Honoring the Medicine

On September 22, 1973, Ojibwe activist and artist Adam Fortunate Eagle landed in Italy in full regalia, and planting his ceremonial spear in the ground, took possession of that country by "right of discovery" (as established in European law). To the credit of Native American peoples (and contrary to the colonial history of Europeans in the Americas), since the discovery of Italy, neither land nor people have been pillaged. There has been no enslavement, and taxes and other le

Originally published in News from Indian Country XXIII:10 (May, 2009) I was recently invited to join a new North American "tribe." No it was not the rainbow tribe, the eagle tribe, the bear tribe, etc. (I mean the humans who call themselves "bear tribe", not the more legitimate tribe of bears.) It was unclear to me if any members had indigenous North American ancestry. The tribe is offering spiritual adoption to as many people as possible, apparently believing that greater nu