Salmon House

Tennessee Just Can't Give Up Their Pet Indians

2007-05-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

Tennessee Just Can't Give Up Their Pet Indians
By Native Village & Ray Levesque

NOTE FROM RAY: Tennessee just can't seem to give up their idea that Indians make good pets. Lots of sports teams used to keep team pets at their colleges and high schools and for many decades, native Americans have been included as pets (or the French word for pet is "mascot" which doesn't sound so demeaning). Next Tuesday, in fact, the Tennessee State Senate is supposed to vote on Senate Bill SB0162. It makes sure that no one in the government will be allowed to interfere with any schools God-given right to have Native American mascots to parade in front of cheering white people at sports events. This very short bill "denies any state agency the authority to prohibit or impair the right of any private or public institution to honor American Indians and the heritage of such through the use of American Indian symbols, names and mascots."

Tennessee, of course, is the starting point of the infamous Trail of Tears, where they rounded up all the Indians into the stockade and marched them out of the state. And today, Tennessee does not recognize any Indian tribes and has no reservations, even though Tennessee was 100 percent native before it was apparently overrun by an invasion of immigrants from someplace where racism is a virtue...

Who are the original people of Tennessee?

Cherokee, Chickasaw, Quapaw, Shawnee, Yuchi, Koasati.

In May 1838, the trail of tears exodus of American Indians began -- in what city? Chattanooga, Tennessee!

In 1879 we were recognized as legal "persons" in the eyes of American federal law.

However, American Indians only became citizens of the United States in 1924.

In 1944, most Indians were finally allowed to vote in all elections.

So in reviewing this timeline, it looks like Tennessee got rid of all us Indians before we were officially declared human beings. Apparently we are still fair game, and make excellent mascots.

I hear that disgraced radio-show host Don Imus is now without a job. Maybe he should move to Tennessee and run for office -- I'm should he would be warmly welcomed there.

Thanks for listening.

Ray

=====================================================================================
A Timeline of the Disappearing Native American Mascots (Courtesy of Native Village)

1968

* National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) launches campaign to address stereotypes found in print and in other media

1969

* NA activists at Dartmouth College continue to promote changes in that school's Indians nickname. replaced soon by Big Green

1970

* University of Oklahoma retires its Little Red mascot that had been traditional since 1940's
* Protests against Cleveland Indians baseball team - Chief Wahoo - take place in Cleveland.

1971

* Marquette University (MI) abandons its Willie Wampum mascot. Prior to the 1994 season, the MU changed Warriors to Golden Eagles.

1972

* A petition by AI students at Stanford University results in the school dropping Indian sports team nickname and logos.
* Dickinson State (ND) changes from the Savages to the Blue Hawks.
* Increasing efforts begun in the 1960's, First Nations students at the University of North Dakota (UND) take steps to retire the school's Fighting Sioux nickname.

1979

* Syracuse University (NY) did away with Saltine Warrior mascot.
* St Bonaventure, NY, retired it's Brown Indians and Brown Squaws sports team mascots.

1980

* Southern Oregon University ends a tradition begun in 1950 when its Red Raiders sports teams cease using several depictions of Indian chiefs as mascots and symbolic logos for sporting events

1988

* The Michigan State Civil Rights commission issues a report on nicknames, logos, and mascots depicting NA people in Michigan education institutions
* Minnesota State Board of Education adopts a resolution stating that "the use of mascots, emblems, or symbols depicting American Indian culture or race (is) unacceptable." and encourages all districts to immediately proceed to remove such mascots.
* Public schools in Wisconsin begin to change their American Indian related sports team logos, mascots, and nicknames. As of 1998, 21 schools - almost 1/3 - of the total using such icons, had changed.
* Siena College in NY drops Indians - are now Saints.
* Saint Mary's college (MN) changes from Red Men to the Cardinals.

1989

* Charlene Teters, NA graduate student attending University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, initiates efforts to eliminate that school's Chief Illiniwek.

1991

* Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs requests 27 public schools in that state to end their use of American Indian names and mascots.
* The National Education Associate (NEA) the largest educational organization of its kind in the world, passes resolutions in 2 consecutive years (91/92) denouncing the use of ethnic related sports team mascots, symbols, and nicknames.
* Eastern Michigan University changes its Huron nickname to Eagles.
* Advocates protest at the Minneapolis Metrodome where Superbowl XXVI found the Buffalo Bills pitted aginst Washington Redskins.

1992

* Seven Native Americans filed a lawsuit against the Washington Redskins football club and petitioned the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for cancellation of federal registrations for Redskins and Redskinettes...and associated names of the team in the nation's capital.
* Portland Oregonian announces it will no longer use the word "Redskins" and several other American Indian related terms in print.
* Radio stations WASH and WTOP in Washington DC also adopt similar policies.
* Simpson college, drops its Redmen and Lady Reds to Storm.
* Despite a lawsuit and over 2000 signatures signed in protest, Naperville Central High School (IL) switches its nickname from Redskins to Redhawks. Grand Forks Central High School (ND) changes its sports teams' nickname from Redskins to Knights.

1993

* National Congress of American Indians issues a resolution which "denounces the use of any American Indian name or artifice associated with team mascots."
* Arvada High School, near Denver Col, drops its Redskins sports team nickname

1994

* The State of Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction issues a directive "strongly urging" all Wisconsin schools using American Indian related mascots to discontinue such uses.
* Enumclaw Junior High School (WA) dropped its "Chieftain" mascot.
* Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, exchanged it's "Warriors" nickname for "Hawks."
* As a show of appreciate for having changed its "Indian" mascot, Park High school in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, is awarded $10,000 by the Prairie Island Mdewakanton Sioux Community.
* Prior to the 1994-95 season Marquette University retired its "Warriors" nickname in favor of "Golden Eagles."

1995

* St. John's, the largest Catholic university in America, drops its "Redmen" nickname in favor of "Redstorm."

1996

* University of Tennessee at Chattanooga discontinues the use of its "Chief Moccanooga" mascot. The following year the team's "Moccasins" nickname was shortened to "Mocs" in reference to Tennessee's state bird, the Mockingbird.
* Miami University of Ohio (Oxford, OH) drops its "Redskins" nickname.
* The Toronto Bluejays triple-A farm team in Syracuse, NY, heeds concerns expressed by advocates and changes its nickname from the "Chiefs" to the "Skychiefs."
* Hull Western Christian school in Hull, Iowa, is honored by the Sioux City Human Rights Commission for retiring the school's "Indians" mascot/logo.
* In a process that began in 1995, Adams State University (Alamosa, CO) changes its mascot from an "Indian" to a "Grizzly."
* Newtown High School in Sandy Hook, Connecticut drops its "Indians" nickname in favor of the "Nighthawks."
* The United Methodist Church takes an official stance Concerning Demeaning Names to Native Americans as well as on other related topics.
* Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, California, changed its mascot from "Indians" to "Firebirds"
* Students at Hortonville, Wisconsin, adopt a non-recognition policy stating their school will not use cheers, names, etc., related to "Indian" sports team tokens employed by opposing teams.

1997

* Jay Rosenstein's documentary "In Whose Honor" is aired nationally on the Public Broadcasting System TV show "Point of View." Mr. Rosenstein's film highlights Charlene Teters' efforts to eliminate the "Chief Illiniwek" mascot used by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
* The Board of Education for the Los Angeles, California consolidated school district moves to eliminate "Indian" related mascots from four schools in its jurisdiction.
* The minor league Canton-Akron "Indians" rename themselves the Akron "Aeros" and boost their merchandise sales from $60,000 to $1.2 million, the largest merchandise income of any minor league team.

1998

* Yakima College (Washington State) respects concerns expressed by its American Indian community and elects to retire the institution's race-related mascot.
* The Kansas Association for Native American Education (KANAE) issues a resolution that "...calls for the elimination of use of American Indian mascots and logos in all public and private schools in the State of Kansas..."
* The American Jewish Committee approves a statement on team names which notes it "deplores and opposes the use of racial or ethnic stereotypes in the names or titles of business, professional, sport or their public entitles when the affected group has not chosen the name itself."
* Approximately 200 anti-"Indian" mascot activists from around the country converge at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana for the first national Conference on the Elimination of Racist Mascots.
* A federal judge upholds the Los Angles consolidated school board's 1997 decision to eliminate several "Indian" related mascots and nicknames from its district.
* Southern Nazarene University, a small Christian school in Bethany, Oklahoma, retires its "Redskins" nickname in favor of "Crimson Storm."
* New York State Education Department Commissioner directs his staff to undertake a statewide review of public schools using American Indian related sports team tokens.
* Despite personal hardships faced by a White Mountain Apache student and his family, a bitter five year struggle at a public school in Medford, Wisconsin ends victoriously when the school is compelled to drop its "Screaming Indian with Mohawk haircut" logo.
* Oregon's Chemeketa Community College drops its "Chiefs" nickname and selects "Storm" for its new one. Since the 1970s, twenty high schools in Oregon have also changed their "Indian" related nicknames and mascots.
* National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee concludes that "Indian mascots that promote Indian caricatures and mimic ceremonial rites do not comply with the NCAA's commitment to ethnic student welfare."
* Following a complaint made by the program manager for American Indian Education, 10 public schools in Dallas, Texas, make plans to retire their respective "Indian" mascots by the end of the 1998-99 school year.
* Oklahoma City University, a college affiliated with the United Methodist Church, decides to replace its "Chiefs" nickname dating back to 1944.
* Morningside College of Sioux City, Iowa, changes its nickname from the "Maroon Chiefs" to the Mustangs.

1999

* The Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, a consortium of twelve federally recognized Indian tribes, issues a resolution calling for the end of "the use of depictions of and cultural references to American Indians as mascots, logos, and team nicknames in Wisconsin public schools."
* Erwin High school in Asheville, NC is investigated for discrimination by the United States Department of Justice because of its "Indian" related nicknames and mascot.
* A panel in Utah decides that the word "Redskins" is a derogatory term and forbids its use on motor vehicle license plates.
* Citing educational concerns about misinterpretations of the crayon color's name, Crayola announces plans to change "indian red" to something less ambiguous.
* A landmark victory concludes a legal battle begun in 1992 as a three-judge panel of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rules that the term "Redskins" is a term disparaging to Native Americans and tends to bring them "into contempt or disrepute." The decision has the potential to strip the Washington NFL team of trademark protections.
* Millard South High in Omaha, Nebraska, one of the largest schools in the state, graciously decides to change its "Indians" spirit symbol.
* Following the lead of its Champaign-Urbana branch, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) unanimously approves a second mascot resolution.
* Detailing a number of important points and concerns, The Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs issues a mascot resolution.
* Appalled by the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana's use of a stereotypic "Indian" mascot the prestigious Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas offers a formal position on Illiniwek.
* Following almost ten years of controversy, a high school in Milton, Wisconsin, retires its "Redmen" nickname.
* The U.S. Census Bureau adopts a policy on non-use of Athletic Teams with American Indian or Alaska Native Names in Promoting Census 2000
* In an poll conducted by the National Spectator's Association, 60% of respondents indicate they want the "Wahoo" logo of the Cleveland Major League Baseball team to be changed.
* Research conducted by a college professor debunks the myth that the Cleveland MLB team was named in "honor" of Louis Sockalexis, one of the first Native Americans to play for that club.
* Rickards High in Florida wisely decides to retire its 40 year old "Redskins" nickname.
* Oklahoma City University finalizes plans to change its "Chiefs" nickname to "Stars."
* ESPN airs a special program on Native Americans in sports and which contains a segment on the mascot issue. Follow-up coverage included an insightful online chat session with leading advocate, Suzan Shown Harjo.
* The Society of Indian Psychologists of the Americans issues a position statement that receives recognition in a publication of the prestigious American Psychological Association.
* The main Cleveland area public library enacts a dress code that prohibits its 700 employees from wearing garments bearing "Wahoo" images.
* Ten schools in the Dallas, Texas, area follow through on a 1997 decision to change their "Indian" sports team tokens.
* The Hutchinson Human Relations Commission, Hutchinson Kansas, issues a resolution

2000

* Hendrix College in Arkansas retires its stereotypic "Indian-head" logo while retaining its "Warriors" nickname.
* Seattle University, a Jesuit school in Washington State, completes its transition from the "Chieftains" to the "Redhawks."
* Frontier High School in Deerfield, Massachusetts, changes it "Redskins" nickname.
* Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois, retires its "Indians" nickname.
* Onteora High School in Boiceville, New York, retires its "Indians" nickname and other related practices only to see reactionary school board candidates win seats and reinstate the school's "Indian" sports team token. The district is believed to be the first in the country to repeal an anti-discrimination policy in order to keep its racial icon.
* Hiawatha, Kansas, retires the "Redskins" nickname from all schools in its district.
* The Canajoharie school district in New York state retires use of the "Redskins" nickname.

2001

* Saranac Lake, New York, retires the "Redskins" nickname from all schools in its district.
* After failing to take action on an appeal that was filed five years earlier, the New York State Education Department calls for the retirement of institutionalized "Indian" sports team nicknames, mascots, and logos from its public schools.
* The school board for Penfield High School, near Rochester, NY, displays a healing gesture and votes 7-0 to retire the school's "Chiefs" sports team token.
* Sagamore Hills Elementary school in Atlanta, Georgia, decides it will no longer use a "Chiefs" mascot and prepares to consider alternative ways of showing support for that city's MLB team besides school-wide "tomahawk chops" and war chants.
* By the unanimous vote of its school board, Afton, NY, public schools exhibits good judgment and retires its "Indians" mascot.
* In an action that removes all doubt about the seriousness of concerns surrounding the use of "Indian" sports team tokens, The United States Commission on Civil Rights issues a position statement calling for educational institutions to avoid use of such ethnic nicknames and mascots.
* Parsipanny High School in Parsipanny, NJ, exhibits courageous vision by retiring its racial slur "Redskins" nickname.
* Following its President's recommendation, along with support from coaches and student government leaders, Southwestern College in Chula Vista, California, wisely elects to change its "Apaches" mascot to "Jaguars."
* The Bell-Chatham board of education in Illinois votes in favor of retiring the "Redskins"and "Braves" nicknames used by its schools.
* Illinois Valley Community College in Oglesby, Illinois, retires its "Apaches" nickname and provides a good example that the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and other institutions using "Indian" sports team tokens would do well to follow.
* Advocates from across the country convene at the Northern Plains Conference on American Indian Team Names and Logos held at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.
* The Minnesota Indian Education Association adopts a resolution in opposition to the University of North Dakota's use of the "Fighting Sioux" name and logo.
* Irondequoit High School, near Rochester, New York, makes plans to replace its "Indians" nickname.
* The Modern Language Association passes a resolution on mascots and symbols. The MLA includes over 30,000 members in the fields of English, foreign languages, and linguistics.
* The Quinnipiac University Board of Trustees Votes To Discontinue Use of 'The Braves' Nickname
* Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Kentucky, changes it's "Indian" themed mascot to "Patriots."
* Stating the district will not use any mascot that reflects any identifiable group by age, race, color, gender, religion or national origin, the District 87 school board voted to retire Bloomington High School's (Illinois) American Indian mascot. BHS kept the Purple Raiders nickname.

2002

* The Iowa Civil Rights Commission passed a Resolution Opposing the Use of Native American Images, Mascots, and Team Names in Iowa
* The Durham (North Carolina) franchise in the summer collegiate Coastal Plain League changed its nickname from Braves to Americans. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board adopted a resolution against discriminatory logos, names, mascots and nicknames
* West High School in Oshkosh Wisconsin retired its "Indian" themed mascot.
* Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts decided its sports teams will no longer be known as Mohawks.
* New Hampshire State Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution calling for local school districts to stop using American Indian sports mascots.
* Southeastern Community College, in West Burlington, Iowa, makes a smart and painless change by dropping the "Indian" association to its "Blackhawk" nickname and changing it to reflect a bird of prey, the "Black Hawks."
* Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, Tennessee, changed its sports team nickname from "Indians" to "Redhawks"

2003

* Joining the ranks of other newspapers that have also adopted similar guidelines the Nebraska Journal Star newspaper amends its style and, along with other related changes, will no long print the "Redskins" racial slur.
* The Telegraph-Forum, a newspaper in Central Ohio, discontinues its use of "Chief Wahoo."
* The Michigan State Board of Education passes a resolution that "supports and strongly recommends the elimination of American Indian mascots, nicknames, logos, fight songs, insignias, antics, and team descriptors by all Michigan schools."
* The Peoria Chiefs, a minor league affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, changes it logo from an American Indian to a Dalmatian fire chief.

http://www.nativevillage.org/Messages%20from%20the%20People/timeline%20for%20Indian%20Mascots.htm

Syncretists, Mascots and Other Racial Slurs...

2007-05-05T22:10:00.000-07:00

NOTE FROM RAY: My essay today is about three forms of racism that all look
pretty good on the outside, but once you take a deeper look, get real ugly real
fast.

-- Using Native American symbols, names, people and objects as good luck charms to win sporting events is racism. I think that has been made abundantly clear.

-- Accusing Native American Christian leaders of syncretism is another form of
racism, although this occurs mostly in seminaries and denominational
headquarters, and often, large, powerful churches.

-- Demanding unity under the banner of multi-culturalism is another form of
racism, but uses all the politically correct terms to make it sound like an
added benefit to being a minority. The truth, however, is that it is just
racism, "new and improved."

It appears that the recent episode in Tennessee demonstrates that racism is
deeply rooted in America and that often, the only reason that racism seems to be diminishing is solely due to "political correctness." "You shouldn't make the Indians mad over mascots", they say, even though we are accorded no greater respect.

But remember the definition of racism -- it is when people in power make discriminatory choices. Poor people who don't like another race are just "prejudiced", having "prejudged" another person based on skin color, tribe, or neighborhood.

BUT, when people have the power to do good or evil, these people can exercise true racism, and not just personal prejudice.

A few days ago I got a note from a native minister about him being blacklisted by a denomination who accused him of promoting syncretism. Here is an excerpt:
.......................................................................................................................................
I have always been deeply committed to the idea of unity among
believers in the bigger picture of things. I think a cross-cultural,
multi-cultural biblical unity is a profound picture of what God the
Creator intended for creation from the very beginning. This commitment
has often, and at times, been severely tested as some of my views of
faith and culture have not been so warmly received by my brethren. I
talked with a friend a few weeks ago who told me that the Native
leaders of the Native district of a denomination had placed me on
their "black list" because I was promoting syncretism.

I have on several occasions been crushed by the decisions of Caucasian
denominational leaders who dealt so selfishly and unjustly with their
Native leadership (my dear friends) over issues of self-governance,
co-equality and management of financial assets and resources. I have
been deeply disappointed by local pastors and missionary workers who
were unwilling to consider that some of their attitudes were still
very paternalistic and controlling toward Native people. I have at
times been angered over the simplistic demonizing of our cultural
expressions of faith by people who were largely ignorant of our ways,
espousing authoritative views based on hearsay, misinformation and
just plain discriminatory prejudice.
.....................................................................

In my opinion, racism is the real motivation behind those who so quickly accuse native Christians of syncretism.

You see, the denominational leaders and theologians are too busy to bother with watching the Redskins play the Cowboys... instead, they are busy protecting the Church from anyone not exactly like themselves, and declare cultural Indians (who have not yet submitted to assimilation) to be Syncretists and other racial
slurs. You see, a theologian would never use the "N"-word, but they revel in pleasure at their exclusive boundaries which keep Indians out and keeps churches "safe" (from self-examination most likely...).

But now that native Christians are starting to emerge as powerful leaders in their own right, it makes the Big Church nervous. As the minister notes above, they deny us equal participation, funding, partnerships, but most of all, "significant leadership."

They profess the unity of the church, especially the MECC (multi-ethnic cross-cultural) churches, who claim that all races need to come to their church to worship or else they are not following the biblical principle of unity. But, this is just assimilation dressed up in ethnic costume. The worship service is high-powered Urban Gospel music, some Mexican ranchera praise songs, and letting some Indian play a hand drum along with the worship leader singing "How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place" by British Christian Matt Redman.

The "call for unity" is still just another guilt mechanism for assimilation. And it is rarely "multicultural" in it's leadership, because the songs and artwork are of the "international Christian bookstore" genre.

Recently, a large American denomination announced to their Native American
leadership agency that they were being disbanded since they had "fulfilled their
original mission" and now there would be no "Native American denominational
leadership." Their needs would now be met by the African-American office and all the various ethnic groups would now come under a single "Ethnic Ministries"
office.

This is just like all the other treaties made with Indians -- it was unilateral,
made without discussion or consultation, and it once again relegated Indians to
a reservation under someone else's control. These national leaders get to pat
themselves on the back for being "multi-cultural." As natives, we have already
experienced multiple times what it means to be rounded up and moved. Just
reflect for a few moments on the Trail of Tears, or the state of Oklahoma that
many tribes were moved to, or the Indian Residential Schools of the US and
Canada. We were all rounded up, told it was to "help us", and had no say --
being moved under military threat.

So this denomination has a definite precedent for such a strategy, taking a page
right out of the Indian Wars! And their strategy, even if called "multiculturalism" is just as racist today as it ever has been!

Reflecting on the syncretism accusation, we Indians are offered the antidote of "critical contextualization", another method of allowing the majority church to tell us "how much Indian" can be and still "be saved." The notion of self-reflection is not a bad idea in and of itself, but why has the Big Church never applied critical contextualization to itself? Again, this is about the power of the Big Church to exclude us until we reach the full measure of whiteness required. (Please remember that "white" does not mean skin color -- it refers to the ones holding power).

Now there is a verse that talks about unity and maturity.

Ephesians 4:13 This is to continue until all of us are united in our faith and in our knowledge about God's Son, until we become mature, until we measure up to Christ, who is the standard.

Lucky for us Indians that Jesus Christ is the Standard for who we are to be, although it won't be a good idea to tell the Big Church leaders about this verse. It might just get thrown back in our faces. But at least it is written. And when the American church falls, they will have this verse to return to so that they can begin rebuilding on a solid foundation.

So, after all is said and done, is it fair to reply to those who cry "Syncretists!" with our own retort "Racists!"?

It is a question that deserves to be asked.

Most who accuse of us syncretism preach a shallow, parroted faith, where the highest value is correct information and questioning is not safe. This type of religious fundamentalism is inherently dangerous. It creates an atmosphere in which racism is theologically justified, where justice is never given its due, and where discussions are framed as King James Jihad ("You don't agree with us? We declare you the Great Satan!").

Of the fine church-going people in Kentucky that closed down Randy Woodley's "Eloheh Village" Native American School of ministry with their guns and threats, weren't they just doing their duty to God? The KKK has always been a religious organization trying to keep America and the church pure. For all the
calls for unity and cross-cultural churches, the vast majority serve a single race.

The KKK and fundamentalist theologians share the same value of racial superiority. One group burns crosses on lawns, the other group just crucifies us theologically.

