Who wants to hunt (culture) Vulture with me? Part ONE

What is a "culture vulture"? It is someone who decides to come into our community and acculturate themselves as they see fit. It is someone who comes in and attempts to change everything and the way we do things. The are cultural appropriation geniuses and they come mainly because we are an accepting people and they are outright social misfits.
I can see you. I go to gatherings and Pow Wow's and I can clearly see you. You come not to contribute, not to share divine gifts, not to give out positive ecumenical energy, not even really to participate. I see you coming and wanting to be a part of something so badly that you sacrifice who and what you really are for the sake of just being there. You come with your White liberal paternal bullshit and join in as if you really were and are one of us.
You claim some obscure Tribe that is perhaps Federally recognized even though you aren't. Maybe it was one of those infamous "courthouse fires" that swept across this nation and all evidence of your lineage went up in flames. Of course you can also claim Cherokee or Ojibway or maybe even Ojibway from Canada where the rules for the pedigree are drastically different than they are here in the United States. Maybe you discovered your roots after a relative died and "it was hidden for all these years because it was not acceptable to be an Indian back then" as if it is acceptable now.......
You scream about injustice within Indian Country and devise a plan based upon "the old ways" that will save our savage asses from ourselves AND the damn government. You decry racism in the media and in sports while all the while perpetuating it yourself. You come in regalia with your White skin and full blood mentality. Or at least what you think a full blood should act like. You maybe watched Dances With Wolves or Pow Wow Highway and decided that you were embarrassed at the actions of Whites (i.e. the government) or maybe you read Bury My Hear At Wounded Knee or In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse and came to the realization that the biggest threat to Indian people was, is and always will be White people and their mentality. Yet, you are special, you have maybe a drop of Indian blood AND you have a conscious that would never let you act the way of your true White ancestors.
So you dress like an Indian, not quite sure of your band or clan you just dress like an Indian copying some obscoure photo or maybe even the regalia of another. You come and participate and just try to maneuver yourself into position where you can get on the good side of some real honest to God holy shit they look the part Indians. Then once your in the good graces of a particular family you begin to ingraite yourself into the happenings. Next thing you know, you're on a Pow Wow committee! That's like jackpot!!
The real issues that effect Indian Country you could never be a part of and you need to thank the Christian God that you so readily rejected for that fact. No other minority group faces the issues we do. From Sovereignty to cancer, from AIDS to alcoholism, from inter generational trauma to the missing and murdered women within our community. You don't face discrimination from the police and the courts like us.
There is one thing I have noticed that you culture vultures stay away from. That 's treaty issues, you avoid them like the plague and the reason is because there is no room for the romanticized version that you hold of us within these issues. These are deadly serious issues that you would actually have to seriously study and research in order to understand them.
I see your Facebook pages packed wall to wall with romantic pictures of Indians and deeply moving and spiritual words attributed to certain Tribes and people. Thing is, the smallest effort in research would show that the majority of the crap you post is fake. Just makes sense, you're a fake and therefore so is the shit you post.
Then, you decide that to be of maximum help that you must become a Holy person. This is where you go into overdrive about "The Indian Way" and you pick apart every aspect of a social gathering, like a Pow Wow, and try to turn it into a seriously spiritual event. Based upon YOUR teachings. I grant you there are aspects of the Pow Wow that are spiritual. Of course they are. We are The Original People of planet earth, everything we do has a spiritual conotation that's just a given. No, what you do is piecemeal it and mold it to fit your agenda. Your agenda to be of service to the people as long as the people follow what you say. I mean you're White, by that virtue alone you know best.
You speak in clipped and monotone voice, you talk endlessly about "The Red Road" and the sacred medicine wheel and how it shows the four colors of mankind. (I'll let you in on a secret about that, it does NOT show the four colors of mankind. It was around for thousands and thousands of years before White people ever showed up on Earth, Before Whites crawled out of the caves of the Caucasus mountains and stood upright we had that wheel.) Each color represents a direction AND the attribute of the Creator it holds. You begin to spread messages of unity and looking at each other as brothers. This is a good and fine message that all should heed I am in total agreement with that. The problem here is if you are not even being true to who and what you are how am I supposed to gather any healing from a fraud?
