THE URBANE INDIAN - A second career, perhaps, as a medicine man

I swear, it happened just this way. I was at the Toronto airport on my way to the States to give yet another lecture. So there I was, standing in the line up, about to go through airport security. My shoes were off and I was just taking my buffalo horn belt off when I felt a tap on my shoulder.
It came from what appeared to be a non-Native woman of about 40. She was looking me over.
She said "I noticed your jacket," (a Pat Piche original complete with a buffalo on the back) "and your shirt" (from Haida designer Dorothy Grant). Me wear something off the rack, I don't think so! Regardless, evidently I was looking particularly Indigenous that day, if you didn't include the blue eyes. So I wondered where she was going with this assessment of my outfit.
"Do you do ceremonies?" she asked, breathlessly, as people waited impatiently behind us.
As I went through the metal detector, I was trying to find the correlation between supporting contemporary Indigenous designers and performing sacred ceremonies, not including the traditional waving of my turquoise watchband to the Four Directions, of course.
I found the woman's train of thought somewhat puzzling. Still, it's not the first time. Once in college I was asked to bless a walking stick by a fellow classmate who was a member of the color-challenged people. Why? Well that's a long story, but I took the stick, happy to indulge him, and counted to 10 in Anishnawbe. He didn't know the difference and everybody was happy.
Obviously, ceremonies and sacred objects hold a unique place in Native culture.
Several years ago I wrote an article about the pipe and how it is used in today's society. Briefly put, the article dealt with certain possible hygiene and health issues involved in passing the pipe around to several participants. Some felt it was a definite health issue, others thought the pipe was there to heal, not hurt, and others were somewhere in the middle. It was and still is a touchy subject.
I say this because, just a few weeks ago, somebody who ran across that article somewhere posted a comment on my Web site's guest book expressing a strong opinion on the subject. He or she wrote: "The pipe protects the people ... who are smoking it. Regardless of the illness, saliva passes or cuts in the lips or not, if you have no faith in the ways, then there's much to learn. The pipe is safe to be shared with anyone who wishes to smoke it. Cut lips, flu, TB, HIV, anything. The spirits protect us. Hope you have found this useful. Years later. Merci, never question that again." Then the name of the guy (or woman) who left the message was written....simply, The Legend. No self-esteem problems there.
Pretty strong words. I noticed the person didn't mention small pox, measles or the plethora of other illnesses the decimated our population over the last 500 years. I guess all those old-time Indians didn't believe in the pipe enough. I know that probably sounds harsh, but over the years I have asked a few people in health services for their opinion on the topic and they seem to disagree with the legend, all the while sounding very respectful of the question, the situation, and the pipe.
Sounds a bit like faith healing. I was always taught the pipe was more for spiritual and cultural healing than for healing against massive viral and bacterial infections. But that's probably an interesting ecumenical discussion for a later column.
Still, ceremonies can be big business. We've all heard of those less than reputable individuals who run sweat lodges with a profit margin. Writing a cheque for such an experience just turns it into an expensive sauna. You are supposed to leave your clothes and wallet at the door. Anybody who tells you anything different probably has a mortgage somewhere they really have to pay off, a split-level tipi with a two-door wigwam.
The Internet isn't making things much easier. Online you can find anything, including ceremonies and wise Elders for sale. There are two ways of approaching this: with anger or amusement. I prefer amusement. If I chose anger, then I would have to see an Elder or Medicine Man for anger management and ulcers, so it becomes kind of counter-productive.
Like anything else, say... Internet dating, or discovering somebody from some impoverished African country has specifically selected you amongst six billion people to share several million dollars with, you have to take it all with a grain of salt. I will get into that in another column.