Lee Brown

[JosephSWM]

I was browsing around when I came across this link about Cherokee prophecies by Lee Brown. I have never heard of him before and I wondered why he was publicly talking about prophecies. I read these prophecies. Cherokee prophecies are similar to the Hopi prophecies. I was taught that our prophecies were not to be shared with others than Cherokee and not all Cherokee know them or are taught them. And os I was surprised to see this offering.

http://www.crystalinks.com/cherokee.html

As I look at other sites about him others said he is Salish. Is this guy okay? Does anyone know about him? One site said he was an enrolled Cherokee in Oklahoma.

This is a link from 1996 about him and the Baha'i. In this he studied Hopi ways and is Salish.

http://www.alaska.net/~peace/leebrown.htm

Here is a link about him from 1999

http://www.health-sciences.ubc.ca/iah/bridges/conference.html

There are other links but I figured that maybe you all might know and I did not need to reinvent the wheel here.

Joseph

[debbieredbear]

Lee was my student advisor at the University of Washington. He is Cherokee. He has been around a lot of Salish people but I never heard him say he was anything but Cherokee. However, that was 30 years ago. He is enrolled. He left the UW when he went to law school but I don't know if he completed it. He was hanging with a lot of Baha'is, including Phil Lane jr and Phil Lucas.

[educatedindian]

There's a Bahai church (or is that a temple?) on the Mescalero rez and maybe 1/10 of Mescaleros are Bahais now. To me they always seemed like fairly innocuous and tolerant people. But some of what's on the Bahai site is disturbing.

They want to use Wovoka's words and the Ghost Dance to get converts.
http://www.alaska.net/~peace/ghostdance.htm

And they're using the Rainbow Family's Nuage fakelore.
http://www.alaska.net/~peace/oracle.htm

Plus I'm pretty certain that the Hopi don't appreciate the Bahai being the latest to misuse their beliefs. I don't know of them misusing Apache beliefs thankfully, or any other Native beliefs other than what I just saw at this website. But this doesn't speak too well of them.
http://www.alaska.net/~peace/leebrown.htm

[educatedindian]

More on the Bahais, from some sites that list them as a cult.

Censorship
http://www.fglaysher.com/bahaicensorship/
http://www.fglaysher.com/bahaicensorship/technique.htm?FACTNet

Control of its members
http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/bigquestions/enemies.html

[tahcha_sapa]

The Bahai "Jaci Left Hand Bull" is actually Jackie Ferron. "Left Hand Bull" was her grandmother's maiden name. Her grandfather's name, the husband of Annie Left Hand Bull, is Peter Bordeaux. Jackie's mother's maiden name was Corrine Bordeaux.
Jackie Ferron, like other native Bahai, try to validate a claim to some kind of authenticity even if they have to lie about it -- in order to promote their peculiar religion.  It's like a retro-techno Scientology.  An interview with "Jaci Left Hand Bull" by Patricia Locke, the mother of another notorious native Bahai, Kevin Locke, is at http://www.bci.org/prophecy-fulfilled/wbcalf.htm

[ska]

Lee Brown lives and works in the province of BC in Canada.  He has been working on a post-doc at UBC.  He seems to be very well-respected in Canada and is regarded by many as an academic who understands "traditional" ways and can adapt them effectively for curricular purposes.  He is a regular speaker at conferences, teaches in the Indian Teachers program at UBC, does a lot of curriculum development and, as far as I can tell, is generally regarded as an expert.  I have never heard him speak any Indian language.  He says he is Cherokee, but his work seems to be based on adaptations of ideas credited to Lakotas, mixed in with claims about Hopi prophecies.

In Canada, "medicine wheel" teachings, workshops, and orientations are very popular and seem to have become adopted, at least in urban settings, as practices reflective of traditional ways.  This can be traced to the development of "The Sacred Tree" curriculum model which was developed by Phil Lane, Judy Bopp, and Lee Brown in the early '80s.

These "medicine wheel" ways also seemed to have taken off out here on the West Coast following Sun Bear's forays into these territories in the early '80s as well.

