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Plastic Shamans and Astroturf Sun Dances: New Age Commercialization of Native AmericanSpiritualityAuthor(s): Lisa AldredSource: American Indian Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Summer, 2000), pp. 329-352Published by: University of Nebraska PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1185908 .

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PlasticShamansandAstroturfSunDancesNew Age Commercialization of Native American Spirituality

LISA ALDRED

CONSUMING NATIVE AMERICAN SPIRITUALITYCommercial exploitation of Native American spiritual traditions has perme-ated the New Agemovement since its emergencein the 198os.Euro-Americansprofessing to be medicine people have profited from publications and work-shops. Mass quantities of products promoted as "Native American sacredob-jects"havebeen successfullysoldbywhite entrepreneurs o alargelynon-Indianmarket. This essaybegins with an overview of these acts of commercializationas well as Native Americans' objections to such practices. Its real focus, how-ever, is the motivation behind the New Agers'obsession and consumption ofNative American spirituality. Why do New Agers persist in consuming com-mercialized Native American spirituality?What kinds of self-articulatedde-fenses do New Agers offer for these commercial practices?To answer thesequestions, analysisfrom a largersocial and economic perspectiveis needed tofurtherunderstandthe motivations behind New Age consumption.In the so-calledpostmodern cultureoflate consumer capitalism,asignificantnumber of white affluent suburban and urban middle-aged baby-boomerscomplain of feeling uprooted from culturaltraditions,community belonging,and spiritualmeaning. The New Age movement is one such response to thesefeelings.New Agersromanticize an "authentic"and "traditional"NativeAmer-ican culturewhose spiritualitycan savethem from their own sense of malaise.However, as products of the very consumer culture they seek to escape, theseNew Agers pursue spiritual meaning and cultural identification through actsof purchase. Although New Agers identify as a countercultural group, theircommercial actions mesh quite well with mainstream capitalism. Ultimately,their search for spiritual and cultural meaning through material acquisitionleaves them feeling unsatisfied.The community they seek is only imagined, aworld conjuredup by the promises of advertisedproducts,but with no history,social relations, or contextualized culture that would make for a sense of real

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belonging. Meanwhile, their fetishization of Native American spiritualitynotonly masks the social oppression of real Indian peoples but also perpetuatesit.

THE RAINBOW TRIBE: NEW AGERS IDENTIFYINGWITH NATIVE AMERICAN SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS

The term New Age is often used to refer to a movement that emerged in the198os. Its adherents ascribeto an eclectic amalgamof beliefs and practices,of-ten hybridized from various cultures. New Agers tend to focus on what theyreferto as personal transformationand spiritualgrowth. Many of them envi-sion a literal New Age, which is describedas a period of massive change in thefuture when people will live in harmony with nature and each other. Only inthis New Agewill theyrealizethe fullextent of human potential, including spir-itualgrowth,the developmentof psychicabilities,andoptimum physicalhealththrough alternativehealing.Most New Agerscontend thatthis transformationwill not take place through concerted political change directed at existingstructures and institutions. Rather, t will be achieved through individualper-sonal transformation.

The New Ageis only a movement in the loosest sense of the term. There is nocircumscribedcreed or definedtenets in the New Agemovement. Nor arethereany requirements for membership, although studies show most tend to bewhite, middle-aged,andcollegeeducated,with a middle- to upper-middle-classincome. Estimates of people identifying with the New Age movement tend torun from ten to twenty million. Exactnumbers are difficult to ascertain,how-ever,becausemany New Age books have seeped into the mainstreamand haveinfluenced the views of people not consciously identified with the movement.The New Age is thus not a strictlydefined community headedby formallyrec-ognized leaderswith an articulateddogma. Rather,it is a term that is appliedto a heterogeneous collection of philosophies and practices. There is a wideand burgeoning number of practicesassociatedwith the New Age, includinginterests in shamanism, goddessworship, Easternreligions,crystals,paganrit-uals, extraterrestrials, nd channeling spiritbeings. "NativeAmerican spiritu-ality"is among the most popular interests.'It is my contention that the New Age is primarilya consumerist movement.There are a minority of adherents who live together and try to incorporateNew Age philosophies and practicesinto all aspectsof their lives. Some incor-porate these practices into part of their lives by taking workshops and engag-ing in New Age practices in their spare time. However, the majority of thosewho identify themselves as New Age (or who could be reasonablylabeled assuch by others) participateprimarilythrough the purchase of texts and prod-

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ucts targeted for the New Age market. Native American spiritualityis one ofthe most popular and profitablesectors of this New Age commercialism.2In this essay,the term New Agersis used to refer to the sector that is inter-ested in Native Americanspiritualtraditions. Certainly,not everyoneinvolvedin the New Age movement is interestedin Native American spirituality.More-over, there is diversityamong those interested New Agers.A small percentageconstructs their essential identity aroundNative Americanreligion. A numberof those who identify themselves as members of "the RainbowTribe"arguablyfit into this category.Some Rainbow Tribemembers spend time in communi-ties they form, engagedin their own version of Native Americanrituals.How-ever, many New Agers interested in Native American spiritualityparticipateonly through commercially run seminars or the purchase of texts and prod-ucts. This articleis primarilyconcerned with New Agerswhose interest in Na-tive Americanspiritualityis expressedthrough commercialpursuits.Althoughentrepreneurswill be discussedin the overview of New Age commercializationof Native American spirituality,their motivations are not the subject of thisanalysis (arguably, they are shrewd businessmen and women who know howto tap into lucrativemarkets). Rather,this essayseeks to explainwhy New Ageconsumers seek spiritualmeaning through purchase.

PLASTIC MEDICINE MEN FOR HIREA number of "PlasticMedicine People"have surfaced in the New Age move-ment, typically Euro-Americans claiming mentorship by "authentic NativeAmerican medicine people." These "Shakeand Bake Shamans,"as some Na-tive American activists have dubbed them, write best-selling books and leadexpensive workshops claiming to teach their consumers "how to practiceNa-tive American spirituality."By far, the biggest business in New Age appropriationof indigenous spiri-tualitytranspires n the publishing industrywhereplasticmedicine authors arebig sellers.Perhapsthe most successful,not to mention notorious, is LynnAn-drews. Andrews has been dubbed the "BeverlyHills Shaman"by some of herNew Age supportersand the less flatteringepithet "BeverlyHills Witch"by anumber of Native Americans criticizing her commercial exploitation of in-digenous spiritual traditions. Controversy aside, she is a best-selling author,havingmade TheNew YorkTimesandLosAngelesTimesbest-sellerlists on nu-merous occasions. Andrews claims that her books are true accounts of hermentoring experiences with two Canadian Cree medicine women-AgnesWhistling Elk and RubyPlenty Chiefs. In the firsttwo books, these two elderlywomen supposedlyteachAndrewsNativeAmericanshamantechniquesto help


