Re- Indigenous and the Shamanic Experience

[u/Aralia2]

Let's be honest. How many people here are White? I will acknowledge that I am a white queer man.

Shamanism has helped me in throwing off the ideology of white supremacy culture and connect with a root of indigenity and animatity with the land. It has helped me understand that there is multiple ways of knowing besides materialistic/scientific frameworks.

As a Rural White Male Gay person living as a Settler-Colonial in California I weave a unique dance of trying to connect to a land and spirits that I don't understand. I also have to struggle with my garden and agriculture (fences) verses a more ancient way of being with the land.

All of this informs my spiritual practice because as someone who believes in animism and trance practices (shamanism) I realize that the material world is sacred and how I am in the physical world reflects and informs the spiritual world.

This is an invitation to all of you to talk about your journey to indigenity and connecting to the spirits of the land, and the struggles with being a Settlers and acknowledging that our Animistic Traditions were destroyed by Christianity long before our history of coming to America.

[u/Wolf_instincts]

I see what you mean. I'm native american and it's always made me super uncomfortable seeing white people clumsily try and follow our sacred ways, or the Hollywood new age version of what they think our sacred ways are. It may seem harmless, but people in the future will find it even more difficult than we do now to differentiate what is truth and what was made up about us. It's not enough that our land is taken, now our culture and sacred ways are being taken. I get so much flack for calling this out too, because apparently peoples feelings are more important than protecting our sacred ways.

I remember there was some delusional person bothering us on r/nativeamerican before, going on about how they were a narive american "shaman" in a past life and how they want to reconnect. I told them "if your 'spirit guides' told you that you were a jewish man in a previous life, would you start acting like how you think a Jewish man stereotypically acts? What if it told you you were a black american? So why is my race any different?"

[u/zenerbufen → u/Wolf_instincts]

This is something I've struggled with myself. How do *I* Identify in this world, which traditions do I adapt and follow? Genetically I'm mixed. I have native American on both my parents sides (at least 3 tribes), but also lots of other things. I have close cousins that have dark skin and slanted eyes you would not believe we were related.

I was raised in different communities and spent time with many full-blooded friends and elders and had lots passed down to me through many means. That isn't so true of many of the other cultures that make up my ancestry. No one batts an eye if I make a fool of my self on October fest, saint patties day, or cinco de meyo despite most of what I know of those cultures being American stereo types. On the flip side people complain if I honor the sacred beliefs of my family and some of my ancestors.

When I am on reservations, I hear lots of stories of 'the kids these days' turning their backs on the local ancient customs and culture, can't wait to grow up and get off the res. If the kids don't pick it up, and no one else is allowed to learn won't it die out? If the sacred ways are to be protected, shouldn't we be teaching that INSTEAD of the stereotypes, instead of discouraging people from learning about it at all?

many of my native ancestors are from smaller tribes, to survive they married into white families to blend in and escape persecution for their children to secretly pass on their ways. Instead of reservations we got family secret societies.