Nanci Des Gerlaise

[Diana]

Has anyone heard of this woman? She's been all over the web lately and she wrote a book called Muddy Waters. The book is about American Native Spirituality and how it is evil and how she found Christ.

She also claims that she is "Metis", I searched the Internet trying to find more info on her but maybe I'm not looking in the right places or asking the right questions. Here's a snippet from the article: "Born on a Métis Settlement in the late 1950s into a long line of medicine men, Nanci saw from an early age the effects this sorcery had on her large family. Her book features the story of her deliverance by the Lord Jesus Christ from the evils of her Native religion."

http://www.speroforum.com/a/18093/Author-explores-Native-American-spirituality

I beginning to feel that this woman is another hoax, much like the recent hoax about the girl in L.A. claiming an Indian idenity, who wrote a book about being in gangs etc...

Ric, could you possibly shed some light on this?


Lim Lemtsh

[Smart Mule]

Here's her blog - http://nancidesgerlaise.authorweblog.com/default.asp?date=new&do=ARCHIVE

[AnnOminous]

Certainly there is a difference between First Nations and Metis.
This gal is very confused.  For example, she seems to believe that there is one homogenous "native spirituality."  And that there are Metis self-identified "medicine men."  I just think the lady doth protest too much and in order to elevate her own position she feels a need to squash others.

I feel sad for her loss of wisdom and culture.  Too bad she finds that experience worthy of a book.  I'm sure her ancestors are crying.

[Diana]

Certainly there is a difference between First Nations and Metis.
This gal is very confused.  For example, she seems to believe that there is one homogenous "native spirituality."  And that there are Metis self-identified "medicine men."  I just think the lady doth protest too much and in order to elevate her own position she feels a need to squash others.

I feel sad for her loss of wisdom and culture.  Too bad she finds that experience worthy of a book.  I'm sure her ancestors are crying.

I guess what I'm asking, is this woman really Indian or is she another a fraud? As AnnOminous points out there is a difference between First Nations and Metis and Nanci Des Gerlaise doesn't seem to know the difference. First she claims that she's Metis, then in her bio she says that she's First Nation. And of course there's the old, I come from a long line of Medicine men spiel.


Lim Lemtsh 

[AnnOminous]

Diana, she may well have native blood.  She may be a member of a First Nation, or a Metis Nation.  Or she may be undocumented, or have no aboriginal lineage whatsoever.  But just as an aside, in Canada most aboriginal people do not self-identify as Indian (Indians come from India).  That's just a cultural difference inherent to that imaginary line that runs through Turtle Island whereby folks south of the border tend to be ok (even proud) to be called Indian, whereas in Canada it's deemed more of a pejorative term.  We prefer First Nations, aboriginal, indigenous or Native.  Just an fyi.  :)

That said, from what little I read in her blog I have real problems with how she refers to the spiritual teachings and beliefs of her elders, whether or not they are actually her People.  To call the spiritual teachings of her childhood "demonic", for example, and perpetuate god-wars over whose is better (as if there were more than one Creator) is off-putting to put it mildly, and perhaps even an act of treachery. 

To make money off this sort of drivel I find personally disgusting.  But I couldn't, based on my own disgust, determine whether or not she is a fraud.  I hope more will be revealed.

[Laurel]

Isn't there a difference between First Nations and Metis?

Not when there's money to be made in writing and talking about how "evil" you used to be.  This kind of thing is well-documented in Pagan circles; someone who was obviously never Wiccan writes about how she was once the High Priestess of a nonexistant coven and used to sacrifice babies to Satan, was lost but now is found blah blah.  Plenty of folks do this, so there must be money in it.

The First Nations spin is new to me, but I smell fraud. 

[Smart Mule]

From talking to a friend last night Des Gerlaise is a common Metis last name.

[Ric_Richardson]

Tansi;

Desjarlais is a common Metis name and this seems to be one way of spelling it.  In the 1950's, there were Metis settlements in Alberta and a few, like the one I live in, in Saskatchewan.  There are Desjarlais' is some of these, such as the Elizabeth Colony, in Northeastern Alberta.

It is not uncommon among the evangelical groups to describe any Aboriginal teachings as "evil" so this is also common.

I will look into this a bit more.