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her battle an evil sorcerer. In subsequent books, the trio encounters a flyinghorse capableof turning into rainbow colors and dolphins, who transmitAus-tralianaboriginaldreamvisions via a eucalyptustree antenna.Another plastic shaman author, MarySummer Rain,has a lucrativecareer,havingpublishedover fifteenbooks basedon Native Americanspiritualthemesand her mentor, a blind Indian woman she calls No-Eyes.3 Interestingly,oneof Lynn Andrews'smentors, Ruby Plenty Chiefs, is also blind. In PhantomsAfoot: Helping the SpiritsAmong Us, Summer Rain claims that No-Eyes en-trustsher with a mission to help lost spirits find their wayto the afterworld.Ina stereotyped Tonto Speak, No-Eyes tells Summer Rain, "No-Eyes gonna bespeakin''bout spiritswho be stupid-dumb."4Native American activistshave greatly castigatedthese works for their trivi-alizationand commercialization of Native American spirituality.Nevertheless,the number of plastic shaman authors, not to mention their commercial suc-cess, continues to swell. JamieSamms is a former country-western singerwhoclaims to channel Leah,an entitysupposedly living on Venus six hundredyearsin the future. Sammslater seized on Native Americanspiritualthemes. Sammsclaims that she wastaught bythe "thirteenclan mothers"who took human formduring the Ice Age and then disappeared,leavingthe "thirteencrystalskulls,"one of which Samms claims to have seen. Samms teaches her readershow tocall up the thirteen clan mothers by focusing on them, each of whom has herown shield and her own specialabilities.5Don Le Vie Jr.,who writesabout IronThunderhorse,is supposedlyof Algonquin heritage.Thunderhorse'steachingsarea mishmash of Native Americanreligion and other New Age favorites,suchas Tibetan Buddhism, Taoism, and Ancient Druidism.6Mary ElizabethMar-low writes about BeautifulPaintedArrow,a PicurisPueblo-Ute who tells Mar-low he has seen two kachinaslanding in a spacemachine and explainshis phi-losophy through allusions to Dances with Wolves.7Doug Boyd has written ontwo Native American medicine men, Rolling Thunder and Mad Bear, bothaffiliatedwith the New Age.8TaishaAbelaris a formeranthropologistwho en-countered a Mexican sorceress while wandering through the mountains ofTucson in the 1960s.She traveledto the woman'shome in Sonora, Mexico, tolive with this woman who turned out to be from the same family of sorcerersthat instructed CarlosCastaneda.9Not all those designated as "plastic"by Native American activists publishbooks. There are quite a number who run workshops, seminars, or centersclaiming to teach Native American spiritual practice. For example, one non-Native Americanwoman who callsherselfMaryThunderruns a New Age cen-ter in Texaswhere she conducts sweats,pipe ceremonies, and talkswith spacealiensthrough Max, the crystalskull.Anotherwoman referred o asOceana,orsometimes O'Shinna, claims to have been born in a crystal spectrum in Colo-


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rado;she mixes Native Americanteachingswith referencesto Atlantis,TibetanBuddhism, and theosophy. Some "plastics" produce videos explaining theirphilosophies and offering "do-it-yourself" instructions for Native Americanceremonies such as sweats.10There are also a number of New Age "channelers"who claim to channel Native American spiritual entities. If paid the requisitesizable fee, these channelers access the wisdom of their Indian guides for theirclients. One woman claims to channel a Hopi Indian named BarkingTree (aswell as BellBell,a giggling six-year-old fromAtlantis,and abeing named Aeffrafrom WesternEurope). A New Ager in Tampa, Florida,claims to channel anentity named Olah,who is supposed to be a reincarnationof both EdgarCayceand the revered Lakotaspiritualentity White BuffaloCalfWoman.

Many Native Americans have been offended by the mockery these bas-tardized versions make of their sacredceremonies. Some of the incidents de-nounced as most offensive include Sun Dances held on Astroturf,sweats heldon cruise ships with wine and cheese served, and sex orgies advertised as partof "traditional Cherokee ceremonies." A typical advertisement for such aworkshop promises an introduction to "coreshamanism-the universalandbasic methods used by the shaman to enter non-ordinary realityfor problemsolving, well-being and healing."" Others make even more specificpromrises;for example, one workshopguaranteesthatyou will retrieveyour own personalpower animal in a trance.12 These workshopsarealso incorporatedinto themeadultcamps,wildernesstrainingprograms,and New Agetravelpackages.13Na-tive American activists have been greatly angeredby the commercial exploita-tion of their spiritualityrepresentedby these workshops. A weekend vision-quest workshop, for instance, can currently run anywhere between $250 to$550(accommodations and meals not included). In 1988,SingingPipeWomanof Springdale,Washington, advertised a two-week pilgrimage that includedstudy with a Huichol woman and was priced at $2,450.Native Americanshavecommented on the bitter irony of these plastic shamansprofiting from the de-grading, twisted versions of Native American rituals while many indigenouspeople still live below the poverty level.14 New Age interest in Native Americanculturesappearsmore concerned with exoticized imagesand romanticizedrit-ualsrevolvingarounda distortedview of NativeAmericanspirituality hanwiththe indigenous peoples themselves and the very real (and often ugly) socio-economic and political problems they face as colonized peoples.

PURCHASING SPIRITUAL POWER THROUGH PRODUCTSNew Ageinterest in NativeAmericanspiritualityhasspawnednumerous prod-ucts over the years.Some products claim to assist the dabbler in Native Amer-ican spiritualpractices. For example, those who do not want to take the time

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and trouble of building their own sweatlodges can call 1-800-36-SWEATto or-der a "sweattent." Or the following kit can be orderedto obtain a more "totalexperience"of Native American spirituality:

YOUR PERSONAL NATIVE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE ... Sageand cedarsmudgesticks omewithholyherb ea. TheSpiritofNativeAmericabook,andtheDesertCDortape- all collectedin a speciallydesignedgreenbox, madefromrecy-cledmaterials,honoringMotherEarthandprovidingyou the opportunity oexperienceNative Americanritualandwisdom.'5

Note that the catalog description promises the consumer "the experience"ofNative American ritual and wisdom through multisensory consumption. Thepurchasercan drink up the sacredness of Native American spiritualitywhilecreatingthe rightambiancewith the scent of sage smudge sticks and the properNew Age music evoking the proper locale. Meanwhile, he or she can read thekit'sbook The Spiritof Native America,which the catalog asserts is amplifiedbyAnna'sauthoritative ext so thatthe "'spiritvoices' of herpeople speakclearlyto you."The catalog promises that,through purchaseand consumption of thisproduct, the consumer can have a directexperience of Native American ritualand wisdom without ever leaving their armchair.Moreover, they are relievedof any guilt over their indulgent feast since the box is made from recycledma-terials and "honorsMother Earth."Entrepreneurshave found ways to blend American Indian spiritualthemeswith otherNew Age objects,such as "NativeAmericanTarot Cards."Theyhaveeven tapped into new markets,such as "carecrystals" or domestic pets. Medi-cine shields have been turned into earringsand the sacred figure of Kokopellinow serves as a wall clock. The advertisement asserts that "Southwest NativeAmerica'splayful 'SpiritGuide to the Fourth World' adds a touch of almost-eerie immortality to home or office!" 6 Perhapsthe eeriness stems from theunsettling irony of imperialist nostalgia. In "InterruptedJourneys:The Cul-turalPolitics of Indian Reburial,"PeminaYellowbirdand KathrynMilun referto these types of objects and attitudestoward them as "imperialistnostalgia,"which they define as a romanticizationthat assumes a pose of innocent yearn-ing thus concealing its complicity with often brutal domination.17NATIVE AMERICAN RESISTANCE, NEW AGE DEFENSES

Many Native Americans are outraged at the commercialization of their spiri-tual traditions. At least two intertribalgroups of Native American elders haveissued proclamationswarning the public that the teachings of these commer-cial profiteers may harm them.'8 As stated in the Resolution of the Fifth An-nual Meeting of the TraditionalElderCircle," M]edicine people arechosen by


