Sharing Our Stories of Survival: Native Women Surviving Violence (40 page)

Being the original inhabitants of this continent, Indian people have always had spiritual practices to sustain them and guide their everyday lives. Native spiritual ceremonies are guided by nature, the seasons, and other natural occurrences. These practices were woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. From sunrise to sunset we offer thanksgiving for living another day in this creation. Our spirituality was inherent during food gathering ceremonies to make offerings of gratitude to mother earth for that which was taken; asking for success during hunts in order that the people would have adequate
sustenance
; to ask for protection during warfare for the warriors who were protecting their villages, their traditions, the women, and children; for special occasions such as the celebration of accomplishments, rites of passage, name-giving ceremonies for children, “making of relatives/adoption” ceremonies in order to provide extended family, caregivers, and protectors for children; for the celebration of life; for healing sicknesses; and ceremonies to guide departed loved ones to the spirit world upon their passing from this life. All of these spiritual ceremonies and more were done with prayer in the Native languages, accompanied by appropriate songs, rituals, and oral traditions that were handed down from one generation to the next.

Learning about spirits and the interconnectedness between all living things began at an early age. In the Ho-Chunk Nation, for example, boys as young as twelve had their faces painted black and were sent out into the woods alone for several days on spiritual quests, where they fasted and prayed. A young man would pray, seeking a deeper understanding of life. If he was a “chosen one,” chosen by the Creator and the spirits, this young man was blessed with a vision, a profound understanding, a revelation that would benefit their people for generations to come.

The life of a true spiritual leader was one of complete self-sacrifice, always tending to the spiritual healing needs of their people. The old-time medicine men and prayer people were very humble, lived very modestly and rarely traveled outside of their communities. They remained close to home in the event someone would need their help. They were individuals who married and kept their sacred unions intact, often over a course of four generations. They maintained the sanctity of their marriages by respecting their partners, remaining monogamous, and refraining from any form of violence or abuse toward their partners. They also lived in accordance with the practices they
proselytized
in order that future generations could come to rely on the steadfastness of their beliefs. Their female partners would help in the ceremonies in accordance with their respective roles. These roles were held very sacred and intrinsic to the wholeness and the successful outcome of that ceremony. Female partners assisted with female patients in order to maintain appropriate boundaries during healing ceremonies. They created safety for the patient by either being present when the medicine man had to touch the woman or by administering the medicine to the female patient themselves. As Paula Gunn Allen points out,
Irriaku
(Corn Mother) is present at every ceremony. “Without the presence of her power, no ceremony can produce the power it is designed to create or release. These uses of the feminine testify that primary power, the power to make and to relate, belongs to the preponderantly feminine powers of the universe.”
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If the couple was blessed with children, they raised the children around the spiritual ceremonies so they in turn could learn the appropriate protocols and pass those traditions on to their children.

Native spiritual practices include medicines and herbs and sacred objects to be used in concert with the sacred ceremonies. Many nations possess inherent beliefs that it was a woman who originally brought their sacred medicines, sacred bundles, and instruments along with instructions on the proper use and care of these sacred objects. The White Buffalo Calf Maiden, a sacred woman, brought the Sacred Pipe of the Nation to the Lakota people and instructed the people in regard to the sacred seven rites and ceremonies. According to legend, she appeared before two scouts. One had bad thoughts, but the other said, “That is a sacred woman. Throw all bad thoughts away.” She approached the man who did not have bad thoughts with a Sacred Pipe and said, “Behold, with this you shall multiply and be a good nation. Nothing but good shall come from it. Only the hands of the good shall take care of it and the bad shall not even see it.”
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As evidenced in this legend, only those individuals who follow the unwritten rules of the Sacred Pipe and do not have bad thoughts toward women shall take care of it. Others shall not even see it.