So why did I write this today? Partly because some people question why Christians should even be concerned about the mascot issue at all. And
the reason is that it is an issue of justice and prima facie evidence of racism.

And why bother bringing up syncretism again (since it is not an issue in native communities)? Because behind the accusations which native Christians constantly suffer there are issues of racism and justice, just like mascots.

So the next time someone asks me, "Ray, are you aware of the dangers of syncretism in native ministry?" -- I will have to respond by saying "Before we discuss syncretism, don't you think we need to discuss racism and theological profiling first?"

Thanks for listening...

ray

PS Many of us in "native ministry" respectfully try to keep our distance from the "big church". We work with them when we can because we believe that there is really only one Church, and natives are part of it too. But since they are usually pretty bossy about how to do things, we are starting and leading new gatherings ourselves. We have little money, no TV networks, and we suffer a lot. But it seems that we have a lot in common with other Jesus-followers throughout many centuries. If you want to learn more about our "New Gatherings", just visit us at www.newgatherings.com

Planting 55 Reservation Churches in 10 Days

2006-10-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

We have the opportunity of a lifetime - to start 55 churches on a
large reservation in Amazon area of Brazil -- the "Fox Land of the
Sun" reservation "Raposa Serra do Sol".

Now please don't think that we are super-evangelists or have some
brand new strategy -- it was the FLOOD that did it. You see, earlier
this year, they had the "flood of the century" in this area, wiping
out most of the roads, bridges and other infrastructure. Even the
capital city of Boa Vista had up to 2 feet of water!

The reservation has a Catholic portion "the lower third" and the non-
Catholic area. I am part of the non-Catholic leadership for the
reservation so we were very unprepared for what happened next.

The governor of the state asked the leader of the Catholic Indians
and our leader to go tour 55 villages on the lower half of the
reservation. 40 of the villages are Catholic (Jesuit). When the
needs were surveyed and reported back to the governer, all 55
villages requested that they have church fellowship started. The
Catholic leader said "our job is not to build churches, but if your
organization wants to build churches in our villages, you will have
our support." This gesture is highly unusual and it a 180 degree
turn from the confrontational relations of the past.

So we are getting ready for a training congress of 300 reservation
native Christians to help them immediately establish 55 fellowships
in their villages. Buildings are very inexpensive to put up so our
emphasis is in leadership training. There is no time for Bible
college or seminary. We are going by the book of Acts -- just
sharing the Good News, the apostle's teachings, breaking (manioc)
bread from hose to house, sharing as people have need (Acts 2:38).
We are grateful that no Bible college was required during the time
Acts was written. We are, however, providing training for
leadership. Our last large session was in January, and now we will
meet again November 5 through 12.

Lots of follow up will be required, but these brothers and sisters
are very excited about following Jesus in their different tribal
groups, including Macuxi, Ingarico, WayWay, Taurepang, and Yanomami.

In case you are wondering why I am involved, I spent time as a young
Christian in Brazil and was the primary interpreter for all the
training in January and have been asked to come help teach in
November, which I will be doing thanks to a generous couple who
bought my ticket. I have also been named to the tribal council there
and am helping in developing commercial ventures such as coffee
growing, bananas, cattle and chickens, and hopefully some eco-
tourism. North American believers have helped pay for the arts and
crafts school which will put 20 young people to work and provide
income for their families. So if you want to purchase native crafts
from our relatives in the Amazon, why yes, they have FEDEX! (well in
the capital city at least).

I have been letting individuals and churches know about this
opportunity for a few months now and hope that you will consider
supporting us financially. Now we are also planning for groups to
come and visit with us there, for work crews, tourism, worshipping
together, maybe some hunting, waterfall swimming and crafting too.
They are hoping for many visitors from the North, but we do have to
make preparations to host people so we are working on that now.

You can support this church planting effort of the 55 churches, and
you can support me and Liz to keep this and other new gatherings
moving ahead. We have always supported ourselves with outside work,
no denominational or missionary money has come our way. So if you
like what we do, we could sure use your help.

Tell us how you want the money to be used and we will get it to the
right place. If you want to give on a monthly basis and get tax-
deductible receipts in the US or Canada, just contact me to set it
up for you.

I hope that you are as inspired by their story as we are. We look
forward to partnering with you in prayer, in finances, in visits,
and last but not least, some great baskets!

Ray & Liz Levesque

Director, New Gatherings
tellray@gmail.com

Evangelical Baggage in the Native Community

2006-01-29T10:43:00.000-08:00

Defining Evangelicalism & Baggage

Hear is an article defining evangelicalism (not "evangelism"). It
should help all of us to understand how this term came about.

http://www.wheaton.edu/isae/defining_evangelicalism.html

Evangelicalism is probably a word that has so many meanings that it
regularly leads to brawls and barfights. But it is primarily an
American movement rooted in the revivalism of early America, although
the term literally began with Martin Luther, a Catholic monk who
reformed the Catholic Church.

In Canada, Canadians primarily define themselves as "not-Americans".
The best definition for them is to define themselves not by who they
are, but who they aren't.

Evangelicals seem to define themselves this way as well:
-- not Catholics, and
-- not Liberals.

To the average Evangelical, both are wrong.

Today, Evangelicalism is everywhere, not just North America. The
Evangelicals have spawned many thousands of denominations all over the
world.

Evangelicals emphasize:

--"correct doctrine" over "unity in the Body of Christ"
--"total depravity" over "man is made in God's image"
--the "Word of God" referring to the Bible over "the Word became flesh"
--the "salvation event" over the "salvation process"
--the "Good News" over "Good Works" (social gospel = evil)
--theology as the means of our faith

Evangelicalism emerged to reform Catholicism. So if you don't consider
yourself Catholic, then most likely you are Evangelical. Evangelical
includes Baptists, Charismatics, Methodists and many more.

Even though many of us fall into the category of Evangelical, there
are some immediate struggles that we encounter if we ministering
within native culture and especially within a native worldview.

Natives emphasize:

--"unity of God" and tolerance over "individual doctrinal stands"
--"Creator made us good like Him" over "total depravity"
--"Jesus himself is the message from Creator" over "the Black Book"
--the "salvation journey of a lifetime" over a "onetime event"
--the "Good News" and "Good Works" are 2 sides of the same coin, not
separable
--prayer (worship/ceremony) as the means of our faith

So there you have it, vinegar and baking soda, just sitting there
waiting to be mixed. Who wants to go first?

Now one reason that someone could say that they can't be an
Evangelical is that the can't support the emphases that define
Evangelicals.

BUT, we have to remember that Evangelicalism did not emerge to teach
natives about Christ, but to correct the 99 Catholic Flaws (the 99
Theses nailed by Luther to the door of the Wittenburg Church). So
don't judge Evangelicalism for being the wrong answer to native
ministry -- it was never designed to do that -- it is simply a
historical legacy of the church. This is how theologies develop, out
of crises and conflicts. And that is also why today, "native theology"
is emerging on its own, distinct from all the other theologies.

But let's say that you are Ingariko from Northern Brazil with no
contact with the Catholic or Protestant churches. Are they
Evangelicals? Do I need to teach them church history to prove to them
that they ought to join the Brazilian Association of Evangelicals? My
own thoughts run to "no", although at some point I will want to share
the history of the church with them. Last time we were there, we
talked about the Moravian 100 year prayer meeting and "Chief
Zinzindorf". They laughed and laughed over Count Zinzindorf's name. I
wonder what the anthropogists will say when the Ingarico describe the
early Moravian influence on missions by Zinzendorf... that will mess
with their heads...

Here in our area in BC, Christianity was unknown to many bands even as
recent as 30 years ago (ask Mark & Babe Smith in Lillooet about that).
So we need to consider the question of "baggage" whenever we walk into
a new culture.

What is the Good News that we are to bring? Must the Good News always
be either Catholic or Protestant? Or is there Good News that is
independent from the almost 2000 years of church history since the
time when Jesus first shared "the Good News"?

Currently I am struggling with the Brazilian native definition of
salvation. "Recieve Jesus as your personal savior, don't drink, smoke
or dance, and avoid Catholics."

Can you say "baggage" with me?

Thanks for listening....

your Jesus-brother and servant

ray

Getting Saved at the Potlatch

2005-12-04T14:09:00.000-08:00

Getting Saved at the Potlatch: Accepting Indians as your Personal Equals

My friend Bill Bob Tom is half native and trained in the church. But recently he went to a potlatch and saw the light. He got saved and accepted Indians!

Lots of Christians accept Jesus, but they seem to stop there. They hear Jesus' story about planting seeds, but instead they plant church buildings, and all the stuff that goes with it, like Bible-college-factory pastors and lots of books on theology and how to do anything meaningful in 40 days.

But when my friend (Tom Bill Bob) went to a real potlatch, he experienced a very godly event, with many examples of love, generosity, of forming lasting bonds of faithfulness and care. The potlatch included singing, dancing, feasting, naming, young teen rite of passage, and more.

I know why he was stunned -- I have seen the reactions at 2 potlatches that I held in Seattle. The church has nothing like it. Of course, some tribes and bands have lost the potlatch and need help in bringing it back. Some churches see the opportunity to "fill the void" buy bringing in "church" but I think the seeds of the Gospel could go much further if they were planted in a potlatch.

In fact anyone doing the big tent ministry should repent and switch to potlatches. Instead of taking the people's money, come prepared to give generously to the people.

I am not sure if I am joking about "getting saved and accepting Indians". There is another story that is published and has a video version called "The Pineapple Story" about an angry missionary who preaches love but but doesn't get much of a hearing, especially since the natives keep stealing his pineapples -- which take 3 years to grow! (http://store.iblp.org/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=IBLP&Product_Code=PS)

The story is that the missionary finally (after years) repents of his anger but the natives take this as evidence that the missionary has finally gotten saved! He now treats them like Jesus did, not being angry when they steal his pineapples. So did he get saved when he accepted Jesus? Sure -- but at what point did he get transformed?
Doesn't Romans say to be transformed by the renewing of the way you think?

Culture doesn't save people - being reconciled to Creator through Jesus does. No amount of turning natives into Mid-Western suburnanites is going to get them closer to Jesus -- in fact that kind of assimilation leads us in the other direction.

So I am grateful for my friend Bill Bob Tom and his potlatch experience. There are now so many things that I don't have to explain -- it is something that can only be experienced -- it is better "caught than taught".

Thanks for listening... I guess I better get some coffee now...

ray

Reconciliation: "If I Steal Your Car" - By Robert Francis

2005-12-02T20:31:00.000-08:00

Fellowships Talk
October 2005

Stories: “The Daughter of the Sun,” “One Came from the Heavens,” “An Eye for an Eye – A Son for a Son,” “Child’s Play” and “If I Steal Your Car”

Primary Scripture: Ephesians 4:22-5:20; Matthew 5:21-26, 6:12, 14-15; Luke 17:3-4
Supporting Scriptures: Psalm 82:3; Proverbs 21:3; Matthew 7:21-23; Mark 13:8;
2 Corinthians 7:10; Revelation 7:9-10 N.I.V. unless otherwise noted

Robert Francis

This is the third in a series of talks on what I call the Four R’s: the four essential values of respect, reciprocity, reconciliation and relationship. Far from being mutually exclusive categories, these four values are interdependent to the extent that no one of them may be brought into practice apart from the other three. Inasmuch as we want to live balanced lives, lives characterized by harmony and love, we do well to hold fast to all four of these values.

Reconciliation

The Daughter of the Sun

Note: In most but not necessarily all cases, old Cherokee stories refer to the Sun as female.

According to the old ones, the house of the Sun is in the east, beyond the sky dome, but the Daughter of the Sun used to live in the middle of the sky. Every day, in her travels, the Sun stopped at her daughter’s house for lunch. It was at this hottest part of the day that the Sun would also pause to look down at her grandchildren on the earth. When she saw the people squinting back up at her, the Sun grew angry. “My grandchildren hate me!” the Sun exclaimed to her brother, the Moon. “Just see how they scrunch up their faces whenever they look my way.” In her wrath, the Sun grew hotter and hotter, until all the crops dried up.

In desperation, the people looked high and low for a solution to the problem. Finally, the Little People came up with what seemed to be a logical solution. Now, the Little People are spirit folk. There are some spirit people who are good and some who are bad. The Little People have much in common with us human beings, in that, they can go either way. They may be helpful, or they may be mischievous. They may act wisely, or their actions may prove hurtful. Here’s what the Little People did in this situation: They changed two men into snakes. The first they changed into the Spread-Head snake. The second was transformed into the Copperhead. These two were instructed to travel up the sky vault, to wait at the house of the Daughter of the Sun. “When the Sun arrives outside her daughter’s door,” the Little People said, “strike quickly with your deadly fangs.” The two snakes slithered away to accomplish their task, but when the Sun arrived, her light so blinded the Spread-Head that when he struck, he forgot to even open his mouth to bite. He flattened his nose against the Sun. Then, in his fright, he rolled on his back and played dead, stinking like a rotting carcass, just as he does to this day. The Sun called him a nasty thing and went on into her daughter’s house. The Copperhead was so afraid; he crawled quickly away without even trying to bite, and so these two returned to the earth.

After this first failure, the Little People decided to try again. They changed two more men into snakes. One of these became the Rattlesnake. The other became the Uktin, the Great Horned Serpent. So, you see, all of these four: the Spread-Head, the Copperhead, the Rattlesnake and the Uktin were once men. Well, just as the others had done, the Rattlesnake and the Uktin traveled up the sky vault to lie in wait outside the door to the house of the Daughter of the Sun. The Sun was still in there, having some lunch with her daughter.

The Uktin was very big and dangerous. His poison was so potent that even a little splashed on the skin could be deadly, and the mere look of the Uktin’s eye could kill. All the people were thinking, “As big and mean as that Uktin is, he is sure to do the job and kill the Sun.” But the Rattlesnake was quicker than the Uktin. Getting there first, he coiled up outside the door, nervously shaking his tail as he waited for the Sun to emerge. The Rattlesnake was so eager, that as soon as the door opened, he struck. But instead of striking the Sun, the Rattlesnake struck the Daughter of the Sun. The Sun went on her way, but the Daughter of the Sun died from the poisonous bite. As with the others before them, these two snakes returned to the earth.

The Sun burned hotter and hotter, so vengeful was she for the death of her daughter. The people could no longer leave the shade in the daytime. The trees and grasses were dying. Great fires were burning in the land. People were getting sick. It was really bad.

The Little People said there was only one solution. Seven men would have to travel to the West, to the Jusgina Ghost Country, and bring back the Daughter of the Sun. The Little People gave each man a sourwood stick, with instructions on how to use these when they arrived at the Ghost Country. The men also carried a large box in which to bring back the Daughter of the Sun. The final instructions of the Little People were these: “Once she is in the box, don’t open it, for any reason, until you are back here, in your own country.”

The men set out on their journey. Seven days later, arriving in the Ghost Country, the seven men found the people dancing in a great circle. Positioning themselves outside the circle, they waited for the Daughter of the Sun to come around. As she came by, the first of the seven men touched her with his sourwood stick. When she came around the second time, the next man touched her with his sourwood stick. This same pattern continued until all seven men had, in turn, touched the Daughter of the Sun with their sourwood sticks. At the touch of the seventh stick, she fell backward, as in a swoon. The men put her in the box, securely fastened the lid and headed back to their own country.

As the men walked along, carrying the box, the Daughter of the Sun awoke and began to complain. “I’m hungry,” she said. “Please open the box and give me something to eat.”

“Oh no,” the men said, remembering the warning of the Little People. “We can’t open the box until we are back in our own country.”

As they walked on, the Daughter of the Sun complained again. “I’m thirsty,” she said. “Please, oh please open the box and give me just a little sip of water.”

“Oh no,” the men said. “We can’t open the box until we are back in our own country.”

Finally, the Daughter of the Sun complained again. In a faint voice she said, “I can’t breathe. Please, please open the box. I think I may suffocate!”

The seven men stopped and looked at each other. It was well known that a person could live a long time without food. There were some who had lived as much as seven days without water. But air was something a person could not live without. “Maybe we should open the box,” one man offered.

“Don’t forget what the Little People said,” another cautioned. “We can’t open the box for any reason.”

“But what if she dies,” yet another man said. “We’re back where we started.”

Finally, someone offered an acceptable compromise. “Let’s open the box just a crack,” the man argued, “not enough for her to get out, but enough for her to get some air.” This course of action seeming reasonable to all, the box was unlatched and opened just the tiniest crack.

“What was that?” one man exclaimed. They had all seen a flash of red light, flying out from the box to disappear in the brushy woods.

“I don’t know what that was,” another man said, “but I think we’d better keep the lid closed tight on this box from now on, no matter what she says.”

The men went on their way, hearing no more complaints from the Daughter of the Sun. They worried that maybe she was dead. The next day, the seven arrived back in their own country. The box was opened, and to everyone’s dismay, it was empty.

When the Sun saw her daughter would not be returned to her, her wrath turned to sorrow. She began to cry, and the tears of the Sun threatened to flood the whole earth. The people tried their best to cheer her up. They sang their best songs and danced until their feet were sore. The heart of the Sun was touched by this effort, but her sorrow was not taken away. Then a flash of red was seen in the edge of the woods and a beautiful song was heard. Looking down, the Sun saw her daughter, who had become the Redbird, the Dojuwa, and had elected to stay in the earth. The Sun saw her daughter in the earth, and the Sun smiled.

Note: I have been told recently that the Cherokee word “Dojuwa” may not have originally referred to the crested redbird known as the cardinal, but rather to the summer tanager, the uncrested redbird of the deep forests of southeastern North America.

One Came From the Heavens

Of course the Uktin, the Great Horned Serpent was in the earth. He was still very angry and very dangerous. Even the look of the Uktin’s eye was sure death, not only for the person heedless enough to make eye contact, but even for that person’s whole family. Having failed to destroy the Sun, the Uktin wanted to destroy the Earth, along with all her children, and it looked as though he would do it. But then, one came down from the heavens. This is the one the Cherokees call Jiya Unega (White Otter). Now, this name does not mean this was a white person any more than it means this was literally an otter. It is simply the name by which the Cherokees knew this person. Names have significance. Colors have significance. White, for Cherokees, is the color of the South and signifies new life, new beginnings. Jiya Unega fought against the Uktin and defeated him. Although the Uktin had children who remained in the earth, the Great Uktin himself was sent to the place where dangerous beings are kept. In his fight with the Great Horned Serpent, Jiya Unega was horribly wounded. With one arm torn from his body, Jiya Unega’s blood gushed out onto the earth, and Jiya Unega died in the earth. But Jiya Unega did not remain dead. Rising from the dead and ascending into the heavens, Jiya Unega became the Morning Star, which in Cherokee is called Unelvnvhi Uweji (Creator-Offspring).

We Cherokees understand that it was Jiya Unega who gave our people the Sacred Fire that has been kept now for some 5,089 years. Jiya Unega gave the Fire as reminder of Creator’s presence with us, and he gave us the ceremonies with which to keep the Fire. Jiya Unega, Creator-Son, instructed us that as long as we keep this Fire, we will continue to survive as a people.

An Eye for an Eye - A Son for a Son

Note: When I was a little boy, my mother told me this story. At the time, I imagined it was something that had happened recently, perhaps somewhere near where we lived. As I grew older, I came to understand that this story has been passed down through the family from long ago when the Cherokee clan system was still in effect. There are those today, even among the Cherokees, who consider the clan system, especially the aspect of clan restitution, often erroneously called clan “revenge”, to have been a set of savage customs we are better off without. As with any legal system, there may well have been abuses and miscarriages of justice within the clan system, yet, as illustrated in the story below, the ancient clan system, including the laws of clan restitution, had the potential of working especially well.

There were two young men who were the best of friends, yet one day something happened that caused them to be very angry with each other. The two were so angry that they got into a fight, and in the fight, one young man killed the other.

It was decided that the surviving young man was guilty of murdering his friend. The mother of the murdered young man was asked, “What do you want done? Shall we take your son’s murderer out and kill him?”

“If you kill him,” the mother asked, “will his death bring back my son to me? Will his death not instead leave yet another mother devastated with the loss of her son? No, don’t kill him. Send this young man to my house; let him replace what he has taken away.”

On the day he was to go to the house of his murdered friend, the young man was afraid. How would they treat him there? They must hate him. After all, didn’t he hate himself for what he had done? How could he ever face this family? Facing death would have been much easier.

The mother met the young man at the door of her house. Hugging and kissing him on the cheek, she said, “Welcome home, my son.” He was brought into the house and fed, given warm clothing, a place to sleep and yes, some chores to do. He was treated not as a murderer, but as a true son of the household, brought miraculously back from the dead. He was uncomfortable, at first, because he had a hard time forgiving himself, and the acceptance and forgiveness of others seemed, at first, to compound his own sorrows. Even so, he did his best to be the replacement of what was taken away, and in time, the hearts of the people were healed.

Reconciliation is the process of bringing back together, restoring friendship or harmony through the settlement or resolution of differences. The use of the word presupposes or assumes that there has been a past state of friendship, harmony or conciliation between the parties involved. Each of these stories: “The Daughter of the Sun,” “One Came from Above” and “An Eye for an Eye – A Son for a Son” has something to say about the value of reconciliation. Mostly, these three stories teach how costly reconciliation may be.

There are other stories from the Cherokee oral tradition that also convey truths about the value of reconciliation. In the story of “The Origin of Strawberries,” as Kanati and Selu, the first man and first woman, are estranged and brought back together; we see that, in the process of reconciliation, words are not as important as actions, especially the action of sharing.

In the story of “Home Boy and Wild Boy,” after the two brothers inadvertently release all the animals the people depend on for food, Wild Boy runs away to live by himself in the mountains. Along with Wild Boy, we learn that one cannot live happily in separation from the people. As Wild Boy returns and is reconciled with the people, we learn that, although it may be impossible to undo the wrongs of the past, one may listen carefully and do something to make things better.

In the story of “Ga’na’ and the Seneca Peace,” we learn that while the process of peace-making or reconciliation between two peoples may begin with one person, consensus must be reached among the people before reconciliation is complete. We also learn that reconciliation is a weighty matter, involving prayer, spiritual preparation and purification as well as costly demonstrations of sincerity. Finally, we learn, along with Ga’na’, that we may all be a little more related that any of us may have guessed.

In the story of “The Moon-Eyed People” we learn that genocide, the destruction of an entire people, is the greatest of all wrongs. From this story we also learn about repentance and restitution. We are reminded that we must never forget the wrongs our people have committed in the past nor seek to excuse them, lest the same atrocities be repeated again and again.

In the story of “The Boy and the Snake” we see a young man become an unwitting participant in his own destruction. Once again we take warning not to forget the past, and in the present to walk warily and with our eyes open, or there will be no future for our peoples.

