Greetings relatives … Welcome to the first monthly electronic newsletter of events and announcements for the office of Indigenous Ministry. Our communications work includes the spring and fall editions of our electronic newsletter, online blogs and postings on Facebook on the Native American and Indigenous Ministry, the Indigenous Theological Training Institute (ITTI) and the Episcopal Intercultural Network pages.
Celebrations of Ordinations
The Rev. Deacon Reynelda James, Paiute elder, ordained into the diaconate on April 30, 2011, during Paths Crossing, St. Paul, Sparks, Nev.
The Rev. Mary Crist, Blackfeet, ordained as a transitional deacon on June 11, 2011 at St. John’s Pro-Cathedral Los Angeles, Calif.; ordination to the priesthood will be January 7, 2012.
The Rev. Patricia White Horse-Carda, Ihanktowan Oyate, Yankton Sioux Tribe, ordained as priest on June 19, 2011, during Niobrara Convocation, Thunderhead Episcopal Center, south of Lead, S.D.; ordained as a transitional deacon on December 4, 2010, Calvary Cathedral, Sioux Falls, S.D.
The Rev. Deacon Paula Henson, Navajo, ordained to the diaconate on October 15, 2011 at Good Shepherd Mission in the Episcopal Church of Navajoland.
The Rev. Deacon Malcolm Naea Chun, Native Hawaiian, ordained into the diaconate on Friday, October 28, 2011, Cathedral of St. Andrew, Honolulu, Hawaii
Next National WinterTalk Gathering Set for 2013
The focus in 2012 will be on trainings - As budgets decline, there is a need to do ministry differently. To host a national WinterTalk gathering would use half to three-quarters of the training funds, so in the best interest of Native clergy and lay leaders and with the support of the Executive Council Committee on Indigenous Ministry, we will hold WinterTalk gatherings every other year with the next one on the calendar for January 2013.
Native Youth Manual
The Rev. Ginny Doctor with Martha Allen, Executive Director for the Indigenous Theological Training Institute (ITTI) co-chaired the recent meeting in Minneapolis, Minn. of the committee to develop a Native Youth Ministry Manual sponsored by a constable grant secured by the Office of Indigenous Ministry. Other committee members include: The Rev. Kim Fonder; Amanda Frank; Kaze Gadway; the Rt. Rev. Carol Gallagher; Angela Haugen, ITTI Administrator; Keilani Klimczuk; Brandon Martinez, the Rev. Angela Goodhouse-Mauai, the Rev. Brandon Mauai, the Rev. John Robertson and the Rev. George Ross. The next meeting will held on December 1-4 in Sioux Falls, S.D. with additional writers joining.
Everyone, Everywhere
Sarah Eagle Heart, Indigenous Missioner, attended the “Everyone, Everywhere” conference for those individuals, congregations, groups and dioceses active in mission. People who are working on updating “In the Spirit of the Circle,” faith formation guidebook for Native American and Indigenous Ministry, also participated, these included: Martha Allen, Ron Braman, the Rev. Harold Eagle Bull, the Rev. Brad Hauff, and Angela Haugen. At least 70 people from the different ethnic ministries attended community-building fellowship events. Workshop videos are available for viewing at: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ee11.htm
Anglican Council of Indigenous Women
The Anglican Council of Indigenous Women met during the “Mending Broken Hearts” White Bison, Inc. training October 7 – 10, 2011 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The women shared ideas for resolutions and several offered to help draft resolutions to be presented to the Executive Council Committee on Indigenous Ministry. Jasmine Bostock, Native Hawaiian, was introduced as the newest member of the Executive Council Committee on Indigenous Ministry (ECCIM).
Exposing the Doctrine of Discovery
Prior to Columbus Day, the office for Native American and Indigenous Ministry distributed links for a bulletin insert, leader’s book and video on the Doctrine of Discovery. A committee has been meeting throughout this year to develop materials including the video “The Episcopal Church Exposes the Doctrine of Discovery” available on YouTube. Kathryn Rickert, Ph.D., Chair of the First Nations Committee for the Diocese of Olympia, served as Doctrine of Discovery (DoD) project coordinator. Other participants on the DoD work team included: Martha Allen, Judith Conley, John Grate, Steve Lemen, the Rev. Richard Mendez, the Rev. Lewis Powell, and Newland Smith. Other contributors: Brian Fairbanks, the Rev. Brad Hauff, the Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston and Marcus Oldham. White Bison Contributors and Videographers: Don Coyhis, Les Frischmann, and Nina Frischmann. Co-Sponsor: Christ Church Cathedral Cincinnati Native American Council.
Multigenerational Leader’s Guide: "Exposing the Doctrine of Discovery: a Call to Healing and Hope, Looking at Columbus Day through the Lens of our Baptismal Vows, A Congregational Resource: Faithful Reflection for Small Groups, Adults, Youth and Children" Link to pdf: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/documents/Leaders_Guide_8_0_Sept_28th_edited_DM_sj.pdf
Video for use in Discussion Groups: "The Episcopal Church Exposes the Doctrine of Discovery" This video is intended to inform people about the impact of the Doctrine of Discovery in an effort to respond to God's direction; that we, the Episcopal Church, "act with justice and … do what is right" (Psalm 106:3, Book of Common Prayer), and about the unjust way the Americas were settled, and the on-going consequences of those events. Link: http://youtu.be/drLnI_k5b6s
Link to pdf: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/documents/Leader_Guide_Oct_13_edited.pdf
New Blogs:
Check out our new blogs:
Native American and Indigenous Ministry:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Indigenous-Theological-Training-Institute-ITTI/30712603327?ref=ts#!/EpiscopalInterculturalNetwork
Anglican Council of Indigenous Women:
http://anglicancouncilofindigwomen.blogspot.com/?zx=84344b74a8db1160
Save-the-Date Calendar of Upcoming Events
October 30 – November 4, 2011, National Congress of American Indians 68th Annual Convention, Portland, Ore., link to website: http://www.ncai.org/ (Missioner attending)
November 29, 2011, Summit on Ecumenical Advocacy for Native American policy issues, Washington, D.C. (Missioner attending)
January 12-14, 2011, Consultation on Leadership and Theological Training with Bishops and Leaders, TBD
February 27 – March 9, 2012, New York City, 56th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, link to website: http://www.unwomen.org/how-we-work/csw/
February 29 – March 4, 2012, San Diego, “New Communities for Clergy and Laity,” the various ethnic communities of The Episcopal Church will meet to share information about what’s working in their ministries. Forty or more Native clergy and laity will attend from Native American and Indigenous ministry areas.
