I think there is some misunderstandings happening here.
wolfhawaii I apologize if the information I posted was already in a link and educatedindian was aware of this. I actually didn't notice that. I was privately sent some information someone was concerned about. I investgated and posted what I found.
If administration wants proof of this I can forward this information to them -
If you think about it, you would realize how impractical it would be to ask educatedindian if it's OK to post everything I find before I post it.
Yes I was wondering why you were giving me such a hard time for asking the same sort of questions that get asked here regularly. How i see it is just because people have posted here and say they consider certain people exploiters and frauds shouldn't mean their own public activities should be beyond question.
Ric, i'm sorry you feel I attacked you personally.
My first post in this forum was on the subject of the sale of sage and sweet grass, and you joined in this discussion, disagreeing with my expressing my concern and saying you felt it was OK. Maybe other people would percieve this differently but IMO if anyone was personally attacked in this thread it was me, and when I began this thread i had no idea you had plans to sell this as a business. So my concerns about this had nothing at all to do with "you" .
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=580.0;allWhen you started a thread on your business , I will admit my question asking if this was a fancy way of selling sweetgrass, was rude , but in the discussion in the above thread, the only thing that you talked about specifically, was selling sweetgrass, so it was an honest misunderstanding . When you explained what you were doing, I agreed most of what you planned to sell sounded entirely positive.
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=877.0 The next discussion we had I asked a bunch of questions trying to clarify how it should be decided what parts of cultural traditions can be sold if people that culture belongs to don't agree. Yes I did ask some specific questions, which I feel you never answered and instead I was accused of "not caring about Native people " and "not caring about poverty and youth suicide." - which for me did feel like a personal attack - even if you didn't mean it that way. I guess when people disagree on an issue it can feel like a personal attack, but i know i never meant it that way.
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=412.0;allThat you would take this opprotunity to take one more kick at me probably says more about who you are than about me.
While I don't see a problem with asking any of the questions I have - I would see a big problem if I participated in asking these questions of people who don't post here, but I didn't ask these questions of people who do post here, and are selling something many Elders say shouldn't be sold or who are otherwise putting themselves in a position of public trust.
I do feel that as an anonymous person it would be better if i didn't post so much. I see so much stuff that doesn't seem right, and when I start digging what I often find looks more and more questionable. However I can also see that as an anonymous person of no authority , out of respect for the balance of this message board it might be better if I steped back some and left these many things for other people who are not anonymous and have a verifiable connections to a Native community, to deal with in their own way.
Participating on this message board I do feel a growing frustration at the constant stream of people who seem to want to point fingers at others but who expect their own activities to be beyond question or scrutiny , and the constant presure to accept the actions of themselves or their friends without question.
Maybe it is revealing that this criticism of me has only come up in response to me asking questions that people don't want to answer or would prefer I didn't ask.
Anyway time for a breather to regain some perspective, and I am sorry if I offended anyone.
