Letter of mine:
Ms. Holm,
I wish you had done better research before promoting such a dubious man, whose commercialization and falsehoods about Native spiritual beliefs are very offensive to the overwhelming majority of Native people.
Nothing that Mr. Alvarado is peddling as Apache actually is:
1.The 2012 prophecy is a New Age distortion of MAYAN traditions.
2. There is NO SUCH THING as a Colorado Apache band, nor are there Apache healers in Coahuila Mexico. The real Apache Nations are in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
3. Paiutes in California and Lakotas would not be recognizing an Apache medicine man, anymore than the Pope would say who is head of a Baptist church.
4. The list of places where he is a "ceremonial leader" is more likely a list of countries where he has defrauded numerous people who don't know any better.
5. The "Cosmic Race" is from a book written by a wealthy Mexican of criollo background, no Indian ancestry whatsoever.
6. The Fifth Sun is an AZTEC prophecy, not Apache.
I hope you will write a follow up article correcting the misconceptions you've spread about Apache beliefs and mistakenly promoting this con man.
For more information on this issue, please see this site of Native activists:
www.newagefraud.org Thank you,
Dr. Al Carroll
Social & Behavioral Sciences Dept.
St. Phillip's College
http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/233/story/50108.htmlApache medicine man will teach about shamanic traditions
Ernesto Alvarado will conduct workshops at Kellar Dance Dynamics
May 03, 2007 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.
BY REBECCA HOLM - VICTORIA ADVOCATE
Traditions of the Apache shaman - including the building of stone circles,
Native American traditions and healers, and the 2012 prophecy - will be
taught today through Saturday at Kellar Dance Dynamics.
Ernesto Alvarado, an Apache from Coahuila, Mexico, with 30 years of
experience as an educator in the Colorado school system, will conduct the
workshops.
Alvarado is a featured medicine man in the book "Shamanic Wisdomkeepers"
and is a trained herbal practitioner. His biography states that he is
recognized as a medicine man by California Piyute, Colorado Apache and
Lakota bands in the U.S. and all bands in Mexico. He is an initiated
medicine man by Rapid City Lakota and ceremonial leader in France,
Switzerland, Australia, Venezuela, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
There will be a circle ceremony today at Kellar Dance Dynamics, 5803 N.
Stockbauer Drive (behind Halepaska's Bakery) before the group leaves at
6:15 p.m. for the country. The cost is $15 and participants are asked to
bring a rock or flat stone.
On Friday, Alvarado said there will be a film and discussion. "Who are the
healers? How do they practice? What do they do?" The discussion will be
from 6 to 8 p.m. at 113 Chimney Rock in the Woodway Subdivision. The cost
is $15.
On Saturday, there will be a workshop from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at Kellar
Dance Dynamics. Alvarado said he will be discussing petroglyphs (stone
carvings), origin stories from different perspectives ,and pictures and
slides from a seminar he attended in Peru.
He will also be explaining the 2012 prophecy. "There was an ancient
prophecy, the cosmic race ... and when Cortez first began his activities in
Mexico, many of the seers and medicine people said 'don't worry about it
because the sun is going to take care of them'."
He said that what they were eluding to was that "Earth beings have been
wiped out four times with four suns, and we are currently in the fifth sun
... quinto sol will end in 2012 and there will be a new sun, the sixth sun,
but there won't be a lot of survivors, so the people that do survive will
become the cosmic race."
The cost of the Saturday workshop is $45 in advance and $50 at the door.
"We're bringing (the workshop) here because it hasn't been available
before," said Susan Taylor, co-host of the event. "Anytime I've wanted to
learn anything like this in the past three years I have had to go to Austin
or across the country."
She said she hopes to bring more alternative healing and new age-type
practices to the area in the future.
For more information on any of the programs, contact Susan Taylor at
361-785-4010.
Rebecca Holm is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6516 or
rholm@vicad.com, or comment on this story here.
