Where does religious freedom end and medical neglect take over?  Apparently a Minnesota judge believes Colleen Hauser has crossed that line.

Daniel Hauser is 13 years old and suffers from Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  In the past Daniel had responded positively to chemotherapy but his parents decided to go with a natural healing course that I will discuss more fully below.  Daniel, according to the judge who issued the arrest warrant for his mother, suffers from a learning disability and cannot read, making it unlikely that Daniel fully understands the extent of his illness and the pros and cons of chemotherapy.

The Hausers belong to a group known as the Nemenhah Band that believes in natural healing.   Who or what is the Nemenhah Band?

The Nemenhah Band claims to be a group of American Indian healers; however, their practices have been criticized by many Native Americans. One such critic is Al Carroll, a Mescalero Apache, Ph.D.-holding author and Fulbright scholar who moderates a website dedicated to exposing people who exploit American Indian traditions for profit.

SOURCE

Being a curious person I went to the Nemenhah Band website and found that for $250,  sent along with a filled out form you can be adopted into the band and become a natural healer.

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I also found that  the Nemenhah group’s leader, Phillip Landis, who has been convicted of fraud in two states for misleading investors in an alternative-health mushroom-growing business.¹

On the forum attached to the Nemenhah Band’s website Chief Cloudpiler says that the program is self-directed, which doesn’t give me a lot of faith in their program and healing abilities.²

In the forum is a post by someone using the screenname drorganics:

Even after attending the last 2 day trial and knowing the family, I still come away confused as to what the latest court decision really means for us as Nemenhah. If your like me, your contemplating the safety and wellbeing of your family members. How could this case effect other potential cases in the future? What if this happened to me or somebody I love? And shouldnt the courts have recognized the laws guarding indiginous[sic] peoples’ rights? The ultimate question you may be asking is “Is being Nemenhah really good enough anymore?” SOURCE

Laws guarding indigenous peoples’ rights….interesting choice of words given that the Nemenhah Band is not recognized as a tribe but as a religion. drorganics goes on to say that Minnesota law gives one the right to forgo traditional medical treatments in favor of alternative treatments but the good doctor fails to acknowledge that we are talking about a minor child here, one that can’t read no less.

By AMY FORLITI, Associated Press Writer Amy Forliti, Associated Press Writer – 42 mins ago

NEW ULM, Minn. – Authorities nationwide were on the lookout Wednesday for a mother and her 13-year-old cancer-stricken son who fled after refusing the chemotherapy that doctors say could save the boy’s life.

Colleen Hauser and her son, Daniel, who has Hodgkin’s lymphoma, apparently left their southern Minnesota home sometime after a doctor’s appointment and court-ordered X-ray on Monday showed his tumor had grown.

Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg, who had ruled last week that Daniel’s parents were medically neglecting him, issued an arrest warrant Tuesday for Colleen Hauser and ruled her in contempt of court. Rodenberg also ordered that Daniel be placed in foster care and immediately evaluated by a cancer specialist for treatment.

[snip]

“I don’t know why they started this situation in the first place,” he said. “Why does someone believe they have the right over your child?”

[snip]

The judge has said Daniel, who has a learning disability and cannot read, did not understand the risks and benefits of chemotherapy and didn’t believe he was ill.

[snip]

The Hausers are Roman Catholic and also believe in the “do no harm” philosophy of the Nemenhah Band, a Missouri-based religious group that believes in natural healing methods advocated by some American Indians. Colleen Hauser testified earlier that she had been treating his cancer with herbal supplements, vitamins, ionized water and other natural alternatives.

REST OF ARTICLE

Further information from the Nemenhah Band website further explains the “standing” of the band:

Federal Law dictates that a ‘Native American Practitioner’ or ‘Traditional Spiritual Leader’ must be either an enrolled member of a Federally Recognized Tribe or Band, or he/she must be recognized as such by Tribes, Bands, or other Native American Traditional Organizations. Therefore, every member of the Nemenhah Band enjoys recognition, not as Tribal Medicine People, such as Lakota or Yankton or Mandan, to name few, but rather, as Nemenhah Medicine Men or Women and Ministers of the Oklevueha Native American Church of Sanpete.

