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LAKOTA NATION FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST PARTIES IN SWEAT LODGE INCIDENT
By Nina Rehfeld
SedonaBiz
November 12, 2009

http://www.sedona.biz/lakota-tribe-files-lawsuit-sweat-lodge-incident-sedona
111209a.php

SEDONA, AZ - In the aftermath of the tragedy at Angel Valley Retreat Center,
where an incompetently conducted ³sweat lodge² held by Californian self-help
guru James Arthur Ray killed three participants, political steps are being
taken by several native people across the United States. While local Indians
from Arizona are forming a Council for Indigenous Traditional Healing to
reclaim native ceremonies, the Lakota tribe of North and South Dakota has
filed a lawsuit <http://www.sedona.biz/LAKOTA-LAWSUIT-SWEAT-LODGE.pdf>
against the United States, the state of Arizona, James Arthur Ray and the
Angel Valley Retreat Center.

Ray had conducted a five-day ³Spiritual Warrior² seminar at Angel Valley on
the first weekend of October, during which his more than sixty participants
had been fasting and wandering in the desert. He then assembled them in an
incompetently constructed ³sweat lodge² that, according to eye witnesses,
was turned into a two-hour endurance competition and left three people dead
and nineteen injured.

The Lakota Nation considers its sweat lodge ceremony, the Oinikaga, one of
the seven sacred rites of the Lakota. ³This is a way of life, not a
religion², said Sam Longblackcat, who introduced the lawsuit to the public
at a press conference in Phoenix on November 2nd.

The lawsuit refers to the Treaty of Fort Laramie
<http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/sioux-treaty/> between the United
States and the Lakota Nation from 1868, which states that ³if bad men among
the whites or other people subject to the authority of the United States
shall commit any wrong upon the person or the property of the Indians, the
United States will (...) proceed at once to cause the offender to be
arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and also
reimburse the injured person for the loss sustained.² The plaintiffs hold
that James Arthur Ray and the Angel Valley Retreat Center have ³violated the
peace between the United States and the Lakota Nation² and have caused the
³desecration of our Sacred Oinikiga by causing the death of Liz Neuman,
Kirby Brown and James Shore². The lawsuit further holds that James Arthur
Ray and the Angel Valley Retreat Center have committed fraud by
impersonating Indians and must be held responsible for causing the deaths of
the victims and injuries of the survivors, and for the destruction of
evidence through the dismantling of the sweat lodge.

Longblackcat, who spoke with the approval Lakota leaders, said the lawsuit
is meant to reinstate the protection of the Lakota sacred way of life. ³We
Lakota people continue to fight for our way of life. The sweat lodge -- we
call it Oinikaga or Inipi -- is a purification ceremony, to make life. Our
sacred way of life was desecrated by a non-native man. This is our property,
and there are laws in the United States and in the United Nations that state
that these customs are ours and that they are to be protected.² (See below
for a copy of Longblackcat's fully statement.)

Also at the Phoenix press conference, Chief Anselmo Candelaria, Apache and
Olone of Phoenix and Daniel Bejar, Mescalero Apache and Mexica Apache of
Prescott, announced the formation of the Council of Indigenous Traditional
Healers to ³provide guidance and oversight in regards to sacred healing
ceremonies.²

Bejar said that the purpose of the council is to ³protect people, protect
our ceremonies and see what can be done to keep this from happening again.²
He also stressed that this is not an attack on the Sedona retreat industry.
³We do not want to badger people or protest, we want to approach this in a
good way. We want to check into the authenticity of people offering sweat
lodges. We want to confront people who are doing these ceremonies about
taking money for them and about not being properly trained. And we want to
let people who come in seeking know that we have qualified water pourers.²
The goal of the Council, Bejar said, is not to shut down non-native lodges.
³My belief is that anyone is entitled to pray, no matter where they come
from. But ceremonies like the sweat lodge have to be conducted by the
appropriate people ­ and not for pay.² Current members of the Council are
Chief Anselmo Candelaria, Daniel Bejar, Luis Viniegra, Juan Guevara, Pete
Jackson as well as two more, and others, including people from the Yavapai
Apache tribe, will be approached, said Bejar. ³We want to take ownership and
responsibility for our region.² The Council can be contacted via
theeaglelodge@... or 928-776-8692.

