My letter to the papers:
Phony "Indian Shaman" Rapist Blaming Victims
To: mats.larsson@daladem.se, dt.red@daltid.se
Dear Sirs,
I'm writing to you to express my concerns about the trial of a phony "Indian shaman" and the appalling defense strategy of pandering to racist stereotypes of Natives and promoting one ignorant misconception after another. You may remember me from when I gave a lecture at the museum in Dalarna only a few months ago. I certainly recall your thoughtful coverage of my visit, and only wish you had thought to consult actual Natives to debunk the dubious claims of this serial rapist and fraud now on trial.
As an American Indian (Mescalero Apache) and a professor of Native history, it is apparent to me that this "Indian shaman" is neither Indian nor any kind of a medicine man or elder. His claims, and that of his defense attorney, are transparently false and playing upon the lack of knowledge that most Swedes have when it comes to Native cultures.
Were he to make such claims or his attorney mount such a defense in the US, Canada, or Latin America, he would be laughed out of court. No judge would allow such obvious falsehoods, and no American attorney would be foolish enough to base his strategy on these stereotypes.
1) As far as I know, he has never said what tribal nation he claims, instead simply saying he is "Indian." There is not one Native culture, there are several thousand in the Americas, with over five hundred in the US alone.
2) No Native traditions involve sex as part of a ceremony.
3) No Native tribes would allow the abuse of women on such a scale as he has practiced. Most Native traditions are matrilineal and matrilocal. The women are heads of households. Descent is traced through the mother, not the father. Virtually all encourage respect for women, and women hold high positions of respect. In some traditions, only the women may vote in some councils, while men cannot.
4) No Native tribe would have him as an elder or medicine man. In some traditions he would have been executed as a rapist. Others might have gone easier on him by just exiling him. You see, many Native traditions are much stricter on sexual matters than Europeans. Not only would sexual abuse not be tolerated, even adultery is strongly frowned upon. Such a person would be regarded as too frivolous to be trusted with medicine traditions.
5) His claims that he is using Native medicine traditions to control women sexually are especially offensive because they play upon old racist stereotypes of Natives as oversexed rapists. In many traditions a healer who tried to use his abilities for evil purposes would be exiled or even killed.
While the Swedish media cannot be blamed for their lack of knowledge of Native traditions and peoples, certainly it should have occurred to all of you to ask actual Natives about this "shaman" and his claims?
At the very least, why didn't you go to anthropologists at your universities?
Instead, millions of Swedes have been given the words of a serial rapist and racist imposter to define what Native people are really like, uncontested and with no rebuttals.
Dr. Al Carroll (Mescalero Apache)
Social & Behavioral Sciences Dept.
St. Phillip's College
San Antonio, TX, USA