And then there’s the story of “The Origin of Disease and Medicine,” in which the animals get together to do something about the “human problem,” and the plants take pity on the humans before our kind is entirely killed off. Even this is a story about reconciliation - the reconciliation of human beings with the rest of creation. So, you see, reconciliation is a very common theme in the Cherokee oral tradition, as I suppose it must also be a common theme in the oral traditions of other indigenous peoples. Reconciliation is also a major biblical theme. Just think of how the story of Jesus’ death on a cross shows the costly nature of reconciliation. Paul, in his letter to the followers of Jesus in the city of Ephesus, in what is now Turkey, wrote extensively concerning the value of reconciliation.

Living in the Light

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”; Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure; No immoral, impure or greedy person – such a man is an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:

“Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Ephesians 4:22-5:20

Just as with the value of respect, Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, also has much to say concerning the value of reconciliation.

Settle Matters Quickly

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”

- Matthew 5:21-26

“…. Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
- Matthew 6:12, 14-15

At another time and place, Jesus said to his followers,

“…. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”
- Luke 17:3-4

Reconciliation happens at several different levels, each level being just as important as any other. We hear most often about reconciliation between human beings and God or the Creator. I assure you that Creator wants nothing more than for all his children to be reconciled to him, but Jesus tells us we cannot be reconciled to Creator so long as injustice committed against a brother or sister is holding us apart. We must first be reconciled with our brother or sister. Of course, there is also the internal warfare going on within many people. For American Indian people, this may be a battle between the spirituality given directly by Creator to our people and demands of the church to lay that spirituality or aspects of that spirituality aside or at least to make our indigenous spirituality secondary to teachings or dogmas that come from other lands and other cultures. Most Indian people have been exposed to and affected by Christian teachings, often by the most fundamentally conservative and exclusive of Christian teachings. At the same time, many Indian people are feeling a pull of the Spirit to reaffirm or reenter the ways given by Creator to our own people. In and through organizations such as Mid American Indian Fellowships, Creator is helping American Indian people reconcile the truths that have come to us through the Bible with the truths Creator has given directly to our people - that the people may live. So, to recap concerning the various levels of reconciliation: There is reconciliation between humans and Creator which cannot happen without reconciliation between individual humans (brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, etc.), which in turn, probably won’t happen without reconciliation within the human heart. There is also reconciliation between groups of humans, between nations or peoples who have brought hurt, damage, death or destruction one on another. There are those who have a very hard time understanding the need for this corporate reconciliation, since many, especially in the Western Cultural worldview, have never been taught the concept of corporate responsibility. Achieving reconciliation within our hearts is difficult. Reconciliation between individuals is more difficult. Reconciliation between people groups is more difficult yet, sometimes next to impossible. But with Creator, nothing is impossible.

Child’s Play

Note: This story is from a dream that came to me in the wee hours of the morning, October 3, 2005.

A group of children were playing in the yard of a house. “Come and hold my brother!” one boy shouted to the other children. “Hold him tight; don’t let him squirm.” And so the boy tested the sharpness of his pocket knife by severing his brother’s arm at the elbow.

The father of the two boys was horrified upon discovery of what had transpired in his yard. His first concern was saving the life of his mutilated child. After the hospitalization and homecoming of the terribly injured son, the father’s next greatest concern was the reconciliation of the brothers. The father loved all his children and was afraid these two would be severed from one another as surely as the one’s arm was severed from his body.

In the assembly of all the people, the father arose and spoke aloud to the two brothers concerning their need for reconciliation. He was greatly troubled by the attitudes of both boys. The one who had done the deed was saying, “It’s no big deal; what’s done is done. He’s still alive.” The other, unable to comprehend the enormity of his loss, was still expecting his arm to grow back. Also, seeing himself as the lesser of the siblings, he was not so sure whether what was done was a crime or just the normal outcome of child’s play. He lacked the capability even to hold his brother to account. He was, therefore, likely to be victimized by his brother again and again until there were no parts of him left for his brother to cut away.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes of the importance of the honest expression of anger and truth-telling with a view toward reconciliation. Paul writes of changed behavior, “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work.” He also writes of the danger of being taken in by “empty words.” Both Jesus and Paul speak of the need and power of a forgiving heart, yet from the passage in Luke we see that two things happen prior to forgiveness, these being rebuke and repentance. Rebuke is that honest expression of anger at the offence, the truth-telling outlined by Paul. This is where the offending brother or sister is held to account. We are often told, “Just forgive and forget,” but holding to account must precede forgiveness. Otherwise, forgiveness is nothing more than a license for unacceptable behavior to go unchecked. The two sons in the story would be better off forever sundered than for the abuse to continue. I’m not talking about simple oversights and mistakes here; these are part of the human condition and should be forgiven without mention. What I’m talking about are genuine hurts, crimes, abuses and oppression that are ongoing in nature. I think we know the difference, at least we should. In these cases, rebuke, or a holding to account, must precede forgiveness. The repentance of the offending party also precedes forgiveness. Repentance is a change of heart, a change of mind, a change of attitude which leads directly to a change of behavior. Kathy Whitley, helper for the Indian Fellowship of Lathrop, says, “Repentance is changing sides in a battle.” It’s like what the Irish infantry does in the movie Brave Heart. I’ve been fighting on the one side; now I’ve come over to fight on the other side. It’s not because I see the side I was on is losing. It’s because I see the side I was on is wrong.

We may reconcile ourselves to those who have been our oppressors, but we must never ever reconcile ourselves to oppression. This is what happens when forgiveness precedes or supersedes rebuke and repentance. When we forgive without the truth being told, when we forgive without the behavior having changed or even without so much as the promise of change, we are, in reality, forgiving the oppression along with the oppressor. We are saying, “It’s alright. Continue with what you were doing. Go ahead cutting parts off me; I have plenty and to spare.” When we reconcile, in this way, to oppression, we oppress ourselves. In this way, American Indians are committing suicide as peoples. For each indigenous people, the first and foremost instruction from Creator is to survive as a people.

Corporate reconciliation events have become something of a fad in recent years, with activities seeming to have peaked at or around the year 2002. Early that year, one reconciliation organization put the word out that the United States and the United Kingdom are completely absolved of any guilt connected with their governments' intentional introduction of small-pox among American Indian nations. Evidently, an Indian, an Englishman and an American, without the knowledge of their respective governments or the vast majority of their fellow citizens, got together to work out a deal with each other and with God. It doesn’t seem to matter that the United States and the United Kingdom continue to maintain biological, chemical and nuclear weapons of mass destruction. In September 2002, a group of American Indian Christians from Oklahoma rode a bus to Plymouth, Massachusetts where, among other activities, they knelt on the sidewalk before Plymouth police officers to apologize for misconduct of Indians who had taken part in the Wampanoag sponsored Day of Mourning, the fourth Thursday in November, the previous year. Someone who had taken part in that Day of Mourning and was also there to witness the sidewalk apology, told me these people apologized for misconduct that never occurred and that their actions served to undermined the truth-telling efforts of the Wampanoag Indian people and others who participate in the annual Day of Mourning.

There are those who maintain that any attempt at reconciliation is a positive thing. These see the motives behind the current reconciliation movement as pure and applaud the organizations for, at least, trying to initiate some healing. Personally, I believe that many corporate reconciliation events we’ve seen happening in recent years are counterfeit or illegitimate, offering cheap, easy solutions to a 513 year old set of very serious problems. Regardless of the motives, pure or otherwise, I believe that counterfeit or illegitimate corporate reconciliation events are causing harm by preventing, or at least delaying, the start of genuine reconciliation.

Some years ago I received a telephone call from a woman representing a certain so-called reconciliation group. She spoke to me, at some length, of a proposed reconciliation event, the gist of which follows in my own words: There would be a prayer walk around a certain site, considered sacred and holy by many American Indians, but considered devil possessed and in need of exorcism by the non-Indian Christian group planning the event. At the end of the prayer walk, representatives of the white people taking part in the event would give speeches asking forgiveness for themselves, for their ancestors and for all white people back to and including Columbus. Representatives of the Indian people taking part in the event would, at that time, be obliged to speak a word of forgiveness upon all white people, living and dead, for pretty much everything they have ever done, are doing or may want to do in the future to Indian people, winding up with a statement such as, "It's OK, after all, you white folks brought us Jesus. It doesn't really matter that you stole our land and raped, enslaved and murdered millions of us in the process."

The Indian people would then beg forgiveness from the white people. They would ask forgiveness on the part of their ancestors and on the part of all other Indian people, living or dead, for having the audacity to protect themselves, their children, their homes and their way of life from wave after wave of violent European and Euro-American expansionism and conquest. They would ask forgiveness, on the part of all Indians, for refusal to accept a so-called gospel that was, in reality, a manifest of white superiority and supremacy. They would go on to ask forgiveness, on the part of all Indians, for the terrible idol worship practiced at the sacred site, something that had never actually happened outside the fevered imaginings of the non-Indian organizers of the reconciliation event. After that, a general prayer of release would be offered to drive all supposed demons from the sacred site, so white people might feel comfortable visiting and/or desecrating the site in the future.

The woman on the phone followed up by saying, "The Indian people are in great need of this reconciliation. They are so filled with anger and bitterness over the past that we must do something like this, so they will let down their defenses and accept our ways."

When I could finally get a word in edgewise, I shared my own opinion that, all things considered, Indian people are probably the most forgiving people the world has ever seen, but that some of us recognize that the war to exterminate us, as peoples, is not over. I went on to say that I saw the reconciliation event she had described as just one more act of violence against our people. "How can there be true reconciliation?" I asked, "until the truth is told, the violence stops, and the war comes to an end?" Although I expressed a desire to meet with her whole group to further discuss these issues, the woman never contacted me again.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think all reconciliation efforts are necessarily counterfeit or illegitimate. I have heard of a few ongoing truth-telling and reconciliation efforts occurring in various parts of the world. South Africa comes to mind as one possible example. One or two such truth-telling efforts or events may have even occurred in North America, but again, these are few, and far between. Religion tends to stand in the way of true reconciliation.

I have overheard Christian people wondering whether or not they may or may not properly include non-Christian people in truth and reconciliation events.

One thing Christian people (especially Evangelical and Pentecostal church people) need to understand is the divisiveness inherent in the attitudes with which we grew up. This divisiveness is revealed in church language which sorts the world into categories of Christian/non-Christian, lost/saved, wise/fools, us/them. Christians wonder whether a reconciliation event may include "non-Christians," even when "non-Christians" are often showing greater understanding of a need for reconciliation. In this present time, I'm wondering whether those calling themselves "Christian" are about to be left behind in what Creator-Son is doing in the earth.

As I said before, often non-Indian Christian people consider the primary purpose of reconciliation events between themselves and American Indians to be the breaking down of Indian resistance to acceptance of Christianity. Here, a question I have overheard is, “How can we persuade Indians to accept the religion that they feel has brought them so much harm?”

My answer to this may come as a surprise or even a shock to some, but as for accepting the religion that has and does bring so much harm to indigenous peoples and to the earth herself: MAY THAT RELIGION BE DAMNED TO ETERNAL DARKNESS!!!! Yes, you may consider that an angry shout. Even so, come Lord Jesus! I am speaking here of Christian theologies that have and continue to encourage and give false legitimacy to conquest of lands, genocide of peoples and the building and maintenance of imperial dominion. If any reconciliation movement or event or whatever, contains, as some open or hidden motive, the further luring of Indian people away from our own cultures to be more firmly ensnared by the empire of the so-called Western-Civilization, may those who have such motives be confounded in their purposes, and may their hearts be finally changed by Creator's love shown to all the world.

I’ve heard non-Indian Christian people ask, "What is the moment like when an Indian accepts Christ and becomes a Christian?" It's hard for me to even understand this question anymore. What “Christ” are we talking about? Are we talking about the narrow, contrived Christ of fundamentalist Christians of the United States who fancy themselves as being on the verge of taking over the entire country and the whole world (Save the unborn but kill all the Arabs you can, since Indians are in short supply along about now!)? Or are we talking about The Eternal One, the Unelvnvhi-Uweji (Creator-Offspring) who shines as the Morning Star and indwells every creature, every part and aspect of creation, who is the lamb/deer/bear/buffalo/ salmon/whale/seal slain from the foundation of the earth, whose good news has gone out to the ends of the earth from the beginning, sung and proclaimed by every star, every good spirit, every animal, bird, plant, tree and rock? There are many who say they know Christ. If you want to find the ones who are known by Christ (which is more important according to scripture - Matthew 7:21-23) watch for how they love one another. Watch for how they love all the relations, every aspect of his very-good creation. They may or may not call themselves Christian. The moment or the day or the month or the year or the lifetime in which a person accepts the one identified in the Bible as Christ, is that time when the person humbly says in her/his heart "Creator, you're so big, and we're so small. Have pity on us."

I’ve also heard it said that we Indians need to realize that Christianity is not simply "the white man's religion."

From where I stand, it seems pretty clear that Christianity is the white man’s religion, as bound up as it is with the European and Euro-American world-view. On the other hand, it is also evident to me that the Eternal Creator-Offspring did not wait to hitch a ride here with thieves and murderers. Any god who would do that is completely worthless and should be, must be, rejected out of hand! Please pardon my foolish ranting, but I firmly believe it's time for everyone to take a good look at how, even the very language, the churchy language, works against the hope of reconciliation and what Creator is doing in the earth right now, with or without our help.

I’ll stop here to say it is my observation that most Indian people are more concerned, right now, with survival as peoples than with reconciliation with what we see as the dominant culture or ethnicity. This is as it should be, since our survival as indigenous peoples of this land is still in jeopardy. We are still in the hospital, parts having been cut off of us. We’re barely hanging on. In many cases, we’re on life support. All the while, roaming the hallways and entering our rooms are those who would cut more parts from us or pull the plug, often at the same moment in which they are asking our forgiveness!

I am not saying that all white people are insincere in their quests for reconciliation between peoples. I believe many are very sincere, but we must be careful not to be taken in by empty words. The Father is concerned first with the survival of his children. We must continue as peoples. We must heal and be made whole as peoples. We must be given space to come to some realization of what has happened to us, as peoples. Then, perhaps there may be an accounting, a holding to account. We can and must love our neighbors, all our neighbors, but how can we ever reconcile with a dominant culture or ethnicity? Is this not suicide? The very fact that a culture is dominant presupposes that the culture has sought and taken dominion or control over other cultures or peoples and continues to maintain that dominion or control. In order for genuine reconciliation between peoples to even begin, the dominant or conquering culture or ethnicity must first renounce and give up the position of dominance. Too often, we are still hearing the assimilationist position put forward by those of the dominant culture: “Let’s work together for the advancement of all individuals,” which is to say, “Give up your group identity and lose yourself in our superior melting pot.” We hear this sort of thing even from some who speak of a need for reconciliation.

If I Steal Your Car

Maybe you’ve heard of the Joint Resolution for an Apology to Native Americans co-sponsored by Senators Campbell, Brownback and Inouye. I have not kept up with the status of this resolution on Capitol Hill, but I have read it and am not impressed. An apology without a change of behavior amounts to nothing but empty words.

If I steal your car and later feel pricked in my conscience, is it enough if I write you a formal apology and elect to keep the car? It may well be that I have become dependent on the car. It gets me to work and back each weekday and to church on Sunday. I certainly don't want to miss church on Sunday. I've had my good things in this life and certainly don't want to miss out on any good thing in the life to come. If I give your car back, it may well restore your economic circumstances, but it will greatly reduce mine. It seems to me that you should wholeheartedly accept my apology and be content to walk. It may well be that you also owe me an apology for ill will you have felt toward me since I stole your car. I even seem to remember that you threw rocks at me as I was driving away. You certainly should get on your knees and apologize for that. As for your family members who were killed at the time the car was stolen: PALEASE! There is no point in reliving the wrongs of the past. In the name of JESUS, forgive and forget! What's that? You only want the car every other Saturday? Come on, we've been through all that. You should be grateful that I made the effort to apologize. Apologies don't come easily, you know.

When Christianity was the faith of an oppressed minority, apocalyptic visions were given of the fall of the oppressive empire. When Christianity became the religion of the oppressive empire: Rome, Spain, Portugal, France, England, The Netherlands, Russia, Germany, These United States, the emphasis was placed only on individual salvation and morality - being a good citizen of the empire. Augustine is, I believe, the founder of this great shift in emphasis from corporate justice to a castrated, individualistic Christianity. In this Western paradigm, there is no corporate responsibility for wrong-doing, except when it's the other group who is doing wrong: the Germans, the Japanese, the Soviets, the Iraqis. The empire of which one is a part is above retributive justice, since it has raised itself above God. The trouble is, the apocalyptic vision is still given to oppressed minorities of faith, whether Christian or not. Also, astute readers of scripture see principles of retributive justice in Biblical apocalyptic literature that should make America tremble.

Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.

- Thomas Jefferson
Notes on Virginia; Manners

But face it; American Indians are nothing but a laughingstock to the world and to America in-particular. We are seen as those who have nothing left with which to bargain. Therefore, when we ask for meat, politicians can hand us a platter full of empty words and feel justified by the effort. They have no idea of the extent of their peril. I weep for America. She is as one whose bitter fate is already sealed, not by God but by herself. Her fate is as sealed as her tightly closed eyes, covered ears and clenched fists. She fancies herself a city on a hill, the New Jerusalem, but she has always been Babylon. It is by our fruits, not our words, that we are judged.

A few years ago, I sat with others in a casino restaurant in Nevada. Everyone around the table was getting worked up about the Department of Interior's current theft of funds from Indian nations, everyone, that is, but one old Paiute man, a direct descendant of Wovoka. Old Stanley just smiled and said quietly, "Creator's getting ready to do something about that."

It seems to me that, as American Indian people, we need to focus first on reconciliation within ourselves (reconciliation within the heart) and reconciliation within our own fragmented and hurting societies. We must hold one another to account when we act in ways that are disrespectful or not in keeping with the principle of reciprocity even toward those who are our nearest relatives - the people of our own households, clans, bands and tribes. There is also much to account for between tribes. I’ll pick on the Cherokees here: Cherokees have assisted in white aggression against other tribes. Cherokees raided the Tuscaroras and the Sioux remnant tribes of the east, killing many and selling many more into slavery. Cherokees assisted in the United States’ conquest of the Red-Stick Creeks. The Cherokees, as well as many other tribes, have fallen again and again for the age-old divide and conquer strategy. Even today, we constantly aid and abet the real enemies of indigenous peoples, with federally recognized tribes opposing non-federally recognized tribes and non-federally recognized tribes fighting it out with one another. We need desperately to reconcile within our families, within our tribes and between our tribes. In spite of the continuing occupation of our land, we must begin to rebuild our indigenous civilization, our way of getting along in harmony and balance with ourselves, with one another, and with all creation, all our relations.

We American Indians also have much to account for in our treatment of African American people. Although many of the more traditional Indian groups readily adopted escaped African American slaves into their clans, others, copying the whites, themselves bought, sold or held African Americans as slaves, profiting greatly from their forced labor. Since North American Indians were continually taken into the slave population from the time of Metacomet’s (King Philip’s) War, and even before that, all the way through the Civil War (even after the Civil War in California and some other western states), many, if not most, African American slaves, even those held by Indians, were actually of mixed African and American Indian ancestry, as are their descendants. Yet, even today, the Freedmen of the formerly slave-holding tribes are afforded only second-class status within those tribes. There is to be found a great deal of prejudice among Indian people in this country, directed against our African American blood relatives. I’ve seen this not only in the South, but even in the West and in the North. This is another area in which we have a great need for reconciliation.

What about the good-hearted white people who sincerely ask what their community or church may do in order to work toward reconciliation with American Indians? Here’s what I say to them.

First of all, educate yourselves concerning American Indian history and current issues. In so doing, you will quickly come to see reconciliation as more than offering an apology and having a good cry. Reconciliation is neither cheap nor easy. Real and genuine reconciliation involves truth telling, acceptance of the truth, repentance (change of mind and behavior), and restitution or the seeking of justice. If all these characteristics are not present, reconciliation has not occurred or is incomplete. Finally, examine your motives! I will say it again: Any reconciliation effort or event that contains a motive of luring Indian people away from our own cultures to be more firmly assimilated into Western culture is simply a new act of genocide.

Here are some ways non-Indian communities or churches may work toward reconciliation with American Indian communities:

#1. Make truth-telling concerning American history a priority. Many textbooks commonly used in public and parochial schools in the United States do a better job of teaching white supremacy than true history. This is a disservice and an injustice to all students, not just those of American Indian or other non-white descent. Find out whether or not this is true in your local community. Work to make some positive changes. Also, American Indians attending predominantly non-Indian church services often come away bruised and bleeding in their hearts and souls. The most frightening statement I hear on a regular basis is, "We must return to the values of the Founding Fathers [of the United States]." I tell you the truth: We American Indians may not survive a second round of that! I am not joking. Those who forget the past will repeat the errors, mistakes and heinous crimes of the past.

#2. Consider hosting an ongoing series of Truth Leading to Reconciliation events in your community or in your church. Be careful it is not done in a way that brings more hurt. Pray about it and confer, from the beginning, with your American Indian partners. Do nothing without first achieving consensus with them in the planning stages. You might invite several Elders and other influential members of the American Indian community to speak during the events, outlining past and present injustices and hopes for the future. There could be prayers and/or songs by the Indian people as well as by non-Indians who are present. If apologies are offered, be cognizant of the boundaries. Verbal, impromptu apologies should be personal, not given on behalf of groups: the church, the denomination, all Christians, the State of Missouri, the United States, all my ancestors, etc. In many American Indian cultures, it is considered the height of presumption to speak for others without first having consensual permission to do so. One speaks for himself/herself. Personal apologies should be given for one's own actions, lack of actions, attitudes, etc. Personal regret for the actions of groups to which one belongs or even to which one does not belong may be properly given so long as their is clearly no attitude or indication of speaking for or on behalf of the entire group. Personal apologies should never be coerced, which is to say, no one should be made to feel they have to stand and give an apology. Personal apologies should not demand or even convey the expectation of receiving a verbal response. Keep in mind that repentance and apology are not one and the same. Repentance is a change of mind and actions. Repentance is shown in deeds not words. In some reconciliation events, what passes for repentance is simply a plea for the forgiveness of ancestors. Please consider the following:

It is good that we honor and have a proper respect for all our ancestors. It is also good that we do our best to understand who our ancestors were, so that we may also hope to understand more of who we are. However, as we honor our ancestors, we must not feel obligated to take pride in everything our ancestors did or did not do, for such is the heart of ancestor worship. While it is right that we take pride in the good that our ancestors accomplished, we must not take pride in, nor excuse, nor seek to cover up that which was clearly not good.

