7.20.20 Additional Cultural Appropriation Letter Sent to David Elliott
July 20, 2020
A Letter to White “Healers” and Spiritual Teachers on Colonization and Cultural Appropriation
This letter cannot begin without first addressing that the author and co-signers of this letter are NOT Indigenous to the so-called United States. We are sharing this information because of the ongoing erasure of Indigenous peoples within the wellness industry, amidst all other industries, and we are deeply concerned that teachers and healers continue to share practices without recognizing that appropriation is problematic and dishonest. As non-Indigenous people, we too are committed to lifelong unlearning, practicing, listening and learning again.
With 2.9 million Indigenous people in the United States (*note that this does not include migrant or immigrant people from the Americas who also are Indigenous to other lands), it is essential that anyone reading this letter understands that we live on occupied land. Land that was stolen by settler colonialists to build the unjust and unequal society we benefit from as descendants of settler colonialists. The history of massacres, forced removals, and forced assimilation is not in the past for Indigenous peoples. The majority of Indigenous peoples living today have parents or grandparents who were removed from their families at a young age and sent to Indian Boarding Schools, where their hair was cut, they were beaten for speaking their Native tongue, endured horrific abuse, forced into Christian conversion and militarized upbringing, and were severed completely from their Indigenous culture, land, language and traditional ways of life. The impacts of historical and intergenerational trauma continue to affect reservations and Indigenous peoples through their continued survivance (Gerald Vizenor’s word for combining survival with resilience), healing process, and cultural and language revitalization practices. This country is founded on a devastating and brutal history that cannot be watered down or whitewashed in a simple letter. We implore you to do your homework and continue as a lifelong student to read accurate history and follow the voices of Indigenous leaders and teachers to better understand the ongoing impacts of colonization (see resources below).
That being said, we will focus this letter with the expectation that the reader is aware of some of the history of Indigenous peoples, including the broken treaties, stripping of land access, and religious freedoms. We specifically are addressing non-Indigenous white people who identify as healers or practitioners within the wellness industry in the United States, because settler colonialists perpetuate the most harm and exclusion through appropriative practices. This letter may also be utilized by any non-Indigenous person in the wellness industry to further their knowledge and understanding of the importance of land acknowledgements and historical knowledge for informing their spiritual practices with social justice and relational work to be more inclusive and respectful of Indigenous peoples.
To practitioners, “healers” and teachers:
With privilege and power comes great responsibility- we implore you to teach your non-Indigenous students that you do not have the right to teach sacred rituals or traditions that do not come from your own personal ancestry and familial lineage. A special note on false narratives: While some readers of this letter may have a special blessing from a community or group such as a pipe carrier, or may have studied for a length of time with an Indigenous healer and have their blessing to share their practices, we are raising critical questions as to why making a profit off of these practices continues to be condoned. Specifically, why do you believe you can teach other non-Indigenous students to co-opt these practices (i.e. medicine wheel, burning sage, profiting from selling sage, specific cultural ceremonial practices) when you do not pay specific responsibility or accountability to the tribal nation or Indigenous peoples from whom you have learned. Furthering this practice of co-opting as a teacher and making profit off of these practices also should be considered unethical and preserves your right to teach a lineage that is now being stolen, assimilated and colonized, and students then believe they have permission to perpetuate the cycle of abuse, using these practices and earning a profit without original blessings from the original teachers. If you have been given permission to share teachings that you have received directly from Indigenous elders, and you are offering this free of cost and not for personal gain, an essential practice would be that you acknowledge the specific lineage of teaching and not referring simply to “native practices / people.” There are hundreds of tribes and regional customs across North America that vary significantly and are not homogenous. Using “ethnic gloss” (characterizing multiple unique ethnic groups as being the same) to share a specific teaching while applying it to all Indigenous peoples is a form of erasure, and often results in white people feeling a sense of ownership over certain practices even when directly confronted by an Indigenous person.
There is much education that needs to be done about Tribal Sovereignty and self-determination surrounding the 574 Federally recognized Tribal Nations within the United States. If you do not understand Tribal Sovereignty, please see the resources below. Tribal Nations have their own government, law enforcement, tribal councils, social services, and often their own cultural and ceremonial divisions, if they have sufficient funding. Most Tribal Nations are focusing their efforts to revitalize their languages, as language annihaltion is one of the main tools for forced assimilation and genocide. In addition, tribes are focusing on sovereignty for land management practices and protection of their future with preventative tribal child welfare services. The homogenization of Indigenous practices in many “healer” trainings gives people the idea that by paying for a training they now have permission to steal and co-opt practices that rightly belong to Tribes and Indigenous peoples - practices their ancestors were hunted and massacred for so that white settlers could forcibly steal their land and assimilate Indigenous peoples into the dominant culture. Perhaps you as a reader may have been introduced to a small community that is open to sharing their ceremony, in fear that their practices will be lost when the elders pass on. We raise this critical question therin to your continued use of these teachings to teach and sell Indigenous traditions without teaching your students that they have a responsibility to become respectful allies to Indigenous peoples through active efforts and relationship-building with the people on whose land they occupy. A simple land acknowledgement is a start, but not nearly enough work in deconstructing the false narrative of entitlement to appropriating these practices for profit.