May 4 – 6, 2012, Indianapolis, Indiana, Deputies of Color meeting
July 5 – 12, 2012, Indianapolis, Indiana, 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, link to website:http://generalconvention.org/
Links to Facebook Pages:
Native American and Indigenous Ministries:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Communion-Partners/133303460025391#!/pages/Native-AmericanIndigenous-Ministries-of-the-Episcopal-Church/121658134519767
Indigenous Theological Training Institute (ITTI):https://www.facebook.com/pages/Indigenous-Theological-Training-Institute-ITTI/30712603327?ref=ts
Episcopal Intercultural Network:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Indigenous-Theological-Training-Institute-ITTI/30712603327?ref=ts#!/EpiscopalInterculturalNetwork
Native American and Indigenous Ministry Newsletter
The newsletter currently is produced every Spring and Fall. We are looking for news about Native ministry events in preparation for Advent and Christmas. Deadline will be Tuesday, November 15.
Monthly Update Request
Please send announcements about events in your area to Sarah Eagle Heart, Indigenous Missioner, at seagleheart@episcopalchurch.org. Information should include the title of the event, date, time, location, cost (if any), name of a contact person with phone number and/or email address. Any photos submitted must have a photo release giving permission to share. Deadline will be on the 25th of each month.
You are receiving this newsletter because of your relationship with Native American and Indigenous Ministries and The Episcopal Church. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, and you want to subscribe, please send your email address to Sarah Eagle Heart at seagleheart@episcopalchurch.org.
Sarah Eagle Heart, Indigenous Missioner
Elsie Dennis, Communications Consultant/Editor
Sarah Eagle Heart, MBA
Missioner - Indigenous Ministries
Team Leader - Diversity, Social & Environmental Ministries
Episcopal Church Center - LA Regional Office
840 Echo Park Ave Los Angeles, CA 90026
Toll Free: 800-334-7626 X6038
Dir: 212 716 6038 Cell: 917 582 7729 Fax: 213 482 5304
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/native_american.htm
Monday, December 19, 2011
The Calling
I am a young, Native Hawaiian woman who has been called into leadership in many different ways. From when I was young I always felt a call towards working in the church. When I was seven years old I told my parents that I was going to be a priest. We were not a religious family, and so I think they considered this possibility the same way they considered the possibility that I would become a princess or a butterfly.
The calling is not a moment that I can pinpoint. It has been more like a little tug at my heartstrings ever since I was young, and a few moments of intermittent clarity wherein I knew myself to be, beyond a shadow of a doubt, in the right place at the right time. I think this calling has always been between God and me. However, though it is of a very personal nature, there have been many mentors who have helped me along the way.
One of the overlaps I can find between the many different women who have guided and taught me is their willingness to be present with me in my journey and their love for me. I have borne witness to many peers who have been disappointed with the lack of strong women in their lives. I have seen the mountains that God moves within those with a willing spirit. I think that God only needs a willing heart to work with, and He can transform you into a meaningful mentor for someone.
Especially within the indigenous community, mentorship is extremely important. We learn from our kupuna, our elders, and they have a particular capacity to teach us right from wrong. I know for me, growing up, (and sometimes still even today), it was difficult to listen to my parents alone if they were telling me something I didn't want to hear. If the scolding or correction came from another church kupuna, I couldn't dismiss it and often took it more seriously.
Some of my other callings in life have come from these kupuna. Sarah Eagle Heart, the national missioner for Native American and Indigenous Ministry, asked me, in October of last year, to attend a Native Women's Gathering in Nevada. I was excited and apprehensive, unsure of what my time there would bring. I knew I had to go—not only because I had been asked to be there, but because I felt a familiar tug on my heartstrings which I know to be from Akua, God. While we were there, Sarah told the group she needed leadership to step up at the end of our time together to help her in continuing the group and in organizing everything. We sat down and had a meeting, and after much time in prayer the women were asked to think of people to nominate. Being the youngest of the group, I didn't expect to say anything or to contribute very much. However, God had other plans for me. I was one of the first names that came up, from a few different people.
In that moment, it didn't matter that I have light skin or that I am young or that, living in Hawaii, I didn't grow up on a reservation the way most of my native sisters have. It only mattered that I was being called into a specific leadership role and I needed to accept the responsibility it brought. In my culture, kupuna are the wise ones. We look to our elders for guidance and authority, and it was difficult for me to understand what I could have to give to these incredible women. I am learning to accept that I have something to share with the group, and yet to stay humble. Wisdom and humility, I have learned, go hand in hand, and I hope to always hear the syncopated rhythm of the two working in tandem.