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the medicine ndlonginstructionnddisciplines necessaryeforecere-monies ndhealinganbe done .. profits notthemotivation."19omeNa-tiveAmericansave akena hardertand.Leafletsenouncinghecommer-cializationf NativeAmericaneligion avebeendistributedt ecturesivenby"plastics"ndtheirworkshops isrupted yconfrontationsnstigated yNativeAmericanctivists.20 heSouthwesternmericanndianMovement(AIM)Leadershiponferenceeld nWindowRock ntheNavajo ation on-demnedhosewhoprofitedromAmericanndianpirituality.hedocumentnoted he "dramaticncreasen the incidence f selling acred eremonies,suchasthesweatodge, nd hevisionquest, ndofsacredrticles,uchasre-ligious ipes,eathersnd tones." hese ctsweredenounceds"constituting... insultanddisrespectorthewisdom f theancients."hey haracterizedthe commercializationf NativeAmericanpiritualraditions s follows:"[T]he ttemptedheftof Indian eremoniessadirect ttack nd heft romIndian eoplehemselves."nthisdenunciation,numberf"plastics"erelistedbyname.Thedocumentoncludes:[W]e ondemnhosewhoseek oprofitrom ndianpirituality.eput hemonnoticehatourpatiencerowsthinwith hemand heycontinueheirdisrespectttheirownrisk.21 heNa-tionalCongressf Americanndianswenta stepfurther,ssuingwhat heyterm"adeclarationf waragainstwannabees,'ucksters,ultists,ommercialprofiteers,ndself-styledewAge hamans."2

AlthoughomeNewAgersnterestedn NativeAmericanpiritualityaynotbeawaref NativeAmericanrotests,significantumber aveheardheobjections.WhywouldNewAgersontinueoconsume ativeAmericanpir-itualitywhen omany ndian eoplehave xpressedheir eprehensionfthiscommercialization?3 1 etout nmyfieldworko findouthowNewAgersa-tionalizedheirmisappropriationsndconsumptionfNativeAmericanpir-itual raditions.briefnoteonmyresearch ethodsmightprove lucidatinghere. first ncounteredewAgerswhileworkingsanattorneyntheMany-beads ase ortheBigMountain ine n1986.This nitial ncounteraisednumber f questionshatcouldnot beansweredytheusualethnographicmethods elineatingspecificulturalroupn aparticularocale. tbecameincreasinglylear o me that heNewAgewasa nationalmovementwhosemembershipndparticipationas argely efined yconsumption.here-fore, heusual thnographyonductedmong socioculturalroup fpeopleinagivenareawouldnotbeenougho unpackhemyriadmanifestationsftheNewAgeMovement.Myethnographicesearchhen edmeintoplaceshadnotanticipated,uchasNewAgebookstorescrosshecountry, eekendworkshopsedbyNewAge"gurus,"ndeven o cyberspaceewAgechatrooms.My nvestigativeethodsxtended ellbeyondheusualparticipant-observation and interview techniques. My "informants"were no longer lim-


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ited to New Age individuals, but extended to New Age publications, such asself-help books, advertisingcatalogs,and products.In my ethnographic fieldwork,as well as other resources,the most frequentdefense New Agers made to Native Americans' objections against misappro-priation of indigenous traditions was couched in First Amendment terms.New Agers consistently arguedthat their right to religious freedom gavethemthe "right" to Native American religion.24Andy Smith, Native Americanscholar, activist, and former president of Women of All Red Nations (WARN)refutes the New Age claims that they have a "right" o Native American reli-gion through their "rightto freedom of speech."In "ForAll Those Who WereIndian in a Former Life,"Smith aims her attackspecificallyat New Age prac-tices and misappropriationof Native American spirituality among white fem-inists arguing:

Manywhite feministshaveclaimed that Indiansarenot respecting"freedomof speech"by demandingthat whites stop promotingand sellingbooks thatexploitIndianspirituality.However,promotionof this material s destroyingfreedom of speech for Native Americansby ensuringthat our voices willneverbe heard .... Feminists must make a choice,will they respectIndianpoliticalandspiritualautonomyor will theypromotematerials hatarefun-damentallyracistunder the guiseof "freedomof speech"?5

Smith'sargumentis compelling. Givenahistoryand continued social structurein which Native Americans' voices are often overpoweredby dominant whitediscourse, is "freedomof religion"as egalitarianas New Agers suggest?More-over, white New Agers' claim to freedom of religion must exasperateNativeAmericans in light of the history of suppression of Native American spiritualpracticesby the U.S. government. Evenrecent SupremeCourt decisions inter-preting the FirstAmendment and the American Indian Religious FreedomsAct have made it clear that protection of Native American religious freedomsand practicesis a low priority in this country.26Some New Agershavebased their claimof arightto NativeAmericanreligionon the reasoningthat spiritualityand truth cannot be owned. "No one has theright to own the Truth,"stated one of the New AgersI interviewed. GarySny-der, who has won literaryawards for poetry written from the self-proclaimedpersona of a Native American shaman, makes a similar argument:"Spiritual-ity is not something which can be 'owned' like a car or a house. Spiritualknowledge belongs to all humans equally."27 Snyder'sargument implies thatsomething has to be a "propertyright"before someone's requestthat it be re-spected asprivatecan be recognized. More ironically,it overlooks the fact thatthrough Snyder'sprofiting from a claimed Native American shaman persona,work that is copyrighted, he is "owning"at least a piece of Native American

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spirituality.The commercialization of Native American spirituality in bothbooks and products also suggeststhatconsumers "own"Native Americanspir-ituality in some sense. This point is made even clearerby the fact that some en-trepreneurshave incorporatedNative American ceremonies, copyrighted ma-terial on Native American spirituality, and sought trademark protection ofNative American spiritual themes. The Southwest AIMResolution observedthat a group of non-Indians operatingunder the name Vision Quest, Inc. were"stealingthe name and attemptingto stealthe concept of one of our most spir-itual ceremonies."28

New Agershave other defenses againstNative American objections to con-sumption of their spirituality.Some deny this commercialization altogether.Others mask it. For example, in an introduction to a book he coauthored,oneplastic shaman claims, "We offeryou this book to you now as our giveaway."9A giveaway s a practice in tribeswhere materialgoods are given awayto oth-ers; there is no exchange, only the gift. However, this "giveawaybook" is acommercial publication for profit. Other New Agersdefend their commercialexploitationby arguingthatthey are"good people"who "giveto NativeAmer-ican charitiesand support their causes."Consider, for example, the followingexcerpt from the owner of a New Age Native Americanbookstore:

Eightyearsago,I starteda "NewAge"bookstorewithverylimitedfunds andanenormous amount of faith n God.A littleoverayearago,adjacent o thestore,I openeda NativeAmericanbook andgift store. Both fit verywell to-gether,just as we people can workwell together .... I havedonatedlargeamounts of food and money to Native Americans and hold continuousclothesdrivesthroughmy New Agestore. At Thanksgiving ndChristmas,havefood andtoy driveswhicharedistributed o fourdifferentreservations.I subscribeto NativeAmericannewspapersand prayso your struggleswillcease. I supportNativeAmericansby buyingand sellingyourcrafts,so youareable to helpyourselves.30This defense seems to rely on the old Puritanical standby that "good inten-tions" and "charitableacts"somehow absolve someone from the political im-plications of their actions for an oppressed group.In addition, a significantnumber of people defend the commercializationofNative American religious practiceswith an argument that is characteristicofmany New Agers'views towardmoney.Theyarguethat it is "goodmedicine"tomake money or that "money is just spiritualenergyanyway."A good exampleof this kind of argument is found in the following excerpt from Sun Bear.OfNative American descent, Sun Bear,now deceased,wrote a number of plasticshaman texts and attracteda large following of white New Agers who havelegally incorporatedthemselves into a"tribe"with stockofferings.Shawnodese,


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referredto in the following passage, is a white New Age entrepreneur in theSun Bear tribe.Shawnodese,who is now my subchief,and directorof the ApprenticePro-gram,came here in 1979,with a background n abouteverynew-agephilos-ophy available.He had some progressive deasthathavehelpedus in manyways.For one thing, even though I had, atvarious times in my life, been anoperator suchassellingrealestateormen'sclothes)in orderto survive,I stillhad some reservationsaboutbeingtaintedby havinga little extra cash.I feltthatmoneywassomehow bad.Shawnodesehadthe ideathatmoneywasjustenergy,andit was howyou usedit that counted.He took overthe bookkeep-ing for a while and startedwritingaffirmationson everythinghavingto dowith money."

