The New Age Movement's Appropriation of Native Spirituality: Some Political Implications for the Algonquian Nation

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The New Age Movement's Appropriation of Native Spirituality: Some Political Implications for the Algonquian Nation SUSANNE MISKIMMIN University of Western Ontario In the predawn darkness, a line of

1 The New Age Movement's Appropriation of Native Spirituality: Some Political Implications for the Algonquian Nation SUSANNE MISKIMMIN University of Western Ontario In the predawn darkness, a line of figures can barely be discerned as they slip into the makeshift sweat lodge. Inside, in the oppressive heat, they encircle thefire and concentrate on purifying the mind, the body and the earth. Sweet grass is thrown on the fire to aid this process of purification. In turn, each individual gives homage to the spirits. One honours Kitche-Manitou, one the Four Directions, another acknowledges the summer solstice while a fourth gives thanks to the Goddess. It is a scene becoming more and more common in the suburbia surrounding large Canadian cities. It is the New Agers. The participants are, for the most part, "white" and of Euro-Canadian heritage. The leader, however, is often a person claiming "mixed blood", although more often than not this claim to native heritage is only the most tenuous genetic thread linking an otherwise "white" individual to a vague and uncertain Indian ancestor. This thread is embellished and relished. Even individuals with absolutely no possible claim to native heritage are in fact making that claim, or are culturally adopting what is genetically lacking. This desire to be Indian has much to do with the New Age Movement which has sparked a new interest in traditional native spirituality. Native spirituality is revered for its connection to the earth and its respect for harmony and balance in all things and Indians are envisioned to be the spiritual healers of Euro-Canadian maladies. A market for Indian religious experience has developed throughout North America and "guides" such as those noted above have come forward to give spiritual counselling. In actual fact, the New Age Movement's approach to native spirituality is a "grab bag" of native spiritual traditions, with an emphasis on Algonquian and Plains spiritual belief combined with holistic healing and "human potential" language.

2 206 SUSANNE MISKIMMIN Not surprisingly, many entrepreneurs have embraced this fad as an opportunity for great profit. They sell sweat lodges or vision quests which promise individual and global healing. Or they sell books and weekend retreats which propose to teach traditional ceremonies to bring out the Indian in everyone. A visit to the local New Age Shop reveals a bevy of items created to enhance the spirituality of the New Ager. Here, you can buy sweet grass for purifying, shaman's rattles and drums for that at home ritual, dream catchers, medicine wheels or tools of divination, such as "Sacred Path Cards" and "Medicine Cards". These cards are heralded as "an extraordinary tool for self-discovery which draws on the strength and beauty of Native American spiritual tradition. Developed by [a] Native American medicine teacher... this unique system distils the essential wisdom of the sacred tradition of many tribal traditions and shows users the way to transform their lives." Each card depicts a symbol of native spirituality and an accompanying text relates an "authentic" native story to aid in interpretation and direct meditation. New Agers are responding to a genuinely felt emotional need within dominant society. Despairing of their feelings of spiritual emptiness and the lack of meaning in their lives, New Agers look to others for succour rather than seeking transformation from within. Those who embrace native spirituality, for the most part, believe that in doing so they admire and express respect for First Nations. On the surface, this attitude toward native heritage may indeed appear a positive thing; that native spirituality is being revered and celebrated. In this paper, I hope to illustrate that this is not the case. Stereotyping, appropriation and the politics of primitivism are intrinsic to the New Age Movement's "adoption" of native spirituality and a dispute over ownership and authenticity has resulted. In her article "The tribe called Wannabee: playing Indian in America and Europe", Rayna Green (1988) traces the history of the "whiteman's" tendency to emulate Indians from the time of initial contact to the present. This tendency, which she coins "playing Indian", offers an unique opportunity to escape the conventional and often highly restrictive boundaries of the "whiteman's" fixed cultural identity. Green finds that the role of "playing Indian" began to have spiritual implications in the late 19th century and was connected to several important notions: that

APPROPRIATION OF NATIVE SPIRITUALITY 207 Indians inhabit the spirit world, that Indians are wise and skilled in healing, and that a medium directed by a guiding spirit can speak to, or instruct,

