Warning cont'
The publisher has boasted this will be a best seller. Not surprising. This is a White Man's interpretation of the Cheyenne. A reader searching for a true interpretation of the Cheyenne people will not find it in this book.
It is most unfortunate that this author, who has no religious or secular status in the tribe, is so presumptuous as to bestow "Indian" names upon his White benefactor, Douglas Latimer, a vice president of Harper and Row. Only the tribe and religious leaders can do this. In performing such an irreligious act, Storm has outraged and insulted the Cheyenne, their tribal traditions, and religion. On the other hand, it is inconceivable any self-respecting individual would accept a pseudo-Indian name given by one who is not authorized to do so. No self respecting Indian would do it either. It is ump quah, as we say.
This reviewer wonders whether Storm is attempting to create a new theology for the Cheyenne.*** If so he has failed, and succeeded only in vulgarizing one of the most beautiful but least known religions of man.
This review originally appeared in The Indian Historian, Vol. 5, No.
2, Summer 1972. The emphases and numbering were added.
*Subsequent research has turned up two possibilities not known at the time Costo wrote his review. Storm's real first name is Charles or Chuck. At other times he has also taken the pseudonyms "Wolf Storm" or "General Storm." He is, in fact, German-American, and is blue-eyed, blond-haired, and fair-skinned. A few Native people have come forward claiming to be relatives of his, and it's possible he may have a small amount of Crow ancestry. These distant Crow relatives in turn have Cheyenne relatives, which may account for how he was fraudulently enrolled.
** Storm's publisher Harper and Row escaped a lawsuit by publishing the book as fiction. At the same time, Storm and the inner circle of his cult followers maintain his books are absolutely and literally true.
***Storm remains a pariah to the Cheyenne. There is no sign of any Cheyenne accepting his blasphemous take on Cheyenne belief. Storm himself has never lived among the Cheyenne, and today lives near the Crow reservation on the profits from his books and selling ceremonies to white New Agers. His appearances to sell ceremonies and promote his blasphemy of Cheyenne beliefs are always heavily protested.
The National American Metis Association (NAMA)
A few people with distant Native ancestry as well as numerous New Age adherents have taken Storm's beliefs as their own. Storm and his cult have tried to position themselves as the leader of the "American Metis."
(Metis is the term in Canada for people of mixed Native/French ancestry. The real Metis in Canada have no ties to Storm or the so-called "American Metis.")
Storm and his inner circle formed the National American Metis Association (NAMA), posing as a civil rights group. To date, they have been a spectacular failure, with less than 400 members, less than 1/1,000 of 1% of Native mixedbloods in the US. Many of the lay membership of NAMA are people curious about their distant Native ancestry, and are unaware of Storm's role, or the collection of New Agers, astrologers, self-styled psychics, and "dragon rescuers" who make up the leadership of NAMA.
In 2002, NAMA left the state of California to avoid paying back taxes, moving to an undisclosed location in Arizona. They have been facing an attempt to have their tax-exempt status voided.
One of the leaders of NAMA, Emily Vardaman, also faced legal action from the University of Arizona when she falsely claimed on NAMA's website to be using Storm's "medicine shield" beliefs as a model in her teacher education courses. It subsequently turned out she had only briefly discussed them in a project as an undergraduate student.
NAMA and its members are working to secure their influence within Cochise County Arizona, where some of them are members of the local bureaucracy. Several of the NAMA leadership, including Leon Perley AKA "Blue Wolf" also received funding from the Massachusetts State Prison System for their "medicine circle."
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1) Do NOT buy Storm's books or recommend them to others. Above all, do NOT rely on them for an accurate picture of Cheyenne beliefs.
2) AVOID NAMA and the people associated with them. These include Mary Harper-Bellis, Wolfsong Ranch, the "medicine circles" they have formed, and the would-be "American Metis artist" with the comical would-be "Indian name" of Rainbow Laland.
3) Pass on what you have learned here.
4) Report their activities to American Indian activists such as the American Indian Movement, New Age Frauds Plastic Shamans, and Red
Road Collective.
SOURCES: Emails with members of the NAMA leadership, the University of Arizona, and the NAMA and Storm websites.