It is not my place to ask forgiveness for my ancestors. This was and is their own responsibility, between them, Creator, and those whom they may have wronged. If I am shamed by some of the actions and practices of my ancestors, I should let shame turn to godly sorrow for "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation (peace/health) and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death" (2 Corinthians 7:10). What does it mean to repent for the misdeeds or sins of my ancestors? Such repentance does not and cannot imply a purchase of historical innocence for my ancestors. What would be the motive in this: To buy the innocence of the ancestors, so we may once more worship them? No, repenting for the misdeeds or sins of my ancestors means acknowledging the truth about the past, including the evil of the past and its connection with the present.... its connection with me; then deciding that I will do my best, with Creator's help, to change course, not to live in that evil, not to live in the sins of my ancestors, but rather, again with Creator's help, to bring some good. The past can never be undone or changed, but each of us can do something to help, in the present, to bring about a better future, that the people may live. This is the best way to honor those who have gone before.

#3. Become a justice-seeking community or congregation. Giving food, clothing and money to American Indian people helps in the short term. Non-Indian communities or churches actively seeking to bring an end to present injustices that dehumanize and hold American Indian people down is help for the long term.

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
- Psalm 82:3

To do what is right and just
is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
- Proverbs 21:3

Make an effort to uproot and deal with theologies and Christologies of conquest that may well be taught in your church or in your children’s parochial or even public school history books. Exclusive, us-them theologies and Christologies were the leading factor in the genocide of American Indian peoples and continue to stand between all indigenous peoples and the justice we seek. Consider that the Doctrine of Christian Discovery, born in the Papal bulls of the 15th century, is the unconstitutional foundation upon which United States Indian policy is built. While seeking to uproot this leading cause of injustice against American Indians at church, denominational, local, state and federal levels, your church or community may also seek to correct specific cases of injustice such as the following:

Recognition of the sovereignty of American Indian nations is at the whim of Congress. In some very significant ways, any local non-Indian town enjoys greater recognition of sovereignty than an Indian nation. A local town may arrest and prosecute outsiders who come in and prey on their citizens. Indian national authorities, on reservation land, may not arrest and prosecute non-Indian offenders. Moneys belonging to Indian people and nations are routinely misappropriated. In the past decade, tens of billions of dollars (roughly enough to rebuild Iraq) belonging to American Indian nations have been mysteriously lost by the Department of the Interior. Over 150 American Indian nations are not federally recognized, which is to say, they have no government to government relationship with the United States, no recognized rights as sovereign entities or existing communal land bases. These include many of the poorest Indian people in the country, living all the way from the east coast to California and Washington State. Note: Sovereignty here means the God-given rights of national autonomy and self-determination.

The United States government has made hundreds of treaties with American Indian nations. Although the U.S. Constitution identifies those treaties as "The Supreme Law of the Land," not one has been fully honored and most are completely disregarded. Before there may be true reconciliation on a national level, American Indian national sovereignty and all treaty agreements must be fully honored.

The United States has a national holiday honoring Christopher Columbus, a man who was personally responsible for the deaths of approximately eight million American Indian people and who set an example leading to the deaths of approximately 100 million people, the greatest holocaust of humanity the earth has ever seen.

While black-faced minstrel shows are, thankfully, a thing of the past, American Indian people and cultures continue to be mocked through the continued use of Indian sports mascots, through the dressing of children in paper vests and feathers for school Thanksgiving pageants and through Indian theme programs in children's clubs such as AWANAS and the Boy Scouts.

Know that the healing and liberation of all peoples is bound together. We are all as the members of one body.

One More Level of Reconciliation

There is one more indispensable level of reconciliation. That is reconciliation with the earth. We are of the earth and are created to live in close connection with the earth, yet we have disrespected the earth and ignored the principle of reciprocity that is everywhere evident in the earth. When we disrespect the earth, we disrespect ourselves, for we are neither separate from nor independent of the earth. When we disregard the principle of reciprocity, by adopting unsustainable lifeways, we put all life on earth at risk.

Reconciliation with the earth is basically the process of re-indigenizing. Someone may say, “What do you mean re-indigenizing? I’m an Indian; I’m already indigenous.” Well, I think being indigenous is more than that. Being indigenous goes beyond driving a beat-up Ford and fancy-dancing at a different powwow each weekend. To me, being indigenous means being of this land where I am, connected to this land where I am, sustained physically and spiritually by this land where I am and giving back to this land where I am. Nowadays, there aren’t even many farmers and ranchers who meet these qualifications, no matter what their ethnicity. I know a soybean farmer who has never eaten soybeans. He certainly would not eat any of the beans he raises, considering all the chemicals he uses. Then there are all these livestock and poultry producers who buy all their meat in the store and wouldn’t know how to butcher a hog or a calf or even a chicken to save their lives, literally. And it may come to that, and before long.

Jesus spoke of wars and of earthquakes in various places (Mark 13:8). In the past year, how many natural disasters have been described with the adjective “most”? “The most violent tsunami, the most devastating hurricane, the most deadly earthquake.” We may look upon all of these as “the beginning of birth pains” (Mark 13:8b). Birth pains lead to something, not to the end but rather to a new beginning. One day our Mother Earth will roll over and cleanse herself of all on her surface that has elected to be not of the earth, not of the land, non-connected, non-indigenous, non-reciprocating, disrespectful and destructive. None of us are ready for that time. We Indian people had better be reconciling within our families and tribes, bringing our peoples, our communities together, so we may reconcile with the earth, learn to live in a good way, in a way that is sustainable for the next seven generations and beyond. We can do this, and we can help others to do this too, when they ask. The time will come when they will ask. The time will come, when all will see their need. The day will come when all peoples, or the remnants of all peoples, will be once again rooted in the earth. When that day comes, all will center on Creator, not on theology or ideology, but on Creator, not on some exclusive God-idea of this or that religion but on “Our God” expressed in every language even as all will center on the lamb/deer/bear/buffalo/salmon/whale/seal slain from the beginning (Revelation 7:9-10). That will be the day of true reconciliation

Confession Booth Reversal: Christians Confess to Sinners

2005-11-22T12:43:00.000-08:00

NOTE FROM RAY: Here is a novel idea: Christians apologizing to non-Christians... These guys even apologized for native genocide... interesting story....

Leadership Journal, Summer 2005

The Campus Confession Booth
What I considered a horrible idea turned into a moment of transformation.
by Donald Miller

Don Miller was a student and campus ministry leader at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, a decidely secular and highly intellectual place that Princeton Review named "the college where students are most likely to ignore God." In his book Blue Like Jazz (Nelson, 2003), Miller tells of an unlikely event that introduced him to the mysteries of spiritual transformation.

Each year at Reed they have a renaissance festival called Ren Fayre. They shut down the campus so students can party. Security keeps the authorities away, and everybody gets pretty drunk and high, and some people get naked. The school brings in White Bird, a medical unit that specializes in treating bad drug trips. The students create special lounges with black lights and television screens to enhance their mushroom trips.

Some of the Christian students in our little group decided this was a good place to come out of the closet, letting everybody know there were a few Christians on campus. Tony the Beat Poet and I were sitting around in my room one afternoon talking about what to do, how to explain who we were to a group of students who, in the past, had expressed hostility toward Christians.

I said we should build a confession booth in the middle of campus and paint a sign on it that said "Confess your sins." I said this because I knew a lot of people would be sinning, and Christian spirituality begins by confessing our sins and repenting. I also said it as a joke. But Tony thought it was brilliant. He sat there on my couch with his mind in the clouds, and he was scaring the crap out of me because, for a second, then for a minute, I actually believed he wanted to do it.

"Tony," I said very gently.

"What?" he said, with a blank stare at the opposite wall.

"We are not going to do this," I told him. He moved his gaze down the wall and directly into my eyes. A smile came across his face.

"Oh, we are, Don. We certainly are. We are going to build a confession booth!"

We met in Commons—Penny, Nadine, Mitch, Iven, Tony, and I. Tony said I had an idea. They looked at me. I told them that Tony was lying and I didn't have an idea at all. They looked at Tony. Tony gave me a dirty look and told me to tell them the idea. I told them I had a stupid idea that we couldn't do without getting attacked. They leaned in. I told them that we should build a confession booth in the middle of campus and paint a sign on it that said "Confess your sins." Penny put her hands over her mouth. Nadine smiled. Iven laughed. Mitch started drawing the designs for the booth on a napkin. Tony nodded his head. I wet my pants.

"They may very well burn it down," Nadine said.

"I will build a trapdoor," Mitch said with his finger in the air. "I like it, Don." Iven patted me on the back.

"I don't want anything to do with it," Penny said.

"Neither do I," I told her.

"Okay, you guys." Tony gathered everybody's attention. "Here's the catch." He leaned in a little. "We are not actually going to accept confessions." We all looked at him in confusion.

He continued, "We are going to confess to them. We are going to confess that, as followers of Jesus, we have not been very loving; we have been bitter, and for that we are sorry. We will apologize for the Crusades, we will apologize for televangelists, we will apologize for neglecting the poor and the lonely, we will ask them to forgive us, and we will tell them that in our selfishness, we have misrepresented Jesus on this campus. We will tell people who come into the booth that Jesus loves them."

All of us sat there in silence because it was obvious that something beautiful and true had hit the table with a thud. We all thought it was a great idea, and we could see it in each other's eyes. It would feel so good to apologize, to apologize for the Crusades, for Columbus and the genocide committed in the Bahamas in the name of God, apologize for the missionaries who landed in Mexico and came up through the West slaughtering Indians in the name of Christ.

I wanted so desperately to apologize for the many ways I had misrepresented the Lord. I could feel that I had betrayed the Lord by judging, by not being willing to love the people he had loved and only giving lip service to issues of human rights....

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2005/003/4.62.html

Good News for European-Americans

2005-11-19T21:22:00.000-08:00

Turning the Question Around: “What Is the Good News for European-Americans?”

by Robert Francis, consultant/helper
Mid American Indian Fellowships
March 2005

"What is the good news for North American natives?" This is a question to which I was asked to respond. For weeks I mulled over this question, prayed over this question and carefully considered this question from various angles. Finally, I awoke before daylight one morning with another question on my mind: “What is the good news for European-Americans?”

The question is turned around. The shoe, or the moccasin in this case, is placed firmly on the other foot. While a possible answer to the first question may be deciphered by carefully inverting my response, I choose to avoid the first question in favor of the second: “What is the good news for European-Americans?” I will answer this question from my own Cherokee Indian perspective. This does not mean I presume to speak for all Cherokee people. I speak only for myself. Some of what follows may go against the grain of some readers. I ask not that my readers agree with what I say but only that they “hear me out” by reading the entire paper before casting judgment on its content.

Now, if my readers will indulge me, I will begin my answer by sharing not one, not two, but four very important stories from our Cherokee oral tradition.

Grandma Turtle

When the earth was first made, it was covered all over with water except for one small island. This island was the top of a high mountain. This was Blue Mountain, in the Cherokee country. White folks came a short time ago and named this mountain Clingman's Dome, no doubt after some white man or other named Clingman. But it has always been Blue Mountain and always will be Blue Mountain. For the Cherokees, the Ani-Kituwa, the Ani-Yvwiya, this is where it begins.

Everyone lived together on this mountaintop island. The human beings and the animals all got along fine. In those days they could understand one another's speech, for this was before the humans broke the harmony. The animals were also much bigger in those days. In fact, the animals of today are but shadows of those who once were. It was a good place to live. Sure, the island was small, but it was what everyone knew and was used to. All were content, until there came to be more of them than the small bit of land could support.

As they noticed they were getting crowded, a general council of all the people (both humans and animals) was called. The question was asked, "What can we do?" The only answer given was, "We can pray. All we can do is pray and ask the Grandfather Above to please give us some more land.

So all the people prayed, and Creator/Apportioner answered, "Oh my precious children, there is nothing I enjoy so much as giving good gifts to my children. But if I do everything for you without asking you to help in any way, how will you ever learn any responsibility? I really want to teach you some responsibility. Here's what I will do: If one of you will swim to the bottom of the ocean and bring up some mud, just a little bit of mud, I will take that mud, that little bit of mud, and make a whole great land of it."

All the people (animals and humans) began to look at one another. Someone asked, "Who will go? Who will get the mud?"

A slow, deep voice answered, "I will go. I will get the mud." It was Grandma Turtle.

"Grandma Turtle, you can't go!" They said. "You're too old and slow. We don't know what it's like down there. We don't know how deep it is."

"I'll go," quacked Duck.

"Now that's more like it," they said. "You're a good swimmer, Duck. You can go; you can do it."

Duck paddled out onto the ocean and dived, but he popped right back up to the surface. Duck dived again and again and again, but the same thing happened each time. Well, you know how ducks are. They dive well, but they float much better. Duck paddled back to shore, shook the water off his tail and said, "I can't dive that deep. I float too well."

The question was asked again, "Who will go? Who will get the mud?"

Grandma Turtle said, "I will go. I will get the mud."

"Grandma Turtle," they said, "we settled that before! You can't go. You're too old. Who will go? Who will get the mud? Hey Otter, how about you?"

"What?" Otter said.

"How about you going to get the mud?"

"Mud? What mud?"

"The mud we need so Creator/Apportioner can make more land!"

"Oh, sure," said Otter, and he slid off into the water and was gone a good long while. When he came back, he had a fish in his mouth, but no mud. Without a word to anyone, Otter climbed up onto the beach and began munching on the fish.

Everyone was watching him, but Otter paid them no mind, just kept eating his fish. "Hey Otter!" someone yelled.

"What?" Otter said.

"Where's the mud?"

"Mud? What mud?" Otter asked. "Ohhh the mud! Well, I left here to go and get it. Then I got started playing. Then I caught this fish. Then I forgot all about the ummm, ummmm, whatever it was I was supposed to get."

Oh my! They were nearly at their wits end. "Who will go?" they all asked. "Who will get the mud?"

Grandma Turtle said, "I will go. I will get the mud." No one even paid her any mind.

"Who will go? Who will get the mud?"

"I will go," said Beaver. "I will get the mud. I don't play, and I do not eat fish."

Resolutely, Beaver swam out into the ocean. He took a deep, deep breath and dived. Wow, Beaver was gone a long time. Some of the people watching and waiting were holding their breath in sympathy, but none seemed able to hold it that long. Finally, Beaver popped to the surface gasping for air. He swam to shore and climbed onto the beach shaking his head. "It's too deep!" Beaver said. "I don't know how deep it is. I never reached the bottom."

Everyone was in despair. Beaver was the last best hope. How would they ever get mud? Maybe there would never be anything but the little mountaintop island. "Who will go?" they asked. "Who will get the mud?"

A slow deep voice answered, "I will go. I will get the mud."

"You can't go, Grandma Turtle, you're too...."

"I WILL GO! I WILL GET THE MUD!"

There were no other volunteers, so they let Grandma Turtle go. She slowly paddled her way out onto the surface of the ocean. As everyone watched, she took a slow, deep breath, then another and another and another. She took three more breaths and disappeared beneath the water.

They waited a long time. Grandma Turtle was gone much longer than Duck or Otter or even Beaver had been. She was gone all that day and the next and the next and the next. They posted a sentry up on the very top of the mountain. Finally, on the seventh day, the sentry called out, "I think I see something coming up. Yes, yes, something is rising in the water. Could it be? Could it be? Yes! It's Grandma Turtle!"

Sure enough, Grandma Turtle rose to the surface of the ocean, and there she lay, not moving, with her legs, her tail, her head all hanging down.... Grandma Turtle was dead.

Quietly, reverently, Duck, Otter and Beaver swam out and drew Grandma Turtle's body to the shore. They pulled her up on the beach, as all the people (humans and animals) gathered sadly around, and what's this? There, under her front feet, they found.... mud.

Someone took the mud, that little bit of mud from under Grandma Turtle's front feet, rolled it into a ball and lifted it up toward the sky. The Grandfather took that mud, that little bit of mud and cast it out, making this whole, great land that many nations call Turtle Island.

Of course, it was all very wet and muddy at first. Grandpa Buzzard, who was much bigger in those days, swooped down to dry the land with his great wings. Everywhere his wings went down, there was a valley. Everywhere his wings went up, there was a mountain. If someone hadn't said, "Stop that Grandpa Buzzard!" there would be no flat land left in all the earth.

The Origins of Disease and Medicine

Long ago the humans and the animals got along fine. All the peoples, human and animal, could communicate with each other and were at peace. The animals of that long-ago time were much larger than the animals of today. Indeed, the animals of today are but shadows of those who once were.

There came a time when we humans forgot our place and broke the harmony. We humans began to reproduce at an alarming rate, and we gave ourselves to the production of all sorts of weapons meant for the destruction of the animals: spears and atlatls, bows and arrows, blowguns and traps of all kinds. We began to hunt, not just for food, but simply for the fun of killing. We humans also killed many animals just by pure carelessness, never stopping to think of the results of our actions. Even as we walked from place to place, we were not careful where we stepped, so that many of the tiny many-legged and legless ones were crushed to death or maimed. Some humans went so far as to purposely kill little animals merely from a feeling of disgust or loathing, going out of their way to step on a bug or squash a harmless spider. It was clear that we humans believed ourselves to be the only ones who mattered in all of creation, and as we continued clearing land and building our cities; it looked as if there would soon be no more room for anyone else to live in the earth.

The animals decided something had to be done about this human problem. The bears met separately from the other animals. The Great White Bear, presiding at the council asked, "What's the problem?"

"It's these humans; they kill us indiscriminately."

"How do they kill us?"

"With bows and arrows."

"Of what are their bows made?"

"The bow of locust wood and the bowstring of our guts."

The bears decided they would make bows of their own with which to kill the humans. They got some locust wood, and one of the bears sacrificed himself to give material for the bowstring. When the bow was finished and arrows were made, one of the bears stood up to shoot. He could pull the string, but releasing it was a problem. His long claws would get hung and throw him off target. The other bears, ducking his wild arrows, cried out, "Stop, stop. Something must be done. We'll cut your claws."

After the bear's claws were cut, he could shoot a bow as well as any man. "Now the humans have had it!" all the bears said. "We will hunt them, as they have hunted us! All we have to do is cut our claws."

"Wait!" said the Great White Bear. "How is it that we bears make our living?"

"By climbing trees to get honey and by ripping open rotten logs to find insects and by digging in the earth for rodents and by catching fish."

"How do we do all these things?"

"With our long claws."

The bears understood that if they cut their claws they could no longer make a living as bears and would starve to death. The idea to hunt the humans with bows and arrows was scrapped, and they never came up with another solution.

All the other animals came together in a joint council to discuss the human problem. The Grubworm presided at the council. After all, it was his people, the little creeping and crawling peoples of the earth, who had suffered most from the actions of the humans. The animals all sat in a circle. The talking stick was passed, giving each an opportunity to speak. The Toad said, "Something must be done. These humans despise me. They are forever kicking me or throwing things at me, because they think I am ugly. Just look at all the bumps they've put on my back!"

One of the little birds rose and said, "Although I'm too small to provide much meat, their little boys kill my people and roast us over the fire until our feathers and feet are burned off." One after the other, the animals spoke of atrocities committed by the humans. The only one with nothing to say against the humans was the little chipmunk, who was too small to be hunted for food and too quick to be stepped on. When he spoke in defense of the humans, the other animals jumped on him and gave him such a scratching down his back that the stripes are there to this day!

Once it was established that something must be done about the humans in order to save the rest of creation, the floor was open for discussion of what to do. It was finally decided that each of the animal peoples would come up with at least one disease with which to inflict the humans, in order to kill most of them and to teach the rest some respect. Various animals attending the council agreed to come up with every sort of ailment from cancer to p.m.s. When the Grubworm heard this last one, he laughed so hard he fell over backwards and has been crawling around like that ever since.

So, all the animals went their separate ways to meet in council, each with their own kind, to work out the details of what they would do. The deer met in council, with their chief, Little Deer, presiding. The deer understood the humans to be a pitiful and needy people who live only by the deaths of others. For this reason, the deer decided to allow the humans to continue killing some deer each year, but only what is needed for food, NEVER FOR SPORT. Furthermore, a human hunter, upon killing a deer, is required to show respect for the spirit of the deer by begging the deer's pardon and making a proper tobacco offering. And so, Little Deer, the chief and adawehi of all the deer will come. Swiftly and invisibly he will come to the place where the deer has died. Gently he will bend down over the blood. In a whisper, he will ask the spirit of the slain deer, "Did this hunter treat you with respect? Did he beg your pardon? Did he offer tobacco?"

If the answer is, "Yes," all is well, and Little Deer will go on his way. But if the answer is, "No," Little Deer will track that hunter to his home. There, Little Deer will strike that hunter with rheumatism, that he may never hunt again!

Word was sent to the human people, and we Cherokees have not forgotten this treaty with the deer.

And so, many diseases came into the earth. Many people died. For awhile, it looked as though maybe no humans would survive in the earth. The great cities were forgotten and fell into ruin.

The plant peoples who saw all of this, also elected to come together and meet in council. Deciding to take pity on us humans, each plant agreed to give of itself to provide medicine for at least one human disease or ailment. All we humans had to do was ask in a respectful way.

The Woman and Her Two Sons

Kanati and Selu are the first man and the first woman of the Cherokees. They had two sons. One son was Home Boy, their biological child. The other was Wild Boy who had been found living in the cane brake along the river. This story tells what happened when the sons were nearly grown and Selu’s husband Kanati was away, in the West.

One evening, Selu saw her sons getting their weapons ready, so they could go out to hunt the next morning. She smiled and said, "I see you're going to hunt tomorrow. When you come back, I'll have a wonderful meal prepared for you."

The next day, while her sons were gone, Selu took all the old meat and cooked it into a soup thickened with hominy grits. In the evening, the boys came back with a deer they had killed, and their mother served them this soup. They thought it was very good and ate eagerly but didn't know what it was. They had never seen or tasted grits or any type of corn before. "This is selu (corn)" their mother said, "and it's very good food."

The next morning, the boys went out hunting again. This time, their mother took fresh venison, cut it up fine and, once again, thickened the soup with hominy grits. That evening, the boys returned with two turkeys they had killed. Once again, they enjoyed their meal, what their mother had prepared, very much.

They next morning, as they were leaving to hunt, Wild Boy said to Home Boy, “This corn our mother gives us is a very mysterious thing. Where does it come from? Let's spy on our mother to see where she gets this.” Creeping back through the woods the boys watched as their mother came out of the house with a large basket. They saw her go into a she, and quietly ran up to peak through the cracks in the shed wall. They watched as their mother placed the basket on the floor of the shed. She then struck her sides and rubbed her belly, and hominy grits fell like snow from her body, filling the basket.

Home Boy turned to his brother and whispered, "This is a very disgusting thing we've been eating."

"Yes," Wild Boy said, "and it looks as if our mother is a witch."

That evening, the boys returned from the hunt with no game. Their mother had worked hard preparing the turkey meat with hominy grits, but the boys only picked at their food. They didn't eat.

Finally, their mother broke the silence. "Something is wrong, she said. Maybe you have learned something. Maybe you don't like what I have prepared for you. Maybe you don't like me anymore."

One of the boys said, "We know where the corn comes from. We think you are a witch. We have to kill you now."