3 APPROPRIATION OF NATIVE SPIRITUALITY 207 Indians inhabit the spirit world, that Indians are wise and skilled in healing, and that a medium directed by a guiding spirit can speak to, or instruct, others. Many of these spirit guides were perceived to be Indian. A precursor of the New Age fascination with Algonquian spirituality began in the 1960s, when counter culture hippies, wearing headbands, love beads, fringed jackets and feathers and inspired by such cult books as those of Carlos Castaneda, began to show up on Southwestern mesas and reservation areas in search of peyote cults and a state of "higher consciousness" (Green 1988:44). Two early forms of "guruism" constitute the major literary forms in North American culture which led to the birth of the New Age Movement. In thefirst of these, the persona of a famous Indian leader offers the "truth" of the human condition through the voice of a wise, old, (and now conveniently dead) chief. In the second mode, the old guru gives the teachings through the transcriptions of a non-native student. Indian "truth" and wisdom are purveyed by the "white Indians" to an audience which prefers the white shaman to the real Indian (Green 1988). One of the more notorious authors to write in an Indian persona was Jamake Highwater, an alleged Cherokee/Blackfoot from either Montana or Canada (the story varies), born by his own assertion in several different years. Prior to his "rebirth" as an Indian, Highwater appeared as Jay Marks, a non-indian whose main literary claim to fame was his "authorized" biography of rock star Mick Jagger in the late 1960s. In response to having been revealed by a native newspaper to be of Armenian Jewish heritage, Highwater, clad in expensive "Santa Fe Chic" clothing, insisted that he is Indian because and I quote "I say I am" (Highwater 1981). Two recent works in the "guru" genre attract attention because of their phenomenal success Carlos Castaneda and Lynn Andrews (Green 1988). Castaneda's series of works on the teachings of Don Juan were tendered both as serious anthropology and as an authoritative treatise on Indian life. Lynn Andrews capitalized on Castaneda's success and her own interest in feminism with her account of the teachings of her wise spiritual guide, Agnes Whistling Elk, whose apparent life's ambition was to unburden herself of her people's sacred knowledge to thefirstavailable "white" woman. These works, along with Highwater's, have been

208 SUSANNE MISKIMMIN instrumental in engendering the vast and avid demand for native religious experience. The image of native people held by many Euro-Canadians has been imprisoned in history.

4 208 SUSANNE MISKIMMIN instrumental in engendering the vast and avid demand for native religious experience. The image of native people held by many Euro-Canadians has been imprisoned in history. This has made it possible for New Agers to identify with images of First Nations people in the past and attempt to possess part of this identity, without considering the impact of this appropriation on the present. As Don Alexander writes, "From cigar store Indian, to cowboy and Indian movies, to the 'noble savage', native people live in a prison of images not of their own making" (1986:45). These pervasive images, removed from the daily reality of native peoples, mask their struggles for empowerment. They do not reflect the history of native people but rather express another heritage; those representations of natives by the non-native social imagination which fragments and freezes native identity. Native peoples exist within a milieux of images and contradictory symbols which result from history, consumerism and popular culture. These images have silently contradicted the lived experiences of native people and have worked to construct a discourse of subordination. They are pervasive and powerful and their influence on native identity has political implications. These images are intrinsic to the debates surrounding aboriginal rights and resources, cultural tourism and cultural trespassing, intellectual property and cultural appropriation. Further, the concern for "authenticity" and the "desire to rescue 'authenticity' out of destructive historical change" as Clifford puts it (1985:121) denies culture its dynamic quality. Indians are today what they have always been (constructed as it is): silent, stoic, mystical and clad in beads and feathers. A contemporary First Nations person is deemed less "authentic" than the distorted caricature residing in the Euro- Canadian imagination. This notion that native people today are not "real" or "authentic" makes the appropriation of aspects of their cultural heritage a non-issue. The New Age Movement's conception of native spirituality is superficial at best; it seems they are after a quick spiritual fix. They cling to the positive aspects of spirit forces and deny the dualistic nature of the spiritual world. As an Ojibwe friend recently elaborated, Spiritual learning is a lifelong process; it has taken me my whole life to learn what I know about my tradition. How can a New Ager expect

