Seeing Red By Ines Talamantez Summary

In the text “Seeing Red: American Indian Women Speaking about their Religious and Cultural Perspectives” by Inés Talamantez, the author discusses the role of ceremonies and ancestral spirituality in various Native American cultures, and elaborates on the injustices native women face because of their oppressors. Talamentez begins by telling us the importance of Indigenous spirituality and identity, stating that “It is their stories that have helped me explore who I am today. They have given me a sense of self and place” (page 220). This statement, though originally about herself, can be applied to her broader theory of the interplay of spirituality and identity. It is important that Talamentez established early on the powerful sense of identity

The issue of identity also emerged in her commentary on how many Native American women are forced to prove their ethnicity for equality in health care and school: “For urban Indian women, who are not registered in federal government records, social services and benefits are difficult or almost impossible to obtain” (page 222). This governmental requirement for people to prove themselves as being “indian enough” can be damaging to one’s sense of self, and is proof of ongoing colonialism because the oppressors are determining whether one’s identity is legitimate. Another damaging power play between Native women and their oppressors is the issue of land claims.(cite?) Sacred ancestral land faces “desecration by the federal government and commercial interests” (page 225). Such desecration includes healers like Flora Jones being unable to collect medicine from the land (page 225). By blocking healers

As Inés Hernández-Avila says, “You take another person’s life when you deny or distort their voice and appropriate their traditions for personal benefit without permission, or as a means to control them”(page 232). Hernández-Avila is saying that this is the same as murdering someone, as you are taking away their agency and power. This intellectual control is also seen when people take aspects of Indigenous spirituality out of context for their own religions or spiritual growth, as Talamantez illustrates on pages 220-21. She states, “spiritually impoverished American women often appropriate those aspects of our lives that fill their needs… the belief that the traditions of others may be appropriated to serve the needs of self is a peculiarly Western notion…”. One example of this is smudging, a form of spiritual cleansing by the use of smoke (though many cultures have this idea, the exact term “smudging” and the rituals accompanying it were created by native Americans and Canadians). It is possible that non-Indigenous people who adopt Indigenous healing rituals do so because they feel that Indigenous people have a superior connection to the earth and that by taking those aspects from Indigenous spirituality they are going back to their own ancient roots. This is problematic because it is not going back to their roots, it is