Women's leadership is also of extreme importance in both my ethos and the indigenous perspective. Women have been expected, as in many cultures, to do both the housework and the cooking and also earn income. Indigenous women are often respected in different tribes as medicine men, or heads of council. In Hawaiian heritage our queens have been equally important as our kings, and we hold much respect for them and the way they took care of us, their people.
The Episcopal Church also often stands on the strength of their women. Women organize vestry meetings and coffee hours, participating in communion and upholding the church. Women are the backbone of the church, and we have been instrumental in shaping it.
In February 2010 I was blessed by the opportunity to attend the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women gathering in New York City. I attended one lecture about women's gifts. I have always been frustrated by the assumptions that women are more gentle than men, and we listen more, and are more caring. I saw these assertions as dangerous stereotypes that were assisting in our degradation. However, in this lecture, the woman spoke about the power in these gifts. Despite the fact that they had often been undervalued and not glorified in the same way masculinity has been, these very feminine attributes are among our biggest strengths and can be used by us as leverage.
I think this lesson is of extreme importance to the church today. Though feminine qualities can be undervalued, there is strength in them. We speak whispers of strength, but we will not be silenced. We stand strong on the shoulders of our ancestors who have come before us, holding hands with our global sisters. We are ready to face the future and lead our daughters forward.
Submitted by Jasmine Bostock, Native Hawaiian and new member of the Executive Council Committee on Indigenous Ministry
The calling is not a moment that I can pinpoint. It has been more like a little tug at my heartstrings ever since I was young, and a few moments of intermittent clarity wherein I knew myself to be, beyond a shadow of a doubt, in the right place at the right time. I think this calling has always been between God and me. However, though it is of a very personal nature, there have been many mentors who have helped me along the way.
One of the overlaps I can find between the many different women who have guided and taught me is their willingness to be present with me in my journey and their love for me. I have borne witness to many peers who have been disappointed with the lack of strong women in their lives. I have seen the mountains that God moves within those with a willing spirit. I think that God only needs a willing heart to work with, and He can transform you into a meaningful mentor for someone.
Especially within the indigenous community, mentorship is extremely important. We learn from our kupuna, our elders, and they have a particular capacity to teach us right from wrong. I know for me, growing up, (and sometimes still even today), it was difficult to listen to my parents alone if they were telling me something I didn't want to hear. If the scolding or correction came from another church kupuna, I couldn't dismiss it and often took it more seriously.
Some of my other callings in life have come from these kupuna. Sarah Eagle Heart, the national missioner for Native American and Indigenous Ministry, asked me, in October of last year, to attend a Native Women's Gathering in Nevada. I was excited and apprehensive, unsure of what my time there would bring. I knew I had to go—not only because I had been asked to be there, but because I felt a familiar tug on my heartstrings which I know to be from Akua, God. While we were there, Sarah told the group she needed leadership to step up at the end of our time together to help her in continuing the group and in organizing everything. We sat down and had a meeting, and after much time in prayer the women were asked to think of people to nominate. Being the youngest of the group, I didn't expect to say anything or to contribute very much. However, God had other plans for me. I was one of the first names that came up, from a few different people.
In that moment, it didn't matter that I have light skin or that I am young or that, living in Hawaii, I didn't grow up on a reservation the way most of my native sisters have. It only mattered that I was being called into a specific leadership role and I needed to accept the responsibility it brought. In my culture, kupuna are the wise ones. We look to our elders for guidance and authority, and it was difficult for me to understand what I could have to give to these incredible women. I am learning to accept that I have something to share with the group, and yet to stay humble. Wisdom and humility, I have learned, go hand in hand, and I hope to always hear the syncopated rhythm of the two working in tandem.
Women's leadership is also of extreme importance in both my ethos and the indigenous perspective. Women have been expected, as in many cultures, to do both the housework and the cooking and also earn income. Indigenous women are often respected in different tribes as medicine men, or heads of council. In Hawaiian heritage our queens have been equally important as our kings, and we hold much respect for them and the way they took care of us, their people.
The Episcopal Church also often stands on the strength of their women. Women organize vestry meetings and coffee hours, participating in communion and upholding the church. Women are the backbone of the church, and we have been instrumental in shaping it.
In February 2010 I was blessed by the opportunity to attend the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women gathering in New York City. I attended one lecture about women's gifts. I have always been frustrated by the assumptions that women are more gentle than men, and we listen more, and are more caring. I saw these assertions as dangerous stereotypes that were assisting in our degradation. However, in this lecture, the woman spoke about the power in these gifts. Despite the fact that they had often been undervalued and not glorified in the same way masculinity has been, these very feminine attributes are among our biggest strengths and can be used by us as leverage.
I think this lesson is of extreme importance to the church today. Though feminine qualities can be undervalued, there is strength in them. We speak whispers of strength, but we will not be silenced. We stand strong on the shoulders of our ancestors who have come before us, holding hands with our global sisters. We are ready to face the future and lead our daughters forward.
Submitted by Jasmine Bostock, Native Hawaiian and new member of the Executive Council Committee on Indigenous Ministry
Episcopal Natives Rock!
“Episcopal Natives Rock!” is the response of one of the Native youth in the river near Winslow, Ariz. A Native man sitting on a rock yelled out “Who are you anyway?” Everyone laughs at the answer and we continue to jump from high places into the river below.
Eleven years of dreaming just how we could not only keep together as the Spirit Journey Youth group and also how we can make a mark. We pray, we write psalms, we study scripture. It doesn’t hold us.
At first, it seemed enough that we attended weekly church services, and held youth retreats in various locations.
As the toll of being from environments surrounded by violence, poverty and addiction begin to cancel our efforts to walk with the One who walked this earth, we changed directions.