Ric

[debbieredbear]

Unfortunately, some religions teach this and some people just run with it. I see it in my husband's family. One of my husband's niece's believe's that traditional ways are just so evil. Her white pastor told her this. I feel sad about that but I leave it be. She really has no concept of those beliefs, but she believes all that her pastor says. When my stepdaughter was in foster care for a bit, the monister told her she was not with her dad because he is Indian and all Indians worship satan. We told her that in order to worship satan, one had to believe in satan, and we did not. I could go on, but it is what certain religions teach. It is ugly and hateful. My guess is the woman is involved in the same evangelical religion my husband's neice is.

[frederica]

I think Debbie is about right.  I can't find too much objective information but it looks evangelical Christian.  She is against the mixing of Native Spirituality, Catholism, and any other Pagan religion with Christianity.  Voices concern about Newagers and their mixing of various religions and Native Spirituality, not because of the corruption of the Native Spirituality, but because it corrupts Christians.  It's interesting she excludes Catholics as Christians.

[debbieredbear]

Many of the fundamentalists do not consider Catholics to be "true" Christians. I have run up against that with family members. My husband's family, being a large family, has just about everything spirituality wise.  The fundies believe that ONLY their way is the right way. We generlly don't discuss religion at family gatherings.. ;)

[kosowith]

First - The name DesJarlis, Dejarlis, DeGarlis, and its other variations is common on many of the northern reservations in Montana, South and North Dakota, especially at Turtle Mountain, I know personally know people with that name at Browning, Heart Butte, Rocky Boy's, even Fort Belknap.  All of the people I know with that last name are not considered Métis or mixed blood in their communities and all are enrolled.

On the subject of Métis, like AnnOminos said, it has two meanings, especially in the US. Some people like Brooke Medicine Eagle, who can't verify their so-called tribal identities are now all saying "I'm Métis..." Brooke switched to Métis when the Crow told her she had to stop saying that she is Crow and her twinky ads in Sedona now say, "Métis elder and medicine woman."  If you watch the video White Shaman and Plastic Medicine Men there is a woman in there who also says,  "My heritage is Métis.  My anglo-Saxon name is Rosaline, but my spirit name is.... (something very new-age, but I forget what it was)

However, there are many other people in Montana, especially Helena, Lewistown, and Missoula who can trace their heritage back to Lewis Riel, who escaped to Montana with many of his followers after fleeing Canada during the Red River Rebellion who identify as Métis also.  When Riel returned to Canada many stayed in Montana and their decedents  still live there.  These Métis and their relatives in Canada are officially recognized by S35 Treaty rights as indigenous.  The problem is that the treaty recognizes the category, but does not recognize any criteria for membership or inclusion. It is a very difficult issue on both sides of the border.  Most of the people I know who are Montana Métis practice a Catholicism that includes both Indian and Catholic traditions and uses the fiddle for their "traditional music."

I agree with Debbie that it is still common, especially in the evangelical churches, to dismiss traditional ceremonies as devil worship. I  personally had a preacher call me out in public for attending Sun Dance.  And it seems that it is also common for both the Catholics and Protestants to claim that they are the only "true" Christians, while the other are something else. I know my granddaughter came home from a friends house and made a statement about how one of her friends was a Christian and the other was a Catholic.  But then I've heard that same line from people in Europe too, so I guess it is pretty common everywhere. 

So this is a long wordy way to say  that she may well be enrolled, not enrolled,  part native or non-native,  there is just no way to tell.  What her beliefs are have little or nothing to do with her ethnicity.   I know MANY  Native Americans who are devote Christians and who would agree with her, sad as that might be in my opinion.  I,  like Debbie, have found that this is a no win situation and not my place to judge.  I just try to do my thing and as long as they don't try to mission-ize me, they can do theirs. 

Besides, there are few American Indian conferences that I attend where an elder does not do their prayer in English and to Jesus. This issue came up in one of my college classes in Graduate school. In a class where every student was Native American.  One of the girls, who was proud to be Christian, said that those in the class who were putting her down for being Christian were no different than the Missionaries who forced her grandparents to convert.  She said that she had found peace with her beliefs and did not feel that someone less invested in their communities than she was, had the right to judge her, or her religion, or to tell her how she should believe.  Her grandfather, who was a very well known medicine man, told her that to judge others for following their own path was NOT the traditional way to walk, especially if what they were doing was not harming anyone else.

