"This book, Seven Arrows, will bring disgrace to Harper and Row.... Its content falsifies and desecrates the traditions and religion of the Northern Cheyenne, which it purports to describe. ... If he is indeed Indian (and the tribal chairman states, 'I don't know how he ever got on the rolls,') then shame on him for making a blasphemous travesty of the Cheyenne Way in Seven Arrows. The color plates are a solid disaster, in extremely poor taste, and in fact the end result desecrates the Cheyenne religion. ... The designs are actually blasphemous to Cheyenne religion, portraying Christian religious motifs in the worst possible manner, making a mockery of the religious beliefs and the theological systems of the people. ... There are so many irreligious and irreverent inaccuracies in this book.... to many Cheyenne people ... the reaction to Seven Arrows was disbelief and anger. It was ... based upon a falsification and desecration of Cheyenne beliefs and religion. ... The book is a White Man's interpretation of the Cheyenne. A reader searching for an understanding of the true beauty and profoundly moving religion of the Cheyenne people will not find it in this book. ...this author ... has no religious or secular status in the tribe."
The Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council officially condemned Storm's book Seven Arrows, citing numerous inaccuracies, as did Cheyenne Elders such as Joe Little Coyote. The book's publisher, Harper and Row, paid US$7,500 in reparations (intended to be "all profits presently accrued to Seven Arrows as well as all future profits earned by it.") each to the Northern and Southern Cheyenne, and reclassified the book as fiction.[15][42][22]
"Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Mr. Chuck Storm's book Seven Arrows is the fact that some of the beliefs which he presents in his book as having been derived from our spiritual ways are completely unfounded and extremely repugnant to the sensitivities of our people who are knowledgeable and qualified to speak about such things, not merely as the product of imagination, but as the result of actual lived experience."
In reviewing Storm's book Seven Arrows, anthropologist John H. Moore criticized the book and how Storm inaccurately portrayed Cheyenne culture, skipping over important cultural details practised by Cheyenne cultural teachers, elevating minor elements of Cheyenne religion to undeserved major significance, dismissing cultural values, getting details mixed up, and adding things.
"Several books would be required to correct the compounded inaccuracies of Storm's version of Cheyenne tradition. The frustration of even attempting to do this has prompted a widespread outrage among religious Cheyennes. The Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council has condemned the book and asked that its use be discouraged. The calmest comment that I have received from a Cheyenne is from a member of the Tribal Council who described the book as 'complete B.S. from cover to cover.'"
Both Storm and LaDuke have been criticized for commercializing and distorting Indigenous spirituality, including the medicine wheel.[2]:239[11]:13,15[10]:324[3]:200
Indigenous activists protested and distributed flyers at a lecture given by Storm in San Francisco in February 1995, with the bold title "STOP EXPLOITING THE SACRED TRADITIONS OF AMERICAN INDIAN PEOPLE!!!", which began by saying:
We are members of the Bay Area American Indian community, and we are outraged by non-Indian wannabes and would-be gurus of 'the New Age' shamelessly exploiting and mocking our sacred religious traditions.... These sacred ways have enabled our people to survive five centuries of genocide. We will not allow these most sacred gifts to be desecrated and abused.... OUR SACRED SPIRITUAL PRACTICES ARE NOT FOR SALE, AND IF YOU TRY TO STEAL THEM FROM US, YOU ARE GUILTY OF SPIRITUAL GENOCIDE."[1]
The flyer distributed at Storm's San Francisco lecture was accompanied by a document titled "American Indian International Tribunal Elder’s Statement" that concluded with "Our young people are getting restless. They have said they will take care of those who are abusing our ceremonies and sacred objects in their own way."[1]
The Colorado chapter of the American Indian Movement confronted Sun Bear during one of his $500/head weekend-long "spiritual retreat".[16]
Lakota leader Rick Williams has criticized Sun Bear's eclectic use of combined elements from different tribes, saying it creates a dangerous spiritual imbalance. He argues that every part of different Indigenous cultures' traditions serves a specific purpose, and that mixing elements between cultures will not only lead to the purposes being distorted and lost, but can potentially endanger the practitioner.[10]
Anthropologist Alice Keheo writes that Native medicine wheel rites, along with other Indigenous observance of the cyclical patterns in nature and life, are one of the reasons Natives are stereotyped as more spiritual than non-Natives.[3]:195–196
Distortions of Indigenous culture, and thus identity, using things like Storm and LaDuke's medicine wheel, is criticized as 'killing off' real Indigenous cultures and displacing them by fictional Indigenous identities and cultures. The denial of agency in dismissing the concerns, wishes, and traditional cultures of Indigenous people through popularizing such works as Seven Arrows is criticized as continuing the indignity of desecrating, mocking and abusing Indigenous traditional ceremonies and spiritual practices.[12]
Ironically, as Bear Nicholas notes, objections and criticism about the medicine wheel symbol as a dangerous and false invented tradition are now condemned by many as disrespectful to tradition.[4]
Variations
Among users of the medicine wheel symbol, variations exist. The axes of the medicine wheel might also be rotated to be vertical. The quadrants can be rotated into a different arrangement and the order of the colours can be different, depending on the community. Meanings and associations with the colours also vary between nations.[43] Some Anishinaabe communities add a circle in the centre, often coloured green, to represent balance.[44][45][46] The black quadrant is often replaced with a blue quadrant in some Cree and Ojibwe communities.[47][48]Métis occasionally add a circle with the Métis flag or a green circle in the centre or use the symbol of a Red River cart wheel overlaid on the medicine wheel.[49][50][51] Some versions of the medicine wheel consist of a hoop with two perpendicular axes connected to the hoop, and half of each axes and a connected quadrant of the hoop are coloured with the centre often left uncoloured.[52][53][54] Some Christian groups have incorporated the Christian cross into the medicine wheel in a manner similar to the Celtic cross.[55] In addition to the variations between Indigenous nations, there are also variations used within Indigenous nations, and not all Indigenous nations have adopted the medicine wheel, so care must be taken to not generalize.[56]
Gallery
These examples are not a definitive list of medicine wheel designs and this is not an exhaustive list of the variations that exist. Variations exist between and within Indigenous nations, and no one design represents all Indigenous nations. These are provided as examples only.
Variations in medicine wheel designs
Variant with a green centre used by some Anishinaabe communities.
A version of a medicine wheel used by some Métis people.
A version of a medicine wheel used in some Cree communities.
A version of a medicine wheel used by some Lakota people.
An artistic interpretation of the medicine wheel as described by Hyemeyohsts Storm in Seven Arrows.[41] Different descriptions of the medicine wheel are provided in his book Lightingbolt.[40]
1 2 3 4 Jaeger, Lowell (1980). "Seven Arrows: Seven Years After". Studies in American Indian Literatures. 4 (2). Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures: 16–19. Archived from the original on 4 July 2008. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
↑ Cordova, Viola F (2007). Moore, Kathleen Dean; Peters, Kurt; Jojola, Ted; Lacy, Amber (eds.). How it is: the native American philosophy of V.F. Cordova. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN9780816526499.
1 2 3 Hodge, Frederick Webb (1913). "Appendix to the Tenth Report of the Geographic Board of Canada". In White, James (ed.). Handbooks of Indians of Canada. Ottawa: C. H. Parmelee. pp.72–73.
↑ Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies (29 April 2021). "Calendars Then and Now". Lakota Times. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
↑ Goulet, Keith (2008). Brownstone, Arni (ed.). "Animate and inanimate: The Cree Nehinuw view". Material Histories: Proceedings of a Workshop Held at Marischal Museum. Aberdeen, UK: University of Aberdeen: 7–19.
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