First, I am 57 years old, a Vietnam vet (Army, medic), Tribal Prosecutor for a northwestern Tribe. I graduated from Harvard Law School prior to getting a draft invitation. I have practiced law privately for many years in Alaska (representing among others two Village Corporations, one Athabaskan, one Yupik) and Idaho, before becoming a City Attorney and then my present vocation. I am descended, but not enrolled. Now I do not go around teaching my family tradition as things of my People, though bits and pieces are real. I do not pretend to be a spokesperson for my People. I do not look at basket patterns in historic works of my People and think of using them for anything other than basket patterns, because no one has taught me the proper way to use them or adapt them. I know what may or may not be traditional thought as came to me from my father, which he said came from his Grandmother: but whether these are [our family] things, or genuine traditional Our-Band-of-Algonqian things I do not know, and so cannot teach others than my own children for whom in any event our family tradition is valid. These specifics of world view I will not share out of the family for fear of spreading misinformation. For example, I know the names of various of what some call Manitous, but I do not pretend to the whole of the philosophy associated with such, beyond what my father expressed as a world view, and will not pretend I do, let alone teach a doing of it. I will not call Earth, Turtle Island, even though the turtle figures in the art works of the People, for I do not know that they called Earth Turtle Island, and will not spread a potentially false image of my People. I know what animal my father taught to be a family influence, but will not teach as a Clan person. 
 

Of late there has been much heat associated with occasional bright light on such a great span of difficulties for Indians today. 
 

In words of anger and passion. In words of whining and sputtering. In words of put down and in words of adulation. 
 

Various of us had our 'buttons' pushed, with predictable results. It is well that I was away from my place of work and unable (because of spam protections) to post from a remote location, and thus unable to do more than read and think. There are philosophies deeply held: people have a right to create art according to their inspiration, be it verbal or graphic; People have a right to their culture, unadulterated, and safe from distortion and misappropriation. These two philosophies can be opposed to each other, as was apparently the case here. 
 

Listen to me a moment, those who spoke in anger to defend art: would you not be upset if you discovered someone completely unknown to you had been going around your town impersonating you? 
 

Would it make it any better if that one did a good job of accurately portraying you? 
 

How would you feel if that impersonator was talking to strangers who do not otherwise know you, pretending to be you? I that impersonator was talking to people who thought that impersonator was you, but mixing up your beliefs with someone else's beliefs, maybe speaking your brother's beliefs or your cousin's beliefs, or some other stranger's beliefs, but talking beliefs that were not yours -- and saying those beliefs are yours? Would you not be upset? Would you not feel yourself to have been violated? 
 

I dare say most people would be outraged at such an impersonator. 
 

I do not judge who is the 'better' person or more legitimate person. There are spokespersons here for many views. I have said in the past that people can be Indian legally (enrolled, CDIB), ethnically (actually, factually descended), and culturally (born and brought up in a tradition loved, absorbed, and as much a part of the Person as are the bones), or some combination of the foregoing. It is depressing to me how few are all three. It is depressing to me how many go around saying they are the third, but lacking credibility in that regard. It makes me sick how **many sell bits and pieces of the outward signs of the third, without regard to the whole of the third. 
 

You see, I have a problem with people going around in the world pretending to be 'me,' which I and many others deeply resent and fear, and from time to time I have thought I got a whiff of one here. I believe that Mike[TwoHorse] is reacting and speaking from that same perspective, and I am very sure Mike can correct me if I am wrong. 
 

Another writer asked a fair question: what is to become of people who are ethnically Indian, but neither legally, nor culturally Indian? Some of those people do not know what they are. Ohers know, but are at a loss how to approach their heritage. Now that it is socially acceptable, if not fashionable, to be Indian, many of those ethnically Indian are coming out of their families' closets and saying, 'hey, look here, I am Indian.' They are being truthful in at least one of those three aspects to being Indian, but someone else who thinks you have to be all three kinds of Indian to be 'Indian,' can be offended. Let me say this: those who are offended have a right to be offended but not a right to demand that everyone else be offended. Those who are all three need to figure out how to accept help from those who are only one, or one-and-a-half, given that Indian Fighters are still out and about in our World and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. 
 

What troubles me is when I get someone who is saying they are culturally Indian when they are not. That is someone pretending to be me, or pretending to be others whom I know, when they are not. Now let that one not say hey I am culturally Indian, rather let that one say I admire culturally Indian, and I wish to create art, and let me ask you, have I offended or may I offer this art with respect? 
 

I do not trust a not-traditional-Person to teach traditional things, and I do not trust a not-traditional-Person fully to understand traditional things. I am worried that someday there will be no traditional Person who genuinely knows and understands being a traditional Person, *and that the spreading of pseudo-tradition will hasten that day*. Can we not all understand that Fear?
 

Now [someone], has written a poem, which was indeed lovely, and others have leapt to her defense, defending free speech and loveliness, and point to the past practice of this forum to accept loveliness for its own sake. 
 

And we have persons here or referred to here who are labelled by others as Elders and addressed as Grandfather and Grandmother. I mean no offense to such persons, for they must understand I know nothing about them as they know nothing about me, except bits and pieces of words spoken here. And I ask again when an Elder speaks to those of us of many backgrounds iterally world-wide, from what tradition the Elder speak. And I tell you I speak only from my own family tradition of thoughtfulness and peace-speaking and seeking to see all sides of all issues. I would ask all who spoke here in anger: are you sure you understand how that *other* person sees the situation *in that other person's mind*? Are you speaking to that other person in terms of that other person's thoughts? One does not make peace with the Russian or achieve understanding with the Russian by asking him first to admit that Russia is evil. Remember, walk a mile in my shoes!

  As I started out, the two philosphies collided.
 

The Judeo-Christian Book (or was it Will Shakespeare?) says 'to thine own self be true.' 
 

Which feeds back into the Indian debate about WHAT IS ones own self, when one is not legally, ethnically, and culturally Indian, all three, but only one or two of them? Some say that to be Indian one must be the second and at a least a MODEST and RETICENT student of the third from a teacher who is profoundly and sincerely and authentically both. Others say you must be the first and the second, and the third is of no use in the present world. They too have a point to be heard. A footnote: culture is an immersion thing, not a dabble thing.
 

If I have misrepresented the thoughts of anyone here, my apologies, and teach me quietly, please.
 

Let us get on with our lives. For me it is enough that if there is a Wanabi Indian here, that that one may have a small chance to learn modesty and the limits of their own self.
 

I have likely said more than enough.
 
 

As always, thank you for listening.

[signature omitted by request] 

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