Fatale Abstraction

There's a really cool woman from Creek Nation at my orthodonist's office. She's is elegant and clever and someone I'd like to be friends with. However, in the brief bit of time I've been around that office, I have been appalled at the golly gee ignorance of her co-workers. Another (caucasian) tech in the office said her local pub hosts a Gong Show, and that she wants this Native American woman to come and do a rain dance for the show one night, "as a gag." If this white woman is Catholic, would she be offended if someone asked her to come to a smoke-filled booze-joint and re-enact sacraments of Catholic liturgy? It's not that I think the rain dance is a religious act so much as an invocation of tradition and honoring one's lineage, which are wonderfully sacred to this continent's indegenous peoples. The sad thing is I honestly believe this girl thought it was in some way a compliment to invite a Native American to share something of her culture in this talent show. For being the vitriol-spewing potty-mouth that I am, I strive not to offend people with my ignorance - sometimes I just shut up and listen rather than making big statements about things I'm unversed in. I'm sure I'm guilty of staggering ignorance, too, but I really do try. How can people be so thoughtless?