Eliot Cowan & The Blue Deer Center in upstate New York

[ShadowDancer]

The similar formula is practiced by a guy in Portland, OR. Apparently having spent some time with the Huichol, learning songs and about some traditions, decides to start selling himself as a 'shaman', etc, and also calling himself a 'Heyoka' and mixing it all up with various 'red road' stereotypes and other stuff, even getting money from the state to teach this stuff to at-risk youth, inmates, etc. These clowns start organizations and spread the new age all over the place, and never does it benefit the traditional community they rip off.

Do you have a name? Is he already discussed on this forum?

[kahtboosted]

In response, i didnt mean to derail the Cowan thread. but seems an emerging formula, therefore relevant info. Even in a book I had to read in a college course by Gregory Cajete, Cajete mentions there being outsiders who were welcomed to learn about some traditions by groups such as Huichol in earlier times, but were currently taking efforts to tighten up on that since exploiters had been popping up. If I get a hold of that book again, I'll edit this post and put the exact quote because of relevance here.

As for the other exploiter mentioned, I believe a name has been passed on to a moderator here. If it is questionable whether to to post a new thread about someone, I assume it is best to send it to a mod first. Eventually these questionable figures usually pop up here on nafps though. I think maybe some of these "shamans" have flown under the radar for a while because of not having developed big enough following until now, such as Cowan not being posted here for a long time. But now it seems his act is gaining more prominence. Exploiting the Huichol (and mixing it with disturbing concoction of other stuff) is a new age trend, kind of like how Lakota are another common choice for exploiters of traditions. Some new agers exploit both.

What is needed is a way to educate new agers that no it's not ok, and that no, they are not honoring anyone or any culture when they perpetuate this stuff. But new agers respond just like anthropologists defending a racist theory, they just come up with a bunch of defenses based on their colonialistic logic, rather than listen and re-examine those assumptions.

[Jkewageshig]

So this guy, Eliot Cowan, is coming to  Ontario to do his "healing ceremonies". He is being hosted by two herbalists Registered with the Ontario Herbalists Association. I learned about this through an email from OHA. I am pretty angry about this and have brought it up on my facebook wall and am thinking about submitting an article about frauds and appropriation to the OHA newsletter. I know I likely won't change minds, but at least another point of view get out to others.

Currently, Eliot has an interview with Diane Longboat in his web home page, who seems to be a Mohawk from Six Nations. You can see Eliot's Blue Deer web site here:  http://www.bluedeer.org/
 Diane's interview here: http://www.bluedeer.org/news/a-place-at-the-fire-an-interview-with-diane-longboat 
and Diane's organization's page, Soul of the Mother here: http://www.soulofthemother.org/OurBoard.html
And here is a link to the page advertising the event in Ontario: http://dreamingwillow.ca/workshops-events/august-25-30-2016-healing-retreat-with-eliot-cowan-five-days.html

I don't think this should be happening and want to do something about it, but having Diane's name up there gives me pause as I'm sure her name will be used to say it all OK.

Thoughts, anyone?

[Jkewageshig]

And this page claims that Oren Lyons is part of the Blue Deer faculty???!!

http://www.bluedeer.org/teachers/malidoma-patrice-some

[Jkewageshig]

Eliot Cowan is involved with (the organizer of?) another organization called the Sacred Fire Foundation. It is a very odd assortment of people and things. They have organized and continue to organize a series of events called "ancient wisdom rising" and claim to have had a wide variety of "famous" " spiritual" people present at these risings. Some are legit names like Oren Lyons, others are ppl who appear in the fraud section here, such as Malidoma Some and Erik Gonzales: http://m.sacredfirefoundation.org/ancient-wisdom-rising

They also offer "Sacred Fire Events", which are really just Eliot's very pricey "Healing Camps": http://m.sacredfirefoundation.org/events/event/index

The Sacred Fire Foundation has a long list of trustees, many of whom claim to be initiated into the Huichol tradition much like Eliot. They come from academic (anthro, psych) backgrounds, marketing, trade relations with mexico and accupuncture/herbalism: http://m.sacredfirefoundation.org/who-we-are

They claim to have applied for and received many grants for projects which, upon reading the description seem like great projects, some of which relate to my communities. But I have never heard of them until now. And at $2500 for a year, I would really like to know how much $ these grassroots organization actually saw?? And where did the money come from?  http://m.sacredfirefoundation.org/grants-awarded

I know these guys are bogus... Its clear in how they present and conduct themselves. How do I explain the association of some legit/seemingly legit people with them? Is Eliot misrepresenting facts? Did some tradish people not see a person like Malidoma Some for what he actually is? If it was just for my own understanding, I wouldn't be too concerned by these seeming discrepancies. But how do I explain it to ordinary, mainstream folk who don't understand these nuances?

