We cannot all sit on the same side of the fire . . .
But we can all sit at the same fire.

Welcome, come in, the Shoe Store is open. Let's try this on for size:

• Are you spreading hate?
• Are you allowing hate to spread?
• Does silence give consent?

As usual, we will start with me. It has been called to my attention, by a reputable and trusted source, that one of the links on my page contains a chat and message board that has incited people to vandalism and the endangerment of lives.

The hate crime took place at Fallon, NV, where a sundance was held. This particular ceremony is a great strain on the participants, as they must "stand thirsty."

While the ceremony was taking place, person or persons unknown put sand in the gas tanks of several cars. The damage that resulted also endangered families with children that had to cross that Nevada desert.

There are many links that I do not agree with the content in part, but I do not censor and I believe the best way to find out who is who, and what is what, is to investigate with an open mind.

So here it is and you can sort it out.

This site: NativeWeb, and one particular person, is being accused of hosting conversations slandering this site: Medicinemanforhire, and of being the source of inciting the vandalism in Fallon.

I have read the a transcript of one of the chats there and I mostly saw uninformed speculation.

Here is a report from my online friend Deb, who sent me the transcript and was also at the Sundance:

"The Medicine People from Sharetech decided to give an open invitation on line to anyone who wanted to attend their new Sacred Place on the Payute-Shoshone Rez just outside Fallon, NV.

"There was held a traditional Shoshone Sun Dance (not like I am used to in the Midwest, but close, too); and also a meeting of the Native American Peyote Church (Navajo).

"The flamers instigated someone Or a group of someone's to put sand in the gas tanks or oil pans of many of the attendants under the cover of night. The Sun Dancers had fasted the full 10 days and had Danced the last three. The Peyote Men and the attendants had prayed and sung and shared the Sacred Tea for nearly an entire 24 hours.

"Many of the people in attendance were either suffering from diabetes or cancer or some other ailment that the BIA health serve or their HMO couldn't be bothered to treat with compassion anymore.

"The Medicine People were very tired and most of the people in attendance had little money to share...they gifted in the old way because of circumstances. Nobody was even breaking even, let alone lining their pockets.

"All the Medicine People are registered (which is stuff I could care less about, those damnable Dachau numbers...), and the majority of the attendants were full or mixed bloods or the family or friends of the same. These people were too burned out and low on cash to deserve risking their lives and their family's lives when their engines blew on their trip home. Dude Perry had his wife and kids with him when his blew.

"I had to go on to the Navajo Sheep Is Life meeting in Canyon De Chelly before I went back to my Rez in CA, and was lucky I had just changed out my carburetor and put on an external gas filter...but my motor is seeping gas and smells like it is ready to burn."

At the root of all of this is the controversy of who is "real" and who isn't. There are those who say that the name "Medicinemanforhire" shows that these are false practioneers, or that healers should not charge for their services.

Here is what Deb has to say about that:

"I have been writing grants for a non-profit group of medicine people called Sharetech. One of their philanthropists (who is mixie with Lenape) is a great writer who has a bunch of best sellers out...through Llewellen press who are the only people who would touch American Indian Spirituality with a 10 foot pole.

"She invented the URL name www.medicinemanforhire.com to bring attention to what we call the "turnip factor", that indigenous traditional healing and practices are devalued, and ongoing propaganda against traditional Indian practices will end up destroying both the practices and the practitioners (from starvation, likely).

"It seems to me that not all these people are just nutz or some kind of hate crimers. I see the hand of the DOI and it's misinformation machine here.

"In the 1910's and 1920's traditional Medicine People were paid top dollar and residuals for sharing their formulas and techniques with the medical industry. Now they are supposed to accept a carton of cigarettes when they come hundreds of miles and work on the terminally ill who can't find anyone in their own community to help them (because of the suppression of traditional healing along with all the other traditions of Turtle Island)."

Here is a little bit about Deb:

Deb Huglin
Coordinating Archaeologist
E.M.I.T.A.
Early Man in the Americas
Palm Springs, CA

"I spend my time fighting the mismanagement of NAGPRA by the NPS Archaeology div, and putting the Ancestors and their Burial Presents back. People have lived on Turtle Island since Creation, and the archaeological proof of this has been suppressed. I am pledged to getting it back out of the closet this century. I am at the bottom of the media interest in such matters for the past two years.

See: U.S. News and Discover Science News and most others you can find as of August, 1997... just ask Russell Means as he was in on it."

Or do we let the remark pass and perhaps allow the speaker to believe that our silence gives consent?

In the Hopi Check List we are told: "Speak your truth; it is time now."

There is a previous article relating to this: The Right To Believe