“We got to get out of here,” states one of our youth who had just been released from juvenile detention. We began raising money for the “trips.” Trips to Los Angeles, San Diego, Albuquerque, Kansas, Tucson, and Phoenix—anywhere we could go to experience life as “more.” Every new experience stretched our imaginations until we began to believe that we could do impossible things.
Mission trips started with handing out a few socks to the homeless. This mushroomed into serving in soup kitchens, cleaning up shelters and providing warm clothes in the winter. Giving to others provided for us the knowledge that we have something to give. We are not “those Natives that take everything,” (a taunt we sometimes heard).
We began attending Episcopal Church events. We traveled to conventions, to Episcopal Youth Event, to church camp, to diocesan youth events. “Hey, we really have a large church family, don’t we,” one teen said. We began feeling accepted as Episcopal youth, not just “that Native youth group in Holbrook/Winslow, Ariz.”
Native American trainings were offered and our youth attended New York trips, urban ministry, Oklahoma IV, “Why Serve,” everything that is offered by the national church that connects our tradition to our faith. Sparks of dedication and determination became visible.
What else can we dream about becoming?
Four major turning points crystallized our vision of standing tall in the faith and in our tradition.
A hint was made that so turned us around in our outreach program with the homeless that we grew as giants. As we served the homeless, we had always prayed for them or said “God bless you.” At someone’s suggestion, we began asking the homeless to pray for us when we gave them something. This transformed us. No longer were we not perpetuating the unhelpful act of “being charitable” to someone less, the homeless became partners with us in blessing each other. Since Native Americans are spiritual at the core, we have never had a homeless person refuse to pray. Often the prayer is in their traditional language. What a blessing for all of us.
To my surprise, education became the second turning point. Every year, we ask who is graduating from high school. We have never had more than one and often none. This year seven Native youth graduated from high school. They were the first in their family to do so. Plus, our first Native youth is attending college full time, and three more are taking on-line classes at the community college. An explosion in self-determination is taking place.
Third, these youth are sharing and expanding their artistic and communication gifts. Several participate in strong discussion with astute comments on Facebook and MySpace. Poems have been published, visual art pieces have been sold, and rap has been recorded. It is as if it has finally rained in the desert and cactus blooms pop up everywhere after a draught. With permission to share, Jeremy Blackwater offers this poem that speaks to the abuse that still happens in our family:
An owl flies by,
Someone dies.
A child dies inside
from neglect
or abuse
Nothing flies by
Nothing moves
It's ignored.
Why doesn't someone
notice?
Our fourth turning point happened a year ago when after two years of planning we opened the Hozhoni Youth Center. “Hozhoni” means a place of calm or beauty within.” Hozhoni Center is our dream realized that the Spirit Journey Youth group, a Native Episcopal group from ages 12 to 24 can have their own outreach program. “We are giving back to the community,” spoke one of our Native leaders. This is a drop-in center that welcomes all youth in Holbrook from ages 12 to 18. There are 178 youth enrolled in the program. The center has computers, band equipment, pool table, and video games, everything that appeals to a teenager who usually has no safe place to go after school. Six youth in Holbrook became the leadership team that ran the center – Brandon, Steve, Dee, Anthony, Garrick, and Emily.
After one year, the present director, Kaze Gadway, in her 70th year, stepped down. Two grants were written that would pay for a salary for Brandon Martinez to assume the director’s role. As of June 1, he is the first Native American youth, 20, to be paid a full-time salary in the Diocese of Arizona. Kaze continues as the volunteer Youth Missioner to the 38 Native youth in the on-going Spirit Journey Youth. She is working for a large grant to hire a full time Native Youth Minister in the next two years and for part-time employment for other Native youth in the program.
Can I say this loud enough? Brandon is the first but not the last full-time employed Native youth in our diocese. This is not just an employment announcement. This is the wedge into replacing the image that our youth are unable to take responsibility for the emerging leadership of the Episcopal Church.
There has been racial backlash and scoffing at our dream. But mark it well, we have together created one of the most widely known youth groups in Arizona with two separate and strong outreach projects in the Hozhoni Youth Center and the homeless projects of the Spirit Journey Youth. Our youth are the emerging leadership in our Church. Rejoice with us.
Submitted by Kaze Gadway, Oneida Nation, Youth Missioner, Diocese of Arizona, who works with emerging leaders from the Native community of Northern Arizona, youth of promise, ages 12 to 20.
Eleven years of dreaming just how we could not only keep together as the Spirit Journey Youth group and also how we can make a mark. We pray, we write psalms, we study scripture. It doesn’t hold us.
At first, it seemed enough that we attended weekly church services, and held youth retreats in various locations.
As the toll of being from environments surrounded by violence, poverty and addiction begin to cancel our efforts to walk with the One who walked this earth, we changed directions.
“We got to get out of here,” states one of our youth who had just been released from juvenile detention. We began raising money for the “trips.” Trips to Los Angeles, San Diego, Albuquerque, Kansas, Tucson, and Phoenix—anywhere we could go to experience life as “more.” Every new experience stretched our imaginations until we began to believe that we could do impossible things.
Mission trips started with handing out a few socks to the homeless. This mushroomed into serving in soup kitchens, cleaning up shelters and providing warm clothes in the winter. Giving to others provided for us the knowledge that we have something to give. We are not “those Natives that take everything,” (a taunt we sometimes heard).
We began attending Episcopal Church events. We traveled to conventions, to Episcopal Youth Event, to church camp, to diocesan youth events. “Hey, we really have a large church family, don’t we,” one teen said. We began feeling accepted as Episcopal youth, not just “that Native youth group in Holbrook/Winslow, Ariz.”