New Agers' own statements defending objections against commercializationof Native American spiritualityshed light on the rationalizationsin their ownpsyches. However, to understand more fully the consumerist nature of theirobsession with Native American spirituality,an analysis of their actions in alargersocial and economic framework is needed.

SEARCHING FOR SPIRITUAL SATISFACTION IN THE SHOPPING MALL

The New Age movement is part of the largercontext of consumer culture. Anumber of social theorists haveproposed that, increasingly, ifestyles, identity,cultural,and even spiritualmeaning have become commodities for purchase.As FredericJameson argued in his influential essay "Postmodernism: or theCulturalLogic of LateCapitalism,"images, styles, and representationsare nolonger mere promotional accessories to economically useful products; theyhavebecome the products themselves. Thus, in contemporary consumer cul-ture, a romanticized representation of Native American spirituality can be-come a product to be purchased and consumed. Grant McCrackenexplainswhy consumers find these products capitalizingon an exoticized Other so ap-pealing. McCracken argues that individuals in a consumer society use con-sumer goods to tryto recoverdisplacedculturalmeaning. He definesdisplacedmeaning asculturalmeaning deliberatelyremoved from the dailylife of a com-munity anddisplacedonto adistantculturaldomain by romanticizinganotherculture.32Mike Featherstoneelaboratesthat, in modern consumer society, re-ligion is placed squarely in the market place along with other meaning sys-tems.33He alludes to the supermarketof lifestyleswhere individualsareable toselect from packagedbodies of meaning systemssuch asreligions.Featherstoneconcludes that there is a tendency in Westernsocieties for religion to become


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aprivate eisuretime pursuitpurchasedin the marketlike anyother consumer-culture lifestyle. Indeed, New Agers "practice" heir version of Native Ameri-can religion through commercial purchase. Unfortunately,Native Americans'spiritualtraditions then become productsto be playfullysampledthrough con-sumption, ignoring Native Americansthemselves as three-dimensional peopleset within historical, socioeconomic, and political relations of oppression.In "Neon Cages,"LaurenLangmanarguesthatprivateconsumption resultsin an increased withdrawal of the individual from public realms.As the publicsphere becomes increasingly fragmented and less gratifying, individuals aremore likelyto withdraw nto their own privaterealmsto seekself-confirmation,gratification,and even expresscounterculturalpracticesand desires.34Accord-ing to Langman,this search for self-identity is especiallyproblematic in a so-cietyinwhich the stable social networks ofkinshipandcommunity havebrokendown. Thus,people flock to the shopping mallsseekinganidentityto relievethehorrors and loneliness of modernity. There, "proto-communities" of strang-ers seek clothes, culturalproducts, and gadgetsthat promise gratificationandrecognition through possession and display. This subjectivity produced byconsumer culture, what Langmancalls "the shopping mall self,"seeks gratifi-cation and arguablyeven "salvation" n consumption by trying to buy moregratifying markers of subjectivity. Yet Langman's"shopping mall self" istrappedin a lonely maze of desire and expenditure.35 Commercialized gratifi-cation only momentarily masksunderlyingterrors of emptiness andlonelinessin consumer society.36Z. Bauman'sconcept of "neo-tribes"mayelucidatemore specificallyhow in-dividualquests for identity through purchasecan result in consumerist move-ments such as the New Age.37This idea of a neo-tribe suggestsan anonymouscollection of individuals who identify with a subculturalgroup through con-ception of a certain style. These are not formally organized "tribes"; n fact,most of their self-identified members have never met one another. Yetthe in-dividual gains a sense of identity and belonging through identification withthis subculturalconsumer group. The concept of a neo-tribe has potential an-alyticvalue for analyzingthe New Age as a consumerist movement. The NewAge movement is a loose collection of individuals.Although small groupsmayinformallymeet regionally,the movement asawhole is arguablyaconsumeristmovement on a national scale. A person often identifies with the New Agesolely through purchase of commodities marketed under its rubric. Perhapsthe most valuablepart of the neo-tribe concept is its explanationof why indi-viduals in mass consumer society seek identity through purchase, a theoriza-tion that can help explain New Agers' preoccupation with Native Americanspirituality.


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Baumanarguesthat individuals feel increasinglyisolatedandlonely as socialrelations in consumer culture continue to break down. People seek neo-tribesin a desperatesearch for community. Ultimately these neo-tribes do not pro-vide the sense of community sought by New Agers because the purchase ofidentity through privateactsof consumption does not establish the desired so-cial relations.Yet,accordingto Bauman,these neo-tribes are essentialin the for-mation of identities in consumer societies. Individualsconstruct their identi-ties based on their individual choice (or, perhapsmore accurately,purchase)oflifestyle.38Bauman'sobservations on the self-fashioning of identity have rele-vance for New Age appropriationof Native American spirituality.New Agers are fashioning an identity for themselves based on a romanti-cized image of Native Americans and their spirituality.This self-fashioning ofidentity provides a type of social solidaritywith othersworking from a similarimage, no matter how temporary,tenuous, or even anonymous these social re-lations maybe. Frequently,when I visited the Native American section of NewAge stores, individuals struck up conversations with me on the basis of ourpresumedshared nterests.Ibelieveindividualsengagedin such self-fashioningview themselves as part of an imagined community of like-minded people.Moreover, these imaginings areprobablya source of pleasureand entail a feel-ing of social belonging. And yet, I agreewith Langmanand Bauman that theseimagined communities can never reallysatisfy such individuals'yearningsforcommunity belonging. These are not communities with sharedhistories, so-cial ties involving interdependence, and daily interaction. Individuals in theseimaginedcommunities seem to grow quicklydissatisfiedandimaginenew ones.JayRosen applies similar observations specifically to the New Age move-ment. He claims that the New Age marketerstarget the desires of people dis-satisfied with their lives;he characterizesthem as "strugglingwith the contra-diction in contemporary life between the emptiness of dailyexistence and thedesire for a meaningfullife."39Rosen arguesthat there is also compatibilitybe-tween the New Age idea of personal transformationthrough spiritualenlight-enment and the "Buythis product and change your life"message underlyingmost advertising.40As Rosen phrasesthis similarity:"Whetherthe product isa book, a tape, a seminar, or a magic crystal,the typical New Age commodityis promoted in exactlythe same way as a new car or a new pair of jeans: as aninstant, total, and enchantingly easy solution to a deeply-felt personal prob-lem."41 Rosen concludes that the dissatisfactionsproduced by consumer cul-ture propel people toward New Age ideas. He alludes to the dislocations ofmodern capitalism, the scarcity of meaningful work, the strain on marriageand childbearing,and the emptiness at the heartof a culture thatvalues move-ment and change. Rosen arguesthat in this uprootedness, identity can only be

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gained in the marketplace.However, Rosen believes that the New Age move-ment offers no relief from this societal malaise. Calling the New Age move-ment "the unwitting partnerof the culture it claims to reject,"he arguesthatit canonly carry he uprooting alittle further.42These theoristshave done muchto shed light on the general subjectivity involved in consumer culture, butwhat is the New Age preoccupation with Native Americans?

THE NOBLE SAVAGE IN NEW AGE GARBAlthough these theorists elucidate the exoticization of the Other in the ab-stract,why are certainNew Agersobsessed specificallywith Native Americansand their spiritualityin particular?What is it about NativeAmerican spiritualbeliefs and practicesthathold such a fascinationfor a certainsector of the NewAge?There has been a long history of obsession in this society with images ofNative Americans. These images have served as Rorschach blots onto whichprevailingsentiments, anxieties, and political moods have been projected.Theimages of Native Americans have changed with the times and in response tohistorical events and attitudes, but these images have always reflected moreabout non-Natives' desires than Native Americans' lives or cultures. Lakotascholar and activistVine Deloria Jr.sheds insight into these projections in hisarticle"PretendIndians."

