White Ego Racist flocks to Long Island

Native American groups are organizing protests against Rachel Holzwarth (aka "Suraj Holzwarth" aka "White Eagle Medicine Woman" aka the name actual Native elders have given her: "White Ego Woman" or "White Ego Fraud"), who is planning on spreading her racist swill on Long Island, NY.

Lisa Hill has written a good summation of the situation so far, including an excellent analysis of Ego Fraud's racism and it's similarities to the ugly, racist philosophies of Rudolf Steiner:

“On one side we find the black race, which is earthly at most. If it moves to the West, it becomes extinct. We also have the yellow race, which is in the middle between earth and the cosmos. If it moves to the East, it becomes brown, attaches itself too much to the cosmos, and becomes extinct. The white race is the future, the race that is creating spirit.” (Rudolf Steiner, The Being of Man and His Future, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1981, pp. 118-119)

A common theme of Holzworth’s talks is the need for the human race to “evolve” to a higher state of vibration and the belief that it is inevitable for the ancient “red race” to go extinct so that the more spiritually evolved “white race” can fulfill its destiny to replace the “red Indian of old.” Holzworth has made no secret of her opinion of modern First Nations people as a degenerate race who have no spirituality because their karma is to live in poverty and alcoholism.

Steiner and Holzworth both find what they call “the red race” to be lacking. Steiner considered First Nations people to be connected with “the forces that have a lot to do with human extinction.” Both Steiner and Holzworth describe contemporary First Nations people as “a degenerated human race” which was the reason why they had succumbed to such a degree. Her teachings are filled with the concept of the more deserving “White Race” evolving spiritually to a higher frequency take the place of the degenerate, corrupt, drunken “Red Race” who exists at a lower frequency than the “White Race” and whose karma is extinction.

Steiner stated that “It isn’t because of the whims of the Europeans that the Indian population has died out, but because of the Indian population had to acquire those forces that led it to die out.” (Steiner, Die Mission einzelner Volksseelen, s. 4:9)

The statements that Holzworth has made in her talks about the Whirling Rainbow prophesy and her public statements about drunken, deranged Native Americans who object to her teachings are virtually identical to Steiner’s views about race.

Read the full article: White Eagle Woman Evokes Anger and Outrage from First Nations People: The Grandmother Drum Project is universally denounced as fraudulent by First Nations Groups

Don't Pay to Pray is continuing to post updates on the actions, related info, and what you can do to help out, on MySpace and Twitter.

Previous White Ego Fraud posts:
* April 18, 2008, Haudenosaunee speak out on Rachel Holzwarth
* October 14, 2008, Update on Plymouth Protests against White Ego Fraud
* September 14, 2009, The Return of White Ego Fraud

Light for the Ancestors - Loughcrew Illuminaton 2009

In the Slieve na Caillaigh hills, County Meath, Ireland, people gathered this morning at Loughcrew cairn T, to mark the autumnal equinox. On the three days on and around the equinox, the light from the rising sun shines down the passageway, illuminating the megalithic carvings in the inner recesses of the mound. Sunrise today, tomorrow, and the 22nd are the days of illumination for 2009.


Read more about The Cailleach, the powerful Hag for whom the site is named.

Thanks to Michael Fox for the writeup and photos from the Loughcrew Illuminaton, 2009

Here's a video about Loughcrew, including footage from the 2005, Spring Equinox illumination.


More on the video

Good Equinox and Bean-sidhe Moon, everyone, and light upon the paths of the Ancestors. Sláinte Mhaith!

Women Warriors, Protection, Healing and Justice

Tanya Lee writes in Indian Country Today:

Women warriors take on domestic violence and sexual assault

From North Dakota to Arizona, strong, talented, accomplished Native American women are taking up the challenge of protecting themselves and their sisters, their mothers and aunts, their grandmothers and granddaughters, from the devastation of domestic violence and sexual assault.
... ... ...
“Crimes against Indian women and children strike at the very heart of tribal sovereignty,” reads the 2007 Senate Indian Affairs Committee concept paper on law and order that identified domestic violence and sexual assault as one of the five critical areas in which law enforcement in Indian country was failing.

