365 Days of Walking the Red Road: Wrong Turn?


3:38 PM Sunday.

I am trying to get myself oriented to a reading program in Native American studies for 2026 that includes a daily devotional, but according to Google Gemini I took a wrong turn into New Age appropriation when I ordered 365 Days of Walking the Red Road instead of Daily Medicine. I am not so sure it's really a wrong turn, but here is the long conversation I had with Google Gemini about the situation this afternoon:


I seem to be on solid ground with Ned Blackhawk's The Rediscovery of America and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States: A Graphic Interpretation. I also have God Is Red by Vine Deloria, Jr. on hand, as well as the First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament. Finally, I have a short photographic pamphlet by National Geographic titled 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving and another short pamphlet titled Williamstown: We are on Mohican Homelands. This is the entirety of my Native American studies collection in hardcopy. 


Ever since I first dropped out of high school in 1989 to embark on a vision quest inspired in part by schizoaffective bipolar disorder, in part by adolescent substance abuse, in part by publications like Book of the Vision Quest, The Tracker, The Teachings of Don Juan, and Seven Arrows, in part by Hollywood, and in part, I think, by a genuine call from the Creator, I have labored to differentiate between disordered impulses to "plastic shamanism" and white savior grandiosity, on the one hand, and intelligent impulses to serious interfaith American work for truth and reconciliation, on the other. After 35 years of trial and error, I'd like to say that I have healed into a totally balanced realism, but if I am honest with myself and my readers, I see that I still have much work to do. 

In today's lesson, for example, I think the Creator is trying to help me discern whether it is appropriate for me to take up the Red Road as a sign of serious solidarity and white allyship with the truth and reconciliation movement in an American context, or if this would be culturally incompetent according to current, widely accepted protocols for supportive two-way dialogue between white Americans and tribally-enrolled Native Americans.

I really like this teaching about the Red Road by Wayne William Snellgrove. His heart-energy is wonderful. He's the author of Daily Medicine, which I mentioned at the top of this lesson, and he was an elite swimmer in his youth, which I greatly admire:


I think this is a good discussion question for an introductory class in Native American studies: Should we all try to walk the Red Road together in America, or should we keep the Red Road reserved for exclusive use by the tribally-enrolled, and normalize the use of a different term to describe the path of non-Native Americans, including old-stock European Americans, committed to indigenous literacy, truth and reconciliation? 

I myself am not necessarily opposed to either choice. I need to learn more about the arguments on each side, think through how the decision should be made, and consult with the Creator for a couple of years or more. It's a big decision, just like the question of whether Messianic Jewish rabbis are authentic Jewish rabbis or not, according to mainstream American interfaith diplomatic protocols.

(I am very committed to protecting Jewish rights in America, and I just cannot shake the thought that Rabbi Mark Kinzer is an authentic Jewish rabbi of the highest theological order. But this is for another class).

Right now, I am thinking I will go with 365 Days of Walking the Red Road in 2026, but Snellgrove and Google Gemini AI have me thinking hard about the alternatives.

I'll keep you posted on what I decide.

End 6:46 PM.

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