Honoring the Medicine

Native American prayers sometimes begin with a simple statement of one’s name--“My name is... I send a voice to you, Great Spirit.” I say my name because my words are a matter of honor; I take responsibility for what I say. Spirits and the Great Spirit recognize me by my name, especially by my sacred name, the name that I received in vision. Some names are public and may be shared. Others are secret, not spoken aloud, a kind of password by which one is recognized in the spiri

I agree that justice has been served in killing Osama bin Laden, an evil man responsible for planning the deaths of thousands of innocent people. I was proud of the precision and bravery of the Navy Seals team. However, a cloud has been cast on their honor because of: the shameful reaction of Americans to the news. I believe that it is always a tragedy to take a life, and one should never celebrate a death, even the death of one’s enemy. How was the dancing and singing in the

I often find myself in strange circumstances when non-Native people perceive me as a potential ally in their quest to misrepresent, appropriate, or step on Native American traditions. By the time they realize that I am neither a practitioner of New Age fantasies nor generic shamanism and that I am not a white man (being racially Jewish, and often seen as tribal by my Native relations), it is too late for an "Oops." My political hackles have been raised. Last year, a white man

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

An early version of this essay appeared in News From Indian Country XII:5, Mid-March 1998 I use the word witchcraft as a synonym for what in Mexico is called brujeria, sorcery, meaning the abuse of spiritual power: attempting to disempower, coerce, harm, or control others or to influence events using means that are unethical or socially disapproved. (Readers should note, however, that in European culture, the term witchcraft may have a positive connotation, referring to ancie