Swadwa says:
November 5, 2008 at 5:48 pm
[...] I am an Etaminua, a traditionally apprenticed Tsinuk Indian shaman, and I often wonder why these South American ???traditional shamans??? make such dubious deals with these ???shamanic vacation tour guides???. I guess the first thing we teach aboriginals is capitalism.
http://dreamstudies.org/2008/03/31/the-dark-side-of-shamanic-tourism/
Emphasis added by me
That last phrase suggests very strongly that he is white.
Yes, I think he is basically white. The fact that at one point he was involved in Chinook Nation tells me he probably does have some Chinook ancestry; Chinook Nation has no 'blood quantum', they simply require that you prove you have a Chinook ancestor from one of the census. As I explained, the tribal nations out here were hit by the small pox plague harder than anywhere else; and fullbloods are kind of rare in this region.
'Blood quantum' is an aspect of cultural politics I prefer to not to argue about. It gets controversial and distracting sometimes.
However, it does seem quite problematic that 'Swadwa' is posing as some ultra-traditionalist and even calls himself an "Elder", despite the fact that he has parted with the tribe and only represents a reconstructed idea of an etaminua. I believe one should be raised in the culture and designated an elder and spokesperson by their own tribe, if they are claiming to be a traditional Elder, spokesperson of that culture, etc, etc. Otherwise it is really just disrespectful, arrogant, and misrepresentation. So he is chief/elder of his 'clan', but has severed connection to his tribe, but the average person is just going to think he is a Chinook elder when he states he is "traditionally-apprenticed Chinook Shaman, elder/chief of the canoe clan". Some of his posts only say "Elder" and even leave the canoe clan part out. These are misleading claims, all made in attempt to give him 'credibility' and draw him clients, patients, students, etc.
