![]() ![]() Some of these white gurus became multi-millionaires. That was the heydey of the “plastic shaman,” when white gurus led white customers through very expensive and supposedly sacred and authentic Native American ceremonies. The second phase of Native American popularity occurred in the early 1990s when the New Age religious movement turned Native spirituality into a capitalist fad. Rarely has a thespian’s award-ceremony political grandstanding been so self-serving. The pop culture nadir of this era occurred during the 1973 Academy Awards when Marlon Brando, in protest of the continuing government oppression of Natives, sent a faux-Native American, Sacheen Littlefeather née Mary Louise Cruz, in his place to accept his 1973 Best Actor Oscar. ![]() But AIM’s political activism was sometimes marred by violence, committed by and against its members. AIM’s ambitions were vital and necessary, if not in lasting political accomplishment then with the development and nurturing of a still-present ethnic self-esteem. The first was in the early 1970s with the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a radical Indian-led political group that fought for Native American civil rights and tribal sovereignty. During my lifetime, there have been three phases when Native Americans and Native American culture suddenly became extraordinarily popular.
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