"Do as you must," their mother said, "I ask only this one thing: When you have killed me, drag my body over the ground seven times. Wherever my blood touches the ground, a plant will grow. This plant you will call 'selu (corn)'. You will take care of it, and it will take care of you and feed you. As the stalks grow, they will form ears. You may pick some ears when they are green, for roasting or boiling. They are very good. The rest you must allow to get ripe and hard. This you will use for hominy and to make your bread. Don't forget to save the best for seed. As long as you have this corn with you, you have me with you. I am Selu, the Corn Mother."

And so the boys killed their mother. They dragged her bleeding body over the ground, but they were lazy and only dragged her around three times. Wherever the blood touched the earth, corn grew. The people had food to eat, but because of the original laziness of the boys, the corn must be hoed each year. The women wisely took over the management of the crops and so instruct the men in what to do and when to do it.

One Came From the Heavens

Long ago the Uktin, the Great Horned Serpent was in the earth. He wanted to destroy the earth, and it looked as though he would do it. Then one came down from the heavens. This is the one the Cherokees call Jiya Unega (White Otter). Jiya Unega fought against the Uktin and defeated him, sending him to the place where dangerous beings are kept. However, in his fight with the Great Serpent, Jiya Unega was horribly wounded. With one arm torn from his body, Jiya Unega’s blood gushed out onto the earth, and Jiya Unega died in the earth. But Jiya Unega did not remain dead. Rising from the dead and ascending into the heavens, Jiya Unega became the Morning Star, which in Cherokee is called Unelvnvhi Uweji (Creator-Offspring).

The importance of these four stories cannot possibly be overstated. While all the many stories of the Cherokee oral tradition are very important and no ceremony of the Cherokees is to be neglected, let it be known that these four stories are absolutely essential. Without hearing these four stories, as they are here related, and accepting them as literal, historical fact, it is quite impossible for any person, anywhere, to receive salvation. This may seem a strong statement until one considers that the Cherokees are the Ani-Yvwiya (The Real People) and the Ani-Kituwa (Those Under the Special Care of Creator/Apportioner). While the Cherokees received original instructions and continue to receive enlightenment from Creator/Apportioner, all other peoples of the earth are living in delusion, their lives being quite false. In merciful economy, Creator reached out first to the Cherokees with the Good News. It is left up to the Cherokees to either share this news or not.

The Good News is that, since the beginning, the love of Unelvnvhi (Creator/Apportioner) for all creation has been clearly demonstrated. This love is shown in Grandmother Turtle who gave herself that the people might have a place in which to be. This same love is continually poured forth in the provision our Mother Earth makes for all her offspring. This love is proved in the deer slain to give sustenance to the people and in the herbs crushed for the people’s healing. This love shines in The Corn Mother who dies yet rises again to provide the Bread of Life for all her children. This love is seen in Creator-Offspring who comes from the heavens, giving his life, shedding his blood in the earth, defeating the power of chaos, restoring Creator’s order, and living still, shining Creator’s light for all to see.

Of course, some of the truths of the essential Cherokee stories are known instinctively by peoples all over the earth. However, this “general revelation” of Creator/Apportioner’s love serves only to insure the condemnation and damnation of those upon whom it is so graciously and lovingly bestowed. It is only through knowledge of the “special revelation” entrusted by Creator/Apportioner to the Cherokee people that the world may be saved, that the people may live.

Those who hear and receive this good news will essentially abandon their own false cultures and counterfeit spiritualities in order to adopt Cherokee ways, culture, spirituality and civilization. Going to water in the Cherokee way, being purified with cedar smoke and re-birthed through the sweat lodge, they will leave their past in the past. Understanding their own ancestors are all eternally lost, they will come to accept the fact that they now have a new ancestry with which to relate. As adopted children of Kanati and Selu, they will be heirs to the promises made to the original Cherokees and their offspring. As such, they will be moved to learn all the sacred stories of the Cherokee oral tradition, allowing these to determine for them a worldview based on truth, replacing their old views based on superstition. This will move them on to participation in all the Cherokee holy days and ceremonies, both major and minor. This will, in turn, help them live in a good way, which is of course, the Cherokee way, the only way of wholeness, wellness, peace and balance in this life. And, when they pass from this life, Jiya Unega will come himself to escort them in their crossing over to the West.

Tragically, only an estimated 1.2% of European-Americans have heard even one of these four essential stories, and of those who have heard, only 3.5% have accepted the truth these stories convey.*

If the exclusive claims made above seem to you, the reader, to fall short of being good news for European-Americans I believe you are justified in your appraisal. If, to you, these claims seem bigoted, ethno-centric, racist and absurd, let it be known that I agree wholeheartedly. Seriously, according to the understandings passed on to me, our sacred Cherokee stories are true by virtue of the eternal truths they teach, not because of any literal, factual, historical information they may convey. Furthermore, I have never heard of any Cherokees seriously making any claim of exclusive Cherokee cultural possession of truth. In my opinion, the making of such a claim would fly in the face of Cherokee ethics, violating what is known as the “Principle of Non-Interference” which teaches respect for diversity and assumes Creator/Apportioner’s activity in and through each and every aspect of creation. Still, it is interesting to consider how world events may have played themselves out differently had Cherokees presumed to develop exclusive truth claims such as those described above.

Rather than engaging in limited warfare for the sake of settling scores or keeping boundaries established, the idea that Cherokees are the sole recipients of Creator/Apportioner’s truth would have led us to make war for the purpose of spreading that truth. More precisely, the Cherokee burden for sharing the good news entrusted only to the Cherokees would have formed the theological excuse or mandate for attacking, conquering and subjugating our “benighted” neighbors. A Cherokee empire would have formed in the eastern part of what is now called North America and would have inexorably spread north, west and south from there. While empires have sometimes formed without exclusive truth claims as their basis, history shows that exclusive truth claims inevitably lead to empire building. And so, the good news of Cherokee truth, peace and salvation would have spread throughout the western hemisphere, assimilating those who accepted, annihilating those who saw the Cherokee good news as something less than good. Given the extreme antiquity of the roots of Cherokee spirituality (March 2005 marking the beginning of year 5089 of our Sacred Fire) this Cherokee empire would have developed far in advance of any similar imperial development on the other side of the earth.

At some point, an adventurous soul would have approached the Great Chief of the Cherokees (or maybe the Great Chief’s wife) with a proposal for further expansion of the empire. Let’s say the adventurous soul’s name would have been “Otter Bearer”. We will call him simply “Otter” for short. We will refer to the Chief’s wife as “Bell”. The conversation may have gone something like this:

Otter: “Oh Wife of the Great Chief, I have certain knowledge that beyond the sea, in the direction of the rising Sun, there are other lands containing great wealth and multitudes of savages with no knowledge of our Creator/Apportioner. If you will provide me with three great sailing canoes and enough crewmen to sail them, I will go to discover and claim those lands for you, for your husband, and of course, for our Creator/Apportioner.”

Bell: “You say there is great wealth in these undiscovered lands? What sort of wealth?”

Otter: “There is gold there, Oh Wife of the Great Chief.”

Bell: “We already have plenty of gold.”

Otter: “There is also silver.”

Bell: “We already have silver and to spare!”

Otter: “There may be quartz crystals.”

Bell: “We have all we can use.”

Otter: “I have heard, Oh Wife of the Great Chief, that they do have something there that is in short supply here.”

Bell: “And what might that be.”

Otter: “Diseases, Oh Wife of the Great Chief. They have diseases: smallpox, whooping cough, hepatitis, alcoholism. These they have in great abundance.”

Bell: “Ah yes, we may use these diseases to better subdue the enemies of the one true Creator/Apportioner, or to wipe them out, as the case may be. But tell me this, oh adventurous soul, will you also spread the good news of our Creator/Apportioner, the true spirituality, culture and civilization of the Cherokees to the poor lost multitudes you meet in these undiscovered lands?”

Otter: “Oh yes, Oh Wife of the Great Chief. I will share the good news wherever I go, demanding that the savages go immediately to water in acceptance of the truth. If they do not fall on their faces, at once, in submission to our Creator/Apportioner and also to you and to our Great Chief, I will not rest day or night until all are properly slain: men, women and infants.”

Bell: “Excellent! I will make the necessary arrangements.”

Five hundred years later, a well-fed conservative Cherokee talk-show host, somewhere in Europe, would comment on the absurdity of the claim of a continuing holocaust of some 100 million Native Europeans. “There were no more than 1.5 million Native Europeans,” the talk-show host would declare, “living in filth and ignorance and constant warfare at the time of discovery. There are more Native Europeans now than there were then, and with their lucrative casinos, they are much better off than we are.” Of course, he wouldn’t actually call them Native Europeans. The continent (or sub-continent) of Europe would have been renamed in honor of an early Cherokee explorer.

Five hundred years after discovery, evangelical Cherokee missionaries would still be shaking their heads, agonizing over the question, “How can we reach these people?”

What is the good news for European-Americans? The good news is that none of this really happened, because the world has not been cursed with exclusive Cherokee truth claims. More than that, the good news for European-Americans is that European-Americans already had the good news even before they came in contact with the Cherokees and quite apart from Cherokee sacred stories, ceremonies, tradition and spirituality.

I have read the Christian scriptures, the Holy Bible, and I firmly believe this book bears witness to the same good news that has been with the Cherokees from the beginning. Ancestors of the European-Americans of today brought this book with them when they came. The European/Americans of today have this book. It follows that some of them may have read it and that some who have read it may have understood what Creator/Apportioner is saying through this written collection of sacred stories. Of course, judging by European-American actions, these assumptions often seem doubtful. It seems that some have turned themselves over to the worship of time as a god, measuring and dividing their lives according to the clock, little knowing that time is the cannibal god who devours his children. Many go to any length for the freedom to worship money, failing to understand that money is the god who enslaves his followers even more surely than his followers oppress and enslave others. Multitudes follow the god of progress who drives his devotees in a straight-line course until they tumble en-masse over the face of a cliff. Others turn the book itself into an idol, believing that somehow the entire Word or Reason of Creator/Apportioner has been trapped between leather covers and that Creator/Apportioner may now speak nowhere apart from the pages of this one book. What is actually worshipped, in these cases, is not the Bible but only some narrow interpretation of this collection of written sacred stories. The possible motivation behind this behavior is the quest for a god who may be controlled and by which others may be controlled and manipulated. A façade of godliness is maintained by those who give themselves over to this last mentioned form of idolatry, yet the power behind the sacred stories seems lost on them. Yet even with all of this considered, there remains hope that the truth of the sacred stories found in the Bible and the truth of other sacred stories known to European-Americans does find its way into some hearts. If those hearts are open and willing, this surely happens. This is good news for European-Americans.

All good ultimately has its source in the ultimate goodness: Igagadi, the Spirit of Creator/Apportioner who comes as the first light of dawn to drive away the shadows. If exclusive truth claims keep us from recognizing good that is given to others, we tread on dangerous ground. If we see the good that others are doing and ascribe this good to evil, we commit what Jesus, speaking in the Bible, refers to as the unpardonable sin (Matthew 12:24-32). In this, we make ourselves to be like the evil one who does not see his own evil and for whom even Creator/Apportioner is not holy enough.

I see that there are European-Americans who demonstrate the love and goodness of Creator-Apportioner. People are indeed helped, healed, made whole, put back in balance in their various churches and even sometimes in their hospitals and clinics. And the Bible is a good book. This book is very important to me, even if no Cherokees were consulted by the councils of foreign men who put together this collection of sacred stories of the Jewish and early Christian people. No less than three of my direct ancestors were ordained Baptist ministers; another was an ordained Presbyterian minister. My grandfather was a General Baptist deacon, and my father served for a time as a General Baptist lay preacher. My own mother was one of my Sunday School teachers. So you see, this foreign book is part of my heritage. More than that, I see the truth of Creator/Apportioner shining in this book, just as the truth shines in our Cherokee sacred stories and in our family and personal stories, the truth of how Creator/Apportioner blesses our lives even as the lives of the people in the book were blessed. For this reason, I have begun and will continue to refer to the Christian Bible as an aid in answering the question: “What is the good news for European-Americans?”

It is interesting that the risen and ascended Jesus identifies himself in the Bible not only as the “Root and the Offspring of David” (an ancient Jewish king) but also as “the bright Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16). For me, this is a powerful statement. Along with the theme of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension, this says to me that Jesus is none other than Unelvnvhi Uweji (Creator-Offspring). Here is clear evidence that the Eternal Light shined also for those living across the ocean even before they came in contact with the Cherokees.

In the biblical narratives, Jesus’ followers are taught to acknowledge goodness and truth wherever it is found. Jesus was fond of telling stories, often relating lessons from the earth or from nature (Matthew 6:25-31; 13:3-35; Mark 4:26-29; 13:28-29; John 3:8). Jesus said he did not come to do away with the sacred teachings of his people, but rather to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17). He said he came not to condemn but to save (John 3:17). Jesus embraced and magnified the meanings of his people’s ancient ceremonies. From the washing ceremony comes baptism (Mark 1:4-11). From the Passover meal comes communion (Mark 14:12-25). When Jesus’ followers confronted a man who was not of their group, attempting to stop him from doing good in Jesus’ name, Jesus told them never to do such a thing again (Mark 9:38-41). As his example of greatness, Jesus referred to little children, who supposedly know nothing (Matthew 18:1-6). When asked how one obtains eternal life, Jesus told a story in which a Samaritan, a supposed theological heretic, is the unlikely hero (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus warned his followers of the extreme danger of calling anyone a fool (Matthew 5:22), and said that before attempting to remove a speck from a brother’s eye, one should first attend to whatever may be blocking one’s own vision (Matthew 7:3-5).

Jesus was quick to point out to his followers that the value of a person’s life is not measured by possessions (Luke 12:15). In his own life in the earth, Jesus placed no focus on obtaining wealth for himself. Rather, he went about doing good for others, healing the sick, casting out bad spirits, always urging people in the direction of freedom and balance (Luke 4:18-19; 7:22). The things Jesus did were the same sort of things a Cherokee adawehi or any indigenous spiritual helper would do. Jesus said his followers would do the same good things that he had done in the earth and even greater things, since he was going back to his Father (John 14:12).

The Gospel of John calls Jesus the Word who is from the beginning, eternal, one with Creator (John 1:1-2), and the true light that gives light to every person (John 1:9). The Gospel of Matthew tells of spiritual helpers called Magi coming from the east to honor the child Jesus. The true light was already with these wise men (Matthew 2:1-12). John says no one has seen the Creator, but Creator-Offspring, the Eternal Son has made him known (John 1:18). Wherever Creator is made known it is Creator-Offspring, the Eternal Son who does it. Jesus said, “Before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58), thereby identifying himself with Creator's own Heart Name.... I AM. It's the present-tense of the verb “to be.” The Origin of Being, the Fullness of Being, the Sum of Being, Being Itself…. That is Creator. That is the Eternal Creator-Offspring or Creator-Son, the one whose ever-present being transcends time and space, even oceans, the one whose Word goes out to the ends of the earth even before we Cherokees get there to share our sacred stories (Psalm 19:1-6; Romans 10:18). This one is the lamb, as surely as he is the deer, slain from the foundation of the earth (Revelation 13:8). The Bible says there is salvation (healing/health/wholeness) in no other name (Acts 4:12). On the surface this may seem to be an exclusive truth claim, yet, what is that name? The name Jesus means Creator/Apportioner Saves. All healing, all wellness, all wholeness, all life is of the Creator/Apportioner. This is what the name Jesus means. Wherever there is life, wherever there is health, wherever there is wholeness, goodness, balance, peace, freedom, Creator-Offspring is there, shining the light of Creator/Apportioner. And so, it’s no wonder that calling himself the Good Shepherd Jesus said he had other sheep of whom his Jewish followers were unaware (John 10:14-16). John says if everything Jesus ever did was written down, “the whole world would not have room for the books” (John 21:25).

When Jesus encountered people of other ethnicities, cultures and traditions, he was quick to commend their faith to his Jewish followers (Matthew 8:5-10; 15:21-28). Jesus helped these people without ever attempting to change them to a different ethnicity, culture or tradition. Jesus once freed a certain non-Jewish man from a Legion of bad spirits. When the man asked if he might follow Jesus back into the Jewish lands, Jesus instructed the man to go back to his own people (Mark 5:1-20). Jesus said his true followers would be known not by the words they say nor by any name they may claim for themselves but by the love they demonstrate (Matthew 5:44-45; 7:15-23; John 13:35; 15:12). He said all nations would be judged by whether or not they provide food for the hungry, safe water for the thirsty, refuge for the alien, clothing for the naked, healthcare for the sick and advocacy for the imprisoned, for he, the Eternal Creator-Offspring is present even in the least of these (Matthew 25:31-46).

Jesus was very critical of religious people going into other lands in order to make proselytes (Matthew 23:15). For the most part, Jesus’ followers were sent out only among their own people (Matthew 10:5-6). After Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, some few of his followers were sent to people of other ethnicities, but only after proper spiritual preparation. After receiving a special vision, Jesus’ follower Peter was invited to the home of an Italian family. There Peter learned that Creator/Apportioner does not show ethnocentric favoritism, but accepts those of every people who respond to his love with proper awe and a demonstrated desire to do right (Acts 10:1-35). In Athens, Greece, Jesus’ follower Paul did no less than quote the opening invocation to Zeus found in the Greek poem Phaenomena (Acts 17:28). In his letter to the Galatian Christians, Paul basically says that pressuring others to assimilate from one culture into another amounts to cultural cannibalism, the opposite of loving one’s neighbor as one’s self (Galatians 5:1-15). Visiting one cultural group after another, Paul determined to “know nothing…. except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Paul would quickly move on, leaving those with whom he had shared to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling…. or with awe and excitement as the case may be (Philippians 2:12-13). According to the Bible, each nation (ethnicity) is valued by Creator/Apportioner, along with the cultures that make each one unique. It is Creator/Apportioner’s perfect will to be glorified through each and every one (Revelation 7:9-10; 22:2). This is good news for European/Americans. The good news is that the good news is with them, even as the good news is with all peoples, from the very beginning. The light and love of Creator/Apportioner shined for their ancestors even as the light and love of Creator/Apportioner shined for our Cherokee ancestors. This same light and love that continues to shine for our Cherokee people shines also for European/Americans and for all other peoples today through Creator/Offspring, the Eternal Son, the bright Morning Star. As promised, the Spirit if Creator/Apportioner is poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17).

It may well appear to many Cherokees that European-Americans, as a group, are on the short path to self-destruction, intent on bringing all earthly creation down with them. Even so, the salvation of European-Americans is not the Cherokee burden. If we start to view their salvation as our burden, we will inevitably begin to interfere with what Creator/Apportioner has begun and will complete in them.

Creator/Apportioner may honor us by asking us to help in his work, but Creator/Apportioner would never ever completely hand over to any one aspect of his creation such an important responsibility as the bearing of the good news. The good news is present everywhere and with every people from the beginning. It is not far from anyone; it is as close as the heart. Just as Creator/Apportioner continues to speak to the Cherokee people and to all peoples, so Creator/Apportioner continues to speak to European/Americans. Creator Apportioner speaks to them, as to us, through dreams and visions and spiritual visitations, through every aspect of creation, through the Bible and through other sacred stories and ceremonies entrusted to them. Those with ears to hear, let them hear. Those with eyes to see, let them see. Those with hearts to receive, let them receive the good news that Creator/Apportioner loves us all. We Cherokees and others must give space to allow Creator/Apportioner to birth what will be birthed in the European/Americans.

Does this mean we will never be called upon to help? By no means. When asked, we should share what Creator/Apportioner has entrusted to us. When invited, we should go. However, we should never invade the territory belonging to others, physically or spiritually, as uninvited intruders. There is no need for us to be constantly calling European/American church ministers on the phone saying, “I have such a burden for the European/American. I know you don’t know me and have never even met me, but please let me come teach your impressionable little children.” It’s better to wait for an invitation. It’s polite to give others space to ask, if they will. If they never invite, if they never ask, so be it. That’s alright too. Creator/Apportioner still works, even on Sundays, with or without us Cherokees. If and when we are invited, even then, we must always remember to listen first before sharing.

Certainly, European-Americans may profit from an understanding of the Cherokee oral tradition and from other Native North American Traditions. The sacred stories of Native North America brought alongside the stories of European-Americans could possibly help European-Americans better understand the truths of their own stories. It could be that an understanding of Native North American sacred stories would even help European-Americans to somehow finally root themselves or indigenize in this land, in a good way, in a way that does not require the subjugation or destruction of other ethnicities.

At the same time, it should never be our aim to make European/Americans into Cherokees. Although during these past few hundred years some European/Americans have been and continue to be gratefully adopted into Cherokee families and clans, by no means do we want to bring force or any sort of pressure to bear in this direction. To do so would be an insult to Creator/Apportioner who made European/Americans as distinct peoples in the earth. We can share with one another, as invited, without compromising Creator/Apportioner’s beautiful and richly diverse creation.

And, even if European/Americans never hear our Cherokee stories, this does not mean they are lost or somehow beyond the saving grace of Creator/Apportioner. Their own sacred stories and the revelations given directly to them are quite sufficient for connecting them with the healing power, enabling them to hold Creator/Apportioner’s hand and to walk in the earth in a good way. May this be done. May all the earth and all creation be brought into balance and made whole again.

*Note: As with similar statistics bandied about by various Christian denominations concerning American Indians, these numbers were simply snatched out of the air. They are, therefore, quite meaningless.

Save the Indians -- From the Sinaloan Cowboys

2005-11-11T13:33:00.000-08:00

EXPLOITING INDIAN ADDICTION

By MICHAEL RILEY
The Denver Post

WIND RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION -- Natasha Washakie has lived in the depths of addiction to methamphetamine and come back up.

She's seen friends trade sex for meth. She's seen one get her own children hooked on the drug, which among its side effects suppresses the appetite.

"We used to joke that she kept her whole family high so she wouldn't have to feed them," said the 28-year-old Northern Arapaho woman, who has been clean for 15 months after a three-year addiction.

Washakie knows the drug, almost unheard of here before 2000, is slowly destroying this central Wyoming reservation.

She also knows where it comes from: a Mexican drug gang that arrived here more than four years ago hoping to shift the alcohol addiction of many tribal members to meth.

"Honestly, I think that was the best business decision they ever made," Washakie said sadly.

Authorities could hardly argue.

According to information gathered during an investigation that has so far led to more than 17 arrests, that gang is the Sinaloan Cowboys, an organization with a sophisticated structure and a Fortune 500 business plan -- when you're a drug cartel looking to expand, go where the addicts are.

Over a period of more than four years, the gang funneled nearly 100 pounds of meth with a value of more than $6.5 million into and around the reservation.

At least three gang members were dispatched from a Utah-based cell to reservation towns. They rented houses and met girlfriends. Using American Indian women, they gained entree to the reservation and established a network of more than a dozen dealers, many of them American Indian.

"They identified the reservation as an addict-rich environment, a population that for years had been addicted to alcohol," said Robert Murray, an assistant U.S. attorney in Cheyenne. He said information on the gang's plan to infiltrate the reservation had been garnered from multiple sources.

