[I recently posted an article from News From Indian Country
(Late July, 1993) discussing this declaration. There have
been many responses so I decided to post the entire document
which I obtained from journalist Valerie Taliman. -Michele]
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At the Lakota Summit V, an international gathering of US and
Canadian Lakota, Dakota and Nakota nations, about 500
representatives from 40 different tribes and bands of the Lakota
unanimously passed a "Declaration of War Against Exploiters of
Lakota Spirituality." The following declaration was passed
unanimously on June 10, 1993.
DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST EXPLOITERS OF LAKOTA SPIRITUALITY
WHEREAS we are conveners of an ongoing series of comprehensive
forums on the abuse and exploitation of Lakota spirituality; and
WHEREAS we represent the recognized traditional 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 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 "shamanism"; and
WHEREAS non-Indian charlatans and "wannabes" are selling books that
promote 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 on 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 hodge-podge; and
WHEREAS the absurd public posturing of this scandalous assortment
of pseudo-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 takeover 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 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, as well as all national
Indian organizations, 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 Darrell Standing Elk
(Oglala Lakota) (Sicangu Lakota)
Traditional Spiritual Leader President
& Lakota Culture Instructor Center for the SPIRIT
Oglala Lakota College San Francisco, California
Pine Ridge, South Dakota & Pine Ridge, South Dakota
Phyllis Swift Hawk
(Kul Wicasa Lakota)
Tiospaye Wounspe Waokiye
Wanblee, South Dakota
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Michele Lord + If you have come here to help me,
+ you are wasting your time.....
+ But if you have come because
+ your liberation is bound up with mine,
milo@scicom.alphacdc.com + then let us work together.
Aboriginal Woman
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