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.