[educatedindian]

That they're basically lying repeatedly. They claim to respect Native traditions that wish to be left alone but then post a saying of one of the oldest obvious frauds, Sun Beear. Matsuwa's family has said repeatedly he did not teach them to be Huichol medicine people. We have that statement from the family in Archives. Almost everyone there is a phony version of that original act of fraud. My guess is that the several genuine people there were fooled by their claim of respect, or thought of them as simply a neutral center hosting speakers. I haven't seen how many times Lyon spoke there, for example. But it wouldn't surprise me if some of the genuine ones spoke once and now are being claimed as "teachers" to give the impression they show up all the time.

[Jkewageshig]

OK, thanks for your reply. I am going to write up something, either or both an open letter to the hosts of Cowan's event in Ontario and to the OHA. Clearly it a big issue as so many people tend to drift toward the "spiritual" draw..... I know not everyone will understand or even want to understand, but its better if the issue is challenged and people have another way to see it.

[volcano woman]

Eliot Cowan is involved with (the organizer of?) another organization called the Sacred Fire Foundation. It is a very odd assortment of people and things. They have organized and continue to organize a series of events called "ancient wisdom rising" and claim to have had a wide variety of "famous" " spiritual" people present at these risings. Some are legit names like Oren Lyons, others are ppl who appear in the fraud section here, such as Malidoma Some and Erik Gonzales: http://m.sacredfirefoundation.org/ancient-wisdom-rising

Leverage with knowing and bragging by association to gain self importance is a big red flag to pay attention to who is demanding respect!!!
Gonzalez optimizes on this tactic and goes full force when portraying the image of "a respected elder" to the point of intimidation! Anyone who has to stoop this low to act "sacred and holy" is a clear full blown fraud!!
Also anyone who has to have "many students" is clearly bullshitting you too. Numbers mean money and when "established self proclaimed medicine people" starting going into new grounds, there is only one reason, and that is to find new recruits to teach and profit from and new connections to milk .

They also offer "Sacred Fire Events", which are really just Eliot's very pricey "Healing Camps": http://m.sacredfirefoundation.org/events/event/index

The Sacred Fire Foundation has a long list of trustees, many of whom claim to be initiated into the Huichol tradition much like Eliot. They come from academic (anthro, psych) backgrounds, marketing, trade relations with mexico and accupuncture/herbalism: http://m.sacredfirefoundation.org/who-we-are

They claim to have applied for and received many grants for projects which, upon reading the description seem like great projects, some of which relate to my communities. But I have never heard of them until now. And at $2500 for a year, I would really like to know how much $ these grassroots organization actually saw?? And where did the money come from?  http://m.sacredfirefoundation.org/grants-awarded

I know these guys are bogus... Its clear in how they present and conduct themselves. How do I explain the association of some legit/seemingly legit people with them? Is Eliot misrepresenting facts? Did some tradish people not see a person like Malidoma Some for what he actually is? If it was just for my own understanding, I wouldn't be too concerned by these seeming discrepancies. But how do I explain it to ordinary, mainstream folk who don't understand these nuances?

[Sparks]

Eliot Cowan is involved with (the organizer of?) another organization called the Sacred Fire Foundation. It is a very odd assortment of people and things. They have organized and continue to organize a series of events called "ancient wisdom rising" and claim to have had a wide variety of "famous" " spiritual" people present at these risings. Some are legit names like Oren Lyons, others are ppl who appear in the fraud section here, such as Malidoma Some and Erik Gonzales: http://m.sacredfirefoundation.org/ancient-wisdom-rising

I separated volcano woman's in-quote reply to the above paragraph to make it easier to understand who wrote what:

Leverage with knowing and bragging by association to gain self importance is a big red flag to pay attention to who is demanding respect!!!

Gonzalez optimizes on this tactic and goes full force when portraying the image of "a respected elder" to the point of intimidation! Anyone who has to stoop this low to act "sacred and holy" is a clear full blown fraud!!

Also anyone who has to have "many students" is clearly bullshitting you too. Numbers mean money and when "established self proclaimed medicine people" starting going into new grounds, there is only one reason, and that is to find new recruits to teach and profit from and new connections to milk.

Here is the long thread about Erick Gonzalez (not 'Erik Gonzales' as in first quote above), AKA OmeAkaEhekatl:

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3420.0