The next real part is "if my elders were raised traditionally or not" . I don't care about that as much anymore. IF I want to live with a traditional principle of respecting my elders , than that really shouldn't matter. what matters is their knowledge and wisdom and respect for their people and if they are good people.
what I rally think is that ia m being asked for names so that my elders can be checked out, to see if they pass someone test or not. I am not going to give up names. I will not drag my elders into this. I have respect for them. If anyone has respect for their own elders then they will not ask me to give up mine. and they will understand the need to protect them. even if someone says that they are not out to get them.
How can one be an elder of your tribe if they themselves were not raised in the traditional beliefs? I denounce fake Elders that represent my tribe all the time. The real Elders are the ones that pass on the wisdom and the old ways. For my tribe, they are in Oklahoma and North Carolina and living in their respective communities. And if they weren’t raised there in a traditional community, then how can they be Elders of the tribe?
I’m not questioning yours or their Indianness or Indian heritage, but I doubt that they have the knowledge of your people if they don’t come from a traditional community of your tribe. Mexican or Chicano traditions may be a hybrid of Roman Catholicism and certain Indian traditions, but it is not one and the same as the Traditions from the traditional Indians or the Mexica or Nuhua people that live in Mexico.
Have you been to a real living breathing community of your tribe’s people in Mexico? In my tribe, most of the people that claim to be Cherokee Elders tend to prey on vulnerable people. They usually get their knowledge from books or the internet, and although they get some things right, they tend to interpret and filter these beliefs thorough their own belief system, while hybridizing these beliefs with other belief systems that are completely separate. And since the vulnerable people being taught by these frauds were not raised in Traditional Ways, they can’t really judge what they are absorbing. These fake Elders also tend to fabricate their own revisionist history of the tribe they claim.
Even in Mexico, many Nahuatl speaking people have lost the old ways through no fault of their own, but I’m sure there are people there that still carry on the old ways and tradions. Have you ever been to a community there?
I see some of the Wannabes here from my own tribe as people that think they can just take culture, without making a commitment, and when they do take a commitment, that commitment has to follow their own agendas. For example, they only learn what is convenient for them, and leave out what is not. They like to dress up fancy with feathers and beads and look nice, and go to powwows, and they read a lot of books, about history and tradition, and they think that makes them Indian. This is because they are for the most part only accountable to themselves. And these so called Elders don’t have a community to judge them either, so they basically do or say whatever feels right to them.
They usually prey on and take advantage of innocent people that are searching for their roots. But these phoney Elders and Medicine Men and Women are masters at what they do, and since the Cherokee PODIAS don’t know the difference between authentic and fabricated culture, they easily fall prey to these Charlatans.
You don’t have to give your Elders names and locations, but ask yourself this Koyoteh. Where did they receive their Traditional Teachings? Are they recognized in their Community? And do they have any hidden agendas? You seem to not be able to answer any of these basic questions.
