The #NDNZ crew on Twitter have been posting some of the best coverage of the trial. Top stories, links and videos are updated every 24 hours or so at
The #NDNZ Daily:
http://paper.li/tag/NDNZhttp://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/02/sweat-lodge-trial-fuels-native-american-frustrations/
So when [David Singingbear] was asked to design a sweat lodge outside Sedona, where he lives, it mattered to him that it was done right. He says he selected the blankets and canvas covering that would breathe...
Really? Photos and video of the DeathLodge clearly show blue plastic tarps as part of the structure.
I watched the Thursday and Friday recordings of "In Session". Multiple photos of the deathlodge show not only blue plastic tarps, but heavy, overlapping coverings of brown, black and grey that all appear to be heavy-gauge plastic. Inside the construction blankets, possibly canvas, and what appears to be blue plastic are all visible. But on the outside the heavy plastic appears to cover the entire structure and is weighted down all around the outside with rocks on the ground. It looks like they made every effort to make it air-tight.
With that construction, and the size of the thing, Ray and the others right next to the door would have been the only ones getting much fresh air when the door was opened.
So unless David Singingbear is saying that Angel Valley staff, his nephew, and/or Ray and his "Dream Team" completely removed the blankets and canvas he selected - blankets that were interwoven with the plastic in multiple patchwork layers - and completely rebuilt the structure with plastic, his statement in the report linked above does not line up with the evidence.
The photos are shown many times in the broadcast. On the Thursday 3/3/11 recording they start at 1:38. Friday 3/4/11 they are at 4:51, 5:14, and other times.
A very irritating and disturbing part of the coverage is the In Session host, Christi Paul. She continually makes mistakes, such as calling witnesses by the wrong name. Worse, she has said things like, "We're getting a good idea what happens in a sweatlodge ceremony."
There has been little to no effort to distinguish Ray's horrible travesty from legitimate ceremony. Words like, "medicine wheel," "vision quest," and of course, "sweatlodge," are casually tossed around to describe what these newagers did.
One witness describes making "tobacco pouches" as an offering, and says it had "no meaning" to her, nor did she really understand why they were doing it; she just did it because they were told to.
Granted I have not watched the whole stream, only the In Session reports. But I have heard no mention of prayer, tradition or culture. The closest is that one witness mentioned there was "chanting" in the beginning, which she says was in... Peruvian.
Ray's defense is partially that this was *not* a religious ceremony, and that he is not a religious leader. It was presented as an extreme endurance event. Yet the lawyers and the television hosts continually refer to the atheistic exercises they did as "ceremonies". And Ray's own words on the tape recordings show he referred to himself as a spiritual leader, compared himself to God, compared himself to a monk, and referred to the upcoming deathlodge as a temple.
This is truly sickening. I knew it would be, but it's awful to hear this stuff. The only good part is watching DeathRay twitch and squirm. I suppose it's also good that the inner workings of these atheistic, appropriative, exploitative events are being exposed. I know Ray is not unique. Not by a long shot. The coverage of this trial is making it clear to those who did not know that there is an entire subcultures of these types out there.
