Weather Conditions.

Hiking boots or calf-length boot-moccasins (NO sandals, flip-flops or tennis shoes!)

Blue Jeans, Sweatshirts, T-shirt (or tank top), Flannel Shirt, Poncho, long-johns, Calf-length Socks, Warm Coat, Winter Hat, Gloves (during winter months). Shorts are NOT recommended!

For the winter months we suggest wearing clothes appropriate for winter conditions. Hunter or hiker thermal attire work better than ski suites, as they tend to withstand the harsh thorny foliage that can shred ski suites. However, ski suites will work if you can't find good thermal overalls.

Hat

Chapstick

Toiletries: Toothbrush, Toothpaste, etc... (Please, NO Vanity Items! Leave them at your place of lodging.)

Sunscreen *YES! EVEN IN WINTER!

If you are on any medication, be sure to fill your prescription beforehand and notify the Vision Quest Team of your condition so dietary accommodations or exemptions can be made!

Ladies, please be sure to bring along feminine products (just in case!)

Cell phone: Permitted in case of emergencies (under STRICT guidelines) and for checkup calls.


Personal Sacred Items (Precious stones, Tobacco, Ceremonial Pipe, Sage, Crystals, Essential Oils, etc.)

You may wish to bring something personal (that's small) to leave behind at your quest location.

If you're a smoker and we're under a red flag fire code, (this doesn't happen very often) you'll want to bring along a box of nicotine patches to help with cravings because you won't be able to smoke while on the quest. (Please refer to Quest Preparations! It's only four days- so don't panic! You can smoke all you want afterwards!)
  And this is what's provided:

Sacred Toilet Paper

Trash Bag

Matches/Lighter

Headlamp

Handheld Flashlight

Rain Poncho

Tea Candles and 4 (9-hr) candles

First Aid Kit (which goes out with each group)

Bug Spray

Baby Wipes

Retractable Walking Stick with Compass

Pocket/Hand Warmers and/or Back Warmers (For cold weather)

4 gallons of water *You may specifically request ORMUS water for your quest, just be aware that it WILL knock your socks off!

Ground Tarp

Backpack

Sleeping Bag

Foam or Self-Inflating Air-Mattress

Camping Pillow

High-Protein Power Bar and Gator Aid (To be eaten/drunk just before we arrive to pick you up so that you will be energized when you return from your quest location.)

*2 lbs 2-person Pup-Tent, or...

*19 lbs Tent-Cot


Pretty sickening. This isn't a vision quest, IMO, but camping. The people I know that did a vision  quest, were lucky to have a blanket to sit on. And water? In your dreams. They were taken in what they were wearing to the location. They had their pipe, if they had one, tobacco and sage. But no chapstick or ug spray or anything likely to give them comfortable stay. The local fraud tells his dummies to bring a book and a journal to write in.

I am guessing that area is one of the largest concentrations of nuage antics. My sister and her husband drove through there a few years ago, she said they are on every street corner for sale, expensive too. She's still in shock.  You can smell the Twinkie dust 10 miles before you even arrive in the town.

Yep, I actually spent the night there some years ago. The hotels were expensive as hell!!!!  But I got up at 5 in the morning and went out before the shops opened and before the tourists flooded the place. And then you can surely understand why this place has been sacred (and is sacred), because it is so beautiful!

So I had those morninghours to myself....until the shops opened and turned the place in to some kind of NewAge Las Vegas :(   It makes me think....why is it so difficult to honour a place without exploiting it??!!

Quote from: Freija on August 26, 2007, 10:42:23 AMwhy is it so difficult to honour a place without exploiting it??!!

I don't think they have any interest in honoring the land or the spirits there.  I think they just want to make themselves feel good in a self-centered, "aren't I spiritual, doesn't my life have meaning now" way.  They are immersed in the mainstream amerikan idea that everything is for sale, that you can buy spiritual advancement, or peace, or whatever it is they're looking for to fill that void.   They believe they'll feel better if they go there and buy things.  And there are plenty of scam artists willing to take them up on it. 

Historically many local tribes have at times gone there, but none permanently lived there. Of course there may be oral traditions about the site that anyone outside the tribes or even individual clans would be unlikely to know.

This is part of what made it so vulnerable to being a Nuage site. Nuagers could claim the site to be special to tribes, but there was no NDN presence to say what they were doing was wrong. What many people tell me is the place is virtually all white, that the only NDNs you see are on the buses passing through.

Quote from: educatedindian on August 27, 2007, 04:57:58 AMWhat many people tell me is the place is virtually all white, that the only NDNs you see are on the buses passing through.

Yes, this is what I have heard as well.  It seems to have become the shore upon which the worst of the newage washes up.

I´ve been there three times and never ever seen an Indian there. Apart for the poor Navajo guy who had to take me there the first time LOL. He just walked around the shops, very quiet, until he finally said: "Please don´t buy anything here!"  Which I didn´t  :)