Native American trainings were offered and our youth attended New York trips, urban ministry, Oklahoma IV, “Why Serve,” everything that is offered by the national church that connects our tradition to our faith. Sparks of dedication and determination became visible.
What else can we dream about becoming?
Four major turning points crystallized our vision of standing tall in the faith and in our tradition.
A hint was made that so turned us around in our outreach program with the homeless that we grew as giants. As we served the homeless, we had always prayed for them or said “God bless you.” At someone’s suggestion, we began asking the homeless to pray for us when we gave them something. This transformed us. No longer were we not perpetuating the unhelpful act of “being charitable” to someone less, the homeless became partners with us in blessing each other. Since Native Americans are spiritual at the core, we have never had a homeless person refuse to pray. Often the prayer is in their traditional language. What a blessing for all of us.
To my surprise, education became the second turning point. Every year, we ask who is graduating from high school. We have never had more than one and often none. This year seven Native youth graduated from high school. They were the first in their family to do so. Plus, our first Native youth is attending college full time, and three more are taking on-line classes at the community college. An explosion in self-determination is taking place.
Third, these youth are sharing and expanding their artistic and communication gifts. Several participate in strong discussion with astute comments on Facebook and MySpace. Poems have been published, visual art pieces have been sold, and rap has been recorded. It is as if it has finally rained in the desert and cactus blooms pop up everywhere after a draught. With permission to share, Jeremy Blackwater offers this poem that speaks to the abuse that still happens in our family:
An owl flies by,
Someone dies.
A child dies inside
from neglect
or abuse
Nothing flies by
Nothing moves
It's ignored.
Why doesn't someone
notice?
Our fourth turning point happened a year ago when after two years of planning we opened the Hozhoni Youth Center. “Hozhoni” means a place of calm or beauty within.” Hozhoni Center is our dream realized that the Spirit Journey Youth group, a Native Episcopal group from ages 12 to 24 can have their own outreach program. “We are giving back to the community,” spoke one of our Native leaders. This is a drop-in center that welcomes all youth in Holbrook from ages 12 to 18. There are 178 youth enrolled in the program. The center has computers, band equipment, pool table, and video games, everything that appeals to a teenager who usually has no safe place to go after school. Six youth in Holbrook became the leadership team that ran the center – Brandon, Steve, Dee, Anthony, Garrick, and Emily.
After one year, the present director, Kaze Gadway, in her 70th year, stepped down. Two grants were written that would pay for a salary for Brandon Martinez to assume the director’s role. As of June 1, he is the first Native American youth, 20, to be paid a full-time salary in the Diocese of Arizona. Kaze continues as the volunteer Youth Missioner to the 38 Native youth in the on-going Spirit Journey Youth. She is working for a large grant to hire a full time Native Youth Minister in the next two years and for part-time employment for other Native youth in the program.
Can I say this loud enough? Brandon is the first but not the last full-time employed Native youth in our diocese. This is not just an employment announcement. This is the wedge into replacing the image that our youth are unable to take responsibility for the emerging leadership of the Episcopal Church.
There has been racial backlash and scoffing at our dream. But mark it well, we have together created one of the most widely known youth groups in Arizona with two separate and strong outreach projects in the Hozhoni Youth Center and the homeless projects of the Spirit Journey Youth. Our youth are the emerging leadership in our Church. Rejoice with us.
Submitted by Kaze Gadway, Oneida Nation, Youth Missioner, Diocese of Arizona, who works with emerging leaders from the Native community of Northern Arizona, youth of promise, ages 12 to 20.
Native Youth Who Care, Spirit Journey Youth of Northern Arizona
"What a mess!" exclaims a youth. He jumps out of the way as a plastic bag filled with clothes for the homeless spills out of the storage shed.
We empty out the rest of the garbage bags. These are all clothes donated for us to deliver to the homeless in the Holbrook/Winslow, Arizona area.
“Sort out jackets, sweaters, beanies, gloves, socks and long sleeve shirts. Put aside any clothes that are not warm,” I instruct the Native youth who volunteered to get our winter donations ready.
“Who would wear this?” asks a teen holding up an orange plaid vest.
“Someone who is cold,” answers another.
We fill each bag with one jacket, one sweater or long sleeve shirt, two pairs of new socks, one pair of gloves and one beanie. Thirty-two bags are packed although some are incomplete. We pin a note on the incomplete bags saying what is missing.
One of the young adults reads off the list. “We need twelve more jackets, four sweaters, twenty four pairs of gloves and thirteen beanies.” We have twelve extra shirts and a lot of sleeveless shirts.
“Didn’t some lady tell us to come back to Flagstaff if we need more clothes?” one of the youth reminds us.
“Yeah,” she says all of her friends buy new things for Christmas and we can have the old ones after that.”
“January is our coldest month,” comments one of the youth. “We can give away the ones that are complete at Christmas break and the rest after New Years when we pick up those other clothes.”
“We can also put two shirts in the bags that don’t have sweaters if we don’t get any more,” says one of the younger youth.
“I have an extra coat at home,” volunteers one of the youth. “We can pick it up at home.”
We pick up his coat. Then all the white plastic bags are put back in the storage place.
“Okay, we have been given Wal-Mart gift cards so let’s go to Winslow and see how many beanies and gloves we can buy,” I suggest.
We travel thirty miles to Flagstaff and look for bargains in beanies and gloves. We buy what we can but come up short for gloves.
“How do we get more gloves?” a young adult asks, “Do any of you have extra gloves at home?”
The youth come up with three more pairs of gloves.
