There exists a cancerous, self-righteous Posse, “a band of men liable to be summoned by a sheriff
to assist him in keeping the peace, etc.” dedicated to imposing their views, informed largely by an
astonishing ignorance of the very lifeways they claim to be protecting. They take great delight in
attacking anyone that gallops into the crosshairs of their pathologically morbid canon. They have
proclaimed themselves the True Representatives of All Indian Country and People. In so doing,
they have managed to out fake Trump’s fake news. Facts mean nothing to them as they just make
up their own to justify their existence. A correct and complete understanding of Red Road
teachings has clearly escaped them as they continue to exhibit a stunning ignorance of what the
Red Road is really about.
Congratulations! You have just earned a place in The Posse!
I invited you to read this because you registered a remarkably ignorant comment on the
Mixedblood Native American Community Page, a page for the encouragement of mixedblood
people to pursue their Native American heritage (or you did someting equally stupid somewhere
else.) The community page is not a place for people who insist on publicly displaying their
spectacular lack of awareness, or who are looking for a fight; I do not allow people like you to high-
jack this page. As such, your comment was deleted and you have been banned. I do not tolerate
comments such as yours, typically made by what Ed McGaa called the “blonde haired, blue eyed
Indians.” Further, I refuse to waste my time fighting you; arguing with an ignorant racist is a waste
of my time.
You most likely attacked me because of a tuition-based lecture or workshop. Is that because these
ways have no value, that they are incapable of bringing any good into the mainstream? Given the
tragic state the Earth is in caused by the personal lifestyle choices, the body politic, and the
economic abuses that are destroying the environment and all who depend on it (we’re talking
animals and their habitation, forests, water, air -- things like that -- just in case you can’t figure it
out) it would seem that if these ways could bring about positive change you’d be all for people
knowing them. Apaprently, you think everyting is okay the way it is, that corporate-owned science
will fix it, that the government will fix it. Or maybe God will swoop down on a magic carpet and we
all get a great big do-over.
By denying people access to the Red Road, you advocate for maintaining the (very destructive)
status quo. That is, you are the problem. You for sure are not the solution.
You are completely ignorant that before the Euro brought his Adam Smith / John Locke economy
to Turtle Island, those who mentored and healed and helped others were well taken care of. The
difference is, back then people knew to do it without having to be asked. Or told. The underlying
message of your fantasy is that A) These ways have no power to bring about change B) Whatever
knowledge contained in them is useless, even if it could take affect and C) They are so devoid of
value they are not worthy of support (existing) and should just die off, just like the Indian should
have.
How can you condemn the Euro and his progeny for their acute self-centeredness and planetary
destruction when you claim a superior knowledge that provides an intelligent way of living without
destroying the planet? Yet, you refuse to share these ways. The very ways you claim to be so
incredibly informed of teach you to not condemn a person unless, and until, you can offer a better
way! Yet you demand these ways be kept under a rock somewhere, claiming they are sacred
intellectual property that only Indian people have a right to know. All the while the planet suffers at
the hands of the ignorant Euro-American and his greed-based economic, political, religious, and
social attitudes.
Have you read any of Nicholas Black Elk’s books? Frank Fools Crow? Or the royalty published, The
World We Used to Live In, where Vine Deloria, Jr. “...takes us into the realm of the spiritual...explores
everything from healing miracles and sacred rituals...” Maybe Archie Fire Lame Deer, or John Fire
Lame Deer, both equally revealing of indigenous spiritual knowledge and practice? Have you taken
any college courses on Indian Studies? Perhaps you’ve watched, or even own a DVD on Indian
culture or spiritual teachings? Or listen to CDs to catch the songs. These are very popular. Wilma
Mankiller or Joseph Rael? Hyemeyohsts Storm’s Seven Arrows is a classic, one read by any serious
student of these ways. Today, colleges on-rez and a growing number off-rez carry courses that not
only teach the history of Indian country, but of the material and spiritual culture and teachings as
well. Every one of these methods of conveyance are FEE or ROYALTY BASED. And the royalties and
profits go to the Indian person(s) who authored them. Every one.
Tuition-based teaching of these ways to the mainstream is nothing new and, contrary to your
myopic point of view, it is not a violation of some sacred edict: workshops, lectures, music and
story CDs, DVDs, books, magazine articles, college courses, art, crafts, seminars, and conferences
are not ceremony. And it’s been going on for a long time; Black Hawk released his autobiography
in 1833. Accepting payment in frog skins has been common practice and by people much better
than I, people unquestionably strong in the Lifeways, people beyond reproach. Excepting the
Posse’s, of course. I have to wonder how many royalty paid commercial books written or dictated
by Indians sharing spiritual secrets have been read by you and your fellow Posse members. Just
curious.
You fail to see how you and your stupidity are contributing to the problems, all of which are much
bigger than anyone cares to admit. You fail to see how you have adapted your miserable point of
view to the Euro’s way of thinking; that knowledge is a commodity that can be owned, therefore
withheld from others. You fail to understand how you and your outrageous ignorance play directly
into the hands of the common culture by dividing and creating strife within the very culture that
does, in my view, have the ansers to many, if not all, of the problems we all face today. You are
actively supporting common culture’s runaway materialism, religious superiority, ehtnic
chauvinism, racial prejudice, and hate by blocking these ways when you attack people like me.
I am more determined than ever to push these teachings into common culture by any means
possible. In the beginning Creator gave you life. In the end, when you go home, what will you give
back to Creator? A life of trying to help all people understand, to be compassion, to help and care
for the planet and all her inhabitants? Or a life to anger, fear, and of stunning ignorance?
Then again, you might just work for the government like so many of your fellow Posse members,
whose divisive purpose is to do the very thing that you did.