Several years ago I was invited to a "traditional ceremony" when I was speaking at the sacred lands conference in Seattle and when we got there it turned out to be an Indian Shaker Church. There are a lot of leaders out there that I know who are both traditional and Christian, so I guess what I am saying is that there are many, many different traditions and every person believes their way is the right way.  What I can not tolerate is someone who does what they do to make money.  Which it seems this woman is doing.  Or someone who does not believe in what they are doing, and who knows they are lying but does it just to take advantage of someone who is in need.  They make me sick and very, very angry.

[Defend the Sacred]

This kind of thing is well-documented in Pagan circles; someone who was obviously never Wiccan writes about how she was once the High Priestess of a nonexistant coven and used to sacrifice babies to Satan, was lost but now is found blah blah.  Plenty of folks do this, so there must be money in it.

There is money in it. In the early nineties a homeless drug addict who had occasionally dropped in at public Neopagan events in San Francisco suddenly showed up at a friend's concert with an expensive new wardrobe, pricey, flashy "ritual gear," and now had a home, even though it was obvious he was still on drugs and not working. He made cryptic comments to a friend of mine that he had "come into something good." He smiled a lot and said he had a new gig. Shortly thereafter, he started blathering to the media about being the leader of a huge coven, claiming to be the leader of all the witches, and how he was going to publicly "curse" a televangelist who was coming to town. He appointed himself the emissary for the Pagans, staged a creepy, public "cursing" ceremony for the cameras, and then met with the televangelist. They filmed them praying together and the faux Wiccan dramatically "converted" and became a televangelist and street preacher himself. All of this was televised on one of the fundamentalist cable TV channels. Thing is, the whole thing was fake, a setup from the start. The "convert" was not only a flagrant liar who had never really been part of the community he was "renouncing,"  he had been paid off months in advance by the televangelist to stage the whole thing. Neither's name would be recognized much now, as they both went down in flames as their various lies and scandals caught up with them.

I don't know if this has anything to do with the woman being discussed here, but yes, there is money and a creepy sort of fame (or infamy) in this sort of thing, and I am particularly suspicious when someone no one has ever heard of suddenly claims to be an expert in the religion/culture they are now denouncing. Especially when they are seeking public attention the way this woman is.

When my stepdaughter was in foster care for a bit, the monister told her she was not with her dad because he is Indian and all Indians worship satan.

Yes, I know people in their forties and fifties who were sent to Catholic boarding schools as children, and called "witches" and "evil" for not being Catholic. Though people of a variety of nationalities were subjected to this treatment, those from traditional Native backgrounds were treated the worst. I have had people tell me of being sexually abused, beaten or subjected to treatment like being locked in a closet and called "the devil."

Catholics and Protestants accusing one another of not really being Christian is common. Less so now than when I was a kid, but it does still happen.

[educatedindian]

A couple things about Gerlaise and her book. "Muddy waters" is a common term among born again Christians to say that tolerance of other faiths and/or "sinners" can lead to sin coming into your own life. That's why the famous blues guitarist chose that name, kind of mocking the idea.

From her website's definitions you can find some pretty ugly racism:

"WITCH DOCTOR: 1. among certain primate peoples in Africa, a medicine man is skilled in witches and counteracting evil spells."

Ironically she also says this:

"Many New Agers have hijacked Native Spirituality not knowing what they have done. Some have become self-appointed shamans and don't realize the dangers involved with that. True shamans know exactly the forces of darkness they are dealing with, but a self-appointed neophyte would only be scratching the surface and would not understand the extent of the darkness involved."

It's also interesting to me that her publisher Wine Press Books also peddles a book glorifying a South African army veteran turned mercenary in Iraq. There's also books bashing the Jehovah's Witnesses and atheists.

On the plus side I couldn't find any good reviews of her book, only negative ones. The Christian sites mentioning her just reposted her press release.

She also told a story about a "Chief Bobtail" converting to Christianity. I wonder if she deliberately chose the name of an actual chief, Cree Chief Bobtail Smallboy, who was known for leading his people in resisting outside cultures, esp Christianity.
http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qsort=&page=1&matches=9&browse=1&qwork=9393439&full=1
http://www.thismagazine.ca/issues/2000/03/whoseland.php