[snip]

This is the pivotal message that the United States Supreme Court delivered in Gonzales vs O Centro de Espirto Vegetal – that blood quanta and Tribal enrollment are incidental if the organization is recognized by Tribes, Bands, or Traditional Organizations.

[snip]

Nemenhah Medicine Men and Women declare that Natural Healing is part of their Spiritual Orientation and that they will ‘First Do No Harm.’ If you can make this declaration, the Nemenhah Band invites you to request Spiritual Adoption and join with the Community of the Nemenhah.

Membership is only by Spiritual Adoption. It is also the only way the Nemenhah Seminary can accept you into the program and designate you a Medicine Man or Medicine Woman. As a Nemenhah Medicine Man or Woman you will be able to practice your Healing Ministry under the full weight and protection of the Native American Free Exercise of Religion Act 1993 (NAFERA) and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act 1993 (RFRA).  SOURCE

There is no requirement for Native American blood to be a member of the Band:

After reading the Constitution of the Band, if you wish to request Spiritual Adoption and to begin your training as a Nemenhah Medicine Man or Woman, click on the link below, download the PDF application for spiritual adoption, fill it out, and mail with the suggested donation to:

Nemenhah
P.O. Box 126
Weaubleau, MO 65774

SOURCE

The Sacred Giveaway is the method by which the Nemenhah Program is supported. The Suggested Offering amount for the Ceremonial Service of Individual Spiritual Adoption is $250.00 initially and $100.00 annually. Thereafter, Nemenhah Members of good intention, willingly make regular, monthly offerings from out of their own financial stewardship. They do this prayerfully, relying on Spirit to direct them in the amount or kind of offering that is most appropriate. They never neglect this part of the Adoption Covenant, understanding that if they do, the Nemenhah Band cannot continue in its important work and its offering to Humanity globally.

All of the Educational Modules of the Core Curriculum are offered with the request that you make a donation of $30.00 (or as much as Spirit directs you) for each module.

If you have already been spiritually adopted and you already made your initial $250.00 offering, please remember to support the program by making additional offerings for the Course Modules on a regular basis. All offerings are strictly voluntary and non-refundable. SOURCE

Safety net or circumvention of law?

Our Mission is to provide a safety net for Natural Healers by effectively bringing the Sacred back into Natural Healing. We concentrate our efforts in the Healing of the Body Physical, the Body Familial, the Body Societal and the Whole Earth.

Our Offering goes out to all Natural Healers of Good Intention. If you are willing to publicly declare that Natural Healing comprises part of your Spiritual Orientation, that you will First Do No Harm, and that you will work to further the work of perfecting and unifying the Band and the fulfilling of its mission, promising your support for its services and offerings, you are invited to become part of our Permanent Population through the ancient Principle of Spiritual Adoption. SOURCE

I approached this research and article with as much objectivity as I possibly could.  I personally much prefer finding natural or alternative treatments for illnesses when at all possible.  I went to chiropractors for years, well before they had the credibility that they enjoy today and I credit them with keeping me out of surgery for my back for years.  I found that magnesium has relieved me of a number of ailments much better than drugs.  AND I have a drop or two of Native American blood myself, giving me a willingness to be open to possibilities.

My conclusion is as an adult I am free to believe any way I choose and to forgo medical science and treat my physical ailments as I see fit, BUT I do not have the right to withhold medical treatment from a minor child who does not have the ability to understand the pros and cons of treatments and whose very life is dependent on the treatment decisions.  I did an Internet search for testimonies from those healed by the ceremonies and treatments particular to the Nemenhah Band….I didn’t find any so it would be impossible, even if I had the medical training, to assess the treatments and the veracity of claims of healing.

I guess the question that must be asked and answered is “where does religious freedom begin and end” and “at what point do the rights and beliefs of a parent become abusive and negligent”? I have a lot of problems with the government dictating medical treatments but I also have a lot of problems with parents refusing standard medical treatment for a minor in favor of unscientific treatments. As parents we are called upon to make decisions every day for those in our care and it is up to each of us to make the best life giving decisions possible.  Hope and belief does not, in my opinion, substitute for scientific, medical treatments when it is proven that the medical treatment has a track record of being effective for the particular illness.

I hope Daniel Hauser is found in time for medical intervention to save his young life.  Please remember not alternative therapies are created equal.

¹ SOURCE

² SOURCE