NATIVE AMERICAN WANNABE

[patsydecline (deleted)]

I like what John Trudell had to say about everybody being a decendant of a tribal culture that was 'civilized with a stick' at some point. I'm decended from Irish and German farmers. Reconnecting to my own tribal roots is a very tall order indeed. I think we whites have to go through feminism to get there, if we can at all, because that's how we got civilized with a stick when they killed all of our female healers that they called witches during the inquisition. I'm in search of my own tribal history, not yours. If you think it's hard to keep your tribal culture alive, try being white. I see my own culture believing that endless growth with limited resources is possible, and identifying as consumers, not human beings. I think that's pretty much the definition of insanity right there, and I want no part of it. As hard as your lives have been under this vicious occupation, at least you still have your traditions near enough to work with. We whites are very messed up people indeed since we lost our connection to the earth. It's deeply pitiful and sad. The only voices with any sense that I've been hearing lately have been coming from Native elders, and that's why I'm here, to share some good sense. I fully agree with the concept of living responsibly for the sake of future generations, and it's not easy, but I'm doing it, and the more I do it, the more I notice that I'm waking up to a reality that my own culture suppresses. It's like when domestic dogs go feral, it doesn't take very long for them to revert to their natural state, and I have discovered for myself that even white people like me can reconnect to the web of life and heal that split, but you don't get there by wearing feathers and beads from Hobby Lobby and trying to glom off another culture, but by walking your talk every day.

[patsydecline (deleted)]

`Also i think that if you can pass for white, you get treated differently than those who can't. You get all the priveledges that come with that membership, so you can't possibly know how it is otherwise. Also, there are a lot of white people here who claim to have a native american spirit. I think that some white people have a connection to the earth which should be just normal for any race of earthlings, and some native americans who hate camping and prefer a concrete yard.

[patsydecline (deleted)]

`But that's just me, an exploding fountain of opinions who loves a soapbox. Kind of like a televangelist.

[walkingbadger (deleted)]

the concept of being native american is taken out of proportion. i am a full blood & i have suffered much during my youth as part of the bia's forced assimilation of degradation & degeneration. but i am proud of the fact that i am Dine'/Kiis'aanii because bia couldn't kill the spirit within. native american is just a word given to the Indigenous Peoples of this country. as far as i am concern those who were born here in this country are native americans both traditional & non. what distinguishes me from that native american title is that i am Dine'/Kiis'aanii. in my years of survival, i have learned one thing & that is, there are good & bad on both sides of the skin line. i never say i am native american, i say i am Dine'/Kiis'aanii because that is what i am. we know who we are whether we are 1/16 of 4/4. this word wannabes is an ugly racist word. i look at them as non-traditional & we should welcome & embrace them with open arms & goodness because they see something beautiful in our traditions & want to taste it. all this hating on these non-traditionals is absurd & shows the characteristics & qualities of who we really are & i do not want to be part of this kind of hostile prejudice.

[patsydecline (deleted)]

`Thank You, Walkingbadger!
I appreciate that. It's awkward to come here being white, and honestly, i can understand backlash racism blowing back at us whites, eszpecially from the Ndn and black communities. I can take the whipping here without crumbling, and I'm sure I'll be committing some blunders due to ignorance....

[whollyheretic (deleted)]

`
I reckon that the essence of culture is in the generally accepted values and attitudes.

When I say that I am of the old ways, it means that my values are not fashionable,
but proven and refined by generations who did not delegate responsibility to false gods
nor to regulations derived from depraved un-human doctrines of original sin
and management of mankind as slaves.

With all of us having invested our awareness into a human beingness,
what binds us to each other is our shared destiny (trajectory not looking good)
and our unpublicised individual opportunity to live from the magical totality of the self.

[tosawii]

`As far as WannaBees are concerned, there are many examples, here on this site and also all over United States and the rest of the World. You see those examples with the recent deaths of the people trying to be connected somehow with sweating in a plastic sweatlodge.
Many people here feel they are connected, only to embarrass themselves and get angry at the Native/Indigenous Peoples here. They seek out to sutbly learn our ways and our languages, as well as practice them for themselves. The next step they do is claim something of it when they are not even of that people they practice from, claiming to be native then.
The problem is like has been stated, most people have lost their Tribal Ways, even Indigenous Peoples and practice a intertribal way that is still not their own.
Do not say other people can not learn about Native Cultures, just remember who they belong to, whether it is theirs or the Tribal Nations that it came from.
As an Indigenous Tribal Nation Representative, if you have a non-tribal person in your Life, you can share your ways and values with the person in your Life, but not to convert them or try to make them native of some kind, maybe that will be the next Sci-Fi movie?
As Indigenous Peoples, we are faced daily with losing our ways, specifically in my own Tribal Nation, within the last year, we have lost 11 Native Speakers, and our young ones no longer talk their language. That is only one reason we are so protective ove what we are and what we have left for ourselves in the Future.
That is all......

