OMG! I am so happy to see you have written about this. As a very white person (96% of my genetic heritage is southern german), I have felt this as well. As I saw sage present in our little health food store, I felt sad. As a lover of the Earth, as well, I know the cost of such a thing to appear in my little hometown in the Midwest. The structure and importance of ceremony has been lost to us and it is a great, great loss. We have no connection to our native lands and cultures as you do. It is something I feel is tragic. So, you are right, we take yours. We appropriate everything that is exciting and new, as if we invented it. And then we gain from it, financially. Which is something you would never think to do.

I could go on and on, but I want to say thank you again. Saying this must have been difficult, but felt sooo very good. You are not alone. There are some of us on your side, even though we don't look like you. The way native people hold their land and plants and animals as sacred is something lost on white people. And until that changes, we will continue to do harm. I am sorry. I cannot be more sorry.