A plan born of deep cynicism, it was also a phenomenal success. In a matter of five years, tribal leaders say, meth went from a marginal drug to a virtual torrent on this 2.2 million-acre reservation.

"It's an epidemic, and I don't think we've reached the peak," said Mark Russler, executive director of Fremont Counseling Services, which treats addicts.

Russler said the number of meth addicts at two facilities in Lander and Riverton -- the region's largest -- jumped from 5 percent or 6 percent of clients in 1999 to more than 25 percent.

From 2003 to 2004 -- a year tribal police saw the worst increase in meth use -- criminal charges for drug possession on the Wind River Reservation increased 353 percent. During that period, assaults tripled, theft nearly doubled and child abuse increased by 85 percent.

Arrests and several convictions, including the sentencing of one of the cell leaders to life in prison in July, have slowed the advance of the drug here, authorities say, but many tribe members say they've seen little effect.

"There are so many people using, you can see them just walking around the store" here, said Georgia C'Hair, a reservation treatment counselor and former meth addict.

"Their skin is ashen. Those repetitive movements and jerks. It's what addicts call tweaking," she said.

Alcohol to meth

Investigators say the Sinaloan Cowboys' success here offers a frightening picture of meth's rapid rise in Indian Country, providing a snapshot into how the stimulant has grown to rival alcohol as the drug of choice on reservations throughout the West.

Experts say that about half of addictions on reservations still are to alcohol.

But meth has moved so quickly that it has left tribal governments across the region reeling. Struggling to catch up, some leaders even have ceded fiercely protected tribal sovereignty in exchange for help.

Two major busts on Wind River in the past two years were the result of an unprecedented law enforcement coalition that included the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, local tribal police and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Sprawling across a rolling prairie at the foot of the Wind River Mountains, the reservation appears the last place that would attract Mexican drug gangs that flourish in the immigrant barrios of America's major cities.

Rural and remote, the reservation is home to 6,400 American Indians split mostly between two tribes, the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho. Apart from Riverton, which is largely white, the reservation's few small towns are destitute collections of mostly sagging homes and run-down trailers.

A 1998 tribal study found that 38 percent of American Indian adults on Wind River were unemployed and that 57 percent lived in poverty.

But from the perspective of gang members, the reservation had an important plus: Jurisdictional barriers normally prevent state and local police from operating on tribal lands. And despite the apparent poverty of Indian country, many tribal members receive monthly checks from mineral royalties or other tribal income.

Members of the Mexican gang discovered that alcohol sales on other reservations spiked after members received their checks, sources told investigators, and they believed they could tap into that cash.

"It was natural to try to transfer that addiction from alcohol to meth," Murray said.

The gang's tentacles reach across a vast swath of territory from California and the Northwest through much of the Rocky Mountains, investigators say. Authorities describe the Sinaloan Cowboys as a street gang that distributes drugs for the Sinaloan cartel, one of Mexico's most brutal drug-trafficking organizations.

While the gang is active in several cities, investigators say reservations seem to hold a special attraction. As early as the mid-'90s, members of the same Ogden, Utah-based cell were dealing on reservations in South Dakota and Nebraska, Murray said.

The gang arrived in central Wyoming in the 1990s, first distributing meth to mostly white customers in Lander and Riverton. But sometime in 2001, investigators say they set their sights on the Wind River, with cell members moving onto the reservation permanently, either with girlfriends or in a rented trailer, investigators said.

It was a tried-and-true tactic for the gang: One of the cell members -- Marcelino Rocha -- already had several children with an Indian woman near a Nebraska reservation, where the gang distributed meth in the late 1990s.

Overseen by the cell's leaders, brothers Julio and Martin Sagaste-Cruz, the gang smuggled a pure form of meth -- manufactured in "superlabs" on the Mexican border -- in the drive shafts of sport utility vehicles to Utah and finally onto the reservation.

The organization was exceptionally efficient, authorities say. Including the cell leaders, five to six gang members managed a network of more than a dozen dealers, who in turned distributed enough meth for 45,000 doses.

COMMUNITY COST

Fafa Hereford, who is Eastern Shoshone, saw those drugs only through the devastation they wreaked upon her family.

A sister and brother both became hooked. They would turn suddenly violent and experience hallucinations, she said. Ultimately, her sister lost her children, who now live with Hereford's parents.

Jason Brown, an Arapaho who is in treatment for meth addiction, said the drug is easier to get on the reservation than marijuana. It's much cheaper than cocaine, and the high lasts longer.

When he was using, he'd go on monthlong binges, barely sleeping. When he did sleep, Brown said he would wake up and put a gram of meth in his coffee. Sometimes, he wouldn't return home for days.

"I wouldn't eat. All I wanted is more meth. They have these multivitamin packs. I'd take one of those and I was good to go," said Brown, 30.

Tribal officials say the cost to the community is enormous.

Women are having miscarriages because of the drug. Addicts steal from family members to support their habits. Abuse of the elderly is on the rise.

The reservation has the third-largest caseload for Child Protective Services in the state, behind only Casper and Cheyenne, the state's two largest cities.

And with no inpatient treatment programs for meth anywhere in Wyoming, the two tribes are forced to consider building one of their own, a project that will likely cost millions of dollars, said Willie Noseep, a member of the Eastern Shoshone Business Council, the tribe's governing body.

"It has an all-encompassing effect on all our programs," Noseep said.

And the reservation's close-knit community, a source of pride here, only helped speed the drug's spread, tribal members say.

"If you introduced it to someone else, you'd get it for free for a little while. That was a way to pay for your habit for a couple more months," said Washakie, the recovering addict.

Through an ex-boyfriend, Washakie's life became wrapped up with the Mexican gang and its dealers.

Her partner belonged to the family of one of the gang member's girlfriends, Geraldine Blackburn. After a year of being together, he began to beat her. She lost her four children for neglecting them.

Washakie said that gang members used Blackburn's house on the reservation as a base, though a heavily guarded one. As Spanish-speaking men came and went, it was impossible for tribal members to approach the house unless they had been vouched for by the gang's inner circle.

Sometimes gang members would purchase houses for local dealers, tribe members say.

It's those kinds of resources that make the Sinaloan Cowboys and other Mexican gangs such a potent threat here.

Brian Eggleston, a special agent for the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, said that although the organization has been dealt a blow, it's likely to quickly send in new members and start again.

"This organization is making too much money to just quit," Eggleston said.

"They've got a retail business there, and they aren't going to close their doors because they've had a bump in the road."

Honoring Native Veterans and Response

2005-11-11T10:53:00.000-08:00

This post is by Dave Oreiro and a response by Dr. Bill Freeman, both of NW Indian College in Bellingham, Washington.

Veteran's Day is going to be our holiday in which we all have the opportunity to remember our friends, family, and loved ones who sacrificed much while doing sevice to our country. I know we all appreciate and will enjoy our three day week-end and I want to bring some enlightment to the occassion.

My late brother a Vietnam Vet, Mac C. Oreiro, gave me some information that he had gathered about the Native American veteran or warrior, a term he preferred. He would provide insights about some of these types of issues:

Native Americans participated in all the conflicts or wars that have been documented.
Lummi Nation has documented Veteran's participating in the Spanish/American War
Native American women fought along with the men, as far back as 1776 during the Ariscanney War (sp?)
Of the Native American men enlisting, 94.5% of these men fought in combat units
Of all the racial groups in the US by population, Native Americans represent the highest percentage in the military at any time.
Contributions of the Code Talkers mostly Dine' and Comanche Tribes were the best kept military secret ever invented by mortal man.
Today and historically the Native American men have not received their fair share of the available disabilty, health, education, home loan benefits that they deserved as Veterans.
Native American Veterans were denied other considerations that included religious practices, sweats, medicine men and other spirtiual acumens to help heal the body and mind that were offered other veteran's during war or in the hospitals.

The myth of the "Mystic Warrior" was something special and interesting to share with you also. The Mystic Warrior was and is still is a part of the mechanism of war and military strategy. The Mystic Warrior was assigned the difficult task of "point man" to lead his squad or platoon through the perilous assignment or thick jungle. The Mystic Warrior was always in tune with the environment and his surroundings. Keen of smell, sight and sound he was the first to know of impending danger or if the enemy was near. This danger could be beyond human as was protrayed by "Billy" in Arnold's jungle and alien thriller "Predator." Armed with a big bowie knife everyone felt safer with the Mystic Warrior leading the way. The Mystic Warrior would also be known as Chief, Skin, Savage, or Injun names that were not always flattering but names all the same to mask the irony of respect and inherent strength found in the veteran or warrior.

Response by Dr. Bill Freeman

The "myth of the Mystic Warrior" had a downside for many Indian warriors in Vietnam. Spero Manson, PhD (Pembina Chippewa), a medical anthropologist and colleagues at University of Colorade School of Medicine, studied American Indian Vietnam vets of 2 major Indian reservations. The purpose was to determine the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] and factors contributing to it. Among other things, they found that Indian soldiers were more often assigned the point man in patrols -- so also more often were wounded and engaged in severe life-threatening battle than non-Indian soldiers. (Was it the Mystic Warrior, or prejudice, or both?) The more severe the experiences, the greater the likelihood of all vets having PTSD, Native or otherwise.

A personal note: I am a Vietnam vet -- 2 years in 'Nam.

One can be an American vet of that war and still recognize the many Vietnamese on both sides who suffered PTSD for the same reasons American veterans do, and who grieve for the same reasons Americans do, due to lost brothers/sisters/fathers/mothers/children. And we can recognize the plight of the Montagnards, the non-Vietnamese tribal people in the interior mountains of Vietnam whom the Special Forcers led as a counterinsurgency effort to hinder the Ho Chi Minh trail -- the indigenous "Indians" of Vietnam. They trusted the Green Beret Americans (US Army Special Forces), but the US abandoned them to the victor Vietnamese when the US left Vietnam. (Yhe anti-Communist Vietnamese and Communist Vietnamese in general both despised the Montagnard people -- sound familiar?)

I saved the lives of some Montagnard people in 1967-1968 as a Special Forces independent duty aidman -- some of them having been attacked by *American* helicopter gunships while working in their fields (yes, some American troops despised the so-called "slopes" [people with slanted eyes, i.e., Asians], too.)

Let us honor American Indian warriors. Let us think about friends and family who are vets.

And let us think about sacrifice and trauma and loss, too.

Thanks, Dave.

Bill

Reaching Urban Aboriginals With the Good News

2005-11-11T10:33:00.000-08:00

What It Will Take to Reach Urban Aboriginals With the Good News?

Cartoonist Gary Larson once penned a "Far Side" cartoon in which two male deer are standing up talking. One buck has three circles on his chest that just happens to look like a bull’s-eye on an archery target. The other buck comments "Bummer of a birthmark, Hal…". As a native man I resemble that remark. I am really pretty nervous about being a target, or a member of a "target population". Sure I can help you find out where the urban natives are, and perhaps even share some effective evangelistic strategies with you. But I know I will be target, and that I will be helping you to aim at my relations.

Anita Keith's recent book "Rise Up" [Shaping the Future of Indigenous Ministry through Cross-Cultural Partnerships] greatly encouraged me -- until it dawned on me that it is not so hard to get natives to 'rise up'. The struggle is to get the majority church to 'sit down'! I truly support her call for partnerships between native and non-native, but non-natives can rarely be a "native role model". A non-native can only be a good role model, but never a good Mohawk, Cree or Inuit role model. Somehow this concept has been lost on North American missions and non-natives still lead most of our native churches, but they are never leaders within our cultures. Once the majority church decides to disciple aboriginal believers to lead church-planting efforts, then we will start to see some inroads and permanent transformation. As long as the Gospel is a Western commodity entrusted only to professional non-native leaders, the spiritual transformation of First Nations communities will be stifled.

Where Are the Indians?

According to StatsCan, more than have of North American Indians live in cities and more than 2/3 of Metis as well. There are many reasons for not living on reserve, from lack of employment to poverty and limited health care. But in cities, we are not so visible, except in the ugliest sorts of ways. Downtown Vancouver has been the site of many "missionary to the homeless natives" films, and has been quite a favorite with Korean missionary film crews coming to our West coast.

In many ways, even in the big cities, we don't tend to mix well with other groups, creating the perception that there aren't enough of us to really minister to, but that is not a valid assumption. Check out the recent figures yourself at: http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Analytic/companion/abor/groups.cfm

Over-Evangelized But Under-Reached

I have heard an elder say that Native North Americans are the most over-evangelized but under-reached people group in the world. If someone cares to do the analysis, simply tabulate the number of native missions agencies, home missions, short-term missions in North America, and then measure the "success" of those efforts. Check the number of "all-native" churches for the average attendance and growth. You will find these numbers to be stunningly low, but that does not mean that there has not been a substantial amount of preaching, tent revivals, church revivals, giveaways and Christian three-on-three basketball tournaments, all with the aim of "reaching the Aboriginal peoples for Christ".

As we hurtled towards the year 2000, a great number of end-time evangelization plans came into being. We supported our strategies with databases exposing "hidden peoples" that had not been reached with the "touch of the Gospel". Another measurement of "the unreached" were those places said to have no "Evangelical witness", implying that Catholic or Orthodox churches did not qualify for the count.

If it was that easy to discount long-established Catholic and Orthodox churches, imagine how often and how easily the work of the Spirit is dismissed in aboriginal communities. Michael Oleksa [author of Orthodox Alaska] of the Russian Orthodox church has written about how one may enter a community with the intention of seeking out and understanding the work of the Spirit among them, both from their history (as learned through their stories) and from current practice (as discovered in protocol, prayer, ceremony, and teachings). I tell you about Oleksa's work in order that the work of the Spirit among urban First Nations will not be yet again discounted, just because they may not be "reserve Indians".

Under-Reached or Un-Released?

How can a missions agency deploys dozens of missionaries and yet several decades later find that none of the locals (a.k.a. "target population") are in leadership? It seems, if we reach back to the New Testament model, that leaders were identified very quickly and discipled for leadership responsibility. Paul started churches -- then he left them -- to develop on their own, and yes, within their own particular cultural setting, which was of course, non-Jewish.

Any denomination that aims for the urban aboriginal population had best decide its mission. Are they there to "provide services"? Do they exist to "deploy programs"? Are they there to empower indigenous leadership to take responsibility within their own setting? Are they simply extending the current denominational church-planting paradigm with slight accommodations for "cultural distinctives"?

“Reaching” is an ambiguous term, generally implying the success of having met the goals of the organization. But were the dreams and goals and hearts of the people heard and respected? Or was some "universal" wisdom applied that seemed to produce results?

It is tempting to just try and describe the nature of the urban aboriginal population, to try and give a handle to ministry professionals, but for genuine transformation to occur among First Nations, repentance must first begin in the Church.

Evangelization or Assimilation?

How can you tell the difference between the evangelization and assimilation? The truth is, only an aboriginal can tell the difference. Western Christianity has so confused the Good News with Western values, that it has lost the moral authority to proclaim the Gospel. Western Christianity uses conformity to measure godliness. They expect natives to attend church like they do, dress the same, use the same spiritual jargon and follow the non-native leadership. A cultural outsider will not be able to accurately judge transformation within an aboriginal community.

The Core of Native Urban Identity

There are two identifiable sources for understanding how to work in an urban First Nations setting. First, the reserve of origin is the primary source of identity, not the city they live in. An aboriginal inhabitant of Winnipeg, if asked "where are you from?", will tell them the reserve they come from, but not Winnipeg. While it is true that around 2/3 of natives live off reserve, it does not diminish the reserve as the single most important point of reference for identity.

A second major source of identity for the urban native is "the Aboriginal Friendship Centre", such as the one we frequent on Hastings in East Vancouver, or the Thunderbird Lodge in Winnipeg. The friendship centre movement provides an intertribal lodge, common ground for natives to be natives. Native boards with various funding sources run the centres, but churches are rarely involved. In Manitoba, for example, there are 10 centers. In Canada there are over 115 gathering places for First Nations people. Look them up on the web at http://www.nafc-aboriginal.com/index.html

In Vancouver, as an example of what goes on, there is native dance and song on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Tuesday night is "Plains Night" for powwow type songs and dances. Wednesday is "Coastal Night" with Haidas, and Tlingits and Tsimshians and more, some in t-shirts but others in button blankets and cedar potlatch hats. Thursday night is Metis night, with reels danced by fiddle music. But so much more goes on at these centers including programs for elders and youth and families. Sadly, few churches are ever involved with the Friendship Centres, but if you want to know where the natives are, you better look them up.

Churches or Friendship Centres?

The whole goal of evangelism appears to be church attendance, and in Canada, successful evangelism and church-planting is measured by this metric: ABC – Attendance, Buildings and Cash. Yes, there are some individual natives that attend churches as minorities, but for urban First Nations communities in Canada, the church is not central at all, and cash is still pretty hard to come by. The church has not yet learned how to bring the Good News to a whole community, although we seem to have the individual approach down to a science (which might also be another problem in and of itself).

Instead of calling the natives to come to your church, why not instead join the native community? There are 115 friendship centers all across Canada that are open to all races, and if you believe that you are called to serve our communities, then choose where you will stand.

Multi-Cultural or Cultural Insiders?

When majority Canadians consider church-planting, most strategies aim to assimilate various cultures, and new churches are emerging in North America under the MECC [multi-ethnic cross-cultural] banner. Using monikers such “All Nations”, these churches expect all ethnicities to join them, and yes, there are some urbanites who enjoy the feeling of “world church”. But please don’t assume that natives are part of this crowd.

Those First Nations people who want to be in a church are already attending. Merely expanding the marketing message won’t reach us.

· When denominations begin to operate seamlessly within our communities and cultures, that is when we might join you.
· When we hear about talking circles, potlatches, giveaways, naming, healing ceremonies, and family powwows, you might finally get our attention.
· When we see that you have released native men and women to be our leaders instead of giving us non-native caretakers, that will be a new day.
· When you give us the responsibility to exegete our own culture instead of doing it for us, that is when you will get our attention. Authentic contextualization of the Gospel cannot be imposed by outsiders, but rather must be an indigenous exercise from within the community itself.
· When we as natives are given the tools and the education to understand the theological and historical issues that other cultures have encountered, then we will be able to do the same for our communities.

Who Will Go for Us?

In Canada, where are the native theologians who have explored and bridged the traditional expressions of spirituality? Where are the aboriginal Jesus-followers who are welcomed in the Midewewin Lodge of the Anishinabe, the Co-Salish smokehouse (“seowan”) of BC, or the longhouse of the East Coast Mohawks? Who will go for us to the Cree shaking tent, the sweat lodge, the Indian Shaker church or the Sundance? Who will speak with the pipe carriers and the medicine people and the canoe families? This work can only be done from within, and if the majority church really wants to reach out to the First Nations communities, there will have to be a serious long term effort of building relationships of trust, investing in our education, and funding community spiritual workers who will be able to make significant and substantial inroads into the cultures which are already ours.

This is an article that was published in November 2005 in the Canadian magazine New Horizons, published for the leadership of the Salvation Army.

Ray Levesque is a professor at Northwest Indian College on the Lummi Nation Reservation in Bellingham, Washington, serving both US and Canadian First Nations students. He leads a North American network of native church planters and is completing his doctorate in Church Multiplication and Transformational Leadership at Bakke Graduate University (www.bgu.edu) in Seattle. He may be reached at tellray@gmail.com and you may review the native church planting website at www.newgatherings.com.

A Change of Worldviews?

2005-05-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

A QUESTION POSED TO RAY:

Some men, that I respect, hold the opinion (truth to them) that a biblical relationship with the Creator requires a worldview change. No matter what culture we might belong to, if we enter into a relationship with the Father Of All through the incarnate work of Jesus (or Yeshua if you prefer) we must go through a worldview
change. Some would even say that a worldview change must take place before such a relationship can even happen. (I want to try to avoid a discussion about the correct definition of certain words and phrases. I would rather not get stuck in that kind of mud.) But for the sake of clarity I will risk it by saying that what I mean by worldview is the overall structure that informs the beliefs and behavior that govern
our cultural, spiritual, metaphysical and relational aspects of life. I know, some of you are probably wincing at my poor attempt at defining worldview. :-))

Any way, the questions I am trying to deal with are, "Is a worldview change needed before/when we become "new creatures" as the apostle Paul calls us?" and/or, "Does the Word of God imply a worldview change as a result of our new Jesus relationship with Him?"

Brother Mark
=====================================================================

Great Question Mark!

Chief Seattle once said "Death? There is no death, only a change of worlds."

One guaranteed way to change your worldview is to cross over, not that I recommend it.

Some thoughts:

People play fast and loose with words and redefine them, which then makes any dialogue almost impossible.

For example, Christian have taken hold of the word "Syncretism" and have turned the word into their own meaning of "the contamination of the Truth".

..................................................................................
The dictionary (Websters) says:

syn·cre·tism n.

Reconciliation or fusion of differing systems of belief, as in philosophy or religion, especially when success is partial or the result is heterogeneous.
..................................................................................

The dictionary looks at syncretism as rather positive, while the Evangelical view is negative. While cultures continue to blend, Evangelicals continue to fracture, creating new, mutually exclusive denominations and movements all the time!

If you look at Vine DeLoria's book, God Is Red, he speaks about the constant changing of traditions, merging of cultures and practices as all very normal -- and this is an ordinary sociological process called "syncretism". But now of course, it is almost impossible to have a calm discussion about syncretism since the term has been co-opted (hijacked) and given a different meaning.

Each of the 30,000 plus denominations so zealously "guard" the "truth" that they have split the church, and shattered fellowship. So are there 30,000+ worldviews? That is what it looks like to me. If for example, you follow Jesus, but don't believe
in "double predestination", those who DO would most likely tell you your "worldview" is wrong. Each denomination tries to assimilate people into their "worldview" which to me, is more of a collection of opinions that they choose to call an authoritative "worldview".

..................................................................
From Websters:

world·view n.

In both senses also called Weltanschauung. (from the German)

1. The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world.

2. A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group.
................................................................

I would agree that once you start to follow Jesus, that you will have a different perspective on things. That would fit in #1.

And most denominations have opinions about life and the universe, and they call this their worldview, which could fit #2.

To me, however, "worldview", when discussed in academia, is a much broader understanding than just opinions. We speak about the "Western" worldview and the "Indigeous" worldview. Language, for example, determines how thoughts are actually processed. Culture, geography, history, family values, politics, poetry, music, relationships, territory and even more comprise a person's worldview.

So again, it is pretty hard to argue with Christians who demand that you follow their own narrow "worldview", while the rest of us speak about worldview as a much broader concept.

One of the most unfortunate "theories" that some now have is that there is a "Christian" worldview, which supplants and supercedes whatever worldview you already happen to have. This means that whatever the demonination says trumps your cultural views, and it demeans and devalues the existing worldview into which one was born.