[patsydecline (deleted)]

`It's a shame so much has been lost, because it's the Indigenous Nations who have the blueprints for the correct way to live as humans beings, in a way that's endlessly sustainable, without the need for white cultural advantages like prisons, mental hospitals, orphanages and nursing homes. I joke about being one half Wannabe, and the other half is luckier than she knows, but i have the greatest respect for American Indigenous Culture, and I'd love to know some of that blueprint for right living, but as far as religion, culture and spirit, those are yours, and I think for someone non-native to try to adopt the religious and cultural practices is inauthentic and silly. Cultures take a long, long time to develop, and a person can't just put another culture on like a trendy new fashion...I just want to learn a better way of being human.

[walkingbadger (deleted)]

`real wannabzzzs are in it for greed, the exploitation of our tradition & culture. those are the ones we have to look out for. but the non-traditionals are as i say, looking for something beautiful in our traditions & want to taste it. for us real ndn's to rank on them just shows that we also need to reflect on what goodness & beauty is or we're just as ugly as the real wannabzzzs.

[barbara1 (deleted)]

`Hello!
Interesting here.
When i signed in this site 8i first signed in passionsnetwork, later irealized that all the fun is on nativeamerican passions) and started reading the profiles - males and famales - i was surprised by the quantity of wannabees and the arrogance of their ways. it llooked as everybody was expert in native american traditions, proud of being white with a "native heart" or of some native american descent (wich i doubted most times). i have the feeling that all this has nothng to do with being respectful towards another culture, it is probably more related to getting attention or some s----l feticism about meeting native americans. which can't be called respect and looks more like exploitation.

As a foreigner, when i first came to your beautiful country i was shocked by the racist mentality of most people. forgive me if it looks as i criticize, i love americans, there are many good things about you. in fact i wouldn't even call it racism, because most people aren't aggressive towards other races. it is just a mentality, or cultural patterns that make you see the world divided into ethnicities while the rest of the world has difficulties to fit their own people into the american ethnical division.
That is why i am not surprised to read some posts that seem wirtten by Adolf Hitler's worst consultant. in my country even pronouncing the word "fullblood" would eventually get you to a police station.

But this must be the result of american history.
Something else i notice is a strong urge to find roots. and this is probably a historycal issue too. white americans don't really know where they come from. i don't know how this feels because i was born on the land of my ancestors but it may be the cause of becoming wannabee.
Related to that is the feeling of loosing the contact with nature, which i noticed too. americans tend to lock themselves into houses with air conditioning and never go in the fields, are scared of any little insect and tend to eat unhealthy, are not used to natural flavor anymore. that is definitely loss of contact with nature. they seem to have lost the ability of reading the signs that nature displays, and to feel united to the other living beings. that must be the reason why they search to get it back by trying to become like the people who are originally connected to the land.
A great anthropologist form my country, Ernesto de Martino, said that before you can understand another culture you have to understand yours.
And if we don't understand our loneliness we won't understand other people's loneliness. As i think that everybody who is on a dating site feels lonely and needs to be in contact with other people.
I am trying to understand and not judge the wannabees, as crazy as they are, i hope that you will do the same

Sorry if this post is too long and boring

[barbara1 (deleted)]

`PS: Native americans and fake native americans seem to enjoy getting all this attention from the wannabees. don't really know what to think about it. lol

[oglala44 (deleted)]

`Personally i dont care what people say or think, let those same wannabe people come hang out with me on the rez for one week and they will think twice about saying how their Great Grandmother was a Indian Princess.....

[lakotaprincess1]

`lol...

[patsydecline (deleted)]

`....and we're off to the races! You know, there has to be some way for us whites to honor the earth and the web of life. I think it's normal for humans to respond to the awesomeness (sorry) of Earth, to the beauty and wonder of nature. Some of us whites are not as domesticated as others, and we're so lost and lonely in this, we try to identify ourselves somewhere. Am I asking you all to cry me a river? I wouldn't dare...I know you and your peeps have been up to your asses in the alligators of fascism all along right here in the land of the free, (and I think my peeps may be next.) I just think that at this time, white people wanting to learn how to stop fighting Mother Nature and learn instead how to skip rope with her, like your's do, is really a good thing. Trouble is, Wannabes are mistaken in thinking that they need to glom onto another Earth-respecting culture in order to express their understandable love for Earth and feel connected to like minded persons, like in church. And it's such a popular fantasy in block buster movies such as Avatar and Dances With Wolves and sadly, even Thunderheart. You know; Natives who are tuned in to Nature and can read people with their Special Powers...can see into the heart of the heroic white guy who's sent by the techno-devil to destroy them, but becomes a hero to the Natives instead, (who always knew he had it in him all along.) So, what I've been after in my quest for betterment is the answer to the question; How does a white person express their love and devotion to Earth without being icky about it?

[barbara1 (deleted)]

`Ok Patsydecline, but before people could think of answering your question it should be clear what a "white person" is, because i guess it is not a matter of skin but a matter of culture and identity. By the way the exploitation of "Mother Earth" is not only typical of "whites" i am thinking of the industrial asian countries.
Question: all this has to do with the colour of the skin or with some capitalistic asset which is more a system than an ethnical identity?
And remember that all of this is always related to the hystorical reasons that brought us to this stage.
The white invasion of the american land is related to the birth of the extreme capitalistic ideology.
There is no way out: if you love "Mother Earth" you got to consider all this and know where you come from, as the tree is connected to the earth through its roots.
Sorry for my bad english