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Originally Posted by sentient
This does become a very hurtful problematic situation.
Besides, what Indigenous group on the planet hasn’t suffered loss?
Because of assimilation etc. etc. (in my experience) many feel like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing and how one then goes about making one’s self whole again is an individual choice or path. Plus if one now is a racial mixture there is that duality within to come to terms with, to reconcile, to juggle and the divided/mixed loyalties to observe - unless one wants to become a self-hater, but that doesn’t work in the long run.
So I cannot see how one can compartmentalize people into neat little boxes or moulds with definite black (red) & white borders such as bullies perhaps would have people conform into.
One mixed heritage artist's work I admire:
One of my own (jigsaw) missing pieces was a Saami Noaidi/Noita (‘Shaman’) in our family tree, who during the Swedish occupation & witch hunts was sentenced to death for being one – which made my grandparents go totally silent about that side of family - in fear - they still carried because their/our culture had been so demonized and shamed.
As was my (more recent) Siberian ancestor kept hidden & I think because of fears about racial discrimination set by the "racial purity - ethnic hygiene" policies of their time.
SaturninePluto
My initial reaction to this was (I think) similar to yours. Bewilderment, disbelief, hurt, anger (as masked hurt), defensiveness, especially since I had never irl. come across this phenomena called “Plastic Shamans” and thought I never would – and feeling really hurt because - just for being an Euro one can and does even end up being accused of Native American practices one has never even seen, let alone practiced (nor understood why people would even want to in the first place!)
*
But a workshop: “Many people, now you too can become a Shaman” - is coming to town, and the teacher is claiming to be a representative of my ancestry  who is channelling a Siberian Shaman – yet carries a Native American “Medicine People” ‘title’ (we are not “Medicine Men/Women”) and the channelled Siberian Shaman’s name (meaning “True Path”) is not Siberian either.
So things just do not add up and the whole thing starts to sound like one of those anti-cultural-appropriation-group-think-script soap opera propaganda episodes (and I am not even kidding).
So - Is this a scam targeting gullible people (New Agers) who do not know anything about FennoScandian/Saami/Siberian history or culture? (As people generally do not, so they can easily be taken for a ‘ride’)?
I don’t know. 
But SaturninePluto, - What would you do if somebody claimed to be from your ancestry/ethnicity and culture, if/when they aren’t?
And if you did discover that the whole thing is a scam?
If neither bullying: naming, shaming and ridiculing (i.e. creating a modern day witch hunt) the leader and the followers is not the appropriate response to this – is doing nothing either? As in - letting the phenomena of the scammers, their marketing enablers and ‘victims’ play itself out as their Karma only, ignoring that your cultural identity has been ‘stolen’ and/or misrepresented?
This is a problematic situation also. |
You asked what if someone claimed to be from my ancestry and turned out not to be, and if I did discover it to be a scam.
In order for me to discover it to be a scam to begin with, I would have to have evidence, documented as to their lineage and genealogy. I would have to see their medical blood work to prove to me that beyond a doubt that they did not share some genealogy of Mikmaq or pequawket, or some blood proof that they have no percentage of Scottish in them.
See?
And that is what I was talking about- an individual whom gets the facts mixed up, and has a youtube video come out- in order for me to believe they are a total scam artist- I would require that they shared willingly evidence of their genealogy, but who the heck am I to ask that of them?
I have a book on Mikmaq medicine. Now being of this descent you must realize how far back this goes, and how very little information there is out there on my particular North American heritage. With this in mind if it turns out a couple years from now someone posts a blog or a newspaper article about this particular book, and their blog or article speaks of how very very much of that information in the book, being, incorrect, or not so, or untrue...
It wouldn't actually surprise me if very much of it as it stands now, is already incorrect.
There is not very much left of the Native culture here in the west and this is true for many many other places, and their native people.
Many of the old beliefs have been lost.
Name calling, arguing, placing more and more blame, and arguing petty points as you are not a real Medicine Man/Woman Because You Are White. Or you are not a real Shaman because you are only 25 percent of this Russian heritage.
All this does is continue to promote racist thinking and behavior.
Now if there was an upcoming workshop in my area run by someone claiming to be Mikmaq and then channeling the spirit of a Navajo cheif, and what he said in his workshops according to others by word of mouth was majority Navajo beliefs, what would I do? If I could afford to I'd go attend his workshop and see what it actually is all about then. And after that, then I would make up my mind on whether or not I feel the workshop was worth my time. And if he did talk quite a bit about Navajo beliefs as opposed to Mikmaq it wouldn't bother me in the least. I happen to love to learn about the beliefs of others.
And even still if I seriously and adamantly did not particularly care for any of it, I personally would not openly and publicly call the person a fraud. And if someone elsewhere made mention of an interest of going to the workshop of said person, I would not in any way shape or form tell them- He's a fake! Don't bother!
Because what somebody else does or does not do is not at all for me to say, and they have to be the one's to make up their own minds.
And I expect to make up my own mind about others as well.
So when people say- Tom Brown Jr made both Rick and Grandfather up in his books, he learned from "White" professors at his college in New Jersey!
I auto think- "Tiffany told Amanda so and so punched your locker!"
All the response others are ever going to actually get out of me when people say such things is "So"?
Well she punched it...
Did she break it?
No.
Well alright then....
Personally I understand why Native people of certain areas would get upset if their beliefs are being misrepresented. Or if people not of their decent are making those claims.
It is reasonable to be upset and this is something the world really does need to bring to light and talk about, and talk about Honestly more.
It is not reasonable to keep feeding the fires of hatred in my perspective.