Pre-Christian Natives followed many spiritual traditions. There is evidence that most tribal societies were matrilineal, matrilocal, and matriarchal and that spiritual practices were women-centered and women-based. Within these societies, Indian women served as spiritual leaders, tribal leaders, and as military leaders. The men had profound respect for the opinions of the women in the village—particularly during wartimes. A Dakota legend states that “if the women did not agree with a decision to go to war, the Tiyospaye mothers would paint a rock red and throw it in the middle of the men’s council meeting. When this happened there was no more discussion on the issue, the women’s resolution was final.”

The arrival of Europeans marked a major change in Native society. European Christian missionaries looked upon Native spirituality as pagan superstition inspired by Satan. Native American religious practices were misunderstood, forbidden, and even outlawed. Religious offenses on the reservations were codified by the commissioner of Indian Affairs, Thomas J. Morgan, in 1892 in his “Rules for Indian Courts,” whereby he established a series of criminal offenses aimed at Native American religious practices.
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Native people were imprisoned for simply practicing their spirituality in the traditional ways that their ancestors had used since time immemorial. Many Native spiritual ceremonies and practices were nearly destroyed and had to go underground in order to survive the genocide. Many of these practices nearly disappeared, but Indian people believe the Creator protected their sacred ceremonies from complete destruction. Spiritual leaders, in particular, fought to keep their practices from being totally destroyed by European genocide. “In many cases, a significant number of prophetic spiritual leaders were forced to advocate a militant resistance and a strategy of complex alliances, often turning hostile in the face of non-Native aggression while also rejecting any form of unilateral, submissive accommodation.”
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Genocide is more than the killing of the physical body—it also includes the destruction of cultural traditions and spirituality. To ensure complete
subjugation
of Indian nations, the colonizers realized that they would have to subjugate Indian women as well. In that effort, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs began opening boarding schools in the 1870s. In 1879, Colonel Henry Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, with his well-known philosophy being “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” His idea was to destroy the inherent values of Indian people in order to maintain the European paternal stronghold. Carlisle and the Indian boarding schools that followed were set up to break spirits and destroy traditional extended families and cultures. Indian children were forcibly shipped to either government-controlled or Christian missionary schools where they were denied the right to speak Native languages, to wear Native clothing, or to practice any form of Native spirituality.
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They received Judeo-Christian indoctrination from the priests and nuns through the types of chores they performed and the biblical training they received while attending the boarding schools. The boys learned agricultural lessons, and the girls received instruction in “ironing, sewing, washing, serving raw oysters at cocktail parties and making attractive flower arrangements in order to transform them into middle class housewives.”
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In these schools, Indian children received Bible lessons and were indoctrinated to Judeo-Christian traditions where they learned about patriarchal, misogynistic belief systems. This indoctrination was based on biblical passages that seemed to justify the subordination of women and contributed to violence against women. For example, Genesis 2:24: “Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife and they become one flesh.” During marriage, the wife forfeited her identity in order to become the property of her husband. Such an interpretation led to a disregard for the woman as a person in her own right. The husband was then given the right to do as he chose with his “property,” as evidenced in Ephesians 5:22: “Wives be subject to your husband.”

Other theological ideas have justified treating women violently, such as the male being identified with the spirit and the female identified with the body, an entity that needed to be controlled, and the sanctioning of violence to accomplish that goal.
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Children in boarding schools ultimately learned that violence is acceptable due to the many abuses they suffered at the hands of Catholic priests and nuns. Randy Fred (Tseshaht), a former boarding school student, says that “children in his school began to mimic the abuse they were experiencing.”
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Paula Gunn Allen affirms that colonizers felt that Native people needed to learn the value of hierarchy, the role of physical abuse in maintaining that hierarchy, and the importance of women remaining submissive to their men. “They had to convince both men and women that a woman’s proper place was under the authority of her husband and that a man’s proper place was under the authority of the priests.”
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Colonization failed in its attempts to completely annihilate Indian culture and spirituality, but it was successful in causing long-term damage to Native culture and family and social systems. The legacy of the Boarding School Era and the long-term traumatic effects on the children who attended the schools continues to reverberate in subsequent generations. Depriving Indian people the right to parent their children in the natural belief systems of their people became the colonizers’ most powerful weapon of oppression. Over time, many Indian people gradually succumbed to the oppression and internalized it by adopting unnatural belief systems. The internalized oppression resulted in the destruction of some of Indian peoples’ most sacred values.