5 APPROPRIATION OF NATIVE SPIRITUALITY 209 to learn all there is to know just from one book or a weekend course? What they know of native spirituality is so superficial, it makes it look as if it's not real or genuine; not something to be taken seriously. The concern is for the reaction of those Euro-Canadians who have had limited experience concerning First Nations people themselves and are forming their impressions of them based on what New Agers are doing. Further, the New Age Movement's approach to native spirituality does not acknowledge the cultural diversity among native people and creates a "generic" Indian. Nations are not viable nations Such a perception fosters the idea that the First nations that have ownership and jurisdiction over natural resources. Such a perception also implies that there is no political foundation for First Nations, that they exist, for the New Age Movement, merely as a spiritual guides. It has been suggested that when New Agers see how "white" people have historically oppressed others and how they are coming very close to destroying the earth, they often want to disassociate themselves from their "whiteness". They do this by opting to "become Indian". In this way they can escape responsibility and accountability for "white" racism (Smith 1994:70). This dissociation also allows the individual to continue to benefit from the colonialism of which they are part, but to not take responsibility for it. Certainly, New Agers want to become only part Indian. They do not want to acknowledge First Nation struggles for cultural survival, treaty rights, self-determination or an end to substance abuse. They do not want to acknowledge that which would deny them their romanticized vision of Indian reality. Rather, New Agers see Indians as "gurus" who exist to meet their consumerist needs. Andrea Smith writes that The New Age movement completely trivializes the oppression we as Indian women face: Indian women are suddenly no longer the women who are forcibly sterilized and tested with unsafe drugs such as Depo Provera; we are no longer the women who have a life expectancy of 47 years; and we are no longer the women who generally live below the poverty level and face a 75% unemployment rate. No, we're too busy being cool and spiritual. [Smith 1994:71] A further concern regarding the N e w Age Movement is its appropriation of native voice in the telling of native stories. Native stories are powerful and often sacred. Stories affect change, impart strength and heal. Stories convey the social values that the community deems

6 210 SUSANNE MISKIMMIN essential and storytelling situates people in the world and keeps them connected to it and each other. Stories are the fabric of native societies and if they are appropriated by others, native people will no longer control the process that is the very weave of their societies (Walkem 1993). Given the importance of stories in transmitting First Nations cultures, a mistelling represents a destruction. The question of ownership of stories and the licence of outsiders to tell the stories of other cultures are issues that are currently being debated. Much of the colonialist existence of the past few hundred years has silenced native voices. Native stories were largely appropriated and retold by non-native experts in such fields as anthropology, history and in the political realm. Not surprisingly, the appropriated stories distort the realities of native histories, cultures and traditions. Underlying this practice is the assumption that these "experts" have the right to retell native stories because of their place in dominant society. What is disturbing about those who would appropriate the voices of native peoples is that they do not see their actions as political or as a continuation of their own colonialist past. The appropriation of native voices through the telling of their stories is a political act; it dislocates First Nations people and attempts to restructure reality: it is assimilationist (Walkem 1993:38). It has been suggested that cultural appropriation is not necessarily a bad thing all of the time, and that the world cultures are already very entwined. However, such thinking assumes that individuals are playing within an even field. This is not the case. The history of colonialism has led to significant inequities and to the exclusion of communities not regarded as belonging to the "mainstream" of society from telling their own stories. As Smith (1994) comments, respecting the integrity of native people and their spirituality does not mean that there can never be cross-cultural sharing. However, such sharing should take place upon the initiative of First Nations. Interested individuals should acknowledge and become involved in native political struggles and should develop an ongoing relation with native communities based on trust and mutual respect. When this happens, native people may invite a non-indian to take part in a ceremony, but it will be on native terms.

REFERENCES APPROPRIATION OF NATIVE SPIRITUALITY 211 Alexander, Don. 1986. Prison of images: seizing the means of representation. Fuse February/March 1986, 45-^6. Clifford, James. 1985.

7 REFERENCES APPROPRIATION OF NATIVE SPIRITUALITY 211 Alexander, Don Prison of images: seizing the means of representation. Fuse February/March 1986, 45-^6. Clifford, James Histories of the tribal and the modern. Art in America, April 1985, Green, Rayna The tribe called Wannabee: playing Indian in America and Europe. Folklore 99(l): Highwater, Jamake The primal mind: vision and reality in Indian America. New York: Harper & Row. Smith, Andrea For all those who were Indian in a former life. Cultural Survival Quarterly 17(4): Walkem, Ardith Stories and voices. Fuse, summer 1993,

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