The White People Do Better Horse Race
Your pony is in it!
I’ve been itching to write this newsletter for a long while, but was struggling to refine my point. Then Sierra Crane Murdoch of Yellow Bird fame1 published this article in Harper’s about White2 people exploiting the Native American Church. The article’s last line states so plainly what I’ve been trying to articulate:
I still did not doubt that white people could learn things from Indigenous ways. But the participants at the peyote ceremony were not devoted to any Native spiritual tradition. Deafened by their own pain, they seemed to be devoted instead to the idea that they could have everything they wanted.
Whew, y’all. Initially this reminded me of the Rachel Dolezal story, and if you don’t know about that, ignite your favorite search engine and get you a drink. Moving on, there are plenty of White people who wish they could be Native American. Or wish to express an affinity with tribal peoples. I get this, having lived and taught on a reservation myself for 20+ years.
Some White people will express this desire through words and action and dress, anywhere from a degree that connotes appreciation (rather than appropriation)3 to a degree that is straight appropriation. Example: White person is wearing the gear and claiming they belong to the culture when they don’t, pretending the spirituality belongs to them, maybe going so far as to give themselves a Native-sounding name. And it’s not just the personal trappings. Also collecting Indigenous artifacts, wanting to learn an Indigenous language because “you feel connected to that tribe,”4 teaching other (White people) Indigenous cultural information from an insider’s perspective…all of this is straight-up cultural appropriation.
Murdoch’s gut-honest story about the Native American Church reveals so much of the latter end of this continuum: White people who think because they appreciate a tribal custom or Indigenous approach to **anything**, they should be able to possess/discuss/share/teach about it. Why? Because they want to.
Never mind that it’s a spiritual ceremony or item. Never mind that the culture belongs to someone else. Never mind that the language isn’t theirs either. White people want what they want, and sometimes, often, they’re gonna have it.
So, my need to write about this flared after I read about the Feathered Pipe Ranch, a yoga (and other buddhist-y type stuff) “health and wellness”5 center near Helena. I want to begin, up front, with the following disclaimers: I’ve never attended an event at the Feathered Pipe Ranch, though I did stalk the place one day while driving home from Helena. I’m certainly never going, either, because I cannot stand that New Agey stuff.6 But I have longtime friends who work at this place from time to time, and they are very good people. I would guess that many of the attendees are also good people whom I’d be happy to meet one day.
My point is, this is one of probably hundreds of places just like it that are profiting off actual spiritual traditions and lifeways of other people.
My point is, this place appears to appropriate all over the place, primarily from Eastern spirituality and from Indigenous traditions. Let’s see: we’ve got Brooke “Medicine Eagle” Edwards, a White woman who claims to be Native, who was at one time doing classes and stuff there.7 She bedecks herself in a collection of Native-looking gear including a feather in her hair, beaded earrings, fringed vests or dresses, and silver jewelry, all representing different tribal groups, or none at all. She is pictured on the website with two long braids. Then we’ve got Brant Secunda, a non-Indigenous dude from New Jersey who is allegedly a Huichol shaman. Maybe he’s got bonafides that I don’t understand.8
And more on the website:
Pan-Indian style pipe and feather logo, incidentally a horribly stereotypical appropriation - check
Tipi in background of photos - check
Weeklong retreat price tags of $23009 - check
Gift shop called the Shanti Boutique run by the FPR founder’s daughter whose name is, no kidding, Crystal Water10 - check
My point is, this is one of probably hundreds of places and companies just like it that are profiting off actual spiritual traditions and lifeways of other people – also known as cultural appropriation. And there are so many, and so many customers. Because White people want what they fucking want.
