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Are the Indigenous cultures fair game for anyone to pick up and use to their own advantage? This question is not only directed to the New Age practioners, but at the "artists" who make money selling sometimes respectful, but somtimes twisted, versions of rock art figures and other Native American images. It applies to the lodges and clubs that use pseudo-Indian ceremonies and to the fake Indians who are "moderators" in AOL chat rooms and radio talk shows.
"All misguided and ill-founded opinions about Indians do us damage. However, the one that is often overlooked or even accepted because it seems to be less offensive - although ultimately, it is just as misleading and just as damaging - is the notion that Indians are or should be mystical and mysterious. When this is connected to the notion that Indians are capable of "communing" with nature, sensible Indian approaches to relating to the natural environment are obscured. Although we did - and do - commune with nature, that communion is not based on mystical abilities but on our acceptance of the realities of the physical world; in short, we accepted the facts of what nature is and does."
Joseph Marshall III
In Not All Indians Dance
On Behalf of the Wolf and the First Peoples, Red Crane Books