Little Grandmother has issued an official statement regarding the controversy recently reported.
Unfortunately she has disabled the copy function so I have to refer you to her page. That may be designed to keep the controversy down by requiring people to read only and not to be able to repost without significant effort. If that’s what it is, I honor that desire and would see it as a vote for peace.
Her statement appears at https://www.tribeofmanycolors.net/news-and-urgent-messages/official-statement-regarding-native-american-issues-dp1.html
The situation is much as I suspected. Kiesha was not familiar with tribal lines of authority and had no reason to doubt that Falling Feathers was acting with the full authority of the tribe. Why would she think that she needed to look behind his actions? She acknowledges that she may have made a mistake but still sees herself as having been selected for this work, apparently from an early age.
She says that she is recognized as a shaman by the Contintental Council of Indigenous Elders, headed by Don Alejandro Oxlaj. She has elected to continue her work without regalia and on a universal basis (that is, as shaman for the Tribe of Many Colors).
Remember I related what John Enright once said – that to reach “hero” from here, we have to go through “saint” or “villain”? I predict that the Flathead Reservation will see her as a “villain” for a time and then validate her as a “hero.” I think we’d be unwise if we see their current words about her as their final judgment. And given what we know of where we’re headed, they are almost guaranteed not to be their final words.
Her decision to dispense with native regalia is one from among a number of viable alternatives. Given that she did not live her full life in the setting of the tribe (if I understand matters correctly), it may not be a loss.
I can think of a number of situations where future leaders had only a loose identification with their local backgrounds. Not like I mean to compare Little Grandmother to Moses because I don’t, but Moses is one example nonetheless. He was a Hebrew and destined to be a leader of Hebrews, but he himself was raised as a prince of Egypt and knew nothing of his Hebrew background.
The ability to lead a “global” following depends on knowing as much about the universal setting as it does on anything unique to one’s background. And Little Grandmother, I think, is destined to play a part on the world stage, not on any local stage.
If the natives opposing her are sincere, they should now cease their opposition given that Little Grandmother is moving away from identifying herself with the tribe. If they are insincere, they will probably continue to oppose her. But that isn’t a wise policy given the nature of the times. The insincere have no future ahead of them. The old paradigm of attack and defend is not destined to survive.