Dr. Brown claims to be one of the few people who had permission to "speak about the prophecies" and does so, every 6 weeks at the Native Education Center for the Okanagan Nation (can't remember if this center is in Vernon, or Penticton, or Osoyoos, something like that).  As the links provided by a previous poster reveal, bits and pieces of information from all over are being mixed up. 

[taraverti]

Oh boy,  I just can't keep myself out of trouble!

I have been a Baha'i since 1972.  I am not active in the community at this point in time, however I still identify myself as such.

What I was always taught was to respect the spiritual practices of all peoples, and to respect the cultures of all peoples.

Some of those sites you have linked to, from quick perusal, are not representative of what I know to be true. There have been splinter groups over time that have their own take on things. Any group with a charasmatic leader at this point in time is a splinter group. Our local and national leaders are elected, and no one person is authority. It is a body of 9 members.

It would not surprise me if some people had latched on to Baha'i beliefs for their own purposes just as some have to Native beliefs.

I will say that from what I have seen in the Baha'i communities I have belonged to, there are high aspirations, and some difficulty achieving the loving close community they aspire to. Not true everywhere, but it is something I have seen communities struggle with.

Individual Baha's will make mistakes in their zeal, usually when they first join. They should be guided away from that. We are taught not to prostelitize. We are taught to respect all faiths and cultures.
 
In terms of what is and is not a part of Baha'i belief, your best source is

http://www.bahai.org/

I would be sceptical of some of the other sites out there.

I feel like I have really put myself on the hot seat now, however, I have to be honest about who I am. Gosh I hope I am still welcome here.

I will answer questions as best as I can.

Nona

edited to add:

for the most accurate information, the Baha'i Writings  themselves are a better source than any one individual, including myself. Individuals get things mixed up sometimes, based on their own assumptions and backgrounds. These are online at:

http://reference.bahai.org/en/

 

[taraverti]

Here is a link to the Native American Baha'i Institute. It is located in the Navajo Nation. I have never been there and don't know a lot about it. I would wonder what the Navajo nation has to say about them. 

http://www.nativeamericanbi.org/default.asp

[tahcha_sapa]

Individual Baha's will make mistakes in their zeal, usually when they first join.

Jackie Ferron is way up there in the Bahai organization. She's been a Bahai for many, many years but her deception has begun relatively lately.

[taraverti]

Individual Baha's will make mistakes in their zeal, usually when they first join.

Jackie Ferron is way up there in the Bahai organization. She's been a Bahai for many, many years but her deception has begun relatively lately.

I do not know of her at all, then again, I have not been really too involved for a number of years. And  I certainly have no right to speak on any deception, not knowing her and not being Native.  You could go to the Baha'i Local Spiritual Assembly in your area or the Baha'i National Spiritual Assembly with you concerns.

Wishing you well,

Nona

[BlackWolf]

I would like everyone's opinion on the prophecies he speaks of here?  Does he really have knowledge?  And should prophecies be shared?  What are the opinions of other Tribes?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR0OAhROgrQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0HfPtiE_DI&feature=related

[wolfhawaii]

I don't know Lee Brown, but the story he was telling is basically what has been presented many times as the Hopi prophecies....he then turns them into a pitch for the Bahai faith. If Lee Brown was a traditional Cherokee he would be speaking of Keetoowah prophecy not Hopi, in my opinion. I haven't seen anybody discussing Keetoowah prophecy publicly and I personally don't think it is advisable. Sgi....

[NDN_Outlaw]

I've met him a number of times. He is widely recognized for his good works at the Round Lake Treatment Center in British Columbia. He often speaks at healing conferences through out western Canada. I questioned his tribal roots and I found his knowledge to be a hodge podge of different traditions. I asked him about this and he told me he was offering a "generalized overview" of Indian culture. He sounds impressive but I question whether he really does have tribal specific teachings or if he's simply parroting concepts he heard from other peoples or even inventing his own version of spirituality. I believe he has good intentions but whether he's all hat and no horse I can't say.

[Epiphany]

http://www.turtlewomenrising.com/the-four-races.php

The Four Directions - Four Races
A speech by Lee Brown, Cherokee

This is a page on the Turtle Women Rising site