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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; (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
Source: Nativenet
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