Why do some White people act like this? This is a super post titled “Wanting To Be Indian: When Spiritual Searching Turns Into Cultural Theft” by Myke Johnson, a White person, which addresses that question. Short answers:
Native spirituality is stereotyped and misunderstood by outsiders
White people lack a sense of connection to their own communities and therefore seek connection with others11
White people can escape the guilt of being White by associating themselves with other cultures
White people pretend they’re not doing what they’re doing
Johnson also discusses ethics, spirituality, colonialism, and cultural appropriation. Strong recommendation on this post. About the effects of appropriating spirituality, she writes,
It is in [the context of structural racism] that Native Americans identify the use of Native symbols and ceremonies as cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation is a form of racism. Cultural appropriation is a weapon in the process of colonization. Cultural appropriation is when a dominating or colonizing people take over the cultural and religious ceremonies and articles of a people experiencing domination or colonization. When Euro-Americans take Native American symbols and ceremonies and use them for our own purposes, we are participating in the process of colonization and the destruction of Native culture.
I went hard on the appropriation of spirituality in this newsletter, but other factors play in, too. Because of my work, sometimes a White person will say to me, “I want to learn X Indigenous language because I’ve always felt connected to X culture.” This sentiment feels like respect, but it rides the same rails as Brooke “Medicine Eagle” and her Native-looking getup and faux appellation. It is White privilege, the ability to appropriate another culture with no effort and no harm to oneself, when that culture is already under siege through land theft, language endangerment, and colonizer-based policies that have affected nearly every aspect of Indigenous lives.
I also chose to write this because of my dissertation findings. For my research, I studied the characteristics possessed by seven Indian Education for All trainers considered excellent by the participants of their workshops and presentations. Four of my subjects were Indigenous (from four different tribes) and three were White. All of the Indigenous trainers said they approach their trainings with gentleness and humor, because if they go hard on the audience, those teachers — nearly 100% White — would likely cast them as “angry Indians,” get defensive, and turn away. By contrast, the White trainers said they told those teachers facts and pulled zero punches, because though they knew their audience might get mad, they wouldn’t necessarily turn away.
And here we are.
Of course your horse is in this race.
When I first began thinking on this, I lowkey felt like it wasn’t really my fight. I told a friend, “I don’t have a horse in this race.” His response: “Of course your horse is in this race.” And he’s right: It has to be, because if it isn’t, nothing changes. All the White people have a horse in this race. So, I’ve named it The White People Do Better Horse Race.
I also need to do better. I have to check my own actions and words, try to separate myself from my habits and words so I can see them as part of the structural racism I want to combat. This entire newsletter has required a balancing act in this regard and I probably missed the mark in some places.
None of this is easy. The other day I was talking with one of my language partners and she told me to stop stressing about building the class I’m working on. Impossible, I thought; the thing is due in like 2 months and there’s so much work still. Then she reminded me that the people who gave me my ribbon skirt believed in me, and when I feel stressed about this work, that I need to step away, say a small prayer, and think of them. It will work out, she told me. She said, “We think differently than you do, but you need to try.”
It’s the truth. It’s not easy to alter our foundational way of being, or to stop wanting what we want. But for fucksake, White people, we have to try.
Pulitzer finalist, y’all
why do I capitalize White? It’s not because of some fucked-up “All Lives Matter” sentiment. It’s because we capitalize all proper adjectives. Also the APA says to and I’m nothing if not a style-guide rule-follower.
I have witnessed numerous statements about what this means. Many Indigenous creative people say this means that if you are wearing something — let’s say some beaded earrings — and receive compliments on them, you make sure you tell your admirer who made them and where you bought them, in order perpetuate the living these artists can make off their creative work. You don’t go home and try to replicate them yourself.
but not because you know anyone there or perhaps would like to communicate with people in their own language
you can look back to this newsletter to read how I feel about this topic
Even if yoga does feel really, really good
I refuse to link to her site, but on it you can find her charging over $4000 for 7-day retreats that include tours of sacred sites at the Four Corners and a “vision quest.” And get this: that $4000 is for “Brooke’s time and teaching,” not lodging, food, or anything else.
And despite my intensely snarky tone, I have met plenty of people with multiple excellent skills and types of street cred. I’m just saying, right here and now, this person contributes perfectly to the description I’m building of the FPR, especially since he was called out by an Indigenous group in Alaska for attempting to practice cultural appropriation there.
This price is for a tent/shared cabins; for better accommodations add $300-$900.
Probably also a really nice person
This is my addition, though she mentions it as context.
This is good stuff. Really good.
👏🏼