This letter is what I emailed to "School of Natural Wonder: Vision Quests - Wilderness Rites of Passage". I encourage everyone who thinks that selling our ceremonies is ok to go to their site and leave them a message. (www.schoolofnaturalwonder.org)
To: "School of Natural Wonder: Vision Quests - Wilderness Rites of Passage".
My husband and I are both Native American elders. An ad for the vision quests you run showed up on an Indigenous news website I was reading. I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt here that you don't understand how disrespectful what you are doing is to traditional Native American people.
A bit of contextual history for you: It was illegal for Native Americans to conduct our ceremonies and/or pray in our traditional ways until 1978 when the American Indian Freedom of Religion Act was passed by the federal government of the United States. It was illegal for us to pray and conduct our ceremonies before that time. Prior to that time through the early 1950s, Native American children were stolen from their families and taken to mostly Christian run boarding schools. They were abused in every way children can be abused and many were murdered in these schools. The same happened in Canada and tens of thousands of graves of these children are being recovered there now due to activism by Native people and our allies. These children were beaten for speaking their language, for praying in their ways, and for attempting to do traditional ceremonies.
Fast forward to the early 1980s, just a few years after the NA Freedom of Religion Act was passed, to the New Age Movement. This was the beginning of non-Native New Age people learning about our ceremonies. Some of them were people who we thought were trusted allies who then went on to sell our ceremonies to people who have what one spiritual leader called "leaky vessels". We have seen so many non-Native "leaders" and "experts" selling our ceremonies and we find it to be more than offensive and disrespectful. These actions are a violation to Native traditions.
Traditionally, Native American medicine people, ceremony leaders and holy people do not advertise their skills. There is no monetary charge. Yes, there is an exchange and oftentimes that exchange is money, but there is no set fee. Our medicine people and holy people do not advertise what they do. There are ways that people find out within the community, both Native and non-Native, but there are certainly no ads or websites like yours. Our medicine people and ceremony leaders have earned the right to do what they do through years and years of learning. To be one of these special people is an honor, a duty, and a profound responsibility. It is not something taken on lightly.
The only comparison I can make is if one of us decided to pretend to be a Catholic priest, to take confession, to give mass, to give communion. Obviously these actions would be extremely disrespectful. How do you think the Catholic Church would react to that?
I encourage you to think about what you are doing. You are not honoring Native American people. At the very least, you should seriously consider taking out the words "vision quest" and "purification lodge" and using other language. What you are doing is extremely offensive to us. Please stop.
Sincerely,
Pennie Opal Plant