An Open Letter to Scarlet Kinney and members/followers/cultists/victims of The Standing Bear:
Less than 48 hours ago, a member of NAFPS, Debbie Redbear, posted a quote from Scarlet Kinney's Nuage group, The Standing Bear.
Within a few hours of this post, Scarlet Kinney posted a raving , angry, harshly worded attack, or as she called it, an attempt to "teach" by provoking anger and getting people to fight amongst themselves.
A follower of hers also posted, and then Kinney returned under a second ID. Both launched the standard excuses of Nuage exploiters, "negative" and "not being centered'.
Kinney demanded repeatedly that we remove the quotes of her site, not apparently knowing the Fair Use laws.
Kinney is now falsely claiming she has been banned. Anyone who views the member list will see she is still allowed here. She is rallying her followers to defend her, vowing she will post comments by her members, but only those she approves of. She has also posted a great deal of confused information, distortion, and outright lies.
At the moment, some members of NAFPS think she is simply a confused old woman. Others think she is arrogant, controlling, manipulative, in other words, just one more typical white racist exploiter.
My own personal opinion is that she is both. Her cousin's death obviously weighs heavily on her. When I tried to be sympathetic about her plight, she accused me of "personal attacks" and demanded an apology. In increasingly typical fashion, she quickly reversed herself and now says that my sympathy for her plight was somehow "unforgivable".
That's just too bad, Ms. Kinney. My sympathy for you remains, even though I think you are doing an enormous amount of damage by your distortions and lies.
The false information she's posted on her site is worth replying to at length, so that her followers or victims will be aware of her pattern of confusion and lies:
"The Standing Bear has recently been attacked by a group of Native Americans"
If she'd bothered to read our message at Who We Are, she'd know that we are a multi-tribal, multi-cultural, mulit-racial, multi-faith group. We have members from at least a dozen tribes. We also have whites, Blacks, Latinos, one Maori member, Christians, atheists, pagans, Native traditionalists, and one Muslim member.
"who call themselves "The New Age Fraud Patrol"
Actually, we're called New Age Frauds Plastic Shamans. She can't even get our name right. See what we mean about a deeply confused woman?
"I urge each person who finds her way to this site to read through it carefully and come to your own conclusion"
Good, I hope they all do.
"about whether or not I'm genuine, or a "fraud", as they have labeled me"
Actually some of us just think you are deeply confused.
"or whether or not I have the right to do what I'm doing."
Whites should not have the power to decide if what she does is right or not, anymore than anti-Semites should have the say over Jewish beliefs. What matters is VIRTUALLY ALL NATIVES THINK WHAT SHE DOES IS WRONG.
"the members of NAFPS ? attempt to discredit and financially ruin any person, Native American or otherwise, who teaches anything that they believe belongs exclusively to Native American full bloods,"
Nonsense. Many of us are mixedbloods, including myself.
"The result of my standing up to these bullies"
Are you kidding? Many of us were quite sympathetic. You said so yourself. Caught once again in a lie.
"was that a very nasty online brawl ensued."
How melodramatic, not to mention an outright lie. ? We discussed with you. You and your follower were the only ones to get hysterical, attacking us repeatedly, no matter how sympathetic we were to you.
"I was attacked on a personal level"
Once again, a lie.
"as well as on a professional level"
But you're not a professional. "Shamans" don't have licenses.
"My writings, my character, my intentions, and my attempts to guide things towards a reasonable discussion and debate within the context of their public forum were ridiculed."
No one said anything about your writings. And your attempt to "guide" you openly admitted to be a standard technique you use to control your followers.
"In addition, the horrible deaths of two of my family members in a fire was used by "Educated Indian", as part of a particularly virulent attempt to malign me."
I expressed sympathy for you. How is that "maligning"?
"I publicly demanded an apology from him on the site for his appalling behavior."
Saying I feel sympathy for you is nothing to apologize for.
"I have now been banned from participating in the site's public forum."
Once again, an outright lie from you. Anyone can see you are still a member.
I ask her followers, go see for yourself. And then ask if this woman can be trusted if she lies like this repeatedly.
"I was surprised by this move on their part since I had received a private Email from the site's moderator, Debbie Red Bear"
Actually Debbie is a longtime member, but not a moderator. Once again, I believe Ms. Kinney is easily confused.
"in which she told me that she was beginning to believe I was sincere, and was considering removing The Standing Bear from the site's "Fraud" section to its "Research" section."
What Debbie said to me was that she thought, like I do, that you were simply a very confused woman.
"I'm of the opinion that the issues these people are trying to expose and prevent, as well as the anger they directed at me, are symptoms of deep personal and cultural wounding"
Finally you have one thing correct. And it's people such as YOURSELF, and the exploitation you do, that are the cause of those wounds.
If you want to help, to heal, it's simple:
STOP YOUR EXPLOITATION.
And apologize for all the wrongs you've done, including lying about NAFPS and its members.
"I will not publish any verbal attacks against anybody"
But you just finished publishing a long series of attacks on NAFPS and its members.
Oh wait, you obviously mean YOU can't be criticized.
"I reserve the right to be the sole judge"
Wait a minute. According to you, "judge" is a bad thing. It's an awful awful thing that you accused us of doing.
"on the Musings and Writings page I am also going to publish a paper presenting my views on the subject of whether or not Native Americans or whites should charge money for teaching Native or shamanic ways to white people, and whether or not whites even have the right to practice or teach shamanism, among other related topics"
This is not only the arrogant, it is the actions of a white racist seeking to impose her opinions. What she thinks is irrelevant. What virtually all Natives think (outside of a few exploiters and sellouts) is that such exploitation is wrong, immoral, and an attempt to destroy Native cultures, turning Native elders into Tontos who serve white needs.
Again, I certainly hope all your members, followers, and victims, find their way here. All are welcome. We rarely ban people. Even Ms. Kinney's attempts to practice her cultlike methods of manipulation did not get her banned, nor did the rather silly lies of one of her followers.
Take a look around, and not just in the threads about your faux "shaman" Ms. Kinney. There's a lot to learn here.
We look forward to talking with you.
Dr. Al Carroll (educatedindian)
Co-Founder, NAFPS
