Hey John, Your shaman story reminds me of a Judge I knew from Alaska. He was the Tklingt (I believe, one of the Vancover Island Nations) judge who blew the lid off the story of the "shaman" who went to court in a beating case to have the two native teens bound over to his "court". Turns out he was not a judge in his community, he was the kids Grandfather.
There are some good books, I'll have to get out one of the papers I wrote and dig into the footnotes, one was called something like the Ambiguous Iroquioan Empire... it was one of the better ones. I'll get the exact title one of these days soon for you. However, I recomend a visit, however, walk softly. The "HI Where is your Chief, I wanna know all your wisdom..." approach is not often very much apreciated. There are pow wows, there are Native buisnesses to avail yourself of, sometimes there are needs to be helped out on... stopping Hydro Quebec, for example, which puts you in contact with the people, and keep your eyes and ears and MIND open. I found it to be a huge life enriching thing to spend time in Native communities.
Larry