Sorry, Susan I just saw your post. Thanks for that information. And, thanks to everyone who has posted on this thread. I have found the discussion interesting.

Melissa, you wrote that you think that I'm "picturing the whole thing a lot nastier than it truly is".

By "nasty", I think you mean "bad"[?].

For what it's worth (and I recognize that it's not worth anything more than one person's opinion, I continue to have concerns about groups who act like the people described in Rumncoke (Anne's) post of 05 Sep 09 - 07:12 PM.

And I also wish that those associations which focus on past Indian cultures would provide some advocacy that would help to improve the current conditions of Indians.

And I don't like the idea of people performing sacred traditions and acting like they know more than those people whose traditions they are.

But beyond that, I'm cool.