If you can't even honor your White ancestors AND the Whites in your family that are not going along with your Indian game how can what you say be founded in truth? Your foundation is a lie. Hell, present yourself as an Indian and maybe you can sell cd's. Maybe you can sell some books, gain a following and start holding sweat lodges and ceremonies and workshops and teachings. Maybe you can even get on television and speak out on environmental issues on "our" behalf. I need to let you know something here, I am a real live Original Man. I am brown and beautiful. Dark hair and dark eyes and the whole bit. I am no more an environmentalist than Jesus was a Christian. It is my duty as an Original Man to be a caretaker to humanity and the Earth. I am designed by DNA to be a Uncle to our children, a brother to my sisters and brothers, and a nephew to my elders.
You're a cancer to our society. The young are picking up on this. They snicker at you, they look quizzically and question what you are doing amongst those who are not your own. I can't tell you how many young, some in their mid twenties, ask me who your type thinks they are. I answer, "They are a concer that needs to be rooted out and exposed". They are really excited about that type of talk which honestly does not bode well for you and your type.
No one in their right mind can take you seriously. Sitting around the drum and effecting a reservation accent. Talking about "The Great Spirit" in hushed tones and using the little bit of Original language that you know in casual conversation. You're false to yourself and us. A sickness.
One thing that you phonies stay away from is treaty issues. The reason you stay away from those issues is because they do not live up to the romantic vision you have of us. They are not sexy in a show off way. Of course treaty issues are deadly serious and in order to truly understand them you would have to study and research and speak with legal experts about sovereignty and all manner of truly important issues and how they effect the actual governance of our Nations, bands and tribes. This is an area that you know you can't come in and bullshit your way around. The sisters and brothers that deal with this do not have the time or energy to deal with frauds. Don't you or can't you understand that you idea of just saying a thing (I'm part Indian on my grandmothers side) does not make you one of us, but the sheer fact that you can come in like you own the place and then assume a position of authority within the community just shows how ugly White Supremacy is. By virtue of your education and being an outsider who lived on the inside you think that you can come and effect change. You think your ideas on everything, from how to protest to how to hold teachings are better than ours. Why? White Supremacy. No other reason need be given.
Speaking of issues makes me think of real issues. You can't ever understand and even truly empathaize with what we, the ones who actually look and are the part, go through. Everything from AIDS to alcoholism, from Inter-generational trauma to missing and murdered women, from rape to injustices within the court system all of these bypass you because and only because of your skin color.These issues affect those of us within Indian Country on a scale that is often three times the national average. You fit into the national average.
 The constant threats to our liberty and civil and human rights all of that bypasses you because we live in the land of White Supremacy. Discrimination based upon how we look by the police and the courts are something that no matter how many ribbon shirts and buckskin you own will be on your radar.
When I was little a kid from Ishpaming moved to my hometown and told all of my tormentors that where he is from Indians are called "Timber niggers", guess what my new nick name was? Something that you would never be called. From spick to wetback and everything in between I can bet that your history and past do not have those things included.
There are rumblings within our community that the days of just letting you in and ignoring you are coming to an end. Indian country has always been small but with the advent of the internet and social networking it is just tiny. We can't afford you no more. If we are going to get serious and reclaim our destiny, our ways, our teachings, our dances and our future all manner of sickness, from disrespect of our women to child rearing are going to have to be cleansed and you fall into that category.
I call this part one because in the next part I will be naming names and crimes. Why? Because I am an Original Man and my Creator gives me strength and power to do his will in my life. I'm not a warrior by lip service, I am one because I believe I can be.

