Interfaith Group

For over a century, the US government outlawed and actively suppressed us. At Wounded Knee, the Seventh US Cavalry butchered 300 men, women and children who were travelling peaceful to a religious gathering. More than half a century later, when my grandfather held Ceremony, my uncles and older male cousins all carried rifles or shotguns in case the white Baptist folk down the road became "agitated." Dress code for women and kids was "something you can run in."

Now, of course, we're "fashionable." The problem is not finding a safe place to hold Ceremony but fielding earnest inquiries from white wannabes who want to convert. We tend to discourage that pretty strongly, some teachers more than others. (The absolute surest way to get turned down is to claim that "My grandmother was a Cherokee/Lakota/Apache/Whatever Princess.&quot