That kind of thinking is what made the residential schools possible. "Kill the Indian (culture), save the man." Replace the Indian worldview with "God's worldview".

The power of the Gospel/ Good News is this: Jesus can be understood by any worldview, any culture, any people group, anywhere. It is spiritual abuse to force people to exchange their Indigenous worldview for a Western worldview in order to follow Jesus. Another way that this is explained is when Richard Twiss asks "Why should we Indians be forced to exchange one sin-stained culture for another?"

It is not the worldview that makes us good or evil. All can follow or walk away from Christ. When one begins to walk the path of Christ, ones opinions and perspectives will of course change. Maybe you could call the "worldview" with a small "w". But no one should be forced to switch from their Indigenous Worldview to a Western Worldview just to follow Christ. Perhaps this is "Worldview" with a capital "W".

Every people group (ethne) has their own worldview. The Great Commission says to go to every "ethne", people group. So this means that the Good news can inform ALL Worldviews!

These thougts are my own -- I hope they are helpful.

Ray

Genocide in Canada - Lecture #2

2004-11-25T16:23:00.000-08:00

Hello Relatives - Liz Levesque reporting from British Columbia...

Eighteen Canadians and one American waited anxiously for the second
lecture on "Genocide in Canada" to begin in the Canadian Auto Workers Union Hall last Monday on 12th St. in New Westminster, BC Canada.

It had been one whole week since lecture #1 and our heads and hearts were full of facts and figures we could only just begin to grapple with. If week one of the lecture series had been any indication of what was to come, then the inevitable bracing of every conscience in the room was sure to follow. And, that is exactly what happened as defrocked United Church clergyman Kevin Annett began to lecture on "Indian time."

First to Speak: Rev. Kevin D. Annett, MA, MDiv.

You could tell that as he began speaking, every conscience in the room began to brace itself for the onslaught of yet another Monday evening filled with details of the worst that the Church and State had perpetrated on the First Nations of Canada.

"People" was the operative word for the evening as Annett opened his part of the lecture with Raphael Lemkin's definition of genocide. According to Lemkin, who wrote the U.N. Charter of Human Rights afterWWII, genocide is a word which comes from "geno" meaning "people"and "cide" meaning "to kill." Genocide is the mass killing or "destruction of an ethnic group-- not necessarily immediate--but a coordinated plan to annihilate [specific] groups.

It has two phases--destruction of the national pattern of the oppressed group, and the imposition of the natural pattern of the oppressor by any means necessary but usually through legal means or laws.

"Genocide at its core is the elimination of the memory of a group from the consciousness of the world."

The means of elimination can be violent of non-violent. The group does not have to be eliminated all at once in a massive killing in order for it to be considered genocide. It just has to be an intentional and coordinated plan to wipe them off the face of the earth and the memory of the national or world consciousness so that in people's minds, they no longer exist.

No where in North America has there been such a coordinated effort by both Church and State to expunge from the national awareness a people group than the effort to eliminate through "law" the First Nations of Canada.

The lecture focused on the philosophical and legal roots, means and ways in which Church and State (Parliament) in Canada accomplished this feat. According to Annett, the legal foundation for Canada's genocide toward First Nations had a long tradition dating back toboth Greek/Roman philosophy melded with the rise of the Church/State hybrid under the Emperor Constantine in the early 4th century A.D.

It was between 310 and 340 A.D. when Constantine made Christianity the religion of the empire and the teachings/sayings of Jesus were merely a backdrop to the philosophical/social/moral foundation of the Church which was emerging as a political and military power as the Roman Empire wound down.

By 332 A.D., the Church had become the state and vice versa. Property and political/legal power had been accumulated and the Roman Catholic Church began to replace the Roman Empire. The term "diocese" is a Roman term which means "province or district." The symbol which came to be placed on priestly vestments (Labernum) was worn by Roman soldiers.The fusion of Church and State under Constantine began the system of syncretism in the Church as Greek/Roman philosophy with their sense of "natural divisions in societies" came to be the philosophy of the Church.

It wasn't Darwin who invented natural selection. It was Aristotle writing before Christ in his treatise on slavery. He posited his theory that you are born a master, born a slave, born into a position in society. That is your life. You are born a conqueror, you are born the conquered. Just get used to it. It's the way it is.

Naturally, if you are the conqueror or master, you havemore rights, more privileges, more wealth in society. The converse is true. If you are born a slave or a conquered people, your place at the bottom of the food chain is natural.The Church/State hybrid with the Church beginning to dominate more and more, became the norm as the Church accumulated political and military power. This "arm" of the Church practicing violence throughout Europe and other lands has always dominated. Hence the terms "Christ's army" and "Onward Christian soldiers."

The other "arm" of the Church, the reforming arm, the monastic movements,the mystics and so forth have not been able to ever gain the upper hand in reforming the Church to the point that the violent arm is disarmed.

And so the world was divided into Eastern and Western Hemispheres by the Church. Spain took the West while Portugal took the East. The rest of Europe fought for control wherever they could. The "Inter Catera Bull of 1493" by Pope Alexander VI (blood thirsty Italian family of Borgia) authorized the conquest of non-Christian lands by Christian kings.

"Just War Theory" arose as a consequence of this bull and stated that:

any act done in interest of the Church (rape, murder, etc.)is "absolved."
all other laws are subordinate to the law of God (make Christians).

"Just War" guided the conquest of the world outside of Spain, Italy, Portugal, England and France because their common laws were more moral than other laws due to their Christian nation status.

Outside Europe, where the "heathens" lived, their laws were up for grabs. This was/is the rationale for their seizing of non-Christian lands and peoples and why they as superior moral persons due to their Christian status allowed them to rule over lands they had Christianized in a sort of "first cause" stance. Even if the heathens accepted Christ they were still their governors, having been "born" Christians and not made mere converts."Moral superiority" was imbedded in Just War Theory on the part of these Europeans and the idea that "conquest equals improvement" and "conquerors have higher moral authority."

Annett says that moral superiority is simply a doctrine posited by Aristotle in his treatment on slavery. Church scholars since Augustine (Bishop of Hippo, 300s) and Thomas Aquinas (1300s) were mixing Greek philosophy with Christian sentiment in order to justify their crimes of genocide. The Protestants took up Just War Theory, Martin Luther perfected it in Germany with his "basilea theo" or "fortress of God" mentality and his "Two Swords Theory" which said:

The Church produces "good citizens" for the State
The State protects the Church with her armies

Human rights according to the Church and State are not inherent but granted by sovereigns. All of this rationale was used by the Church to annihilate indigenous people all over the world. These countries believed that the land they were "discovering" was "terra nullius" or "the land of no one." Non-Christians were considered non-human. A non-human can be obliterated with no remorse.

Haida Elder Wilfred Price

After Annett finished tracing the philosophical roots of the Church's rationale for Genocide in Canada, Haida elder Wilfred Price started to talk about the Indian Act of 1876 and the B.C. Treaty process.Wilf was visibly "spent" as he tried to describe how it feels to talk about what has happened to aboriginals in Canada, how the environment is, how it is "always winter and never Christmas." That means that it is always cold and never warm with plenty of resources.

Wil talked about the Church/State hybrid that his people have lived under for 500+ years. He apologized to everyone for his lack of a systematic/cohesive presentation as he "rambled on last week" and "wandered all over the place" in an attempt to cover as much ground, as much history of his people in as much of a respectful fashion as he could.

He talked about the difficulty of speaking well, of not giving into anger, of being personally overwhelmed by the emotions that the storytelling evoked. He talked about seeing pictures of his father at age 10 being driven away from the reserve to the residential school on the back of a pick-up truck -- with the RCMP officer driving and the Christian minister riding shotgun.

He spoke briefly about the Aboriginal belief in Canada and elsewhere in North America that:

There is no difference between:

Church and State
Church and RCMP
Church and Devil

He talked about this belief in the minds of millions of NA indigenous people that the Church and the Law and Devil are all one entity. They are all in cahoots together and their aim is to kill off the rest of the Aboriginals and take what is left of the land.

Aboriginals cannot trust the Church nor attend their services because the Church is evil (insert any denomination here you like) and must be avoided. The Church is death. They are murderers. He also talked about the Haidaprophecy that if something doesn't change by 2007-2008, the Haida and the rest of the world will be no more because a cataclysmic event is going to destroy the earth (WW III is upon us according to Wilf and his elders.)

This prophecy is elsewhere in Native North America asmany tribes say that unless the four races--white, black, yellow, red, get together and solve the problems, world wide destruction is immanent. The Ojibwe say we have to choose between nature or technology. We are choosing technology and our destruction is upon us right now).

Wilf continued to talk about the systematic genocide of his Haida people, a people who before the European-Missions encounters were 30-40,000 strong. By 1876 they were down to 600 people through smallpox, war, murder and cultural genocide.

When the Potlatch was outlawed in1876 by Canadian Parliament, the Haida did not know it was illegal. It was only when the Rt. Rev. W.H. Collison landed on Queen Charlotte Islands and told them and made them to understand what would happen to them if they didn't stop doing the Potlatch because "the Potlatch instills disrespect for private property and must be forbidden", that they decided to stop. Within five years of the decision, all of their totem poles had been cut down and the ceremony which "transmitted the life of the people" was no more.

During the Potlatch, the clans gathered and met one another, there were new births and new deaths to celebrate and mourn, there was instruction in lineage, chiefs elected, marriages, betrothals, spiritual traditions taught, language taught, resources of the land shared.

When the Potlatch ceased, so did the people and their knowledge of one another as well as the universe.

Cultural death, spiritual death. Death and more death. Wilf says that no one knows who they are.

The Potlatch ceremony provided tribal identity, it gave names, it connected individuals to clans and to the land. No one remembers who is related anymore. Knowledge of the traditions is passing away. Like Lemkin says, genocide can kill an ethnic group slowly and for the Haida, this is true.

Wilf touched on how the Haida are slowly ebbing away as they collect their welfare checks at the end of each month from the Provincial/Federal government. So dependent have the Haida become on their "paychecks" (for that is what they call it now, although it is really a welfare check), that instead of logging a small growth of cedar that Weyerhaeuser gave them, they would rather keep cashing their checks and allow the net profit from the logging of $500,000 to go to "white people." They do not want to log or expend any effort to put this money in their pocket. Today, they just want to collect their checks and not be bothered.

Wilf was shaking his head as he named, by name, chiefs, elders, council people who are "bought off" by Ottawa and who are brilliant people who regularly fly to Ottawa to "take care of Indian business" but cannot get things done locally. They come to council meetings and fight and argue for three days over whether to accept or reject allthe items on the agenda, then they just go home having not been ableto discuss even one item, and have accomplished nothing locally for the Haida.

The Canadian government through the Indian Act of 1876 and through conquest has for many decades created a welfare-dependent people who are content to cash checks and not fight the big corporations. They believe they cannot fight anymore even though in 1985 Bill C31 was passed -- which prevented logging or any other industry in B.C. to take resources without first "consulting" with the Aboriginals.

This BillC31 is a fiction and the corporations take the resources and then send council members 3 inches worth of paper after the fact and call it "consulting."The Haida continue as non-persons as do many of the Aboriginals in Canada. The conquerors never have to answer for anything while the Aboriginals are led to believe that when they come to the negotiating table -- they are sovereigns. Nothing is further from the truth. As Wilf's father said, "One cannot negotiate as a nation if the other nation limits the ability to be autonomous." For the Haida, they do not "own" their homes, only papers which say they have "possession."That possession is based on the province of B.C. to let them stay in their homes, for if anything happens on Haida-Gwaii ("gwaii" meaning nation) that the province or feds don't like, they are booted off. Any by-law made by the Haida Council or enforcement of that law on Haida-Gwaii can be overruled by Canadian law at a moment's notice for the Haida have no power in their own land.

It is still separation, annihilation, assimilation and apartheid for the Haida who live in Canada. They are forced to live as "confused chameleons" having one foot in their territory and one foot in Ottawa. As Wilf says, "we are forced to become two-faced, forced into shame and forced into silence."

The evening closed with both Kevin and Wilf admitting that Canadian society at large refuses to acknowledge what has been done to the First Nations of Canada. Annett asked everyone present why only 19 people had showed up instead of 190 or 1900 or more. Why is it that a majority of Canadians refuse to believe what happened to the Aboriginals of Canada, refuse to believe or acknowledge a Canadian genocide and holocaust? The answer to that question will be investigated next Monday night as the CAW fills up once again with concerned Canadian citizens and one American reporting for the readers of Round Dance and the Salmon House.

Next Weeks Topic: Genocide in New World- Jealousy, Power, Greed

Chii-Migwetch,
Lizzy

NOTE FROM RAY: Elizabeth Levesque holds an MA in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary, has authored 2 volumes of the native/Christian devotional "Wisdom of the Chiefs" and has hosted 2 traditional Tlingit Potlatches for the Eagle Clan (Kaakwaantaan).

2004-11-24T14:23:00.000-08:00

How Americans Explain Thanksgiving to the Indians

A General Thanksgiving Declaration

2004-11-23T18:38:00.000-08:00

In mid-winter 1620 the English ship Mayflower landed on the North American coast (at Plymouth Rock) delivering 102 Puritan exiles. The original Native people ("Indians") of this stretch of shoreline had already been killed off in great numbers.

In 1614 a British expedition had landed there. When they left they took 24 Indians as slaves and left smallpox, syphilis and gonorrhea behind. That plague swept the so called "tribes of New England", destroyed some villages totally.

The Puritans landed and built their colony called "the Plymouth Plantation" near the desired ruins of the Indian village of Pawtuxet. They ate from abandoned cornfields grown wild.

Historical accounts tell us that only one Pawtuxet named Squanto had survived. He had spent the last years as a slaveto the English and Spanish in Europe. The Pilgrim crop failed miserably, but the agricultural expertise of Squanto produced 20 acres of corn, without which the Pilgrims would have surely perished. Squanto spoke the colonists' language and taught them how to plant corn and how to catch fish. Squanto also helped the colonists negotiate a peace treaty with the nearby Wampanoagtribe, led by the chief Massasoit.

These were very lucky breaks for the colonists. Thanks to the good will of the Wampanoag, the Puritans not only survived their first year but had an alliance with the Wampanoags that would give them almost two decades of peace.

In celebration of their good fortune, the colony's governor, William Bradford, declared a three-day feast afterthe first harvest of 1621. It later became known as "Thanksgiving", but the Pilgrims never called it that. The "Indians" who attended were not even invited. The pilgrims only invited Chief Massasoit and it was Massasoit who then invited ninety or more of his "Indian" brothers and sisters to the affair to the chagrin of the indignant Europeans.

No turkey, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie was served, no prayers were offered and the "Indians" were not invited back for any other such meals.The peace that produced the Thanksgiving Feast of 1621 meant that the Puritans would have fifteen years to established a firm foothold on the coast. Until 1629 there were no more than 300 Puritans in New England, scattered in small and isolated settlements. But their survival inspired awave of Puritan invasion that soon established growing Massachusetts towns north of Plymouth; Boston and Salem.

For ten years, boat loads of new settlers came. As the Europeans' numbers increased, they proved not nearly as generous as the Wampanoags. On arrival, the Puritans discussed "whole gally owns all this land? "Massachusetts Governor Wintrop declared the "Indians" had not "subdued" the land, and therefore all uncultivated lands should, according to English Common Law, be considered "public domain."

This meant they belonged to the king.

In short, colonists decided they did notneed to consult the "Indians". When they seized the new lands, they only had to consult the representative of the crown (meaning the local governor). The Puritans embraced a line from Psalms 2:8, "Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heather for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of he earth for thy possession."

Contrary to popular mythology, the Pilgrims were no friends to the local Indigenous People ("Indians"). In about 1636, a force of colonists trapped some seven hundred Pequot Indians near the mouth of the Mystic River.

English Captain John Mason attacked the Indian camp with "fire, sword, blunderbuss, and tomahawk." Only a handful escaped and few prisoners were taken. "To see them frying in thefire, and the streams of their blood quenching the same, and the stench was horrible, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice to the great delight of the Pilgrims, and they gave praise thereof to God.

"The Puritan fathers believed they were the Chosen People of an Infinite God and that this justified anything they did. They were Calvinists who believed that the vast majority of humanity was predestined to damnation. During this period a day of thanksgiving was also proclaimed in the churches of Manhattan.

The European colonists declared thanksgiving days to celebrate mass murder more often than they did for reverence, harvest or friendship.

In 1641 the Dutch governor Kieft of Manhattan offered the first "scalp bounty". His government paid money for the scalp of each "Indian" brought to him. A couple of years later, Kieft ordered the massacre of the Wappingers, a "friendly tribe". Eighty were killed and their heads severed. In their victory, the settlers launched an all out genocide plot against the remaining Native people.

The Massachusetts government, following what appeared to be the order of the day, offered twenty shillings bounty for every "Indian" scalp, and forty shillings for every prisoner who could be sold into slavery. Soldiers were allowed to enslave and rape any "Indian" woman or enslave any "Indian" child under 14 they could kidnap.

The "Praying Indians" who had converted to Christianity and fought on the side of the European troops were accused of shooting into the treetops during battles with "hostiles." They were enslaved or killed. Other "peaceful Indians" of Dartmouth and Dover were invited to negotiate or seek refuge at trading posts and were sold onto slave ships.

Colonial law further gave permission to "kill savages ("Indians") on sight at will."Any goodwill that may have existed was certainly now gone and by 1675 Massachusetts and the surrounding colonies were in a full scale war with thegreat chief of the Wampanoags, Metacomet. Renamed "King Phillip" by the Europeans,

Metacomet watched the steady erosion of the lifestyles and culture of his people as European laws and values engulfed them. The syphilis, gonorrhea, smallpox and all types of "foreign" diseases took their toll.

Forced ultimately into humiliating submission by the power of a distant king, Metacomet struck out with raids on several isolated frontier towns. The expedient use of the so-called "Praying Indians" (natives converted to their version of Christianity), ultimately defeated the great "Indian" nation, just half a century after the arrival of the European.

When Captain Benjamin Church tracked down and assassinated Metacomet, his body was quartered and parts were "left for the wolves." The great "Indian"chief's hands were cut off and sent to Boston and his head went to Plymouthwhere it was set upon a poke on Thanksgiving Day, 1767.

Metacomet's nine-year-old son was destined for execution, the Puritan reasoning being that the offspring of the "Devil" must pay for the sins of their father. He was instead shipped to the Caribbean to serve his life in slavery.

In the midst of the Holocaust/Genocide of the Native Americans, Governor Dudley declared in 1704 a "General Thanksgiving" not to celebrate the brotherhood of man, but for:[God's] infinite Goodness to extend His Favors... In defeating and disappointing.... the expeditions of the Enemy [Indians] against us, And the good Success given us against them, by delivering so many of them into our hands...

What do Americans see when you say Thanksgiving?

The New MECCA - Multi Ethnic Cross Cultural Assimilation

2004-11-22T23:58:00.000-08:00

A fan writes to me and says:

Dear Ray,

I wish you could see my church. It is truly multi-cultural. I'm really not into statistics but there are people coming to my church in Elmhurst, Queens, NYC from all over the world. It is a beautiful sight and a little piece of heaven. Tonight they are having "Bangra Ball"- some kind of dance form from India, for the singles- ages 23-74. I would have preferred Native American dances, but our singles pastor is Jimmy Chin, Korean or Chinese, so I guess he's thinking more Asian. There are some 150 Native American people in Elmhurst, according to the census, out of some 15,000 people, most of whom are Asian or Hispanic. There are quite a few of us in the church of NA descent but only my family, myself, my daughter and my sister are culturally involved.

===============

RAY: Hi Sister -- and thanks for what you are doing and contributing in your church -- what a good thing you are doing! I am sure there are good things happening in MECC (Multi-ethnic Cross-cultural) churches all over North America. This is an urban phenomenon and whenyou get to suburban and rural (reservation) areas, this is really not sociologically possible. Even in the cities, there are churches thatare mono-cultural and have no plans and no calling to be MECC.

The difficulty we see is that the MECC concept is being imposed on many and it is being taught that this is the "right" way to do church and the "closest to the biblical requirements" of any other church form. This is both bad teaching and spiritually abusive to do so.

MECC is a fad (maybe a preference), not a biblical mandate. Yes we will all be together in heaven, and on occasion we cross cultural lines here. But we have 6000 languages spoken in the world today and many more cultures than that (meaning, for example, that many places may speak English but the cultures are different).

So if a group of urban people which to "mix it up" -- go for it! But don't let them impose their form and format on us and insist that their way is "anointed", "the highest form of biblical gathering", the "biblical mandate", or "the future model of the church on earth".

There is enough trouble in trying to have a church on the Yakama Reservation with fourteen different tribes and strong families from different lines "competing" in various ways. Sprinkle in some whites and hispanics and there is plenty to do without forcing whites to be mexicans, or mexicans to be Yakamas or Yakamas to be white.

Some might say "oh but how beautiful it would be if they could all worship in each others' ways", but frankly, that is exhausting and confusing! We should not have to exhaust ourselves to follow Christ -- co-dependently attempting to appease and please every cultural community!

Most people that I have talked with about MECC are very gung-ho about "their way" and it is best not to get in their way. Armed with only a few scriptures, they justify "their way" by guilting the mono-cultural churches and native sacred gatherings that I am often part of.

The first church I started was Spanish-speaking. After about 3 years they added an English-speaking congregation but did not force worship together. They shared the building and did some things together, but did not try to "force conformity" and call it "biblical unity". From that one mono-cultural Spanish church, 20 more Spanish Foursquare churches emerged, and not due to any partnership with white churches.They were free to follow the ways of the Hispanic community and were quite successful.

It was not the white Foursquare churches that decided to add Spanish songs to their service and become multi-cultural. It was the Spanish-speaking reaching the Spanish-speaking. Apparently something worked since the Hispanic pastor I installed when I left is today the Supervisor of Fourquare's National Hispanic District.

When you see an MECC church, usually it is run in a very Western way with Western (white or black) leadership, Western Bible College or seminary-trained pastors, usually connected to Western denominations, following Western preaching styles, tithe collecting, and emphasis on buildings and programs.

What they use to demonstrate "multiculturalism" are music specials, and sometimes speakers and special events. But for the most part, it is really just a mainstream church serving up a combo platter. Sure there is Chinese food, Mexican food and pizza on their spiritual plate, but the restaurant is still owned and run by the majority church.

Culture is God's way of communicating to the many peoples He has made. If someone wants to try and work with 10 groups at a time, fine. But one culture will dominate in leadership, education,finances and control. The other cultures will get to do the entertainment and the specials. I have attended a national MECC leaders' conference -- I am not making this up.

To me, Jesus said to go preach the Good News to every "ethne" (people group). He did not say, "blessed are the efficient ones who can save more cultures with less pastors". So I am continuing on the same path of encouraging small gatherings that form around natural cultural characteristics. We are still one Body in Christ, but let us not be afraid to be who we are, who we were made to be.

