Suntimes News
Subj: TREADMILL SPIRITUALITY
Date:5/16/2003 7:15:42 PM Pacific Daylight Time
A CLOSER LOOK AT TREADMILL SPIRITUALITY
by PR Gregg-Bear,
Sicangu Lakota Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota
When pipe-carrier and Chief Arvol Looking Horse presided at a meeting in Green Grass, S.D. last month, he was under a lot of political pressure from a group of so-called "traditionals" to do something drastic. He listened to complaints that too many Sun Dances and Hanblecias entertained more white people than Indians, that it's been going on far too long, and that many whites paid large sums of money to participate.
Although Looking Horse, from all outward appearances, didn't seem to really mind having whites in traditional ceremonies, he found himself "between a rock and a hard place." Under pressure, he decided to issue a radical proclamation to those present at the meeting. He didn't realize that a free lance reporter (Brenda Norrell) would take the proclamation and write a detailed story that would be picked up by Indian and white newspapers alike and spread all over the Internet.
The backlash was immense. No josh here. Not only from whites but from Indians too, including prominent Sun Dancers. He's still dodging arrows and bullets from the fallout, mostly from email. Some even question whether he still has the sacred calf pipe in his possession. But this turmoil too will pass in time.
What Looking Horse actually did (albeit unintentionally) was to force many Indians to take a closer look at the growing "commercialization" of traditional ceremonies; that many have begun to look sort of like "fire and brimstone" Baptist preachers, passing around their own version of the money plate.
Indians, like any culture, don't have a lock on traditional ceremonies. Anyone can practice it, just like Catholicism, Hinduism, Islamism or Zen. What you bring to it determines what you take away. And if you're not paying attention, you can be taken for a ride, and many gullible whites are.
The only salvation for tribal leaders is if they can maintain control of traditional ceremonies in which whites and Indians both participate, for safety and regulatory reasons, especially on reservations. And there has to be a happy medium on how much spiritual leaders should charge for allowing non-Indians to participate. Some notoriously charge thousands of dollars, often at the expense of their dwindling Indian patients.
Normally, when Indians visit their favorite medicine man they aren't told how much to pay. Instead, they wait until the end of the ceremony, and then quietly donate (often through a handshake) what they think the ceremony was worth in terms of personal benefit or however much they can afford (usually about $20-$30). But they don't have to "donate" anything if they don't want to. The same should apply to non-Indians.
A medicine man with many patients can live comfortably and make enough gas money to attend to followers who live far away. Each practice in their own way, as the spirits move through them. No one medicine man answers to another. And some are more charismatic than others, and can make more money.
But whatever the cost of traditional ceremonies, the appearance of commercialization will always haunt sacred ceremonial grounds. Safety is also a big issue. Especially today. The wasicu is too plentiful and demanding; many are searching for whatever it is they can't find in their own religion. But these days, aren't all humans searching for something---something different?
Indians who don't want to participate with whites can always find a spiritual leader who will perform ceremonies absent of non-Indians. All they have to do is look around and ask questions. They can find places both on Pine Ridge and Rosebud where non-Indians aren't allowed.
Meanwhile, Sun Dances, Sweat Lodges, and Hanblecias are gearing up for another mad summer of treadmill spirituality on South Dakota's Indian reservations. Hopefully, Arvol Looking Horse's timely "bad news proclamation" will at least cause our "traditionalists" to take a closer look around them. The appearance of treadmill spirituality can tarnish for a good-many what should be a very personal and moving experience that practitioners can take with them for the rest of their lives---wherever that life happens to be lived.
Mitakuye Oyasin.
---PR Gregg-Bear Rosebud, SD
