New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans

New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans (or NAFPS) is a group of Native American activists and their supporters, dedicated to fighting cultural appropriation, and other abuses and misrepresentations of First Nations religions and cultures.

History

Begun in 2001, NAFPS has provided a forum for those concerned about fraud, deceit, money hunger, sexual abuse, racism, control, hunger for power and ego, and what they say are the cult-like tendencies of the New Age movement and "pseudo shamans." They investigate and seek to warn the public about impostors and exploiters posing as Native medicine people or elders. They believe there are more than two hundred impostors currently posing as Cherokee medicine people alone. Taking account of all five hundred Native nations in the US, this indicates the massive scope of the issue. They report that there have been eight unsuccessful attempts to shut them down, threats of lawsuits, stalkers, identity thieves, libel campaigns, and even death threats.Armbuster, J.; Beacham, D.; et al (2005) "They Call Us Indians". Göteborg, Sweden. The World in Our Hands ISBN 9789163155185] Carroll, Al (2005) [http://www.americanindianprisoners.com/Pages/Al%20Carroll.htm Apache Presentation] ]

tatement of Purpose

The following statement is taken from NAFPS website and illustrates their intent and purpose:

cquote|What NAFPS Is and Is Not

We are not a "hate" group, any more than a rape crisis center promotes "hate" of men. This is one of the more ridiculous knee-jerk claims thrown at us. Many Nuage frauds are themselves blatantly racist in their contempt for Native people, beliefs, and wishes on these issues.

If anything we are an ANTI-hate group, a HateWatch group specializing in monitoring and warning the public about a special brand of racist, the Nuage fraud or pseudo-shaman leader.

We are not especially concerned about anyone's blood quantum, enrollment status, or family history. The only time we would care was if someone had lied in order to "pass" or appear "more Indian" to justify their misbehavior.

We accept all kinds of people: Native, white, black, Latino, Maori, traditionalist, Christian, pagan, atheist, Muslim, etc. We have members from an amazing variety of tribal backgrounds, Anishinaabe, Apache, Cherokee, Choctaw, Lakota, Lenni Lenape, Menominee, Munsee, Navajo, O'odham, and many others.

We gladly accept help from all good people of conscience, because without them we can't stop these frauds. And without them, we wouldn't have had nearly as much success against frauds as we have.

ee also

*Plastic shamans
*Wannabe
*Cultural appropriation

References

External links

* [http://www.newagefraud.org/about.html NAFPS homepage]
* [http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php NAFPS Forum]

* [http://www.aics.org/index.html American Indian Cultural Support]
* [http://www.bluecorncomics.com/wannabes.htm Indian Wannabes]
* [http://www.hanksville.org/sand/intellect/newage.html New Age (and Other) Ripoff Sites]
* [http://www.geocities.com/ourredearth/ Our Red Earth]
* [http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/american_indian_quarterly/v024/24.3aldred.html Plastic Shamans and Astroturf Sun Dances: New Age Commercialization of Native American Spirituality]
* [http://ishgooda.org/racial/playind.htm Playing Indian]
* [http://stereotype.drumhop.com/ Racism, Stereotyping, Discrimination, Offensive Behavior]
* [http://www.sonomacountyfreepress.com/features/native.html Spiritual Commodification]
* [http://www.sonomacountyfreepress.com/features/spir-genocide.html Spiritual Genocide]
* [http://shameons.bravepages.com/ Wall of Shame]