Following the release of the paper in November 2007, the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2008 was introduced in the Senate and the House July 23, 2008. The last action on the bill was Sept. 18, 2008, when the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held hearings. The bill didn’t pass and was reintroduced in the 111th Congress April 2. The Senate held a hearing on the proposed legislation June 25. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., has scheduled another hearing for mid-September, and the Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women is considering a Tribal Consultation Oct. 30 in Minneapolis.
... ... ...
But in North Dakota, Linda Thompson and her colleagues at the First Nations Women’s Alliance and its member organizations are organizing themselves to be more effective in supporting – and healing – the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault on the four North Dakota Indian reservations.

“It’s often thought that young black men are the most victimized in the U.S., but it is actually Native women,” said Thompson, paraphrasing a statement in the Justice Department report, “American Indians and Crime.”

Read the Full Article

In related news, Cangleska is experiencing some financial hardships, and has had to lay off some staff. If you can volunteer or donate time or resources, please consider them.

Embedded within each of the components of Cangleska, Inc. is the concept of sovereign women within a sovereign nation whose safety was paramount. With the Lakota principle of “we are all related” incorporated in all of the work, Cangleska, Inc. offers a comprehensive and collaborative approach on the local, state and national level.

The number of women and their children seeking shelter and other related services continues to increase. Women are now aware that there is safe space on the Pine Ridge Reservation and are using the services provided to them.

In addition to services for women and children, Cangleska also has family programs and services for men such as Ki Wicasa Wo Ohitika and a Men's Re-education Program.

The Return of White Ego Fraud

Rachel Holzwarth (aka "Suraj Holzwarth" aka "White Eagle Medicine Woman") laid low for a bit after lots of Native American groups protested her "prayerformances" and workshops. At these events she charges outrageous fees to white people to watch her mimic pipe ceremony and other Native American ceremonies of which she has no knowledge and to which she has no right. She claims to be Seneca, because she had a dream she's Seneca. She's not Seneca. She belongs to no Native American or First Nations community. She parades around in fake ceremonial regalia, and gave herself the oh-so-humble name, "White Eagle Medicine Woman". She's no medicine woman. She is a fraud, making her living off the ignorance of non-Natives who think they can buy their way to enlightenment.

When gig after gig on the mainland US was shut down by Native protestors, she just moved to Hawaii, and used a private mailing list to solicit marks and charge even more money for private workshops. In this video promoting a Hawaii event, she made stunningly racist statements about how she's here to heal Indians of "anger and negativity" and "release their souls" and "heal our stories"... or something. Sickening stuff.

As I mentioned here, at times she has tried to dissemble about her activities by claiming they are "Celtic". Nope, no one bought that lie, either. But it hasn't stopped her. Like all perennial frauds, she just waited it out and has now broken all the promises she made. She has returned to the mainland and is planning more appearances and workshops.

At the Michigan protest she promised not to wear her fake Native regalia anymore, among other things. As all recent photos and videos show, she has broken every promise she made. She is also selling chant books and tapes that appear to me to contain copyright violations from multiple First Nations artists as well as Neopagan ones.

Don't Pay to Pray has posted an update with lots of links here: YouTube Action: White Eagle Woman's At It Again!

Another of Mtig49's videos about Holzwarth. Though I will note that he has reproduced Holzwarth's claims to be "A trained Strega Wiccan priestess". I don't think this is true, either. Obviously, this crap she's selling has nothing to do with Stregheria, and I've never heard of anyone from those communities claiming her, either. It looks like Rachel/Suraj has claimed to be all sorts of things over the years, tailoring her self-description to whatever market she's keen to exploit.


crossposted to craobh caorann