Christianity and Indigenous American sovereignty

Christianity and sovereignty can co-exist

Posted: June 21, 2007

by: Editors Report / Indian Country Today






During the 1950s and '60s, when tribal leaders and activists were pressing for alternative policies to termination, there were calls for the Christian churches to join in the struggle for tribal sovereignty and more accommodating policies. Some activists solicited the churches in both U.S. and Canada, and held a variety of meetings through the '60s and '70s. The Civil Rights movement was strengthened and supported by Christian churches from many denominations. Indian leaders and intellectuals, many of them Christians, believed the churches would play a significant role in the struggle for American Indian self-determination. However, the churches did not play a significant supportive role in the self-determination movement. Why not?

In the black community, and in the Civil Rights Movement, churches were often the main way in which black people were organized into communities. Furthermore, the Civil Rights Movement was aimed at individual political and economic inclusion into American society. The Civil Rights Movement upheld central American values, goals and law. The problem was the United States was not implementing its own values and law in ways that were consistent with the Constitution or the values it expressed. Disadvantaged minority groups wanted inclusion, acceptance and entry into full U.S. citizenship. Generally, the Christian churches were supportive of the goals and values of the Civil Rights Movement and the changes in U.S. society and law that resulted.

The movement toward American Indian self-determination, however, gained less support from the churches. While many American Indians have converted to Christianity, most tribal communities and governments are not organized around Christian belief. When American Indians convert to Christianity, they often do not give up their identity as Indians, or ties to their community or government. In some communities, the introduction of Christianity created cultural and often political breaks with non-converts. Christianity, ultimately, demands a cultural transformation of the individual with internalization of Christian values and lifeways. Converts are often asked to give up traditional values, ceremonies and traditional ways of living; which also translate into preferences for Western or U.S.-style community and political organization. In some communities, Christianity introduced cultural and political conflict over future directions. Nevertheless, many Indian communities found ways to reconcile the inclusion of Christian groups. In some communities, Christianity is seen as one of several paths to the sacred. In these nations, some spiritual leaders practice a Christian religion, often Catholicism, as well as the Native American Church, and participate in the Sun Dance. One is only enjoined not to mix the doctrines of the various religions. Other communities respect the decisions of individuals and villages to take on Christianity or to practice the traditional spiritual path and ceremonies.

When self-determination activists started to look to reservation communities for spiritual guidance, they started to view the Christian churches and their views as assimilationist. The churches and church activists withdrew from the movement, in part because of the religious revival and veneration for the traditional religions, and because the churches never seemed quite comfortable supporting American Indian political and cultural autonomy. In recent comments, Pope Benedict suggests that renewal of indigenous culture and beliefs are a step backward.

Nevertheless, there are many prominent Christian Indian leaders who are devoted to American Indian issues and future welfare. Despite the official positions of the Christian churches, most American Indian Christians are strong defenders of tribal sovereignty. The churches should listen more carefully to the spiritual and worldly needs of their Indian members, and develop a rationale for the Christian defense of indigenous rights. Christianity and tribal sovereignty are reconcilable for many Indian people. In practice, tribal sovereignty does not exclude Christian beliefs or members. Christian belief should not exclude the rights and values of indigenous peoples.

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Indioheathen's response: "Christian Indian" is an oxymoron because many ancient Middle Eastern/Judeo-Christian theological moral codes and values conflict with many peaceful Indigenous American traditions and values, and the Middle East is not the spiritual womb of Grandmother Earth as much as many followers of religions that were born out of that region of the world like to believe.

Mescalito

Court, father at odds before over kids' alleged peyote use

Michigan, USA

The mother of a 7-year-old girl whose urine tested positive for mescaline claims the girl's father is giving her hallucinogenic peyote as part of sacred Native American rituals – and the mother wants it to stop.

"Peyote has nothing to do with the traditions of any Woodland Indian tribe," said the mother, a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.

"People have tried before to stop him (the girl’s father) from giving children peyote," the mother said, "but he's still at it."

