In my humble response I concur. The few times I have been invited to be a part of Ynipi I understand it is Wakhan/Huacan. We must respect that which belongs to Creator and that which has been passed down thru generations. This what we learned from Tonka Oyate. Respect, honor, and humbleness. To be meek(obedience at its highest form), Passed to me by my granfather. Aho. Creator bless and keep safe Looking Horse family and others honoring what is sacred.

As someone who is 100 percent Irish, and the descendant of and Irish Chieftan, and a “celtic-shamanic” healer I too want to extend my support of the Honorable Avrol Looking Horse. I would no more dream of leading a sweat lodge than I would walking into an Islamic Mosque, or a Jewish Temple and leading a prayer service. As a Celt our sacred symbols, myths, and rituals have been stolen in the same way as the First Nations- used often to sell necklaces, earrings, or worse self-help teach yourself to be a shaman in 48 hours books. Most shamanic rituals to the outsider look simple- but they are quite the opposite. They are sacred, deeply complex and require years of training and apprenticeship under one or more qualified Elders and mentors before you are entrusted with the responsibility of leading a ceremony. This speaks nothing of the utter greed…9000 dollars for a weekend retreat? 63 people. 500,000!

As I had just said recently to a group of people when asked about the Secret Movie…If the people in the Secret movie were really coming from a place of Abundance they wouldn’t be charging you 29.95 to find out what the “Secret” really is all about.

I hope that these 3 people that have died will rest in peace, and that people that have not been entrusted with a sacred rituals will not continue to exploit other peoples cultures.
with love and respect…..katherine

I have been so fortunate to be an
Irish Scandanavian and have had the
opportunity to go to sweat lodge. A
native man who runs the sweat lodge
had a vision about teaching other people
that were not native by allowing them
to sweat. It is a very spiritual experience
and my prayers have been answered.
I go to Indain Catholic church and
our community goes to sweat twice a year,
fall and during Lenten. It is so important
that the sweat be run by experienced
people. It can be very dangerous and
without a experienced leader it could
be bad. Elders will not enter, but will
pray outside for us, if you have heart
or other conditions it is not a good
idea. I asked my doctor, who was
native, if I was able to do sweat. Funny,
he says I don’t think it will be a problem,
but let me know how it is as I never done
it.!

if all who read this ask oprah to have arvol looking horse or another leader speak on her show, the fraudulent nature of the sedona event could be exposed. this would protect our ceremonies and save lives, two things that are mutually important.

I am a dutch woman, married to a Lakota and living in the USA. Many years ago, when I was living in the Netherlands, I experienced the exploitation of Native American Spirituality. After reading Arvol Lookinghorse’s respond on the deaths in Arizona, I did some research on the internet about sweatlodges in Europe. I was reading that sweatlodges were known in many cultures worldwide, from ancient history till now. Now here is my question: the people who wrote this article claimed that in the 60’s and 70’s, some Lakota medicine men came to Europe to teach them the sweatlodge ceremonies. They mentioned and thanked two names for these teachings: Grandfather Wallace and Ron Evans. What is known about medicine men coming to Europe to teach them the ceremonies and are these names familiar to somebody?
Thank you for taking your time to read this and I hope to get a response.

to Zintkapa:
“James Arthur Ray has stolen one of the most sacred ceremony of the Lakota: inikagapi. ”

Dear Zintkapa:
I don´t agree.As you see it is impossible to steel the real sacred ceremonies of native people otherwise the two people would still be alive.So what they did could not have been a sacred ceremony. In my opinion it will never be possible to steel sacred ceremonies from any indigenious people around the world because that doesn´t work.What they do is they abuse it because they are only interested in money.I´m writing from Europe and what I can see here is an enormess spiritual hunger of the people around.So lots of New Age Frauds offer various “spiritual ceremonies”.People in Europe have lost their spiritual roots a long time ago.We live in times of change having the chance to come all together now.So what I see is: people in Europe would need a real spiritual support by original spiritual Elders from other nations to have the chance to wake up in a healthy way now! So it would be great to meet you here one day!

Hello please, TAKE MY CORRECTION out of the forum.The original text was right! I failed because I was tired while writing! So my correction has to be corrected!Sorry!
U.D. from Europe