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Chapter 2 Twentieth-Century Contest over Native American Spirituality
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Chapter 2 Twentieth-Century Contest over Native American Spirituality There is power in the pipe. There is power in the drum. —Bob Bullet St. Germain (Anishinaabe) discussing Tim McGraw’s song “Indian Outlaw.”1 An obscene misrepresentation of the traditional [pipe] ceremonial. —Message on the American Indian Youth Against Tobacco Exploitation Website discussing Natural American Spirit cigarettes.2 It’s bizarre that a tribe would use the spiritual medicine man of their communities in a commercial way. Tribes hold the medicine man in such high regard that it’s unusual to see the image used for commercial purposes. —Jim Gray (publisher of the Native American Times, discussing Hansen’s Medicine Man Juices) Some Native Americans have, through the decades, themselves participated in the production of Indianness as performers in Wild West shows, theatrical productions, medicine shows, or circuses that toured 45 46 Fighting Colonialism with Hegemonic Culture the United States and Europe as well as in the burgeoning film industry .3 Those who performed in traveling shows left only fragmentary records of their motivations for participation, which included, but were not limited to, the opportunity to earn desperately needed income, to continue activities outlawed on reservations, and to learn more about white society.4 Still today, individual Native American entrepreneurs routinely “dress in feathers” in order to allow tourists to have their photographs taken with them for a fee.5 Or, as Alexis Bunten reveals among the Tlingit of what is today known as Sitka, Alaska, develop what she terms commodified personas in the heritage industry.6 American Indians have complex relationships with popular images of Indians in the contemporary world. Bombarded with demeaning stereotypes on a daily basis for generations, Native Americans have had to carefully pick their battles in order to preserve limited resources in what often seems an endless battle against colonialism. Certain usages have resulted in widespread criticism, however, such as the four examples discussed in this chapter—song lyrics, malt liquor, juice products, and cigarettes—which are marketed as closely associated with American Indians; in fact, Native Americans responded voraciously to each example presented. Based on my analysis, I conclude that this is so because in each case direct linkage is made to American Indian spirituality in general or denigration of respected spiritual leaders more specifically, which have been hot button issues since the last quarter of the twentieth century. As a result, to fully understand Native American responses to this set of commercial images, these reactions must be contextualized within the broader frame of the marketing of American Indian spirituality and the larger battle against colonialism. The Rising Threat to Native American Spirituality First they came to take our land and water, then our fish and game. Then they wanted our mineral resources and, to get them, they tried to take our governments. Now they want our religions as well. All of a sudden, we have a lot of unscrupulous idiots running around saying they’re medicine people. And they’ll sell you a sweat lodge ceremony for fifty bucks. It’s not only wrong, [44.193.29.184] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 09:58 GMT) 47 Twentieth-Century Contest over Native American Spirituality it’s obscene. Indians don’t sell their spirituality to anybody, for any price. This is just another in a very long series of thefts from Indian people and, in some ways, this is the worst one yet. —Janet McCloud (Tulalip)7 During the last quarter of the twentieth-century, Euro-Americans turned to American Indians for two separate but related purposes— ecology and spirituality. In the 1970s, members of the environmental movement sought spokespersons for their cause. In subsequent decades, disenfranchised middle-class Americans began to seek spiritual enlightenment through adoption of the religious beliefs and practices of peoples from around the world that they perceived to have lived or to now live in harmony with the earth, a state untainted by civilized lifestyles, philosophies, and practices.8 The type of spirituality that arose during this time period is alternatively known as Nature Religion, Neo-paganism, Goddess Spirituality , Human Potential, or the New Age Movement. Being inherently nature-based, each shares essential drives to locate holistic world understanding of the sacred and to replace both secularized and traditionally transcendental frameworks with a viable stewardship of the earth.9 Furthermore, each can be considered to heed to what Derrida refers to as “a need to hear the voice of the other.” In this case, the neglected and marginalized other...