Once married to a Lakota, she now sells their ceremonies in Europe and Texas and claims the money goes to elders.
www.ikewest.comI'm hoping someone from around the community can tell us what they think of West up there.
She's claiming the money she makes goes to elders. That should be checked out.
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:Vpmo8KdjkYoJ:www.americanindianprisoners.com/Pages/Urgent%2520actions.htm+%22ike+west&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=23"With proceeds from her workshops and donations from supporters, West and her son, who is a member of the Dakota Tribe, administer a trust for tribal families to assist those in need of emergency funds,
clothing, and material goods....Over the last few months Red Horse Connection received ten thousand dollars wired in from Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. I brought home another ten thousand dollars from Greece and Italy."
At least one other NDN forum asked the same question, but got no answers I know of.
http://forum.americanindiantribe.com/viewtopic.php?t=1954&sid=8eb3a8fdd9892c770311cf7c0b2462a1Guess whose a regular at the Astrology Society of Austin? Good to see only a few dozen members.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AstrologyAustin/"Upcoming Monthly Programs
January 27 - Eileen "ike" West on Native American Cosmology & Astrology
February 24 - Linda Mackey on Vedic Astrology
March 31 - Charles McClelland on Richard Tarnas
NCGR Astrology Course
Also in the spring, we'll be launching Austin's first-ever astrology course and NCGR astrology certification program. The course is being organized by our education director Maria Mateus, who is currently working on her master's degree in astrology at Kepler College. For more information, email astrology.austin@gmail.com.
Full-day Astrology Workshops
We're also working on a series of full-day astrology workshops. We've got a great lineup of speakers, including:
Gina Lalli - On progressions
Maria Mateus - On profections
Leigh Westin - On declinations
Eileen "ike" West - On Native American Cosmology and Astrology
The Astrological Society of Austin is a chapter of the National Council for Geocosmic Research (NCGR. NCGR is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising the standards of astrological education and research."
A site promoting her book has a pretty offensive excerpt posted:
http://www.awayfromhannahscastle.com/"At the edge of the Badlands, Dakota, half-breed Hannah Hops Along struggles with her life as a reclusive widow. A harrowing snake attack in a ceremonial lodge throws Hannah headlong into the arms of an untimely suitor named JB Iverson. Hannah’s life-threatening ordeal also strengthens the psychic bond she shares with the planet Earth, who is portrayed as a girl on the verge of becoming a young woman."
A review of an interview of her in another work:
http://shopping.msn.com/Reviews/shp/?itemId=513030272"To me, Ike West is a seer. She has a firm grasp of mysticism and presents a magical worldview in which things unfold naturally, and complex ideas become vividly clear. With loving patience, Ike leads people wishing to move from a life that is unaware and somnolent to a truly sacred space." -From Susan Smit's "Wijze vrouwen" (Wise Women, NL, 2003), a work of journalistic renown that includes interviews with Ike West, Isabel Allende, Xaviera Hollander, Jane Goodall, Isabella Rosselini, Queen Noor of Jordan and others.
A "journalist" seriously expects us to buy the Happy Hooker as a Wise Woman?
And Rossellini and Goodall are talented people in their fields, but I don't see any reason for that label for them either.
It doesn't surpise me that UT Austin made the mistake of hosting one of her workshops. One of the colleges here in San Antonio actually had one of Mary Grimes/Mary Thunder's "Blue Star Ministers", a white ex lawyer named Michael Hull, as the official speaker for Native Heritage Month.
West's family is extremely well off. Her mother was a big name in San Antonio. The family is "old money" by Texas standards, going all the way back to the 1850s.
http://www.saconservation.org/places/ikewest.htm"Mrs. Ike West, Sr., donated her Victorian home to the San Antonio Conservation Society in 1965. Located in the King William Historic District, the two-and one-half story brick structure, built in 1887-1888, is notable for its mansard roof, circular galleries, iron cresting, and turret. The house was recorded in the Historic American Buildings Survey of 1978. The Society sold the Ike West property in 1973 and used the funds realized from the sale to establish a revolving fund to encourage the preservation of endangered historic properties in San Antonio."
They've given away many other historic homes they owned as well.
The smallest homes in King William start at a half a million, this in a town where you can still easily find a home for under 40,000. King William is the most exclusive area to live in in all of South Texas.
Not sure how they started off, but I believe the family makes most of its fortune today from telemarketing. West Telemarketing chose San Antonio because it has a high number of bilingual people with no other job skills. If you talk to someone in Spanish at customer service anywhere in the US, there's a good chance they work for West. They pay 7 bucks an hour and have a turnover rate like McDonald's.
If the West family wanted, she could easily contribute 50 times the money she makes from selling ceremonies, and every year. I don't know if there was a falling out with her own family, but I can't think of any other reason she would choose to sell ceremonies besides ego.
