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Indian Horse<\/b><\/u><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Years ago, I was a tour guide at a place called The Olentangy Indian Caverns in Delaware, Ohio. It\u2019s a small cavern, and so the tour script had to be good. We could not just take people on a LONG walk underground for an hour. You can walk the whole thing is five minutes- not counting the breathless climb back to the top! After being hired, the first thing we were given was our employee handbook, and tour script. We could not give tours until we demonstrated to a staff person we knew that script.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I realized, after doing this for a few Summers on my weekends I knew nothing of Native Americans aside from what was in the script. So, I felt I owed it to myself and my customers to learn as much as possible about our Indigenous people and their history. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n One way I researched was through not only reading more about the topics I covered in my script, but through watching films. Not films like the black and white cowboy\/Indian fight movies, but films made by Native Americans, and starring Native Americans. I saw a lot of Wes Studi, Adam Beach, Spears Brothers, Chris Eyre, and Rose Marie Tantoo Cardinal films. I still watch every single Native American made film I can. When I saw Indian Horse was on Netflix, I immediately started watching.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I did not know I would be crying for two hours. The topics covered were already familiar to me due to my research, but not everybody in North America is aware of those things. It occurred to me these topics are things that Neo Pagans, especially will want to be aware of. I\u2019ll tell you why.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Many Neo Pagans believe because that because they burn sage, sweetgrass, and do things in circles and chant that they are doing the same things Native Americans have done for centuries. Members of religions all over the world including Xtianity and Hinduism do many of these things. So, it\u2019s not a Neo Pagan and Native American practices- it\u2019s human practices. Furthermore, the Neo Pagan faiths are revival of religions from places like France, Ireland, Spain, Greece, and Rome. Not Native American at all.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Before the eclectics who create their own traditions get mad at me- ask an Indian if they feel your homemade practices mirror what they learned from their grandparents. It doesn\u2019t.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Neo Pagan appropriation of Native American religions and cultural practices are all part of the colonizer mindset white culture in America is saturated with.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n This film addresses so many cultural issues, and yes, Neo Pagans are trying to recover from our own colonization, and forced conversion our ancestors suffered- but it\u2019s still not the same as the Native American\u2019s experience, and we, as people who have been colonized need to understand that our appropriation of their practices further colonizes our American Indian brethren. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The main topic covered in the 2017 film Indian Horse is the church ran boarding schools children were sent to. Reach for the tissues before watching this trailer:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/witch-popcorn.png\")
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