Indians,the originalpossessorsof the land,seem to haunt the collective un-conscious of the white man and to the degreethatone can identifythe con-flictingimagesof the Indianwhichstalkthe whiteman'swakingperceptionof the worldone can outline the deeper problemsof identityand alienationthat troublehim. A reviewof the variousimagesand interpretations f theIndian,therefore,will give us a fairlyaccuratemap of the fragmentedper-sonalitythatpossessestheAmericanwhiteman. One can startatalmostanypoint and list the collectiveattributes,attitudes,andbeliefs aboutthe Indianand then stripaway he externalimageto revealthe psycheof theAmericanwhite.43Throughout the decades, for every stereotype of "the savageIndian,"therehas coexisted a Noble Savage mage as well. The Noble Savage provides a fan-tasy for Euro-Americanswishing to escapedilemmas of their own culture. Im-itation of Native Americans and other appropriations of their identity haveoften accompanied this romanticization. In "The Tribe Called Wannabee:

PlayingIndian in America and Europe,"Cherokee scholar RaynaGreen doesan excellent job of tracing this historical phenomenon of "playingIndian"from the Boston TeaPartyto YWCAponsored "Indianprincess" programs.44


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Along with these mainstream pretend Indianisms, a number of subculturalgroups have appropriated aspects of Native American peoples' identity, frombohemian artistsin the thirties to hippies in the sixties.45Prior to the New Age movement, other counterculturalgroups seeking al-ternativespiritual experiencessought to appropriateNative Americanreligion.In particular, representations of Indian images played a significant role innineteenth-century spiritualism. The turn-of-the-century spiritualist move-ment involved the consultation of mediums who called upon spirit guidesfrom the other world. RaynaGreen documents the widespread use of Indianspiritualguides in this nineteenth-century spiritualistmovement, especiallyasevidenced in the diaries,autobiographies,and interviewswith practicingspir-itualists.Although Green'sobservationsraiseinteresting questions about pos-sible historical roots of the New Age obsession with Native American spiritu-ality, there is an important difference, as Green herself notes. The New Agemovement's appropriation of Native American identities differs from thenineteenth-century spiritualist movement in its widespread mass commer-cialism of Native American spirituality.Admittedly, the spiritualistmediumscharged their clients fees; some would argue that they createdhoaxes to conmoney from gullible subjects. However, nineteenth-century spiritualism didnot involve the widespread commercialism readily apparent in the New Agemovement.46 Green alludes to the increased commercialism of New Agers"playingIndian" n the following descriptiveanalysis:

Fedby hobbyism,generalcultisms(e.g., the "humanpotentialmovement"),andby a continuingrevitalization f interest n IndiansasspiritualhealersofEuropean lls, the commercialexploitationby Indiangurushas taken on anew life. In these roles of playingIndian,some who aregeneticallyand cul-turallyIndian,but more who arequitemarginal,andotherswho areneither,havedevelopeda "market" or Indianreligiousexperience.47Although "playingIndian"and the fetishization of the Noble Savagehaveexisted since Europeansfirstcame to this continent, what accounts for this in-creased commercial consumption of Native American spirituality since the1980s?Recent consumer capitalism has increasingly appropriatedethnic cul-turaltraditionsin the marketingof images of an exoticized Other.PierreBour-dieu arguesthat the increasing importance of symbolic goods in contemporarycapitalism has increasedthe demand for "culturalspecialists."These culturalspecialistsransackvarious traditions and culturesin orderto produce new in-terpretationsand uses that can be consumed.48Certainly plastic shamans, aswell as other New Age entrepreneurs,could be viewed as "ransackers" f Na-tive American spiritual traditions in search of ways to market them to con-


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sumers. They produce new interpretations by fusing bastardizedversions ofthese traditions with self-help pop psychology, as well as exotic blends appro-priatedfrom other culturaltraditions.Baudrillard adds to the understanding of the marketing of non-Euro-American ethnicity. He argues that capitalist institutions are increasinglyde-pendent on the marketing of images and are thus greedyfor new and diverseimages. Ethnicity thus becomes a source of profit for capitalistsin consumerculture.49Baudrillard'sanalysis yields insight into why publishing companiesand other corporationshave increasinglytapped into images of NativeAmeri-cans and their traditions. In addition Baudrillard,andVizenor'sreadingof himin relationto Native Americans,can also elucidatethe particularromanticizedcommercialism of Native Americans in the New Age movement.InSimulations,Baudrillardarguesthat lateindustrialcapitalism sdominatedby the reproduction of images,which he calls"simulation."GeraldVizenor, inhis book Manifest Manners, extends Baudrillard'snotion of "simulation"torepresentationsand images of "theIndian" n dominant discourse, character-izing New Age plastic shamans as "simulations"of the Indian.50Baudrillardbelieves that the proliferation of reproductions intensifies the desire for theoriginal.Vizenorlabels this desire"nostalgia,"arguingthat the proliferationofplastic shamans grows out of a nostalgic longing for an "authentic"spiritual-ity.51 would characterizethis phenomenon as follows. RealNative Americansare not a part of most Euro-Americans' lives. Yetnon-Indians feel that theirown lives are increasingly"unreal"and "inauthentic,"so they imagine a pre-industrial, pre-EuropeanAmerica where things were "real"and "authentic,"not representationsbut originals. Thus they simulate the original "authenticNative American spirituality"and consume it. Meanwhile, their simulationsallow them to ignore real indigenous peoples and the historical and socio-economic relationsthat tie them together.Vizenor criticizesthese simulatedNew Age shamanson two fronts. First,hesuggeststhey pose a certaindangerbecausethey arestuck in the image of a ro-manticized Noble Savagethat promises an unattainablesalvationfrom bore-dom and melancholy.52Vizenor appearsto be even more bothered by the factthat these plastic shamans and their simulations undermine indigenous peo-ples' strugglesfor survival.He believes that the simulated shamans' obsessionwith the "real"and the "authentic"undermine those he calls"postindianwar-riors."Vizenor uses the term "postindianwarriors" o referto those who helpindigenous peoples survive.He suggeststhatpostindianwarriorsmust embracethe complexities of postmodern culture to help indigenous peoples survive,ratherthanplayinto notions of "authenticity."3 Vizenorbelievesthatthe dom-inant discoursehas maintained its own racistnotions of "authentic"represen-


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tations of Native American culturesin its scholarlyarchivesand elsewherethathave proved oppressive of indigenous peoples.54Thus simulated shamanism,preoccupiedwith the "authentic" ndian, takes its placein this racistdominantdiscourse of oppression.

Philip J.Deloria provides a differentanalysisof the New Age obsession withNative Americans. The notion of "playingIndian" s central to Deloria'sbookof the same name, which traces this Euro-American practice to this nation'searliestyears.Deloria appearsto believe that the notion of Indianness, includ-ing all of the contradictory images from brutal savage to Noble Savage,wascentral to Americans' quests for identities. Deloria ponders whether the NewAge movement set within postmodern culture representsa continuum of thishistorical "playingIndian" or suggestsa unique historical movement.55Over-all, Deloria appears to lean more heavily in favor of there being somethingunique in the New Age "playingIndian"that suggestsa breakwith the contin-uum. In particular,Deloria notes a change in focus from collective concernswith social justice toward a strong focus on individual freedoms.56 Deloria in-sightfully recognizes that this shift inward coupled with the idealization ofIndian spiritualityin the abstracthas erased the complex history of Indians.As Deloria poignantly phrasesit:

