The plea by Lakota spiritual leader Arvol Looking Horse comes in response to the recent deaths at a sweat lodge-type ceremony in Arizona. (See previous post, here.)

The so-called sweat, which claimed two lives, took place during a five-day retreat in Sedona, Ariz., run by white self-help guru James Arthur Ray. Ray’s Spiritual Warrior programs charges people almost $10,000 apiece.

As this piece in Black Hills Today points out, traditional Native sweats are spiritual and the idea of charging for them is anathema. “It appears that once again greed interfered with common sense,” the piece says.

And it quotes Looking Horse, a 19th-generation keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, who says, “I am concerned for the two deaths and illnesses of the many people that participated in a sweat lodge in Sedona, Arizona, that brought our sacred rite under fire in the news. I would like to clarify that this lodge and many others, are not our ceremonial way of life … My prayers go out for their families and loved ones for their loss.”

In 2006, Looking Horse received the Juliet Hollister Award for promoting peace and interfaith and secular understanding by the Temple of Understanding, joining past recipients Nelson Mandela, Ravi Shankar and the Dalai Lama.

Looking Horse says that while non-Native people have a right to seek help from First Nations intercessors, he has a plea:

“I would like to ask All Nations upon Grandmother Earth to please respect our sacred ceremonial way of life and stop the exploitation of our Tunka Oyate (Spiritual Grandfathers).”

Gwen Florio

Tags: Arvol Looking Horse, buffalo post, James Arthur Ray, Lakota, Native American news, Native culture and heritage

“Intrigue and Novelty” is the title of a showing of the work of seven contemporary Native American women artists at Chicago’s Beacon Street gallery that started last week and shows through Dec. 18.
The gallery does not specialize in the work of Native artists, but does routinely feature it, according to this story in Indian Country Today.

“This is the 10th year for the gallery to have a show that is all Native American artists. This year’s show really allows Native American women to speak for themselves, something that a lot of the gallery market does not provide for; that of featuring all women artists and that of women of color,” says gallery co-director Patricia Murphy. “Approximately 80 to 90 percent of national art galleries feature mostly white male artists.”

The artists in the show include Christine Caluya, Amber Gunn Gauthier, Nadya Kwandibens, America Meredith, Rose B. Simpson, Debra Yepa-Pappan and Linda Lomahaftewa, whose “New Mexico Sunset” is pictured above. Most are alumni or faculty of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The show’s title, according to writer Brita Brookes, was derived from these experiences in which the theme of “intrigue” is drawn from the fascination of Native ceremonies and artifacts by non-natives and the “novelty” theme being derived from today’s modern instant culture.

Information on this show can be found here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Intrique and Novelty", Amber Gunn Gauthier, America Meredith, Beacon Street gallery, buffalo post, Christine Caluya, Debra Yepa-Pappan, Institute of American Indian Arts, Linda Lomahaftewa, Nadya Kwandibens, Native American news, Native art, Rose B. Simpson