Hi Marlon
It's nice that you have come here to talk with us , and you sound like an intellegent and principaled person.
Like Weheli and Coffee_drinker , I also felt uncomfortable with *some* of the content of your magazine , and the interview with this Thomas Lightening Bolt character, is a good example of some of the content that made me uncomfortable .
I'm not saying I have a copy of the Indian rule book that I am reading from - just my own feeling and understanding . How i understand it is , stories of Sacred traditions or personal experinces of the Sacred , pictures of Ceremonial items , should not be shared on line .
For one thing , there is important content ( the most important part of the content) that won't be a part of the on line presentation , so what is shared is likely to be out of context and as useful as nice new tires without the actual car . Some people won't even realize there is supposed to be a car attached to the tires . The internet is the wrong way for people to learn about traditions .
I think another problem with sharing a personal Spiritual experince on line is that these experinces only happen because they have a job to do and they have an influence in a persons life . So removing a Sacred experince from the job it has to do , would usually be misusing a Sacred experince for the trivial function of obtaining attention and impressing people , or maybe making money . When we misuse things they usually get damaged or destroyed. I think there is also a belief that a personal experince of the Sacred , would need to have a job to do influencing the lives of everyone this was shared with , if this sharing was really being done for a good reason . So when people share a lot of personal Spiritual experinces or traditional information , with people they don't even know, this behavior seems to suggest that there is no real respect for the true source or function of these experinces . It also seems to suggest there is no sense of personal responsibility to retain the integrity of a Sacred experince by guarding this experince from people who might misunderstand or misuse it .
As for the Elders who have had books wrtten about them , I think these books were usually written by people who were not Elders , and these Elders were simply asked if they would assist by allowing this .
These Elders werew not always happy with how the information they shared was used .
Thomas Mails , who wrote the book on Fools Crow for instance was not an Elder and has a reputation for being really insenstive in his use of information . I don't think Fools Crow was promoting himself . See the thread below on Thomas Mails .
http://newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=165.msg608#msg608The book about Black Elk was also written by someone else who wanted to promote what I hear was mostly their own idea of "Indian wisdom" .
So there is a big difference between someone claiming to be a medicine person using the Sacred to gain public attention , and having someone else use a medicine person and what they hold Sacred to gain public attention or make money .
What you say about there being many contradictions is true . Partly that is because people are individuals with different strengths and weaknesses . Partly that is because there are many different Native cultures and traditions vary , and partly that is because traditional ways are now having to be practiced in non traditional contexts , so there is often different opinions on the right way to do things in a modern world .
But every respectful traditional person I know of , carefully guards what is Sacred , and would not publish some of the information I see people publishing in your magazine .