Thetendencyof NewAgedevotees o find in Indiannesspersonalsolutions tothe questionof livingthe good life meant that IndianOtherswereimaginedin almost exclusively positive terms--communitarian, environmentallywise, spirituallynsightful.Thishappymulticulturalismblunted the edge ofearliercalls for socialchangeby focusingon pleasantculturalexchanges haterasedthe complexhistoryof Indiansand others.57Philip Deloria recognizes that Indianness has been an open idea imbued witha number of meanings, often contradictory,thatAmericans seeking identitieshavereconfiguredfor their own ends for hundreds of years.He astutely pointsout, however, that "for many, postmodern Indianness had become so de-tached from anything real that it was in danger of lapsing into a bland irrele-vance.ss58 Deloria is bothered by the fact that authenticity in the New Age isconsidered a matter of personalinterpretation,with very fewmaterial or socialforms.59 Moreover, he believes that the disjointed signifiers used by the NewAge weaken the potential power of playing Indian.60 As Deloria observes, "itwas the social reality of authentic, aboriginal Indians that gave Indian playsignificanceand power."61I must note here that I have doubts about Vizenor'snotion of the power of "playingIndian" n general.Giventhe power imbalancebetween dominant society and indigenous peoples, any appropriationof Na-tive Americanculturestrikesme asrife with the potentialof oppression. Iwouldtend to agreemore with RaynaGreen'scritiqueof"playing Indian."Neverthe-


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less, Deloria'sanalysislends insight into the New Age phenomenon of "play-ing Indian."Whereas Vizenor characterizesthe New Age as obsessed with "real"and"authentic"Indianness, Deloria is worried about its lack of concern with "au-thenticity."Vizenor believes "authenticity" o be an oppressive concept as ap-plied to indigenous peoples;Deloria sees "authenticity"aspositive andpower-ful for Native Americans, because it ties into a material world where realindigenous people must be acknowledged.Yetboth scholars seem to agreethatthe New Age movement setwithin the largerpostmodern culturalcontext rep-resents a distinct rupturefrom prior Indian simulations aswell as "playingIn-dian," one that is more dangerous to indigenous peoples in terms of culturalsurvival. I do not find the real danger in either the claim to authenticitythatworries Vizenor or the lack of attention paid to it that worriesDeloria. To me,the greatestdangerin New Age misappropriationof Native American spiritu-ality lies in its commercialization. Commercialization has a way of trivializingthat is particularlyunsettling with regardto the purchaseof spiritualmeaning.Once Native American spiritualtraditionsbecome partof the entrepreneurialmachinery, they are put on a par with every other kind of product. There issomething grossly insulting about advertising copy that lures the consumerinto buying "YourOwn PersonalNativeAmericanSpiritualExperience" n thesame fashionthat it promotes the latest food dehydrator.NativeAmericanspir-itualitybecomes another fad to be sampled (and ultimatelydiscarded)amonga smorgasbordof entertainmentoptions for consumers in a culturethat culti-vates an insatiableappetite.I believe that New Agers are fascinatedwith Native Americans in particu-lar for the same reasons that Euro-Americanshave been obsessed with theirindigenous predecessorsfor hundreds of years.Milun and Yellowbird'snotionof imperialist nostalgia aptly describes this yearning on the part of Euro-Americans for what their culture has oppressed. I believe this imperialistnos-talgiais also fueledby a deeply embedded, unconscious sense of guilt. The Na-tive American, as an exoticized Other, an abstractedimage, has become anopen image onto which Euro-Americanscould project their anxieties and de-sires.Both the image of the brutalsavageand the Noble Savagehavefluctuatedover the years, responding to changing politics and social moods in this na-tion. The Noble Savage n New Age garbis a recent incarnationresponding toa significant minority of the dominant population who have found main-stream culture lacking in meaning. What has changed is that this particularNoble Savagehas been quicklysnapped up by consumer capitalismand mass-marketed. Moreover, this "spirituallywise Noble Savage" ntrudes on a newarea of cultural genocide; this plastic shaman is selling off Native Americans'spiritualtraditions.


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THE VICIOUS CYCLE OF PURCHASED SPIRITUALITYThesubjectivitiesf human xperience roduced nder apitalismeads ofeelingsfalienation.et eoplencreasinglyhink f themselvesndothers sakino commodities.urchasableifestylesremistakenorcommunities.o,driven ythequestorsomekindofcommunityndhistoricalradition, ewAgersetishizeNativeAmericansndtheirreligio-culturalractices. et heonlyway heyknowhow oachieveheattributeshat heyprojectntoNativeAmericanss through ommercializationndpurchase. hiscycledoesnotendtheiralienation.heyarestillsoremovedromanyrecognitionf socialrelationsmuchesshistoricalonflict)hat heycannotunderstandhyNa-tiveAmericaneopleshemselves ouldobjecto theirappropriations.heindividualismhathasbecome haracteristicf bothcapitalismndAmericanpoliticaldeology annot athompolitical nd socialaccountability.et hekindofcommunity ewAgersodesperatelyeek o relieveheir eelings fisolation ould,nmyview,notbedefinedysuperficialrappings,utbycol-lective ccountability.DespiteheNewAgers' rofessionshat heyareworkingowardocial ndculturalhange,heir ommercializationfNativeAmericanpiritualityrtic-ulateswellwithinate-twentieth-centuryonsumerapitalism.heresstronghistorical ndsocial videncehat hecommercializationfideasandvalues,aswellas he etishizedmage f asocial odyperceivedo beethnically ther,stems npart rom hought ndpracticesroduced ithin hecontext fre-centconsumerapitalism.lthoughheNewAgespiritualistsdentifyhem-selvesascountercultural,heiruncriticaldeasabout ommercializationndmarketingracticesppearohave een haped ythe argerapitalist arketeconomy.Moreover,heir mperialisticallyostalgicetishizationf NativeAmericanpiritualityinders nyrecognitionf theirownhistoricalndso-cialcomplicityntheoppressionfindigenouseoples.

NOTES1. Accordingo JamesR. Lewis n his 1992study, herehadbeena recentshift inNew Agers' ocusfromchannelingandcrystals o American ndianspirituality ndshamanism,alongwith "innerchild"work(JamesR. LewisandJ.GordonMelton,eds.,Perspectives n theNew Age [Albany: tateUniversity f NewYork,992], 10).2. According to Melody Baker'ssurvey (A New Consciousness:The True Spirit ofNew Age [Duluth GA:New Thought, 1991], 196),a significant number of respondentslisted"NativeAmericanteachings" s a New Age topic theywouldlike to see morewrittenabout.Similarly,whenasked o listwhatNewAge productsandservices hey


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were interested in, a significant number of respondents indicated that they would liketo see an increase in products and services relatedto "NativeAmerican teachings."3. These books include Earthway:A Native AmericanVisionary'sPath to TotalMind,

Body,and SpiritHealth (New York:Pocketbooks,1999);PhoenixRising:No-Eyes'Visionof the Changesto Come (Norfolk VA:Hampton Roads, 1993);and Dreamwalker:Path ofSacredPower(Norfolk VA:Hampton Roads, 1993)among others.

4. Shortly thereafter,Summer Rain encounters a group of restless spirits from thenineteenth century.These Indian women and children were on their way to meet themen of their tribewhen they perishedfrom smallpox (spread by intentionallyinfectedblanketsgiven to them by the U.S. Cavalry).Summer Rain tells them to admit they aredead and say they want to get home. The men of their tribe then appear with out-stretched arms and the tribe is reunited and returns to the spiritworld (MarySummerRain, Phantoms Afoot: Helping the SpiritsAmong Us [Norfolk VA:Hampton Roads,19931).

5. Jamie Samms, The ThirteenOriginalClanMothers: YourSacredPath to Discover-ing the Gifts, Talents,and Abilitiesof the Feminine throughtheAncient Teachingsof theSisterhood San Francisco:HarperSanFrancisco,1993).6. IronThunderhorse and Don Le Vie Jr.,Returnof the Thunderbeings: New Para-digm ofAncient Shamanism(SantaFe: Bear&Co., 1990).