Perhaps reader, you can understand why it is so dangerous to be spreading your non-Indigenous permission for other non-Indigenous students to steal their practices, share them and use them to make profit. If you would like to educate yourself about this history, please read more about how Indigenous practices like burning sage, medicine wheels, and practicing ceremonies were illegal until the passing of the American Indian Religious Freedoms Act (AIRFA) in 1978. Until 1978, Indigenous peoples in the United States could be arrested for carrying sage, dancing their dances, and other ceremonial practices. It is crucial that you understand that as a non-Indigenous person with settler colonial ancestry, you are perpetuating harm by taking their practices and sharing them with others without honoring the historical and intergenerational trauma that Indigenous people have endured just to survive and reclaim their culture. Cultural appreciation is a slippery slope to appropriation, and when money is exchanged without paying honor taxes to the Tribal Nation whose land you occupy and work on, then you are perpetuating Eurocentric hegemony and cultural genocide. The sharing of culture that is not your own also upholds the inclination for non-Indigenous people to steal other spiritual practices from other lineages as they see fit, homogenize diverse cultural traditions, all without permission from the original people and without regard for the impacts of colonization and white supremacy.
If this information feels uncomfortable, too political or critical for you, please understand that as a leader in the healing industry, this information is shared by many people and will continue to spread as more begin to unlearn and understand the legacy of colonization and racism within wellness (see below for resources). That said, many people of color do not even have access to their ancestral practices because of settler colonialism, and are currently in crisis due to racist systems such as criminal justice, child welfare, no access to their ancestral lands, housing, healthcare, and wealth inequality. We recommend that if any of these critical questions have raised defensiveness or fragility for you while reading this, that you consider deepening your work with a coach for deconstructing your own internal racism. We all have to do better.
Recommended Resources:
● Native Appropriations blog by Adrienne Keene
● Indian Country Today (Indigenous news organization)
● NDN Collective (Indigenous-lead decolonizing movement)
● Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States book by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
● As Long as the Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock book by Dina Gilio-Whitaker
● Healing the Soul Wound book by Eduardo Duran
● Understanding Tribal Sovereignty website
● History of Boarding Schools website
● This Land Podcast by Rebecca Nagle
● All My Relations Podcast by Matika Wilbur and Adrienne Keene
● Virtual Indigenous Speaker Series hosted by Two Feathers Native American Family Services - a series interviewing leaders on Indigenous healing, history lessons and other education resources
Recommended Steps:
1. Research the land you occupy
2. Pay Honor Tax to the Tribal Nation on whose land you occupy (or start one in your area)
3. Land Acknowledgements at any class, training, public gathering, protest, etc. Lineage and teacher acknowledgments when hosting any group ceremony or training.
4. Attend local events to get to know a local tribe - attend dances, dinners, that are open to the public. Learn about their culture and the local history of the land. Be a good community member.
5. Question any store, retailer, non-Indigenous person who is selling Indigenous sacred plants or offering plant ceremonies. Do not give them money and reach out to them to respectfully question their intentions.
6. Research your own ancestry and lineage and burn plants or practice other spiritual traditions within your own family line.
7. Educate yourself about the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women here and here.
8. Donate money to Indigenous causes. Continue to be a lifelong student. Read books, listen to talks, read articles by Indigenous peoples. Teach your children and family members about the history of Indigenous peoples and the so-called United States. Incorporate into your own spiritual practice and to your students that we all live on occupied land, and no one is free until we embody this knowledge of unlearning settler colonialism / colonization within our own hearts and minds. Understand ongoing struggles for Tribal Sovereignty and ways to advocate.
9. During COVID19 Pandemic, donate money to relief orgs focusing efforts on Indigenous communities. The Diné and Hopi Nations have been hit harder than any community with cases and deaths, and need continued donations for protective equipment and to protect family members, especially elders.
10. Support Indigenous Environmental Justice advocates like the Kumeyaay citizens who are protecting their land from the current border wall project. Others include Free Leonard Peltier and Stand with Red Fawn and Standing Rock Water Protectors Legal Collective.
11. GIVE LAND BACK. Returning land to Indigenous people and Tribal Nations is the only way we can eventually repair the harm enacted by colonization and improve the future for Indigenous peoples. If you know someone who owns a lot of land, encourage them to return it.
Accounts to Follow on Instagram:
@kumeyaaydefenseagainstthewall
@mujermedicine
@luminaewellness
@decolonizingyoga
@eliana.chinea
Written and signed,
Molly Hilgenberg, MSW with additional help from Mikella Millen
In agreement and support,
Jennifer Patterson
Susan Ateh
Chauna Bryant
Amy Kuretsky
Maryam Ajayi