And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: via pechanga.net Lakota couple files suit against Naropa http://insidedenver.com/news/0910naro8.shtml Pair calls Indian studies program inaccurate, 'cultural genocide' By Kevin McCullen Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer BOULDER -- A Lakota Sioux man and his wife filed a lawsuit Thursday against Naropa University for perpetrating "cultural genocide" by sponsoring an American Indian studies program that allegedly had non-Indians performing sacred rituals. Former Naropa student Lydia White Calf and her husband, Royce, contend they were ridiculed, defamed and threatened by staff and faculty at the four-year university when she complained about course content and non-Indians using Eagle feathers and body parts or leading sacred prayers and songs. Royce, a Lakota, said he was told he was ignorant of his own spiritual practices and values when he made repeated complaints. Naropa prides itself on its religious inclusiveness in its decades of teaching. The 1960s poet Alan Ginsburg helped found the school. Naropa President John Cobb was out of town Thursday, and no one else at the 25-year-old institution could comment about the lawsuit, said spokeswoman Lisa Trank. She said Cobb would release a statement after he returns. American Indian Movement leader Russell Means and Rudy James, chairman of the United Native Nations, pledged their support for White Calf. They said traditional Indian values and religious practices are being threatened nationwide by colleges profiting from what the White Calf's attorney called "spiritual hucksterism." Means vowed to occupy buildings on the small campus if the lawsuit fails. The lawsuit, filed by attorney Lee Hill, alleges fraud, harassment, negligent hiring and supervision, breach of duty, defamation and outrageous conduct. It contends one of Naropa's former instructors in the Native American Studies program, Eagle Cruz, was not an enrolled member of the Yaqui tribe as he claimed. The lawsuit also contends Cruz, who has left Naropa, claimed he was born on the "Yaqui Reservation" in 1948, when the tribe did not even have a reservation until 1978. Cruz now works out of state and could not be reached for comment. Lydia White Calf said she began questioning the authenticity and appropriateness of the Native American Studies program shortly after enrolling in 1995. She said each class session started with a non-Indian beating a drum and singing Lakota sacred songs and courses often included inaccurate material. She also complained that non-Indians used Eagle feathers, in violation of federal law. The practices, she said, were as offensive to Indians as it would be to a member of the Christian or Jewish faiths to have a lay person performing sacred religious rituals. Hill said the couple decided to file suit only after Naropa declined to change its course. Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