One of the long-term effects of this internalized oppression is the problem of sexual assault perpetrated by Native spiritual leaders/medicine men. Until recently, this problem has been a well-kept secret because victims were too terrified to disclose abuse perpetrated by someone who seems to be so omnipotent, so godlike. There are no statistics, no studies, and no research on this horrendous act of betrayed trust. The little research available focuses solely on Christian denominations and is either years old or statistically “soft.”
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Authentic, nonviolent spiritual leaders teach people because it is their responsibility to pass what they have learned from their elders to younger generations. The role of a true spiritual leader is to provide spiritual direction and assist individuals in developing a relationship with the Creator. Legitimate spiritual leaders help people identify their own internal source of power, wisdom, and understanding that was placed there by the Creator. Often they are called upon to do more and be more for their people. The real problem begins when a spiritual leader begins to believe he is all-knowing and the person who needs help also starts to believe that he is all-knowing. This leads to a person trusting the spiritual leader and allowing him to not only guide her spiritual process but every aspect of her life.

The spiritual leader may begin to see himself as holy and omnipotent. He may become so narcissistic that he believes he possesses the power to heal and may dismiss the fact that he is only the instrument of a power far greater than himself. In the words of Black Elk, “I cured with the power that came through me. Of course, it was not I who cured, it was the power from the Outer World, the visions and the ceremonies had only made me like a hole through which the power could come to the two-leggeds. If I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power could come through. Then everything I could do would be foolish.”
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Jim Clairmont, a Sicangu Lakota and recognized spiritual helper, when referred to as a spiritual leader, responds, “I am only an
Ikce Wicasa,
a common man.”

The exploitation and abuse perpetrated by these “false medicine men” ranges from financial exploitation, sexual advances, propositions, and inappropriate touching (e.g., groping, fondling during ceremonies) to physical assault, battering, and rape. These spiritual leaders convince those they are helping that they are powerful and must be obeyed. There are even accounts of women saying that they were extremely fearful of the unseen, mystical powers that this man possessed. They feared what he was capable of doing with that mystical power if she were to resist his sexual advances, sexual favors, or his demand for total obedience and financial sacrifice.

There are many warning signs that a “medicine man” may not be genuine or is driven by his own need for power, control, or financial gain. Some of the warning signs that deserve particular attention include the following:

1. The Instant/Self-Proclaimed Medicine Man
   —Unfortunately, there are numerous people (both Native and non-Native) who are self-proclaimed “instant” medicine men. They have not engaged in a lifelong process of learning the unwritten rules of their traditions and spiritual practice through oral tradition or actual participation. In all likelihood they haven’t received the proper admonishments from their spiritual mentors and gatekeepers about what could befall a medicine man who doesn’t adhere to the unwritten rules and who uses their power to exploit others. There is a mistaken belief that one can become a medicine man overnight, as though all that is required is a sacred pipe or participation in a sweat lodge. “One Sunday mass does not make a pope. One sweat lodge does not a medicine man make.”
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2. The Profiteering Medicine Man
   —There are many reports of false medicine men who are receiving monetary payment for their work by charging on a per person basis, with prices ranging upwards of $1,000 for anyone wanting to attend a sweat lodge or needing help. Many of these false medicine men are advertising their services on the Internet and are offering “tutorials” in spirituality. True spiritual leaders do not make a profit from their teachings, whether from selling books or holding workshops or sweat lodges. They do not charge for their services.
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   No one who truly believes in American Indian spirituality would ever offer to tutor total strangers in religious matters online, much less charge anyone money. So, the people who are pilfering in the name of spirituality are not genuine spiritual leaders.