7. JosephRael with MaryElizabethMarlow,Beingand Vibration(Tulsa,OK:Coun-cil Oak Books, 1993).8. Doug Boyd,Mad Bear:Spirit,Healing,and the Sacred n theLife ofa NativeAmer-ican Medicine Man (New York:Simon & Schuster, 1994) and Rolling Thunder(NewYork:Random House, 1974).Incidentallythe GratefulDead threw a benefit concert for

Rolling Thunder.9. TaishaAbelar, TheSorcerer'sCrossing(New York:Penguin, 1993).Castanedahaswritten the preface to her book.to. See the Bill ElwellJr.videotape entitled "NativeAmerican Indian SacredPurifi-cation SweatLodge Ceremony."11. Michael Harner workshop advertised in Omega: Institute for Holistic Studiescatalogfor summer 1994.Harner was formerlya professor of anthropology atthe NewSchool for Social Researchin New YorkCity.12. Workshop entitled "Healingthe Light Body:The Art of Incan Shamanism"led

by LynneStewart-Whiteadvertised in a brochure forMorning Star:Institute for Holis-tic Studies in Atlanta,Georgia, and scheduled for summer 1994.13. In an advertisement flyer, for example, "Camp Four Winds" bills itself as "A

contemporary experience in Native American harmony, a family resort and summercamp for children and families. We share the light given by Ea Wah Tah (Hiawatha)5,8oo yearsago."An example of the incorporation of Native American rituals in wil-derness training camps is found in the advertisement for "Earth-Heart" n Montana

AMERICAN INDIAN QUARTERLY /SUMMER 2000 /VOL. 24, NO. 3 347

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run by Malcolm H. Ringwalt.Ringwaltleads wilderness-training programs,combinedwith vision quests, and also conducts psychotherapy as part of these "spiritual re-treats."Keepersof the Earth: Tours of the American Southwest-a tour company-lures consumers with the following advertisement: "Awaken connections with yourpast. Transformthe future, join us to honor and explore the earth. Red Rocks, deep-winding canyons, Native American sacred sites, rituals, and ruins heighten your jour-ney. Guided Meditations Optional."

14. Andy Smith, "ForAll Those Who Were Indian in a FormerLife,"Ms. Magazine,Nov.-Dec. 1991,44(2).15. Red Rose Collection Catalog,1996.16. ThePyramid Collection:A Catalog of PersonalGrowth and Exploration(IndianSummer, [sic] 1994).17. Pemina Yellow Bird and Kathryn Milun, "InterruptedJourneys:The CulturalPolitics of Indian Reburial," n Displacements:CulturalIdentities in Question,ed. An-

gelika Bammer (Durham Nc: Duke University Press,1994).18. Resolutionof theFifthAnnual Meeting of the TraditionalEldersCircle(NorthernCheyenne Nation, Two Moons' Camp, Rosebud Creek,Montana, 5 October 1980) [re-printed in WardChurchill,Fantasiesof theMaster Race(Monroe ME:Common Cour-age Press, 1996), 223-225]. TraditionalCircle of Indian Elders, Twelfth Annual Con-ference at Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia (quoted in Jon Magnuson,"SellingNative American Soul," TheChristianCentury,22 November 1989,1086).

19. Resolutionof theFifthAnnual Meeting of the TraditionalEldersCircle,223.20. Native American activists distributed fliers at Hyemeyohsts Storm'slecture at aSan Franciscoworship service that boldly proclaimed, "Oursacred spiritualpracticesare not for sale, and if you try to steal them from us, you are guilty of spiritual geno-cide" (Christopher Shaw, "ATheft of Spirit?"New AgeJournal,July/August1995,84-92). Colorado'sAIM chapterundertook a confrontation with Sun Bear in the midst of a$5oo-per-head,weekend-long "spiritualretreat"being conducted in Granby,Colorado.

21. Southwest AIM LeadershipConference, AIM Resolution, 11May 1984,WindowRock Az, Dine Reservation(reprinted in Churchill, Fantasiesof theMasterRace,228).22. National Congress of American Indians, 1993,reprinted in Shaw, "ATheft ofSpirit?"86.

23. In PlayingIndian, Phillip J. Deloria notes that the Indian-published paper In-dian CountryTodayran a series of articles in 1992denouncing many New Age "medi-cine people" as fraudsand inviting these plastic shamans'responses. Most failed to re-spond to the critiques or give them any validity. Deloria seems even more intriguedwith the lack of effect of these articles on the New Age movement as a whole. He ob-serves:"[T]he newspaper'sdetailed investigativereportinghad no appreciableeffectonNew Age audiences. Indian presence was noted. Complaints, however, were ignoredand suggestions rejected"(Phillip J.Deloria, PlayingIndian [New Haven CT:YaleUni-versity Press, 1998]).


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24. It might be noted that the "freedom of religion"clausein the FirstAmendmentprotects individuals from government infringement of their right to hold their reli-gious beliefs. It does not guaranteethem a right of access to a particulargroup'sspiri-tual traditions. Given that Native American reservations are recognized as "domesticdependent nations"by the U.S. government (and some have never conceded U.S. sov-ereignty at all), this "rightof access" is even more unfounded from a legal standpoint.

25. Smith, "ForAll Those Who Were Indian in a FormerLife,"44(2).26. For example, in Lyngv NorthwestCemeteryProtectiveAssociation,the SupremeCourt held that the FirstAmendment rights of members of three Indian tribes to reli-gious freedom were not violated by the construction of a state forest roadin close prox-imityto importantsacred sites (LyngvNorthwestIndianCemeteryProtectionAssociation,485us 439 [1988]).In the majorityopinion, JusticeSandraDay O'Connor noted: "TheConstitution does not, and courts cannot, offer to reconcile the various competing de-mands on government, many of them rooted in sincere religious belief, that inevitablyarisein so diverse a society as ours"(LyngvNorthwestIndian CemeteryProtectionAsso-ciation,485 us 452 [1988]). The Lyngdecision also concluded that the American IndianReligious Freedom Act of 1978did not protect tribalsacred sites;they also determinedthat AIRFA was merelya statement of policy without anymeans ofjudicial enforcement.

27. Quoted in Churchill,Fantasiesof the MasterRace,219.28. Southwest AIM LeadershipConference, AIM Resolution, 1May1984,WindowRock AZ,Dine Reservation(reprinted in Churchill, Fantasiesof the MasterRace,228).29. Sun Bear, Wabun Wind, and Edward B. Weinstock, The Path to Power (NewYork:Prentice-Hall, 1987),30.30. Letter from a reader to editors of Wildfire(Sun BearTribe'smagazine) 6, no. 4(Fall/Winter 1996).31. Sun Bear,Wabun, and Weinstock, The Path to Power,260.32. Grant McCracken, Cultureand Consumption:New Approachesto the SymbolicCharacterof ConsumerGoods and Activities (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,1988),l6 -7.33. Mike Featherstone,ConsumerCultureand Postmodernism London: Sage,1991).34. Lauren Langman, "Neon Cages: Shopping for Subjectivity"in LifestyleShop-ping: TheSubjectof Consumption,ed. Rob Shields (London: Routledge, 1992).35. Ibid., 68.36. Ibid., 68.37. Z. Bauman, "Survivalas a Social Construct," Theory,Culture, and Society 9

(1992): 1-36.38. Ibid., 25.39. JayRosen, "Optimism and Dread: T.V.and the New Age"in Not NecessarilytheNew Age: CriticalEssays,ed. Robert Basil (Buffalo NY: Prometheus Books, 1988),275.40. JayRosen, "Consumer Culture and the New Age," SkepticalInquirer13,no. 4(1989):401- 4.


