JK>I wander in here now and then because I have worked for two Indian
  >tribes in Alaska and one down here, have at least one Indian ancestor
  >somewhere in the past, and learned much from those I have met in the two
  >states.
I always like having you wander in here.
JK>I also finally became free enough to search for my own belief system
  >which did not turn out to be New Age, but did turn out to be something
  >that sticks with me no matter what.
I think it's very important to find out for oneself what one believes.
JK>And I am still very greatful to the Native American lady who confirmed
  >that much of what I discovered in my own search was known to her also.
I think one problem with "religion" being overly discussed, especially
on Native conferences, is the tendency to take one person's belief
system, and generalize it.  One Native American lady is a whole
different thing from "The Native American Belief System", which,
actually, doesn't exist.  The traditional Lakota and the traditional
Aztec believe different things.  A Lakota who is a Christian, a Lakota
who is a traditionalist and a Lakota who is an atheist all believe
somewhat different things.  And all three are still Lakota.
JK>I am indeed sorry that others have been driven out of this conference.
We lost a lot of people about three years ago during the Screaming
Bloody Wars; and those wars were not just about religion, although
religion was certainly a part of it.  We've lost other people over the
years, some to the internet, some over topic discussions, some for
other reasons.
                  Sondra
-*-
 þ SLMR 2.1a þ I believe in the innate perversity of inanimate objects.
--- Opus-CBCS 1.7x via O_QWKer 1.7 
---------------