This is all true. I grew up with several tribes. Most of my you was spent in and among the community of the 50,000 member Lumbee Tribe of NC. My later teens were spent with the Cherokee and remnants of the Catawbas, I have spent time with the Waccamaw and Chicora, etc. I have relatives in several tribes and learned herbal medicine from several. My lived experience is the opposite of what I was taught in college. I have never met a true Native American who was not a practicing Christian. There are tons of Christian churches in every tribal area I have ever been in, full of devout Christians, whose ministers are also Indians. All of the pagans who claim to practice Native American religions that I have met have been white. Some had a little Native blood, but their parents and grandparents were Christian. The academic and TV version of the American Indian is a farce. All those I have known have been great, family oriented rural folks who drive pickup trucks, love to hunt and fish, cheer on the Atlanta Braves and go to church on Sunday... they are also mostly Trump voters! Of course, I've known some outlaws and criminals too - there are bad folks in every race and culture, but Indians in the Carolinas are just normal folks who will proudly tell you about the church their grandparents founded or what their kids learned in Sunday School.
“The academic and TV version of the American Indian is a farce.”
The diversity of thought is really explained well in Steltenkamp’s book. Black Elk has given me great comfort. In my youth, my Dad was a volunteer Archaeologist for a state park with Indian village and burial mounds. I use to go with him to Powwows & these were public events that the tribes welcomed all people to participate.
In Scouting, I was part of the Order of the Arrow that adopted Lenape practices & ceremonies. And recently the OA has determined that individual lodges must have tribal sponsorship & the national ceremonies will be non-Indian.
So, my reluntance to participate in aspects of my youth & what’s going on either OA was part of this progressive weapon: cultural appropriation. Finding Black Elk’s story and reading more about him I’m thinking “this is a concept that would be alien to Black Elk.” Black Elk saw connections between Lakota & Christian culture. Furthermore, many of Black Elk’s contemporaries did too.
The view today is largely shaped by the political and cultural upheaval from the 60s & 70s who misrepresented & lied Black Elk’s live.
They lied—they’re liars. The AIM seems to have ran with this neo-Pan Indian religion for political purposes—now with that being said to some degree I don’t blame them.
The American government broke the agreed Laramie treaty & 1980 SCOTUS even said so, too. So, they do have a claim on the Black Hills.
That being said we can’t ignore the invention of a mid-20th century culture that occurred largely in the ivory towers of Academia. The leaders like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, warriors to the core, still wouldn’t recognize this neo-religion.
Thank you for writing about Black Elk, Phillip. I read the book a few years ago, and today you’ve managed to put into words what I had been trying to understand. Wonderful post. God bless.
Thanks Jonathon. I’ve been reading through Black Elk’s first mystical vision from boyhood. There’s a lot of connection points to prophetic callings from Isaiah to St. Paul within that vision that either some writers like Steltenkamp haven’t touched on that I’ve read regarding Black Elk’s vision. I am going to flesh out some notes on the vision & I might post them as a paid article.
This is all true. I grew up with several tribes. Most of my you was spent in and among the community of the 50,000 member Lumbee Tribe of NC. My later teens were spent with the Cherokee and remnants of the Catawbas, I have spent time with the Waccamaw and Chicora, etc. I have relatives in several tribes and learned herbal medicine from several. My lived experience is the opposite of what I was taught in college. I have never met a true Native American who was not a practicing Christian. There are tons of Christian churches in every tribal area I have ever been in, full of devout Christians, whose ministers are also Indians. All of the pagans who claim to practice Native American religions that I have met have been white. Some had a little Native blood, but their parents and grandparents were Christian. The academic and TV version of the American Indian is a farce. All those I have known have been great, family oriented rural folks who drive pickup trucks, love to hunt and fish, cheer on the Atlanta Braves and go to church on Sunday... they are also mostly Trump voters! Of course, I've known some outlaws and criminals too - there are bad folks in every race and culture, but Indians in the Carolinas are just normal folks who will proudly tell you about the church their grandparents founded or what their kids learned in Sunday School.
“The academic and TV version of the American Indian is a farce.”
The diversity of thought is really explained well in Steltenkamp’s book. Black Elk has given me great comfort. In my youth, my Dad was a volunteer Archaeologist for a state park with Indian village and burial mounds. I use to go with him to Powwows & these were public events that the tribes welcomed all people to participate.
In Scouting, I was part of the Order of the Arrow that adopted Lenape practices & ceremonies. And recently the OA has determined that individual lodges must have tribal sponsorship & the national ceremonies will be non-Indian.
So, my reluntance to participate in aspects of my youth & what’s going on either OA was part of this progressive weapon: cultural appropriation. Finding Black Elk’s story and reading more about him I’m thinking “this is a concept that would be alien to Black Elk.” Black Elk saw connections between Lakota & Christian culture. Furthermore, many of Black Elk’s contemporaries did too.
The view today is largely shaped by the political and cultural upheaval from the 60s & 70s who misrepresented & lied Black Elk’s live.
They lied—they’re liars. The AIM seems to have ran with this neo-Pan Indian religion for political purposes—now with that being said to some degree I don’t blame them.
The American government broke the agreed Laramie treaty & 1980 SCOTUS even said so, too. So, they do have a claim on the Black Hills.
That being said we can’t ignore the invention of a mid-20th century culture that occurred largely in the ivory towers of Academia. The leaders like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, warriors to the core, still wouldn’t recognize this neo-religion.
Thank you for writing about Black Elk, Phillip. I read the book a few years ago, and today you’ve managed to put into words what I had been trying to understand. Wonderful post. God bless.
Thanks Jonathon. I’ve been reading through Black Elk’s first mystical vision from boyhood. There’s a lot of connection points to prophetic callings from Isaiah to St. Paul within that vision that either some writers like Steltenkamp haven’t touched on that I’ve read regarding Black Elk’s vision. I am going to flesh out some notes on the vision & I might post them as a paid article.
That would be great, and I am looking forward to it.