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41. Rosen, "Optimism and Dread," 271.42. Ibid., 288.43. In GodIs Red,Vine Deloria Jr.backs up his proposition that Americans attemptto find authenticity and some kind of historical roots in American Indians by citing abizarrefragment of a William Carlos Williams poem: "The land! Doesn't it make youwant to go out and lift dead Indianstenderly from their graves,to steal from them-as if it must be clinging even to their corpses-some authenticity" (Vine Deloria Jr.,GodIs Red [New York:Grosset and Dunlap, 1977], xi).44. RaynaGreen, "The TribeCalled Wannabee:PlayingIndian in America and Eu-

rope," Folklore 99, no. 1 (1988): 30-55.45. Green discusses the "Taos cult of the thirties, with Mabel Dodge Luhan, her

'guru'Indian husband Tony,her covey of displaced,hedonistic New Yorkers,and obei-sance to the cult goddess, GeorgiaO'Keefe"("TheTribeCalledWannabee,"43). Greenarguesthat the Southwestbecame more than a canvas or scene for the camera lenswiththis thirties cult; it became a style. Green also points out that countercultural hippiesin the sixties often donned headbands,beads, fringed jackets,and purses adorned withfeathers.Philip Deloria gives an insightful analysisof counterculture's fascinationwith"playingIndian" n chap. 6, "Counterculture Indians and the New Age,"in Philip De-loria, PlayingIndian (New Haven: YaleUniversity Press,1998), 154-80.

46. Although I believe that New Age commercialization of Native American spiri-tuality is on a much wider scale than the nineteenth-century spiritualistmovement, Ido not want to overlook the history of commercialization of the "Indian" mage sincethe late 18oos. Daniel Francistraces the use of the Indian in advertisingand productsfrom the late nineteenth century through the twentieth century (Daniel Francis,"Mar-keting the ImaginaryIndian,"chap. 8 in TheImaginaryIndian [VancouverBC:ArsenalPulp Press,1992]).

47. Green, "The TribeCalledWannabee,"45.48. Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction:A Social Critiqueof the Judgmentof Taste,trans.R. Nice (London: Routledge & Kegan,1984).49. JeanBaudrillard,Simulations(New York:Semiotext(e), 1983).50. As Vizenor phrases it, "The simulation of the indian is the absence of real na-tives-the contrivance of the other in the course of dominance. Truly,natives are thestories of an imagic presence, and indians are the actual absence-the simulations ofthe tragic primitive (GeraldVizenor, ManifestManners:Narrativeson Postindian Sur-vivance [Lincoln:University of NebraskaPress, 1999], vii).51. As Vizenor analyzes the rise of plastic shamans: "'When the real is no longerwhat it used to be, nostalgia assumes its full meaning,' wrote Baudrillard n Simulacraand Simulations.There is a proliferationof myths of origin and signs of reality;of sec-

ond hand truth, objectivity,and authenticity.Nostalgia, and the melancholia of dom-inance, arecommon sources of simulations in manifest manners;mother earthand theshamans of the other are summoned to surrendertheir peace and harmonies in spiri-tual movements" (Vizenor, ManifestManners, 25).350 Aldred: New Age Commercialization of Native American Spirituality

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52. This idea of New Age simulations of Indians is evident in Vizenor's analysis ofthe RainbowTribe.As he argues:"Thesimulations of his rainbowtribe [referring o EdMcGaa] are treacherous, in one sense, because nostalgia is the absence of the real, notthe presence of imagination and the wild seasons of peace. The rainbow tribe is a di-version, it would seem, a simulation marooned in the romance of the noble savageandthe unattainable salvation of absolute boredom and melancholy" (Vizenor, ManifestManners,25).

53. As Vizenor phrases it: "The postindian warriors and posers are not the newshaman healers of the unreal. Simulations and the absence of the real are curativeby chance ... postindian warriors are wounded by the real"(Vizenor, ManifestMan-ners,23).

54. This idea of Euro-American definitions of "authentic"representationsof NativeAmericancultures is suggestedbyVizenor'sdefinition of"manifest manners,"the termhe chooses as the title of his book. Vizenor defines manifest manners as "thecourse ofdominance, the racialist notions and misnomers sustained in archives and lexicons as'authentic'representationsof indian cultures"(Vizenor, ManifestManners,x).

55. As Deloria phrases his quandary:"What concerns me even more, however, arethe waysin which a contradictory notion of Indianness, so central to American questsfor identities, changed shape yet again in the context of these postmodern crises ofmeaning. On the one hand, the refiguringsof Indianness produced by the countercul-ture and the New Age reflect a historical moment unique from those we have alreadyexamined. On the other hand, the diverse practiceswe often subsume under the wordpostmodernmay simply echo the familiar toying with meaning and identity we haveseen in a long tradition of Indian play.Or maybeboth notions aretrue"(Deloria, Play-ingIndian, 157).

56. As Deloria elucidates:"Andyet, placed in the context of a postmodernism thatemphasized relativismand openness, it was easy to read cosmopolitan multicultural-ism as a license for anyone to choose an ethnic identity-Indian, for example-re-gardlessof family,history, or tribalrecognition. When non-Indian New Age followersappropriatedand altered a cosmopolitan understanding of Indianness, they laid barea slow rebalancing away from the collective concerns with social justice that hademerged in the 196os and toward the renewed focus on individual freedom that hascharacterizedAmerica since the 198os"(Philip Deloria, PlayingIndian, 173).Later,De-loria astutely observes: "Indeed, the New Age's greatest intellectual temptation lies inthe wistful fallacythat one can engage in social struggleby working on oneself" (Delo-ria,PlayingIndian, 177).

57. Deloria, PlayingIndian, 174.58. Ibid., 175.59. As Deloria notes, "Inthe New Age, authenticityhad fewmaterial or social forms.Rather it resided-like all good, unknowable essentials-in a person's interpretiveheart and soul" (Deloria, PlayingIndian, 176). In particular, (and fitting with the title

of this section ("The Noble Savage in New Age Garb"), Deloria seems particularlyAMERICAN INDIAN QUARTERLY /SUMMER 2000 /VOL. 24, NO. 3 351

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bothered by the clothes chosen by New Agers in playing Indian. As he notes, "Itwasperhaps indicative of the nature of the movement (New Age) that its followers tendedto play Indian in ways that were very low-grade. A bandana, an assumed name, a per-sonal fetish--any one would suffice.... The concrete nature of clothing has alwaysin-sured that, even in the midst of creativeplay,a thread of social connection bound realIndians to those who mimed them" (Deloria, PlayingIndian, 175).

6o. As Deloria phrases it, "When the New Age turned to disjointed signifiers-aheadband rife with associations, a stylized pipe influenced (one would almost swear)by J.R. R.Tolkien,a set of tropes from one'spersonallibrary--adherents allowed someof the true creative power of Indianness to slip away"(Deloria, PlayingIndian, 176).61. Deloria, PlayingIndian, 176.Deloria believes thatNative American activistswhooppose New Agers "playingIndian"wield power. These activists combat the New Age(and postmodern) discourse that tries to subsume everything in a language of openculturalmeanings by offeringa pluralistdiscourse thathighlights power, struggle,andinequality.As Deloria poignantly states:

[I]t was ... important that they (the oppositional warriors) speak-and speakcritically,for in doing so, they offered one of the only indicators of authentic dif-ference functioning in the world of texts, interpretations,and unchained mean-ings. Whereas Sun Bear and Medicine Woman Lynn Andrews inhabited a cul-tural world easily sharedby Indians and non-Indians, oppositional nativepeoplefocused on social and political worlds, where the differences between the reser-vation, the urban ghetto, and the Beverly Hills Hotel ... stood in stark relief.When they tried to force non-Indians to translate from the cosmopolitan lan-guage of open cultural meanings to the pluralist languages of power, struggle,and inequality, they rethreaded the materialconnections thatmade Indiannesssoreal (Deloria, PlayingIndian, 177).

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