“Let’s wait and see what happens after Christmas,” someone suggests.
“I still think we should teach them how to fish rather than handing our clothes,” grumbles one of the youth.
“Anyone have a response to that?” I ask.
“It is not up to us to judge why they are homeless,” says one of the young adults who has been in this discussion before. “That’s up to God. It’s up to us to keep them from freezing until something else can happen. I can’t get them a job, can you?”
“Why are we doing this anyway?” inquires a newcomer to the youth group.
“It’s a God thing. We are giving back to the community,” says one of the youth. “We were homeless for nine months when I was little and we lived in a broken down car. I’ll never forget how hungry and cold we were.”
We go to a fast food place where we have been given a gift card. We all choose carefully from the dollar menu. We pray for the homeless and I read this scripture for reflection.
"For the LORD your God is God of gods and LORD of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Deuteronomy 10:17-19
We discuss our plans for Christmas. Some of us are going to St. John’s Episcopal Church in Williams, Ariz. to participate in the Christmas play. Others are going to an Advent retreat at our Church Camp. At our Christmas party we will receive gifts and Christmas cards from our Church family. All of us will hand out something to the homeless. We talk about Christmas being a time of mixed blessings. There will be some drama at home and some celebrations. We each will give and receive.
I ask everyone to complete a prayer for the homeless and us. I ask that they each begin with: “so that.” We go around the circle. “So that they get a job.” “So that they don’t die.” “So that we are thankful for what we have.” “So that we give back.” “So that they know we care.” “So that we don’t live in greed.” “So that God knows we appreciate all.” “So that we do something meaningful.”
The Spirit Journey Native Youth ends another day. We have prepared for the gift of God in our lives.
Submitted by Kaze Gadway works with the emerging leaders of the Native community in northern Arizona, youth of promise, ages 12 to 20.
We empty out the rest of the garbage bags. These are all clothes donated for us to deliver to the homeless in the Holbrook/Winslow, Arizona area.
“Sort out jackets, sweaters, beanies, gloves, socks and long sleeve shirts. Put aside any clothes that are not warm,” I instruct the Native youth who volunteered to get our winter donations ready.
“Who would wear this?” asks a teen holding up an orange plaid vest.
“Someone who is cold,” answers another.
We fill each bag with one jacket, one sweater or long sleeve shirt, two pairs of new socks, one pair of gloves and one beanie. Thirty-two bags are packed although some are incomplete. We pin a note on the incomplete bags saying what is missing.
One of the young adults reads off the list. “We need twelve more jackets, four sweaters, twenty four pairs of gloves and thirteen beanies.” We have twelve extra shirts and a lot of sleeveless shirts.
“Didn’t some lady tell us to come back to Flagstaff if we need more clothes?” one of the youth reminds us.
“Yeah,” she says all of her friends buy new things for Christmas and we can have the old ones after that.”
“January is our coldest month,” comments one of the youth. “We can give away the ones that are complete at Christmas break and the rest after New Years when we pick up those other clothes.”
“We can also put two shirts in the bags that don’t have sweaters if we don’t get any more,” says one of the younger youth.
“I have an extra coat at home,” volunteers one of the youth. “We can pick it up at home.”
We pick up his coat. Then all the white plastic bags are put back in the storage place.
“Okay, we have been given Wal-Mart gift cards so let’s go to Winslow and see how many beanies and gloves we can buy,” I suggest.
We travel thirty miles to Flagstaff and look for bargains in beanies and gloves. We buy what we can but come up short for gloves.
“How do we get more gloves?” a young adult asks, “Do any of you have extra gloves at home?”
The youth come up with three more pairs of gloves.
“Let’s wait and see what happens after Christmas,” someone suggests.
“I still think we should teach them how to fish rather than handing our clothes,” grumbles one of the youth.
“Anyone have a response to that?” I ask.
“It is not up to us to judge why they are homeless,” says one of the young adults who has been in this discussion before. “That’s up to God. It’s up to us to keep them from freezing until something else can happen. I can’t get them a job, can you?”
“Why are we doing this anyway?” inquires a newcomer to the youth group.
“It’s a God thing. We are giving back to the community,” says one of the youth. “We were homeless for nine months when I was little and we lived in a broken down car. I’ll never forget how hungry and cold we were.”
We go to a fast food place where we have been given a gift card. We all choose carefully from the dollar menu. We pray for the homeless and I read this scripture for reflection.
"For the LORD your God is God of gods and LORD of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Deuteronomy 10:17-19
We discuss our plans for Christmas. Some of us are going to St. John’s Episcopal Church in Williams, Ariz. to participate in the Christmas play. Others are going to an Advent retreat at our Church Camp. At our Christmas party we will receive gifts and Christmas cards from our Church family. All of us will hand out something to the homeless. We talk about Christmas being a time of mixed blessings. There will be some drama at home and some celebrations. We each will give and receive.
I ask everyone to complete a prayer for the homeless and us. I ask that they each begin with: “so that.” We go around the circle. “So that they get a job.” “So that they don’t die.” “So that we are thankful for what we have.” “So that we give back.” “So that they know we care.” “So that we don’t live in greed.” “So that God knows we appreciate all.” “So that we do something meaningful.”
The Spirit Journey Native Youth ends another day. We have prepared for the gift of God in our lives.
Submitted by Kaze Gadway works with the emerging leaders of the Native community in northern Arizona, youth of promise, ages 12 to 20.