18 Rules for living by the Dalai Lama

I just found these so paradigm breaking I had to massively share.

The 18 rules of living by The Dalai Lama.

1) Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2) When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

3) Follow the three Rs:

i) Respect for self
ii) Respect for others
iii) Responsibility for all your actions.

4) Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5) Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6) Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7) When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8) Spend some time alone every day.

9) Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

10) Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11) Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12) A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13) In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

14) Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

15) Be gentle with the earth.

16) Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

17) Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18) Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

Wasn't that a hell of a game?

     The early estimates for viewers of the super bowl are 111.3 MILLION people. The super bowl is big business and a big event. Hell the game didn't come on until 6:30 p.m. but the pre-game mess started at like noon. Big deal. Big event.
     I'll be honest about something. I don't watch sports. I'm not interested in any of that stuff. I hold no allegiance to any team or club. The Super Bowl does not impress me. Last time I watched any part of it was when Prince did the half time show. I only did that because YES I am a long time old school before Purple Rain Prince fan but that's another blog that I will probably not write.
     I want to break down somethings I found out about the Big Event. Tickets to the Big Event are about $1500.00 each. Parking at MetLife Stadium cost in the range of $150.00. Some of those spots were sold on ebay for $400.00 each. A 30 second spot cost $4 million dollars. THIRTY SECONDS! That breaks down to $133,000 per second. Big Event equals big money! The players of the game make BIG bank. They get a straight out grip of money. Think about this: There are 53 players on each team, no there are not 53 players on the field at one time, and each player gets paid as a bonus $19,000 each for the wildcard game, $21,000 each for the division playoffs, a $38,000 guarantee for the title game and for the winners of the Super Bowl they get $92,000 ( Losers get $46,000) each for a grand total of $170,000 for the entire deal. That averages out to $45,250 per game. Look at Peyton Manning who makes a staggering $15 MILLION a year plus all this extra. Rookies in the NFL average $405,000 a year or $23,800 per week. Big Money for a Big Event.
     You can also add in what they will get in endorsements AND you get a Super Bowl ring valued at $5,000. Big Money for the Big Event. Did you also know that the NFL is registered as a NON PROFIT organization and has not paid taxes since 1966? Red Cross is a non-profit which makes sense, Salvation Army is a non profit which makes sense, March of Dimes, American Heart Association, Cancer research fund and a host of other human services organizations are non-profits but the NFL? That's a little senseless to me. But it is a big Deal.
     Know what I think is a really big deal? Congressional Republicans cut $8 BILLION dollars in food stamp assistance and then gave a $83 BILLION dollar subsidiary to big banks. AND America turned the corner on a legitimate BIG DEAL. In this nation, one of the richest on Earth, we now have one million homeless school children. ONE MILLION children who go to school and when they leave school they walk into the woods and that's where they live or they live in abandoned buildings or in cars with their family or in the park or who knows where. That's a 38% increase from 2006-2007.
     In 1987, the federal government enacted the Mckinney-Vento Act, which requires that every school district provide homeless students with equal access to public education. Districts need to count homeless students and have a homeless liaison to serve their needs.
     A Homeless student is defined by law as those who stay in a hotel/motel, a shelter of some kind, or no shelter or are "doubled up" with friends or family. This "double up" accounts for 71% of Homeless Students.I ask if we took all the damned hype surrounding this game which is just a distraction from what sits right in front of us, and used a tenth of that energy to bring attention to what is happening to our children what could we change? When most think of homelessness they think of people wandering aimlessly or suffering under addiction and bad choices. When I think of the children I can't attach any of those excuses to them. I think of sex trafficing in order to survive, I think of what these children, I mean OUR children because as Original People we know from our teachings that each of has a responsibility to our collective community to help and raise OUR children. This goes so far beyond color and ethnicity. I mean what if you ttok you parking fee of $150.00 and your ticket of $1500.00 and skipped The Big Event and spent that $1650.00 on some food and clothing? Would you not better YOUR community? At least give the kid a chance where there is none? Think that these kids who have to sell themselves in order to survive and have a WANT to go to school for an education deserve a damn break. I'm not dogging those of us who watched the game and got our friends over in front of the big screen, ordered our pizza and hot wings and beer and cheered or moped depending on who won and lost. I am trying to point out what is for a real a big deal. I came home grabbed two grocery bags and filled them and will take them to the food bank tomorrow. It's my part, it is my community. I am an Original Man and I follow the precepts in our teachings to the best of my ability. I just don;t get distracted by "entertainment" that is purposefully designed to keep me oblivious to the world around me. I wonder how many of us even knew that we as a nation passed the 1 million mark on homeless students? How much better would the amount of money be spent on uplifting and supporting those in need than paying some dudes to smash into each other for our "enjoyment"?
     One million homeless school kids and untold misery that follows to me is a Big Event for real.