Amayra Hamilton, one of the owners of Angel Valley Retreat Center
<http://www.angelvalley.org/>, declined to be interviewed at this time and
said she was preparing a press statement. She did, however, send this
reaction via e-mail: ³We feel that filing whatever lawsuits against whoever
can be sued, is NOT (her emphasis) a solution for a theme that needs to be
addressed by each and everyone of us, yourself included: do we listen to
ourselves what is right for us, and, as a leader, do we listen to our hearts
and be aware of our responsibility? As we see it, acting and reacting based
on judgment, anger and revenge is not honoring those who lost their lives,
on the contrary. We truly want to honor the ones who died AND (her emphasis)
the native traditions that feel offended and hurt, which we understand, we
have chosen to approach it from our heart and make something positive out of
what happened. That is the path we choose to walk. We highly appreciate that
the indigenous people and those who feel a strong connection with them, get
together to show the world the beauty of their traditions, to share the
essence and power of their ceremonies and increase awareness. That, if we
all do learn our lesson, may prevent that incidents like what occurred would
ever happen again.²

The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office's homicide investigation into the deaths
of the three participants in Ray's seminar is still underway. According to
the latest update on the Sheriff's website <http://bit.ly/1JTD6i> from
November 9th, detectives are trying to locate and interview all the
participants in the event. The media release states that ³the Sheriff¹s
Office is anticipating that during the month of December, 2009, the
investigative information up to this time will be forwarded to the Yavapai
County Attorney¹s Office for review.²

James Arthur Ray, who refused to speak to local authorities and skipped town
the night of the tragedy to continue conducting his seminars in California,
has now postponed all planned events to help ³bring some sort of closure to
the matter,² as he professes on his website. ³That means helping the
authorities and the families get to the bottom of what happened.² Ray has so
far offered no public apology.

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LONGBLACKCAT STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF LAKOTA NATION RE: SWEAT LODGE INCIDENT
LAWSUIT

http://www.sedona.biz/lakota-tribe-files-lawsuit-sweat-lodge-incident-sedona
111209b.php

I would like to place an emphasis and inform the people of the United States
as to what is happening in Sedona Arizona with the Angel Valley Retreat
Center and James Arthur Ray, and the Peace Treaty of 1868 with the Lakota
Nation and United States of America. I have been given clearance by Oliver
Red Cloud Wicasa Itacan of the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council to
give this statement, and by the Keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Pipe,
Wicasa Itacan Arvel Looking Horse.

This lawsuit is about the protection of our way of life. We really hold our
ceremonies and our way of life valuable, we are here as the caretakers of
our mother earth. But every time we turn around, mother earth is being
abused, desecrated and killed. Our water is poisoned on a daily basis, by
strip mining and uranium mining for instance. They are killing our earth,
and every day our lands are being taken. We Lakota people continue to fight
for our way of life. The sweat lodge -- we call it Oinikaga or Inipi -- is a
purification ceremony, to make life.

It was a slap in the face when my daughter woke me up and said: Have you
seen the news? I watched the pictures and the press conference and the
reports and it hurt me. It hurt all first nation people here on turtle
island from the southern tip of Mexico to the north of Canada. Our sacred
way of life was desecrated by a non-native man. This is our property, and
there are laws in the United States and in the United nations that state
that these customs are ours and that they are to be protected.

This lawsuit is not to gain millions of dollars, like this man James Arthur
Ray sought who charged 10,000 dollars a head. We are filing this law suit to
defend our way of life and our treaties.

This is a way of life, not a religion. We first nations people have no
religion. That is a European concept, done ceremoniously at certain times of
the week or year. For us, we begin every day of our lives in prayer and end
every day in prayer. Our way of life begins before conception and goes into
old, old age. There are the courting ways, before a man and woman become
boyfriend and girlfriend, there are the ways the woman and the man prepare
for childbirth after conception. These ways have been passed down for
centuries, and they provide for a balanced way of life. We believe in the
circle of life. We don't believe death is final. We make the journey to the
other side to continue in another form of energy. Death is not our way, but
it is out there. Mr. Ray brought death.

We don't go into a roman-catholic church, put on the Pope's hat and take the
Pope's staff and call ourselves Pope.

There are natives who sell these things, who give authority to others to run
these things if the price is right. But it is wrong to sell our way of life.

These ways belong to us. We expect this lawsuit to strengthen our stand as
first nation people. Manifest destiny, divide and conquer, these are tactics
to assimilate and annihilate the first nations -- no matter on which
continent. It happened in Vietnam, it is happening today in Iraq. We want
the world to know that the first nations exist, and that we are not going to
let anybody take from us ever again.

This is not a racial thing. I have relations with white, black and Asian
people. We say: you cannot claim ownership of our ways. These are ways of
love and beauty and peace, but they belong to us strictly.

.............

Pulse On Sedona, Arizona James Arthur Ray Sweat Lodge Incident
http://nhne-pulse.org/?page_id=2214

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