01/03/2026
I finally feel I can make an official statement regarding a disputed post. I recently became aware a contractor i was working alongside was involved in a couple posts that caused multiple reactions good and bad. I dont know the full story of it all which is why I came to question the Contractor themselves to explain in their own words. Im not going to give the Contractors name because its not my intent to hurt them even though they have verbally attacked me, my kids, business, and life and made fun of it calling themselves "cute" after smearing everything they could about me for wanting clarity. And despite what this person believes, I did not at any time disrespect them in any way directly or anonymously as they accused me of, not even after trying to coax a negative reaction from me.
Now I believe in objective information to make my points. I also wanted to be a native alley if I felt they were standing up for something good which I believed they did up to that point. I believed in them enough to hire them for work, I donated money and my time to their causes. I felt like my research could be an asset. But what I found was different that what that person claimed was okay for the public and non indigenous. I saw comments speaking to this person claiming to be a social worker and it was found they are not. This made me wonder how they came to offer these new services because I tried hiring them social work and nothing happened with that, and what kind of work did they do to help them work up to that. In the post it is said that to get additional information to speak to them i private. And thats what I did.
I had seen that post that was timestamped 3 days ago when I clicked on it. A lot of comments were deleted and I had seen a response from the owner claiming People were attacking them in the comments. I want it to be clear that if in fact, The owner was being factual about those events, i dont stand by any of that. Im not here to shame or accuse anyone because due to their claims, I was abruptly cut off from them both personally and professionally, verbally put down in multiple of ways, if the audio was to be heard by people im sure it would lead many to question many things about this person as it has lead me to do so since it has happened. I don't stand by the way they dismissed what i felt were valid concerns and labeled everyone as drama. So I have not reached a conclusion if in fact this person is intentionally committing cultural appropriation.
I researched the taino people and I received multiple views on the subject. This person was claiming an officially declared extinct people/culture, selling Taino rooted cleansing rituals with new age medicine to adapt to each client. Claiming this honors taino lineage. I wanted to know if that was true.
A group called the United confederation has been working for decades to "revive" this culture. It is their belief the taino still exist and they have made a promise to work towards us federal tribal recognition. To become a tribe, they must prove cultural continuity, dna, etc. They have attempted to gain recognition through DNA ancestry but can only go so far to be labeled indigenous to Puerto Rico but is sufficient for self determination. They believe in preservation of their revived culture and dont recognize mixing old rituals with new age medicine. They dont believe in commercializing like how the posted was worded. But some "tainos" dont believe in this law. They believe they can claim this heritage without any of that, can modernize and sell this culture. These modernizations also have bits of voodoo integrated. The united confederation of self proclaimed indigenous have even labeled it as culturally insensitive and Neo tainoism.
I dont know their stance and unfortunately I may now never know. I do know that they claimed it can be sold to non indigenous but the tainos fighting for tribal recognition are against that. I feel to do so in spite of that is a murky area i dont want to find my business in the crosshairs in because i have openly supported this person in multiple platforms. I belive to honor taino lineage is to respect the way it was made and revived to its orginal state not to adapt but as this person validated themseves that this can be seen as being unaccepting of their culture. I do feel that if youre not going to respect that non indigenous should not be selling native american rituals I cant stand by that professionally and I feel they could've asked me about it especially when debates first started. I could've stopped and reaffirmed things that I believed in or helped with pulling back to respect the disputes. I don't know if they knew about these disputes before promoting this "ritual" but I believe it was their job to know and share both sides so the public can make an informed decision about whether or not it would be ethical to pursue such a "service".
Do I think they could've done better in a variety of ways? Absolutely. But I dont think it makes them a bad person.
What made them bad to me was that they unleashed that hate reserved for those who did disrespect them online. I didn't deserve that. My kids and business dont deserve that and for those reasons I revoke all recognition and recommendations for this person and business because in spite of everything, I did not return any of that ugliness. This person has not apologized for any of it and im dismayed in this display of character for something I didn't do. Everyone knows im passionate about native rights and ethics. I want whats best for all indigenous including the taino fighting for tribal status.
