Prison officials told to ban non-Indians from ceremonies
Inmates accused of 'playing' with religious beliefs
By ED VOGEL
REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU
CARSON CITY -- Four American Indian spiritual advisers said prison officials Wednesday should move to prohibit whites from participating in Indian religious ceremonies conducted in a sweat lodge at Nevada State Prison.
The spiritual advisers were asked their input in the wake of a background check by the Department of Corrections that shows many "Indians" participating in sweat lodge ceremonies for inmates segregated from the general prison population actually are Caucasian. During a two-hour discussion, they spoke at length on the touchy subject of just who should be considered an Indian.
Dorothy Nash Holmes, deputy director of the Department of Corrections, said they checked with Indian tribes in response to complaints and found eight of nine participants in the sweat lodge actually are white or Hispanic.
That includes the sweat lodge's spiritual leader, August Ardagna, and its pipe holder, Lionel Hernandez. Information on the ethnicity of nine other participants in the sweat lodge has not yet been completed.
"We took them at their word at what they were when they first came into prison," Holmes said.
The inmates in the sweat lodge are sex offenders and violent offenders who have been segregated from the general prison population.
"They are just playing with our ceremonies," said Buck Sampson, spiritual leader for the Reno-Sparks Indian colony." What they are doing makes me sick."
"Spirituality is a serious business. It is not a game," said Lee Polanco, a spiritual leader from Winters, Calif.
Under federal law and Supreme Court decisions, Native Americans are permitted to practice their religion in prison.
Nevada Department of Correction regulations allow the use of sweat lodges and ceremonies in which sage, cedar and herbs are burned. Indians also may possess eagle feathers and herb bags.
The regulations specify all members of recognized tribes may participate, relatives of Native Americans who have approval of tribes, and Indians with a "credible association with tribal living." But members of the general prison population are not permitted in the sweat lodges.
Holmes said some of the non-Indian participants in the sweat lodge have filed federal litigation against the prison system. Because they are not actually Indians, they may not have legal standing to bring their case, she said.
Rocky Boice, an Indian spiritual adviser from Carson City, suggested the non-Indians should be permitted to have their own sweat lodges. He said many Indians are of mixed ethnicity, noting he has a "blond-haired, blue-eyed nephew" who would fight if people said he was not an Indian.
But, Boice said, what happened at the sweat lodge may be caused by "troublemakers looking for something to do."
Throughout the hearing, called by the Nevada Indian Commission, the spiritual leaders also emphasized they are sensitive to people who may not be full-blooded Indians, but want follow the Indian ways.
"I don't have half grandchildren," Polanco said.
Richard Harjo, director of the Nevada Indian Commission, said he is a full-blooded Indian with a heritage in four different tribes. He married a Caucasian and his own children are considered only one-eighth Indian.
"A lot of guys may not qualify as Indians, but they look just like us," Harjo said. "Our kids are falling through the cracks. We may be cutting off our own people."
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March 2006 Reports
Last updated on March 12, 2006