A sweat lodge is a low profile hut, typically dome-shaped or oblong, and made with natural materials. The structure is the lodge, and the ceremony performed within the structure may be called by some cultures a purification ceremony or simply a sweat.
The American Indian Movement (AIM) is an American Indian grassroots movement which was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1968, initially centered in urban areas in order to address systemic issues of poverty, discrimination, and police brutality against American Indians. AIM soon widened its focus from urban issues to many Indigenous Tribal issues that American Indian groups have faced due to settler colonialism in the Americas. These issues have included treaty rights, high rates of unemployment, the lack of American Indian subjects in education, and the preservation of Indigenous cultures.
A vision quest is a rite of passage in some Native American cultures. It is usually only undertaken by young males entering adulthood. Individual Indigenous cultures have their own names for their rites of passage. "Vision quest" is an English-language umbrella term, and may not always be accurate or used by the cultures in question.
Plastic shamans, or plastic medicine people, is a pejorative colloquialism applied to individuals who are attempting to pass themselves off as shamans, holy people, or other traditional spiritual leaders, but who have no genuine connection to the traditions or cultures they claim to represent. In some cases, the "plastic shaman" may have some genuine cultural connection, but is seen to be exploiting that knowledge for ego, power, or money.
Gladys Iola Tantaquidgeon was a Mohegan medicine woman, anthropologist, author, tribal council member, and elder based in Connecticut.
Elizabeth Woody is an American Navajo/Warm Springs/Wasco/Yakama artist, author, and educator. In March 2016, she was the first Native American to be named poet laureate of Oregon by Governor Kate Brown.
Janet McCloud was a prominent Native American and indigenous rights activist. Her activism helped lead to the 1974 Boldt Decision, for which she was dubbed "the Rosa Parks of the American Indian Movement." She co-founded Women of All Red Nations (WARN) in 1974. The first convening of the Indigenous Women's Network was in her backyard in Yelm, Washington, in August 1985.
The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers is an international alliance of indigenous female elders that focuses on issues such as the environment, internationalism, and human rights. The group met for the first time in October 2004 at the Dalai Lama's Menla Retreat Center on Panther Mountain in Phoenicia, New York, during which time they declared themselves a council. Academic Suzanne Bouclin described them as "an alliance of thirteen women elders from across the globe that was organized to uphold indigenous practices and ceremonies and affirm the right to use plant medicines free of legal restriction."
Agnes Emma Baker Pilgrim was a Native American spiritual elder from Grants Pass, Oregon. She was the oldest member of her tribe, the Takelma. She was also the granddaughter of Jack Harney, the first elected Chief of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. Pilgrim was Elected Chairperson of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers at its founding in 2004. "She was honored as a "Living Treasure" by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz, and as a "Living Cultural Legend" by the Oregon Council of the Arts."
Margaret Behan is a Native American woman who is Southern Arapaho-Cheyenne on her mother's side, and Northern Arapahoe/Northern Cheyenne on her father's side. She is a fourth generation descendant of a survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre. Behan is a former member of the International Council of 13 Grandmothers.
Rita Pitka Blumenstein was the first certified traditional doctor in Alaska. She worked for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. Blumenstein was a member of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers—a group of spiritual elders, medicine women and wisdom keepers—since its founding in 2004.
Tsering Dolma Gyaltong was a Tibetan spiritual leader living in exile in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Tsering was a Founding Member of the Tibetan Women's Association and participated in its re-establishment in 1984.
Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance was an Oglala Lakota speaker and activist from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, best known for her participation in the group known as the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, which was founded in New York in 2004. In 2008, The 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, including Beatrice, hand delivered a petition to Pope Benedict XVI asking to revoke the three papal bulls authorizing the conversion and subjugation of the Indigenous Peoples of America. This letter went unanswered.
Rita Long Visitor Holy Dance is a Native American spiritual elder who is a member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe and comes from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Through her work as an indigenous elder stateswoman, Rita has gained international recognition through her work as part of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers - a group of spiritual elders, medicine women and wisdom keepers since its founding in 2004.
Patricia A. Locke was a Native American educator, activist, and prominent member of the Baháʼí Faith. She worked closely with indigenous activists in supporting the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. After joining the Baháʼí Faith in 1988, she was elected as the first Native American woman to serve on the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United States.
The relationship between Baháʼí Faith and Native Americans has a history reaching back to the lifetime of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and has multiplied its relationships across the Americas. Individuals have joined the religion and institutions have been founded to serve Native Americans and conversely have Native Americans serve on Baháʼí institutions.
Jacqueline Left Hand Bull, member of the Sicangu Lakota of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, was brought up in her view in a traditional Lakota way by her grandparents and parents. She became a member of the Baháʼí Faith in 1981, appointed a Continental Counselor in 1988, and was elected as Chair of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United States in 2007. The family history of the name "Left Hand Bull" involves the elder brother of a family who had done the difficult task of hunting a Buffalo from the left side and was known to provide for more than his family in his hunting. Years later the younger brother reconnected with the elder and undertook to greatly honor the elder in a ceremony and in return the elder brother traded his name. She shares a short stature with this younger brother who was given the name "Left Hand Bull".
Mary P. Koss is an American Regents' Professor at the University of Arizona, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health in Tucson, Arizona. Her best known works have been in the areas of gender-based violence and restorative justice.
The Quandamooka people are Aboriginal Australians who live around Moreton Bay in Southeastern Queensland. They are composed of three distinct tribes, the Nunukul, the Goenpul and the Ngugi, and they live primarily on Moreton and North Stradbroke Islands, that form the eastern side of the bay. Many were pushed out of their lands when the English colonial government established a penal colony near there in 1824. Each group has its own language. A number of local food sources are utilised by the tribes.
Tom B.K. Goldtooth is a Native American environmental, climate, and economic justice activist, speaker, film producer, and Indigenous rights leader. He is active in local, national and international levels as an advocate for building healthy and sustainable Indigenous communities based upon the foundation of Indigenous traditional knowledge. Goldtooth has served as executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) since 1996 after serving as a member of the IEN National Council since 1992.