Indeed, the father – also a member of the Grand Traverse Band (GTB) – was ordered in 2003 by a Newaygo County Family Court Judge to stop giving peyote to his then 4-year-old son after the mother of that child complained to officials.

The father, as well as the mother whose daughter tested positive for mescaline – plus the mother of three other children who are alleged to have been given peyote – were all at the Leelanau County Courthouse on Friday along with their attorneys.

Over the coming months, Family Court Judge Joseph E. Deegan will attempt to sort through which of the five children might actually have been given peyote and by whom – and what the law has to say about such practices.

During a pre-trial hearing on Friday, an attorney representing the mother of the three other children asked Deegan to close court proceedings to the public and the press. The judge denied that request, however.

Nonetheless, the Leelanau Enterprise has opted to cover the story without using the names of the mother and the father accused of giving their children peyote – the "respondents" in Family Court parlance. Their names are being omitted to protect the identities of the five minor children involved in the case.

Although the two respondents, some of the other parents and all of the children involved the case are believed to be members of the GTB, tribal officials have apparently opted to play no role in either defending or prosecuting the case. Leelanau County prosecutor Joseph Hubbell declined to speculate why. The GTB tribal prosecutor did not return a reporter’s phone call.

"Basically, the judge on Friday just ordered the attorneys to file their pre-trial motions and then the case can be scheduled for civil trial," Hubbell explained.

The respondent mother is being represented by attorney Angela K. Sherigan of Warren who specializes in cases involving Native American rights. One of the respondent father’s attorneys is Thomas R. Myers of Michigan Indian Legal Services based in Lansing.

The father told the Enterprise that the mother of the child who tested positive for mescaline "is suspected of giving it to her" as a way of getting back at the father. Court records reveal that the former couple have tangled before in Family Court over child support and custody issues.

"None of these kids but one was tested positive for mescaline in their system," the father said. "She (the mother) has no credibility whatsoever," he said.

The father cited the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and a 1996 federal law signed by President Bill Clinton specifically declaring legal the "traditional Indian religious use of the peyote sacrament."

"Because the states do not cooperate with the federal government on these issues, it has created hardship for our people," the father said.

The use of peyote by certain Native American groups has been traced back thousands of years to tribes in the American southwest and northern Mexico. Peyote is a form of cactus indigenous to those areas.

By the 1880s the use of peyote as a means of gaining spiritual insight had spread to some Native American groups in Oklahoma. Leaders of those groups helped established the Native American Church which was officially incorporated in 1918.

The church is now believed to have more than 250,000 members in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The respondent mother and father in the current Leelanau County court case are members of the Native American Church of the Morning Star based in the Petoskey area which includes a number of GTB members as well members of other Michigan Indian tribes.

"It's not from Arizona or some other place," the father said. "It's an inter-tribal church that's all over the U.S. And it's not like we're restricted to what the Grand Traverse Band worships," he said.

"They better take that (Indian Mission) Methodist Church and that Kateri Church back to Europe," the father said, "because that’s the kind of narrow thinking you’ve got going on."

Federal law states that "the use, possession or transportation of peyote by an Indian for bonafide traditional ceremonial purposes in connection with the practice of a traditional Indian religion is lawful, and shall not be prohibited by the United States or any State. No Indian shall be penalized or discriminated against on the basis of such use…"

The father asserted that the phrase "No Indian" includes Indian children. Although the law specifies “reasonable limitations” on peyote use by Indians working as law enforcement officers and in some other occupations, the 1996 law cited by the father does not address the use of peyote by Indian children.

"That means it’s permitted," the father asserted. "And right now – based on the judge's ruling back in 2003 in Newaygo County – my son is the only Indian in America who has been prohibited by a court order from practicing his religion.

"And that's going to change," the father vowed.

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Indioheathen's response: In most traditional indigenous Mesoamerican societies that mescalito (peyote) is native to (including the Mesoamerican Church), it is not introduced to youth in the way of ingestion prior to them receiving the rite of puberty and comprehensive spiritual teachings.