That is the million dollar question, and I sure don’t have a “great answer.” At best it is always difficult to know what to do. Last October I was invited down to Camp Verde to do an interview with two traditional elders about their culture resource management proposal. One from there and one from White Mountain. I asked what they thought of Sedona and all of the crazy people who misuse-abuse ceremonies and traditions who live and work there. I asked if there wasn't something I and my colleagues could do to stop these people. The two older men talked to each other in Apache for a moment and then told me gently but firmly – No, there was nothing I could do, or that they would condone our doing. Their policy was to do absolutely nothing. First - They did not feel that they had any right to say anything about traditions that were not theirs, as in the offering of the Plains traditions. Especially, since they don't know if what is being done is right or wrong , correct or incorrect. So they have a very hands-off policy. They said that the abuse and misuse of Apache traditions has come up for discussion in the elders meetings where all of the various Apache nations get together to discuss things of mutual interest and the consensus was that it would take care of itself. Just like they want all items from museums taken by elders back to the desert to decompose in a natural way. They also said that if someone misuses medicine it will come back and do great damage to their lives. It may take awhile, but it will happen. They told me I was just too impatient. I guess in my heart I know that they are correct. I know and believe that this will come back to haunt these people, but in my imperfect, impatient way, I want to know it has.
Vincent said, that to answer my question about what should I do – he said “don’t do anything – leave Apache ceremonial things to the Apache ceremonial leaders, but if you really want to do something – support the language programs, and stay at the casino (laughter).”
So I guess the only thing is to do what the nations say they want done, even when that changes with different tribal governments. If possible I try to pass my text and reading selections by people in the tribal colleges or culture committees for validation. I have to really keep telling myself NOT to generalize, even though it is part of the human condition I guess. Difference of opinions/traditions can be pretty intimidating sometimes. I had one Lakota woman tell me I had to take off some small pipe ear rings that I was wearing, as she had been told by her uncle that it is improper to make images of a pipe. However, they were given to me by a very respected elder and ceremonial leader from home in a ceremony. So I guess that the bottom line is always, don’t assume what is correct one place will transfer to another. I know I feel like I have to walk on egg shells every day and I always worry that something I say will be misrepresented. A couple of years ago we were talking about Sun Dance in a class and one of the students from Rocky Boy’s got up and said he could not stay in class if we mentioning the Sun Dance. (the discussion was NOT detailed, just about the fact that there were different ways groups renewed the world) The funny part was the background information about the Cree Sun Dance that the instructor was using (and he is also a traditional medicine person from Rocky Boy’s) was created by this student’s own uncle whom he said had told him not to talk about it. So you just never know. I even watched two elders from the same family at an curriculum development conference this past summer start yelling at each other about what one had said. So you just never know.
