Being a shaman does not mean you have to be of Native American blood . It has nothing to do with your skin color or nationality. I have learned over the years, that all countries have shamans and they can be male or female. By night, they donned their shaman's cap, and journeyed in behalf of the people of their village. In this way, as we say, shamans have one foot solidly rooted in Mother Earth and our third dimensional reality, and the other foot solidly rooted in all the other less visible dimensions that intersect and flow in and around us all the time.
Shamans are, symbolically speaking, a fulcrum point between the seen and unseen worlds.
They are considered 'messengers' who bring back messages for the individual they are journeying for. They may bring a message from a loved one who is deceased. They journey in an altered state of consciousness, at WILL, in a fully controlled manner. It's important to note a shaman can shut off this psychic valve in them when they want to close it down. To not be able to do so, means this is out of control and frequently diagnosed as a psychotic break, schizophrenia or some other mental aberration term.