The Joys Of FaceBook

[GeoDude]

Here's a post on Facebook  from the group "NATIONS FIRST PEOPLE... INVISIBLE NO MORE" in response to one of my posts:
posters name left out "This will piss some of you off ,but needs to be said.
This is a comment I made in another members post.
Their are too many Tradition Police and Not Enough Teachers. I think we Native Peoples that see whites caring for an trying to respect our ways; wandering the Red Road looking for a guide should take them by the hand and guide them. Yes you need Native blood to be Native ,but we are all immigrants to this continent; we Native Americans got here first, that's all. So if we see a person of any color ,race ,or nationality wandering the Red Road and Honoring Our Ways; take them by the hand ,guide them ,& teach them our ways. Our peoples were dealt one of the sorriest hands in history. The White Man Pissed on every Treaty we ever made with them. The Whites of today never owned slaves ,took scalps , or Slaughtered our peoples. So Be Their Spirit Guides and Show Them The Ways Of The Red Road. They in turn will teach their Children to be better stewards of the earth. Some people have no heritage. Let's give them one."

Group seemed to be a good educational one, initially, but is starting to get weird! People posting cheesy "native" photos, and pimping nuage pages. Just curious what ya'll thought?

[Defend the Sacred]

Just because someone on Facebook claims to be Native, doesn't mean they are. And even if some dude with a ginormous beard and blond hair, saying things that sound very non-Native does turn out to have a bit of distant heritage, it doesn't mean they are part of a traditional Native community, or know anything about the real traditions of the community they are trying to claim. People who believe they are Native "in their heart" often say things like that.

The more people complain about wanting "teachers" and wanting "teachings," the more out of touch they sound.

And for a non-Native, or someone with only distant heritage, to say other cultures have no heritage... that is just ignorant and disrespectful of the many, diverse cultures on this Earth who have Earth-honouring, spiritual traditions. It's the plea of the wannabe, the pretendian, the outsider trying to justify misappropriation.

People often try to re-invent themselves on social media, or pose as something they are not. Facebook is rife with pretendians and groups of appropriators, and it looks like that is one of them.

[Defend the Sacred]

Another huge red flag: Someone claiming to be Native who believes the discredited, racist, Land Bridge theory. There's some really offensive, pretendian stuff in that group, like the chart instructing people to give themselves a "Native Name" and fake clan. Things like the "Native Name Generator" are a joke, a satire of the pretendians. The non-Natives posting and "liking" that stuff there are apparently not in on the joke.

[GeoDude]

Thanks Kathryn. 
It seemed off to me. People seemed to get offended/defensive when I mentioned "cultural appropriation"
hence this response calling me the tradition police.
In truth I just want to be a real ally.
Not sure here. May just leave group.

(edit)...the Facebook group that is

[earthw7]

We have the right as native people to say who belongs to us and who does not
We should not have to teach the white people!
Red Road is a new age ideal
We are not immigrants and we don't follow the land bridge theory
Oh Wait this theory has been prove wrong over and over again
Just from the post this does not sound like a native person

[GeoDude]

How can I be the best ally in this situation?
My gut just says to leave group. There are a lot of entitled people there, or should I say people with entitlement issues.

And earthw7 this question isn't a challenge, I truly would like to know the answer:

I have heard NDN's use the term "The Red Road" not often but I have, and I have MOST Certainly heard new agers use it more.

Also it was either John (Fire)Lame Deer or Black Elk (possibly both) who have talked about (in book) the north-south path vs. the path to darkness (east-west) walked by the white man. The north-south being "the Red Road."

I mean no disrespect in asking, just curious if this is a cultural appropriation, and thus mis-use by nonNDN, or ignorance altogether?

[Defend the Sacred]

Why do you want to be in a group of pretendians and exploiters unless it's to tell them to stop it?

[GeoDude]

I initially thought it was other than it was.

"Part of the group"  is relative I suppose. As a "member" could I be a better ally?

Again, after things got weird there my first thought was to leave.

But when presented with ignorant or misinformed people in the real world, I do my best to stand up to it.

Again, a better ally.

I don't know what that is in this instance

[earthw7]

How can I be the best ally in this situation?
My gut just says to leave group. There are a lot of entitled people there, or should I say people with entitlement issues.

And earthw7 this question isn't a challenge, I truly would like to know the answer:

I have heard NDN's use the term "The Red Road" not often but I have, and I have MOST Certainly heard new agers use it more.

Also it was either John (Fire)Lame Deer or Black Elk (possibly both) who have talked about (in book) the north-south path vs. the path to darkness (east-west) walked by the white man. The north-south being "the Red Road."

I mean no disrespect in asking, just curious if this is a cultural appropriation, and thus mis-use by nonNDN, or ignorance altogether?

Yes Black Elk book talks about the red road, but it a book wrote by a white man and Black Elk belong to a Christian church, cant believe people don't know this stuff
we always make fun of the book because every white person ask us if we read the book we say no why would we. Many of the Natives who have had problems with alcohol
use the red road approach to recovery. I only knew this concept as an alcohol program, then I got on the internet and it became something very strange.

[Defend the Sacred]

A bit of a sidetrack, but as it's been brought up:

The Wellbriety "Red Road to Recovery" thing... I think it has a lot of problems. I won't dissuade anyone from using what it takes to get sober, but in my opinion there are some key ways the Wellbriety movement is seriously flawed.

One is that they let non-Natives lead their recovery groups, including sweats and other ceremonies. So while traditional ceremony with properly trained ceremonial people is an excellent thing to help folks recover in the ways of their own cultures, that's not what I've seen from those people. It is is a pan-NDN and nuage approach, not traditional, and with untrained people trying to lead ceremony. In the wrong hands, that stuff can do more harm than good.  Traditional spiritual titles are taken out of context and redefined, which is very misleading to those seeking spiritual guidance.

The other problem is that effective recovery groups traditionally use anonymity as a way of counteracting the grandiosity addicts are prone to. Wellbriety is not anonymous. People promote themselves as addiction specialists and recovery leaders, often with minimal to no training and little to no cultural connection.

Successful recovery groups tend to be non-profit, community-based, and run co-operatively by volunteers helping one another. The Wellbriety thing is a profit-making venture, with a corporate power structure.

I think it's mentioned on threads in the forum here. Go to the main page and search on it for more.

[earthw7]

yes Kathryn that is the way we see it too from the reservations, 
All of a sudden the red road is the major part of our culture when it is not

[GeoDude]

The other problem is that effective recovery groups traditionally use anonymity as a way of counteracting the grandiosity addicts are prone to.

Successful recovery groups tend to be non-profit, community-based, and run co-operatively by volunteers helping one another.

You nailed it right there! This seems to be applicable to other non-recovery groups (most nuage groups) too! An ego-fest!
Never heard of wellbriety.
Thanks earthw7 and Kathryn

[amorYcohetes]

I think it's mentioned on threads in the forum here. Go to the main page and search on it for more.

Yes!  I was the one who posted a question asking peple's thoughts about Don Coyhis' Wellbriety model and literature.  Linking the threads for anyone who's interested in this tangent: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=2816.msg24118#msg24118.