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Declaration of War Against
Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality
WHEREAS we are the conveners of an ongoing series of comprehensive forums on
the abuse and exploitation of Lakota spirituality; and
WHEREAS we represent the
recognized traditional spiritual leaders, traditional elders, and grassroots
advocates of the Lakota people; and
WHEREAS for too long we have
suffered the unspeakable indignity of having our most precious Lakota
ceremonies and spiritual practices desecrated, mocked and abused by non-Indian
"wannabes," hucksters, cultists, commercial profiteers and
self-styled "New Age shamans" and their followers; and
WHEREAS with horror and outrage we
see this disgraceful expropriation of our sacred Lakota traditions has reached
epidemic proportions in urban areas throughout the country; and
WHEREAS our precious Sacred Pipe
is being desecrated through the sale of pipestone pipes at flea markets,
powwows, and "New Age" retail stores; and
WHEREAS pseudo-religious
corporations have been formed to charge people money for admission into phony
"sweatlodges" and "vision quest" programs; and
WHEREAS sacrilegious
"sundances" for non-Indians are being conducted by charlatans and
cult leaders who promote abominable and obscene imitations of our sacred Lakota
sundance rites; and
WHEREAS non-Indians have organized
themselves into imitation "tribes," assigning themselves make-believe
"Indian names" to facilitate their wholesale expropriation and
commercialization of our Lakota traditions; and
WHEREAS academic disciplines have
sprung up at colleges and universities institutionalizing the sacrilegious
imitation of our spiritual practices by students and instructors under the
guise of educational programs in "shaminism;" and
WHEREAS non-Indian charlatans and
"wannabes" are selling books that promote the systematic colonization
of our Lakota spirituality; and
WHEREAS the television and film
industry continues to saturate the entertainment media with vulgar,
sensationalist and grossly distorted representations of Lakota spirituality and
culture which reinforce the public's negative stereotyping of Indian people and
which gravely impair the self-esteem of our children; and
WHEREAS individuals and groups
involved in "the New Age Movement," in "the men's movement,"
in "neo-paganism" cults and in "shamanism" workshops all
have exploited the spiritual traditions of our Lakota people by imitating our
ceremonial ways and by mixing such imitation rituals with non-Indian occult
practices in an offensive and harmful pseudo-religious hodgepodge; and
WHEREAS the absurd public
posturing of this scandalous assortment of psuedo-Indian charlatans,
"wannabes," commercial profiteers, cultists and "New Age
shamans" comprises a momentous obstacle in the struggle of traditional
Lakota people for an adequate public appraisal of the legitimate political,
legal and spiritual needs of real Lakota people; and
WHEREAS this exponential
exploitation of our Lakota spiritual traditions requires that we take immediate
action to defend our most precious Lakota spirituality from further
contamination, desecration and abuse;
THEREFORE WE RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:
1. We hereby and henceforth declare war against all persons who persist
in exploiting, abusing and misrepresenting the sacred traditions and spiritual
practices of our Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people.
2. We call upon all our Lakota, Dakota and Nakota brothers and sisters
from reservations, reserves, and traditional communities in the United States
and Canada to actively and vocally oppose this alarming take-over and
systematic destruction of our sacred traditions.
3. We urge our people to coordinate with their tribal members living in
urban areas to identify instances in which our sacred traditions are being
abused, and then to resist this abuse, utilizing whatever specific tactics are
necessary and sufficient --for example demonstrations, boycotts, press conferences,
and acts of direct intervention.
4. We especially urge all our Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people to take
action to prevent our own people from contributing to and enabling the abuse of
our sacred ceremonies and spiritual practices by outsiders; for, as we all
know, there are certain ones among our own people who are prostituting our
spiritual ways for their own selfish gain, with no regard for the spiritual
well-being of the people as a whole.
5. We assert a posture of zero-tolerance for any "white man's
shaman" who rises from within our own communities to "authorize"
the expropriation of our ceremonial ways by non-Indians; all such "plastic
medicine men" are enemies of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people.
6. We urge traditional people, tribal leaders, and governing councils of
all other Indian nations, to join us in calling for an immediate end to this
rampant exploitation of our respective American Indian sacred traditions by
issuing statements denouncing such abuse; for it is not the Lakota, Dakota and
Nakota people alone whose spiritual practices are being systematically violated
by non-Indians.
7. We urge all our Indian brothers and sisters to act decisively and
boldly in our present campaign to end the destruction of our sacred traditions,
keeping in mind our highest duty as Indian people: to preserve the purity of
our precious traditions for our future generations, so that our children and
our children's children will survive and prosper in the sacred manner intended
for each of our respective peoples by our Creator.
Wilmer Stampede Mesteth; (Oglala Lakota); Traditional Spiritual Leader
& Lakota Culture Instructor; Oglala Lakota College, Pine Ridge, South
Dakota
Darrell Standing Elk; (Sicangu Lakota); President, Center for the
SPIRIT, San Fancisco, California, & Pine Ridge, South Dakota
Phyllis Swift Hawk; (Kul Wicasa Lakota); Tiospaye Wounspe Waokiye;
Wanblee, South Dakota
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