News from Minnesota
The First Nations Kitchen (FNK) celebrated its third anniversary of serving organic/indigenous meals to the local community every Sunday evening at All Saints Episcopal Indian Mission, Minneapolis, Minn. Partnerships include seven metro Episcopal faith communities and the Native American Law Students Association of William Mitchell School of Law. In 2012 it is anticipated that we will add three to four new partners. This network of volunteers and our collective focus on the Gospel strengthens our dedication to making high quality, healthy food available to the Native Community and to all. Recognizing the value of this ministry a friend of FNK has donated the money enabling us to purchase a buffalo. The meat, hide and other parts of the buffalo will put to good use by this culturally intrinsic program. For more information about FNK visit FirstNationsKitchen.org.
On the evening of Sunday, Dec. 11 the four Episcopal Faith Communities on the White Earth Reservation will honor the White Earth Ojibwa Hymn Singers with a plaque dedication at the tribal headquarters. The plaque will list the names of all the Hymn Singers past and present. Below is a brief historical overview of the Hymn Singers by Michael McNally, a professor at Carleton College. This overview covers the tradition of the Lenten Hymn Singing that takes place on the Sunday evenings during Lent. Each of the Faith Communities on the Leech Lake, Red Lake and White Earth Reservations takes a turn hosting this gathering. The hymnal that was translated and compiled by the Rev. Edward Kah-O-Sed, Ojibwe, in 1910 is still used.
Lenten Hymn Singing Tradition
Michael McNally, Carleton College
Epiphany, 2009
“Ojibwe language hymn singing today is a beautiful, indigenized form of worship, and has much to teach us Episcopalians. When I first heard elders arrive to sing these sonorous laments in their own language late into the evening at a funeral wake in the gym at the Little Earth housing project in Minneapolis, I was transfixed by the beauty of the songs and the sincerity of the singers, and figured, ‘there has to be a story there.’ After many years of oral traditional and archival work, I learned there indeed was, and is, a story there, and here’s how it goes in brief.
I. Missionaries and Hymns
Beginning in the 1830s, missionaries (both Roman Catholic and Congregationalist) among the Ojibwe vigorously promoted the translation of evangelical hymns in the Native language. Translated hymns, the missionaries thought, would be an expert medium for inculcating the Christian story – and also the patriarchal, agrarian, Anglo American culture that those missionaries believed went hand in hand with the gospel. In the educational theory of the day, after all, hymns were taught to children to help them grow into adults. Because most missionaries believed Native people to be like children, needing discipline to grow up into ‘civilized’ people, promoting the translation of hymns made sense.
Interestingly, the translated songs captured the imaginations of Ojibwe people, and singing them took root even among those Ojibwe people who did not embrace the civilizing project of the missionaries. When James Lloyd Breck and other Episcopalians established missions in the region, in the 1850s they incorporated hymns already circulating in the oral tradition and translating new ones in mission worship. But for the Episcopalians, too, hymnody was not simply shared: it was deployed as a tool for rooting out the Indianness of Native people.
Even Bishop Whipple, for all his advocacy on Indian affairs was not immune to these views of his time, literally calling Ojibwe hymn singing ‘the sound of civilization.’ In 1880, Whipple mistook the beauty of hymn singing as a rejection of all things Indian:
‘No music so blinds my eyes with tears as the songs of these Christian Indians. Indian voices are very sweet and you could not believe that they were the same voices you have heard in the wild heathen grand medicine or the horrid scalp dances.’
The good news is that the Gospel is bigger than the boxes to which missionaries tried to confine it. Through all the noise of missionaries’ talk of civilization, many Ojibwe people heard a truth in those hymns and the Gospel message they carried. Translated into their language, they made the hymns their own and in no small part through those songs began a new story and it to their story we turn to understand the beauty of hymn singing today.
II. Ojibwe Hymn Singing
Ojibwe hymns, as with Episcopal communities took deep root among Ojibwe people during the darkest days of their history. In the 1870s and 1880s, while they were legally confined to reservations, deprived of the land and resources needed to make their own subsistence, (even the reliable wild rice crop had been flooded out in 1889 by dams created to make the Mississippi navigable to St. Paul), and suffering from epidemics of tuberculosis, malnutrition, and internal violence, many Ojibwe people turned to the Episcopalian communities at White Earth, Red Lake, and Leech Lake that were led by Native clergy and anchored by the elder women and men.
Pooling resources and creating strong networks across factional lines of family, band, and reservation, these communities of Anami’aajig (those who pray, Christians) lived out traditional Ojibwe ethics of hospitality, economic communalism, and the leadership of elders and wedded those traditional ethics with the Christian message and with Christian forms of worship. Ojibwe language hymns graced nearly every gathering of these communities: nightly prayer meetings, sickbed, funeral wakes, and Sunday worship.
The hymns set the tone and rhythm of the new life, and they are today remembered less as the stuff of cultural chauvinism with which they were originally deployed by those missionaries and more as the “Ojibwe songs” of those faithful Ojibwe people, making a new traditional way under difficult circumstances. In the 125 years, since, the hymns have become deeply associated with the deep wisdom of Ojibwe deacons, priests, and elders like Enmegabowh, Madwegononind, Edmund Kah-O-Sed, Suzanna Equaymedogay Wright, the Rev. George Smith, and the contemporary elders in those communities who are the principal singers.
III. Hymn Singing at Lent
Along the way, there emerged a tradition of gathering each Sunday during Lent to sing hymns, witness, and pray. The tradition likely goes back much before the 1950s, when it first shows up in the documentary record, but in any event it annually recreates a journey that stitches together the traditional communities of the Anami’aajig on the Northern reservations. Always beginning with Onigum village on the Leech Lake, and proceeding through Cass Lake, and other communities on the Red Lake and White Earth communities, and completing the journey at the mother church, St. Columba’s, White Earth. As with virtually any sacred moment in Ojibwe life, the sings begin with food, and often foods of the land: wild rice, deer meat, swamp tea, and of course Jello.
