Matt, this is a sweatlodge in the UK - do you think it looks fake or real?
http:// www.sweatlodge.org.uk
Would you mind just having a quick look when you have a minute? Thank you

That was a great article, I watched a documentary on that guy like a week before the retreat last year, I am so so glad that our sweat lodge is legit! Oh and I can not believe some of the ignorance in the replies on that article.

Yeah, Brit, that's a "stay-away" lodge. It appears to be a good lodge, except that they also have the usual problem of "leaders" who claim training that nobody's actually heard of. That's the catch: there are lots of non-Indian people running programs to make money on Indian ceremonies, claiming to have been specially mentored and authorized, when no Indian community has ever heard of them (I don't know if Mike and Tillie fall into that category or not, but among Indian people it's considered very odd to apprentice in traditional ways and then depart to practice them in seclusion away from the tribe that mentored you, and the Indian names they claim have no resemblance to actual Cree or Blackfoot words. Also, Cree and Blackfoot are traditional enemies, so it makes no sense to pick names from one and claim affiliation with the other). One bad sign here is the "warriors of the Rainbow" stuff--that's a carryover from Hippie days for people wanting to absorb ersatz Indian tribalism into new-age movements. I can't discredit them out of hand, but there are some red flags.

Funny thing: I was about to recommend the website www.newagefraud.org for more info in general, and when I googled the name "Mike Chirokow" the first few results were all from that site! (Which I'm a member of)
Check out:
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=327.0 (a lot of the links in the discussion itself are now defunct)
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=397.0 .

Mike was also "featured" in the anti-hoax documentary "Spirits For Sale: (http://www.spiritsforsale.com/Participants.html )
Preview: http://www.spiritsforsale.com/Film.html (Notice the Bill Miller music soundtrack!)

On a side note, James says he'd LOVE to come to England to do a proper sweatlodge over there.

Yeah, Megan, James is as legit at they come. You can't get more legit that him: full-blooded traditional Sundance priest with a known family lineage, and recognized by darned near everyone in the Cheyenne nation. He's a very good man.

This is a fantastic article! Thanks for sharing it with us Matt. : )

Years ago, a friend of mine got involved with a new agey group that did sweatlodges. Even though I knew nothing about the traditional ones, I was suspicious of this group. Not only were the leaders coercive and weird, but they had given each other "Indian names" that sounded like they came out of a bad, corny old western. The last straw for my friend was when the leaders made a new rule that, even though the sweats were all co-ed, no one would be allowed to wear any clothing.

Sometime after that, we met a Navaho man (he was really interesting and had his own private museum) who warned us against this other group. I thought of them when there was that awful news story about the weird cult leader and his dangerous bogus sweats.

Lets pretend we are the jury in that case..

I vote Guilty.

How does he rake in the dough from these people participating in the sweat and encourage them to STAY in there when they are feeling sick, leave the site after many of his participants get sick and one dies, and hide out until he is brought in by police and still get to claim he 'did everything he could and not responsible'. Jerk.

Corny Indian names are a dead giveaway. Unless it's an actual family name (Miller Wraps the Pipe, Birgil Kills Straight, Arvol Looking Horse), traditional names are just not used as nicknames. For example, nobody on RAR even knows that I have a traditional name too, until now: it's Wichacpi Hokshila, and despite being Ojibway it's a Siouxan name, given to me by the family that "owns" it. People just don't go around with bizarre names that they publicize on websites.

Thanks Matt, that is really helpful, i had thought about checking out the women only sweat they do, but no way Jose now! When they make all those claims it is hard to know how to check out whether they are real or not.
If James really means what he says, i would so love to explore that idea. i know you are in touch with a few Brits and it may be a viable option to organise it here....maybe it would work? Perhaps we should talk about it in May (I am getting excited at the thought and working out how we could fit a sweat lodge into the back garden without ruining the lawn!

'without ruining the lawn'...*giggles*

I agree Guilty as charged!

I was under the impression that the sweat lodge is a nurturing safe place, of course you are going to push yourself because it is physically and mentally taxing, but I could not imagine not being able to leave if I felt it was too much. I am so glad watching that documentary didn't scare me away from doing it last year! Oh and Matt can you tell us what your name means?