With regard to Sheena Harrison’s “Poor living conditions test Lakota Sioux spirit” (SN 3/13), I am troubled by her description of the local Native American religion as “Shamanism.”

The term Shamanism depicts the traditional Lakota religion in a negative light, which is not acceptable. If I were to stoop to Harrison’s level, I could easily note Christians symbolically eat and drink of their savior’s body and are, from some Native American perspectives, cannibalistic.

The bottom line is be careful how you label things, for some will label back. In addition, we don’t need that mistrust factor you wrote correctly about growing any further. Sometimes white Christian ethnocentric thought should remain just thought, for yours is not the only way.

If there were many more Lakota, not just five, they would attend the church that facilitated your stay on the reservation to meet their spiritual needs.

Arnie Parish
Bay Mills Ojibwe
academic specialist,
Native American Institute