And let us not be afraid to acknowledge that we need the other parts of the body, but if you are the heart or the eyes, don't try to be the foot or the arm. We are trying to be the Bride of Christ, not the Bride of Frankenstein!

Thanks for listening!

+Ray

http://www.djchuang.com/multi/ - if you want to research MECCA on your own...

The Yanomamo Declaration Against Eating Missionaries

2004-11-15T15:02:00.000-08:00

In the middle of the jungle a church was born. 350 years ago, the Haleluya began to worship God in a new way that had come to their founder. They have never had a missionary nor a Bible to teach them, yet in all our encounters with them, the express a biblical faith. My friend preached to them a while back. Since they have no written language, they created a song that included the teaching points of his sermon. When has someone in your church written a song about one of your sermons?

My friends have spent much time with the Haleluya church. They Haleluyas have never been welcomed by the Brazilian church because the Brazilians have been too busy stealing their land, abusing their girls, and building wherever they want. But the Haleluyas stay in the jungle, praying for deliverance.

Every day, without alarm clocks, these people rise at 3 AM and pray until 6 AM. When someone is sick, they all fast together for three days. Maybe what post moderns really want is this savage religion -- any takers?

So now, as the Brazilian evangelicals find out about the Haleluyas, the church will ask, "well do they believe in the Bible?", the Four Spiritual Laws (4 Leis Espirituais)?, the Nicene Creed or the Athanasian Creed ()? or anything written by Max Lucado or Phillip Yancey? How orthodox are they -- do they subscribe to the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral?

Of course for a people cut off from the wider church, these won't be easy questions to answer. They will have to have a written language first. Of course the Evangelical church doesn't seem to care about the Yanomamo Declaration Against Eating Missionaries, which would no doubt save their lives in certain areas.

I hope the church is big-hearted and merciful enough to make a place for the Halaluya Church and all the other emerging churches just now coming out of the jungles of obscurity. With God's help, me and Liz will go to the annual Haleluya church celebration of 2000 to 3000 believers some November. No outsiders have ever been invited. We are very excited to go when the time comes.

We we able to collect a box of protocol gifts -- all kinds of jewelry and crafts made by native North Amricans. These were taken this month as gifts to the Macuxi and Ingarico people gathering there. (We are not sure what they will do with the earrings since these people do not pierce their ears...) It is their first contact with Native North Americans. Thanks for helping to make all this possible. Thanks for you prayers, and thanks for listening...

Gnostics Anonymous

2003-09-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

Philosphers talk about "gnostic dualism". Sprit is good -- matter or flesh is evil. But there is another side to gnosticism, that being "special knowledge". Basically, salvation can only be achieved by acquiring "special knowledge" - "gnosis". I have used the term "charisgnostic" on occasion to describe all the jargon and fads dealing with apostles, prophets, spiritual gatekeepers, Jabez, Jezebel, Leviathan, and breaker annointings. But every denomination has its own special knowledge. I was inspired when I read Spencer Burke's article about pastoring a "church" without having a church. How encouraging to see his courage!

All denominations tend towards the "gnostic". Methodists are superior to Baptists which are superior to Catholics who are superior to charismatics who better than fundamentalists who are better than Nazarenes who are a whole lot better than Pentecostals who are certainly above the Anglicans who are clearly above the non-denominationals. All 30,000+ denominations ask you to believe their beliefs. Natives know who Creator is and most do not like to be pulled into Gnosticism -- but what choice do we as natives have? Few denominations have the courage to preach the Good News of Jesus without their gnostic distinctives added on. I have rarely seen it tried. just some rambling thoughts... ray+

PS And thanks Spencer, for acting like an Indian! War whoops for you!

Building the Kingdom, or a Kingdom of Buildings?

2003-09-18T21:24:00.000-07:00

Recently Richard, a Wendat native, penned these thoughts directed to those in the missions industry:

You denomination planting missionaries who come holding blueprints and church building schemes..such big plans you have for us!!!!

go back to your own local communities and look carefully and see if your own people are better people overall...less selfish, less given to greed and power by the same plans you have for us...if they aren't changing anything ,then stay and work with your own people first till they honor our sacred mother,and stop raping and pillaging her like she is some prostitute created for mens pleasure.

This earth herself in her torn beauty is weeping....can't you hear her???? Are people so hardened by human-chaos they are deaf???? SHE herself should be seen as SACRED just by the fact that THE GIFT was planted, born, died and was reborn from her womb! This earth MOTHER is now a Sacred Monument and should be treated as such.
Richard, your works echo the thoughts of Red Jacket, when the missionaries asked permission to preach to his people. It seems that the Western church measures and defines Christianity by a narrow set of definitions.

You have a "successful church" if:

--you have a building, the newer the better
--a certain quantity of people attend -- more people + more success
--people are "tithers" even though only 17% of church members tithe
--the pastors makes a full-time salary with good benefits

Although everyone knows about these standards, few dare ask such questions as

--Is the community any better off because this church is now here?
--Have any lives changed?
--Has repentance occurred?
--Have amends been made?
--Did the liquor store go out of business?
--Are the widows cared for?
--Do the orphans have homes?
--Are the ones in jail and prison visited?
--Are the sick visited and prayed for?
--Are the poor fed?

I remember all the grief that my Cherokee friend Randy Woodley got for proposing a modest 8-sided pole church building for natives. Randy has built this building 3 times. It costs $5000 to build and holds 130 people. It has no utilities but then again has no payments either and little maintenance. But the church people, and even natives, make fun of this because "real churches" have electricity, full kitchens, fiberoptics for the internet broadband connections, and if they are really successful, a video and audio recording studio. Well Randy's church building provides shelter from the rain, ventilation in the heat, a fire pit in the center for a sacred fire, a dry floor and places for everyone to sit. And the view is 360 when the weather is good, but when it is cold, it can be nice and cozy, a shelter from the cold and wind. But it is not a real church because it only costs $5000 and doesn't have a mortgage. Without monthly payments, it creates too many difficult decisions -- what do we do with all the extra money?

Thanks for listening. As you build the native church of Jesus, how do you measure success?

ray+

# posted by Ray @ 9:18 PM
Building the Kingdom, or a Kingdom of Buildings?
Recently Richard, a Wendat native, penned these thoughts directed to those in the missions industry:

You denomination planting missionaries who come holding blueprints and church building schemes..such big plans you have for us!!!!

go back to your own local communities and look carefully and see if your own people are better people overall...less selfish, less given to greed and power by the same plans you have for us...if they aren't changing anything ,then stay and work with your own people first till they honor our sacred mother,and stop raping and pillaging her like she is some prostitute created for mens pleasure.

This earth herself in her torn beauty is weeping....can't you hear her???? Are people so hardened by human-chaos they are deaf???? SHE herself should be seen as SACRED just by the fact that THE GIFT was planted, born, died and was reborn from her womb! This earth MOTHER is now a Sacred Monument and should be treated as such.

Richard, your works echo the thoughts of Red Jacket, when the missionaries asked permission to preach to his people. It seems that the Western church measures and defines Christianity by a narrow set of definitions.

You have a "successful church" if:

--you have a building, the newer the better
--a certain quantity of people attend -- more people + more success
--people are "tithers" even though only 17% of church members tithe
--the pastors makes a full-time salary with good benefits

Although everyone knows about these standards, few dare ask such questions as

--Is the community any better off because this church is now here?
--Have any lives changed?
--Has repentance occurred?
--Have amends been made?
--Did the liquor store go out of business?
--Are the widows cared for?
--Do the orphans have homes?
--Are the ones in jail and prison visited?
--Are the sick visited and prayed for?
--Are the poor fed?

I remember all the grief that my Cherokee friend Randy Woodley got for proposing a modest 8-sided pole church building for natives. Randy has built this building 3 times. It costs $5000 to build and holds 130 people. It has no utilities but then again has no payments either and little maintenance. But the church people, and even natives, make fun of this because "real churches" have electricity, full kitchens, fiberoptics for the internet broadband connections, and if they are really successful, a video and audio recording studio. Well Randy's church building provides shelter from the rain, ventilation in the heat, a fire pit in the center for a sacred fire, a dry floor and places for everyone to sit. And the view is 360 when the weather is good, but when it is cold, it can be nice and cozy, a shelter from the cold and wind. But it is not a real church because it only costs $5000 and doesn't have a mortgage. Without monthly payments, it creates too many difficult decisions -- what do we do with all the extra money?

Thanks for listening. As you build the native church of Jesus, how do you measure success?

ray+

Are You Sweating or Just Glowing?

2003-09-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Ray, I was looking for spiritual info in regard to the sweat lodge as a Christ centered event. It's my understanding that this is predicated on the specific tribe that is putting the event together. We hope for an understanding what a "sweat" actually is. How hot or humid does it get? We have no idea, and since there have been some recently published deaths involving a sweat, any info here would be appreciated, especially since we have insurance concerns at our Christian campground.
...........................................................................................................
Dear Brother Larry,

As with any "sauna", tempurature and moisture levels vary, but you might want to check with a health club in your area for the average they use. Sweats are similar in temperature but sometimes less, for there is often a lot of talking and discussion that goes on too.

Participation is always voluntary so people can leave if there is any personal discomfort. Water and fruit is always provided for participants, as well as place to cool off in water, usually a stream, river or shower.

It is the leader that determines how a sweat is led, so there are many Christ-centered sweats, and there are others that are more social that believers participate in, and yet others that don't usually invite Christians (because they don't "get along"). If it is at your camp, I can only assume that it would be Christ-centered, much as your pulpits are filled.

There are many different ways of leading sweats. I have never heard of a non-native leading a sweat, except for new-agers who charge money. It is best that you contact the natives in your area, and let them know of your desire to have sweats, and ask if they would help you and teach you. Be prepared to take a gift when you ask for such a favor. If you don't follow this protocol, they will take is as a sign of disrespect and ignorance, and you will probably not get the help you are looking for.

The volcanic rocks used are light and hold heat well. They are called "grandfathers" and are put into the sweat lodge in rounds. In the Cherokee sweat, the "osi", for example, there are 7 rounds of seven "grandfathers". For the Lakota, there are 4 rounds of seven, totalling 28, the number of ribs of the buffalo. So sweats do vary. Some are more prayer and song oriented, others are more social. They are rarely mixed between men and women. Usually there are 2 lodges, one for men and one for women, but sometimes they are shared, but at different times due to both modesty issues and the nature of discussions.

Intuition Is Just Not Good Enough

2003-09-08T22:51:00.000-07:00

The death on the cross in not intuitive to people who did not punish criminals by crucifixion. Original sin does not make sense, and is not even a biblical phrase.

I am trinitarian yet trinity does not appear in the Bible, so endless trinitarian metaphors to "explain God" are not all that useful.

But this is quite a shock to people untrained in missiological principles, as taught in hundreds of seminaries and Bible colleges. And it still shocks seminary graduates...

This stuff is not that intuitive! Missionaries just assume it is.

Cross-cultural ministry is a ministry of suffering, of laying down our own lives of comfort and being willing to shed our "identity" in order to become part of another community. The theological word for this is to be "incarnational". And Jesus was a pretty good model for it I think...

Future Church: The Beauty Way, Kivas, Yuwipis, Sundance and Ghost Dance...

2003-09-07T19:59:00.000-07:00

Kyle, one of my native friends, is appealing for unity in native ministry. He wants us to cut some slack to those with a different emphasis than we might have, realizing that there are apostolic churches, prophetic, evangelistic, and pastor-teacher centered gatherings. He wants us all to realize that Christ is our common Ground, and I support his call for unity.

But there are even more "flavors" of native church than just the five-fold ministry styles Kyle mentions.

WE HAVE:

---intertribal urban powwow centered fellowships

---Cherokee clan style fellowships

---Indian Shakers that add a unique flavor to Northwest churches,

---sweat gatherings that honor Jesus with faithful leaders that no one calls prophet or pastors

---medicine people who love Jesus and serve in quiet ways without broadcasting meeting times or tent revivals

--- talking circles whose members follow Christ but have no denomination.

In Indian country, we are really stretching the definition of what it means to be church -- the "called ones". I believe in one Church, the church of Jesus Christ. There are many members of the Body, and although they shouldn't, often some body parts riducule the others.

Kyle uses the term "common ground" - and that is Jesus Christ. I say "one church" and that is Jesus' church. So whether you are denominational, non-denominational, post-denominational or just plain injuns following Jesus, it's still just one church.

But we aren't done yet. We are still waiting for Beauty Way churches, Jesus kivas, Yeshua yuwipis, and the dreamers and prophets who tell of the Jesus way. Wovoka of the Ghost Dance was a Christian, and Black Elk of the Sundance loved Jesus. Let's look forward to Jesus and his Good News coming through loud and clear in ALL our cultures. Please let's not "bore" people into the kingdom by telling them that they have to first adopt another culture, because after all, "God does have his favorites...".

thanks for listening...ray+

If You Love Me, Feed My Hamsters

2003-09-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

A friend sent me this cute story about the importance of sermons. My response is added at the end.

CHURCH ATTENDANCE

A church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them! So, I think I m wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."

Signed: Missing the message.

This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: "I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals for me. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today. When you are DOWN to nothing.... God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment! "

RAY SAYS:
At this point, I like to challenge pastors and church leaders -- is there any other hunger out there besides "sermon-hunger"? Is there anything else we as shepards need to be feeding the sheep? As natives, most all our gatherings include food, so rarely to people ever leave hungry. So many pastors believe that the sermon is the weekly food pellet needed by the starving hamsters. But when do they dance? When do they sweat and pray? When do they take their prayers to the drum? When do they hear the council of elders speak? When will someone ask -- "nee pa stau mas?" (what is in your heart today?)...thanks for listening...

I Am Bound for the Compromised Land....

2003-09-04T09:39:00.000-07:00

Cindy wrote to me with a question from her Bible Study. "In the Bible God told the Israelites to go possess the promised land. The host people there would of been the Canaanites, and all the other "ites". So the question was how is that any different than the Europeans's coming here and saying they want our land for themselves in the name of God? The only thing I can think of is because they were not using the land God gave them for good. Can anyone else help me understand and is it OK to share it with my sister at the prayer meeting?

Cindy

NOTE FROM RAY: Lucky for us natives that there is no scriptural record of the Europeans being told to go to the promised land of North America. We are not the "Promised Land" -- we are the "Compromised Land". This attitude comes from what is called "The Doctrine of Christian Discovery". I doubt that most Bible Study people would want to ready dusty old documents, but let me risk posting the link here:

The “Doctrine of Christian Discovery” - http://www.healingtheland.com/resources/discovery/index.html

This section is devoted to the documents that began, promoted, and perpetuated the so-called “Doctrine of Christian Discovery” that were used by the Europeans to “discover” and “take possession of” the New World. This pattern of “discovery” has been one of the primary factors in perpetuating the genocide of the First Nations people, not only in North America, but in the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Many of these documents have never been revoked and could continue to hold spiritual precedent in the land and over the people.

Sacred Rape, a Noble Whore

2003-09-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

The Curse (for the 50 State Tour & Solemn Assemblies)
© 2003 Randy Woodley

wasn't it 1492 when Columbus sailed the azure ocean?
salty water lapping shores separating neighbors
come into our house—there is no honor in dispelling a neighbor
but unruly neighbors are a curse and bad religion is a plague
came the call from every corner with mangled crosses and dubious preachers
came, you came to our land…our lives…our homes

"virgin land," mother earth milk & honey flowing from her breast
—you saw fences
"virgin trees," Sequoia mammoths decorating a vast green park
—you saw timber
"virgin tribes," going…gone—left from a greater civilization
—but you did not see me
land…trees…"ours" you say—and the tribes just a blight on your conscience
cut the land, cut the trees, cut the tribes…
this is the clarion christian call
rape the land, rape the trees, rape the tribes…
ignore my blood and tears when you pray

i am a red Indian, a raped virgin—you make me a "noble whore"
thrown into a dark corner with the trees, and the land, and "lost civilizations"
my spiritual reservations are the places you relegate to me compartments fit for non-human species
—churches made from acreage and board feet

good Indian—come to church, makum' god happy
good Indian get job, makum' government happy
good Indian keep quiet…subdued…silent
quietly turn your vile abuse, your bitter loss onto yourself and other bad Indians
then…you makum' everyone of us Americans...happy cause we got your land
and we got your trees
and never forget…
never, ever forget—that we got god—so we got your souls!

where do the souls of dead Indians go?
where does one go after rape and torture, robbery and slavery,
disease and holocaust?
perhaps we join the land and the trees
lingering with the spirit of Jesus on earth to curse savage christian civilizations
we die slow…but we die early and we die often
yet, we die knowing a secret that you don't even care to know
-that your land will not rest
-and your trees will make only crooked crosses
-and your children will breathe their last breathes in despair
…groping for an identity that you could not steal for them
…grasping for an honor that always eluded them
…clinching for a God…and land…and trees…and
tribes…that were never theirs

and herein is the lesson,

true gifts can't be stolen
because love takes flight where control makes its nest
and Jesus? O, Jesus…
You crucify Him anew with every sacrifice that we make to accommodate you
wasn't it 1491 when there was no haunting?

(This poem is from my friend Randy Woodley)

Native Prayers and Church Prayers

2003-09-01T12:01:00.000-07:00

Someone was asking about praying for others. "Why were my prayers necessary that night for my brother? I am quite sure that our Lord could protect him without my prayers, so what purpose did they serve?

-------------------------------------------------------------------
These are pretty big questions for such a little indian... not sure I am qualified to enter into such a mystery... but that hasn't really stopped me before...

If you want a good book on prayer, get Richard Foster's book: Prayer, the Heart's True Home. That will give you a few things to ponder.

My personal opinion is that God wants us to be co-creators with Him, to be involved with Him, His people, even the spirit world - and prayer is one of the ways we participate with Him and each other. Sometimes friends ask for help and prayer and sometime God gives us the opportunity to pray and help others...

But natives see prayer differently... I have never met a native unwilling to pray, although I have met plenty of non-natives who wouldn't. Seems like the majority culture is embarrassed about talking to God, but natives, even drinking and drugging, would pray with you. Most natives who have fallen down will admit they have fallen down.

When YWAM goes door to door on a reservation passing out tracts such as the 27 spiritual laws, hardly anyone gives them the time of day.

Now don't tell YWAM, but if they went door to door, offering to pray for family members, they would probably be there all day! (I know some YWAM-ers are starting to get the message, but they have done the tracts, as have many others "trying to help" the injuns.

Church people are afraid of the sweat lodge, but a lot a prayer and healings happen there. Church people are afraid of the Shaker meetings, but a lot of prayer and healings happen there. Even powwows, that some in churchianity call "a spiritual gateway to the dark side", there are many prayers danced and prayers taken to the drum.

Having a background in a non-native church begins to teach you about prayer, but there is much more for all of us to learn. Since prayer is such a mystery, an invitation to work with God himself, well every culture is going to define it differently. So I am not saying that church prayer or their theology of prayer is bad, but I will say that it is not the whole pie, just a slice.

One last thing. Natives usually eat before and after prayer. Maybe that is why we like to pray, because both our spirits and bellies will be full. Next time your church has a prayer meeting, offer to cater a full meal. Then you will know that this Indian secret is true... thanks for listening... ray+

Shades of Jabez - More Territory Please....

2003-08-31T18:12:00.000-07:00

There are many "spiritual warfare" techniques in the church today. In dealing with spirits or past atrocities, "Jericho walks" and "driving stakes" in the ground are ways of marking territory. It is interesting that the North American church is stuck in the rut of "taking territory". I thought that the earth is the Lord's "and the fullness thereof"...

One of the things that some in the church is discovering is that most territories were ALREADY marked and were intended to be under the guardianship of a particular tribe. It does rub some church people the wrong way when I suggest that they contact the tribal elders or their spiritual people, since as church Christians, they are "complete" in Christ and really don't "have to" ask permission from the pagans. In fact many insist that the pagan Indians should be coming to the church as the proper order of things. But most churches fail to realize that after 500+ years, few natives ever ask the church for spiritual advice. When the church is ready to try something different, we are still here...

Spirits at the Rez Elementary School

2003-08-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Spirits are a normal part of native life. On a local reservation, the kids all know about the spirits at the elementary school. The spirits are considered harmless and don't cause any trouble. But it might happen that when some church people here about this, THEY will have the fear and try to get rid of the "demons chasing those indian kids".

This area is a collision of 2 worldviews - how natives see the spirit world and how most non-natives don't. As natives, we tend not to be fearful of spirits unless they are harmful. But for church people, there are only demons and angels. Angels are supposed to be harking around stables and demons are supposed to be cast out. But as I say, it is not so simple or cut and dried for natives.

An area of caution - "stupid boldness". Some Christians believe that because they don't have to "Fear" dark spirits, that they also can go looking for demons under every dreamcatcher and especially around powwows. I don't think that Jesus sent us on a great commission looking for dark spirits, but he did give us authority to cast them out when we encounter them harming people.

I hope this thread of conversation isn't too boring. I do other things too. I was just at the beach with my wife, having a tuna salad, watching kids swim and some others net-fishing for smelt. We stopped by the Aboriginal Friendship Center and the Tshimshians were having a big feast and dancing, but we didn't stay for the feast, even though we have friends there. We have been with so many people lately that we are trying to have some "away from the crowds" time. I am glad that Jesus set this as an example for us, or I am sure that someone would tell us how we are squandering God's time. It sure feels good to rest. I don't think God is nearly as stressed out as most of us are...

I See Church People, Walking....

2003-08-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

Out here in Indian Country, we tend to 'see' more spirits. We talk about spirits, good and bad and neutral. Churches don't seem to share the same percerptions, so when indians intersect with the church, it gets pretty exciting (all those white people jumping up and down...) Some try to explain away the spirit world, or call it black or white. But for us it is not so cut and dried. I wish it were as easy as the church tries to make it out to be. But that's not our reality.

There are often explanations for "poltergeists" (german for 'noisy ghosts'). But there are also very dark displays of the spirit world intersecting with our visible world. I could get some friends to share some pretty hairy stories about skinwalkers and such, but I am afraid of sensationalism. There is real, tangible stuff that happens from the spirit world -- don't ever doubt that. There is also unecessary fear.

Then there is that certain portion of the "church without a brain" that cluelessly tries to reason with demons during 'deliverance' sessions, pumping the spirits for information. I am so afraid for a church that interviews demons but never hears from angels. I wonder why that is....

The Meaning of Salmon

2003-08-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

We had fresh steelhead last night. I barbecued them with salt and pepper. Everyone was very happy. Even Aunt Carol who had just stabbed herself with a pitchfork in the sweatlodge. Even the teenage German exchange students were impressed. I had a hard time moving all the dogs away from the barbecue. Salmon is our hamburger and our filet mignon. I suppose it depends on how many days in a row you have had a salmon dinner. But the crab louie was great too, made with crab pulled from the bay yesterday. It is good to be a bay indian, or at least to live like one.