Sweat Lodge Deaths, etc.

[Dave]

Is there any new or updated data within the past year on deaths, injuries, illnesses, or criminal activities associated with wannabe or fake medicine men sweat lodges?  Is there anyone tracking this?  Thanks - Dave

[frederica]

The last death or severe illness I know of was in 2004 in New Zealand. This was due to a sweatlodge by Nuagers forget the name.. One survived, one died. The problem I see if they are not reported to the media, you will never hear. I can imagine more than a few cases of dehydration but even if the person ends up in an emergency room it is protected by the Privacy Act. So unless they report this, which most will not becomes a case of it will never be disclosed. It will be very difficult to obtain any stats for this reason. Then you always have the senerio  that the person giveing the "sweats" tells the person they did not prepare themselves properly, so it is dropped. frederica

[raven]

So true Frederika,
I have only heard of one death and that was many years back at a sundance, the cause was from infection.
But I have heard at some bad lodges of people getting really sick, due to the fact the person running it didn't know what he was doing and many people came out vomitting.

[debbieredbear]

Talk about getting sick, one of the local wannabe tribes (we got more than one in this state) had a sweat in which they called all the spirits of those that died in hurricane Katrina into the lodge! And some of the people got violently ill. Vomiting, diarhea, you name it. Idiots. Their shame on isn't trained in ANYTHING except how to be a christian minister. And he wasn't good at that either.

[frederica]

That sounds too dangerous, seems like there is a lot of ex-preachers doing this. The only ones I have heard  of people getting ill was on the East Coast, where some fainted in the lodge and had to be carried out. People should know who holds the lodges. I am suprised that there really are not more severe incidents with this pay as you go "traveling sweatlodge". frederica

[Dianne Harris]

 I have read of a few instances of  local fire departments shutting down a lot of the backyard sweats. They usually invoke a town by-law such to do it.
Also, if they get called to a sweat with an outdoor fire during a dry spell 'no burning' time, they often levy a stiff fine.

[debbieredbear]

The state I am in has a religious exemption to the state's outdoor burning laws. So having a dry period wouldn't shut a sweat down. Most people will aleret the fire department as to what they are doing before starting the fire tho.

[chiefytiger]

Dave all I can say is that if there ever was a death in a lodge it would have brought attentin to local police or some law enforcement, But again I have heard of various lodges in some parts of the east coast, All I know that there are alot of Lakota medcine men living in the east or doing sweats ,But never know who these ppls are.yet some have never been into a SunDance or was just participants in lodges and not what they call water pourers,But there playin w/creator

[Alraune]

There is an event which I believe to have some roots in a sweat lodge.
This past April, after attending a sweat lodge in Ontario, hosted by Angaangaq, a Kalaallit Inuk shaman from Greenland, a woman had a psychotic break. She returned to Vermont, drowned her 2 daughters, ages 2 and 6, and herself too.
This woman did have previous trauma in her life, and in defense of Amgaangaq, she did sign a paper claiming good health. But, the sweat did seem to unravel her. The sweat, I am told, was over 6 hours. I was not present at the event, but as I understood, it was a weekend of teaching about the state of the environment. There is more I could say on the topic of this tragedy, but I will end by saying that the work, research and attitude of NAPFS is of vital importance.

[Defend the Sacred]

a sweat lodge in Ontario, hosted by Angaangaq, a Kalaallit Inuk shaman from Greenland,

I am not familiar with the guy, but a thread has been started on him here: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1913.0

If he is operating within a traditional community, why is he leading ceremonies in Ontario? Why is there a woman from Vermont there, who no one knows well enough to know that she is unstable, and why does he need people to sign liability waivers? Did she also pay for the privilege of her psychotic break?

Other questions to ask: Do the traditional ceremonies of the people this guy claims to represent include sweat lodges? What about sweats that last six hours and welcome people with a history of instability? Do the Inuit even have "shamans"?   If they do, how do we know this guy is one?

[Nakin]

A woman I was in college with told me of a sweat she went to at Mary thunder's back in 2000. She said that once everyone got in, Mary thunder told them that "No one leaves one of my sweats."

She said a woman started to freak out and scream and cry. She begged Mary to let her out and Mary told her no, and that they would pray for her. She said the woman was completely freaking out screaming and wailing. She started to claw people beside her and went crazy but mary still refused to let her out because she said she had something to work out with the Great Spirit.

After it was over the woman was laying on the ground in a fetal position while Mary sat next to her praying over her. Ridiculous and sickening.

[Sparks]

a sweat lodge in Ontario, hosted by Angaangaq, a Kalaallit Inuk shaman from Greenland,

I am not familiar with the guy, but a thread has been started on him here: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1913.0

Threads were merged, and now the URL is http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1833

[Sparks]

There is an event which I believe to have some roots in a sweat lodge.
This past April, after attending a sweat lodge in Ontario, hosted by Angaangaq, a Kalaallit Inuk shaman from Greenland, a woman had a psychotic break. She returned to Vermont, drowned her 2 daughters, ages 2 and 6, and herself too.
This woman did have previous trauma in her life, and in defense of Amgaangaq, she did sign a paper claiming good health. But, the sweat did seem to unravel her. The sweat, I am told, was over 6 hours. I was not present at the event, but as I understood, it was a weekend of teaching about the state of the environment. There is more I could say on the topic of this tragedy, but I will end by saying that the work, research and attitude of NAPFS is of vital importance.

This story has been deemed incorrect in the Angaangaq Lyberth thread;

Also mentioned here as causing a woman's death.
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=627.0

The woman was called Nicole Waring. Her daughters were called Grace and Dakota.

http://www.dps.state.vt.us/vtsp/press/press_070708_brattleboro.html

I can find nothing about her attending any sweatlodge.

Alraune, the poster who alleged that Lyberth is connected with their deaths, uses the same email address as Annabel Lee, a völkisch-racist musician who has translated the works of Italian fascist guru Julius Evola. Clearly the words of someone with such bad judgment should be viewed with suspicion.

Alraune/Lee is now banned. Racists are not welcome here.

The link in there does not work. Googling the names of the mother and daughters will bring forth a number of news stories.

I am posting this here because this is the thread where Alraune's claim was published.