In keeping with this rich tradition, the hymns are always sung a cappella, beginning with #25 Ondashan Kiche Ochichag (“Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove”), and following with songs chosen by respected elders, who also set the texts to any number of tunes that agree in meter. Although hymn books remind singers of the texts, the bulk of this musical knowledge is carried in the oral tradition, where most knowledge of traditional importance remains.
The songs typically are sung very slowly, with a dignified calm and sense of sincere purpose, though it is subtly up to each song leader to set that tone. There is no metronome or piano or even clergy that regulates the life of these songs: importantly, they proceed according to the spirit. The language in which they are sung is a rich, imagistic language: the language that belongs to this land and which is tied to it in important ways. There are many ways that the Ojibwe language draws out distinctive themes and important matters of the Gospel, but it is also important that the songs bear the language as a living entity.
What happens between songs is as important to the sings as what happens during the singing. People – especially lay elders – may stand and offer prayers or testimony about their own faith, or words of advice and encouragement for others. The documentary record shows that such words have been offered whenever hymns were sung, giving hope to the people. So listen to these words, and this beautiful singing tradition. They teach much about the Christian life.”
Submitted by The Rev. Canon Robert Two Bulls, Oglala Lakota Oyate, is the missioner for Indian Work and Multicultural Ministry for the Diocese of Minnesota. Fr. Two Bulls serves as the Director of the Dept. of Indian Work and is the vicar of All Saints Indian Mission in Minneapolis, Minn.
On the evening of Sunday, Dec. 11 the four Episcopal Faith Communities on the White Earth Reservation will honor the White Earth Ojibwa Hymn Singers with a plaque dedication at the tribal headquarters. The plaque will list the names of all the Hymn Singers past and present. Below is a brief historical overview of the Hymn Singers by Michael McNally, a professor at Carleton College. This overview covers the tradition of the Lenten Hymn Singing that takes place on the Sunday evenings during Lent. Each of the Faith Communities on the Leech Lake, Red Lake and White Earth Reservations takes a turn hosting this gathering. The hymnal that was translated and compiled by the Rev. Edward Kah-O-Sed, Ojibwe, in 1910 is still used.
Lenten Hymn Singing Tradition
Michael McNally, Carleton College
Epiphany, 2009
“Ojibwe language hymn singing today is a beautiful, indigenized form of worship, and has much to teach us Episcopalians. When I first heard elders arrive to sing these sonorous laments in their own language late into the evening at a funeral wake in the gym at the Little Earth housing project in Minneapolis, I was transfixed by the beauty of the songs and the sincerity of the singers, and figured, ‘there has to be a story there.’ After many years of oral traditional and archival work, I learned there indeed was, and is, a story there, and here’s how it goes in brief.
I. Missionaries and Hymns
Beginning in the 1830s, missionaries (both Roman Catholic and Congregationalist) among the Ojibwe vigorously promoted the translation of evangelical hymns in the Native language. Translated hymns, the missionaries thought, would be an expert medium for inculcating the Christian story – and also the patriarchal, agrarian, Anglo American culture that those missionaries believed went hand in hand with the gospel. In the educational theory of the day, after all, hymns were taught to children to help them grow into adults. Because most missionaries believed Native people to be like children, needing discipline to grow up into ‘civilized’ people, promoting the translation of hymns made sense.
Interestingly, the translated songs captured the imaginations of Ojibwe people, and singing them took root even among those Ojibwe people who did not embrace the civilizing project of the missionaries. When James Lloyd Breck and other Episcopalians established missions in the region, in the 1850s they incorporated hymns already circulating in the oral tradition and translating new ones in mission worship. But for the Episcopalians, too, hymnody was not simply shared: it was deployed as a tool for rooting out the Indianness of Native people.
Even Bishop Whipple, for all his advocacy on Indian affairs was not immune to these views of his time, literally calling Ojibwe hymn singing ‘the sound of civilization.’ In 1880, Whipple mistook the beauty of hymn singing as a rejection of all things Indian:
‘No music so blinds my eyes with tears as the songs of these Christian Indians. Indian voices are very sweet and you could not believe that they were the same voices you have heard in the wild heathen grand medicine or the horrid scalp dances.’
The good news is that the Gospel is bigger than the boxes to which missionaries tried to confine it. Through all the noise of missionaries’ talk of civilization, many Ojibwe people heard a truth in those hymns and the Gospel message they carried. Translated into their language, they made the hymns their own and in no small part through those songs began a new story and it to their story we turn to understand the beauty of hymn singing today.
II. Ojibwe Hymn Singing
Ojibwe hymns, as with Episcopal communities took deep root among Ojibwe people during the darkest days of their history. In the 1870s and 1880s, while they were legally confined to reservations, deprived of the land and resources needed to make their own subsistence, (even the reliable wild rice crop had been flooded out in 1889 by dams created to make the Mississippi navigable to St. Paul), and suffering from epidemics of tuberculosis, malnutrition, and internal violence, many Ojibwe people turned to the Episcopalian communities at White Earth, Red Lake, and Leech Lake that were led by Native clergy and anchored by the elder women and men.
Pooling resources and creating strong networks across factional lines of family, band, and reservation, these communities of Anami’aajig (those who pray, Christians) lived out traditional Ojibwe ethics of hospitality, economic communalism, and the leadership of elders and wedded those traditional ethics with the Christian message and with Christian forms of worship. Ojibwe language hymns graced nearly every gathering of these communities: nightly prayer meetings, sickbed, funeral wakes, and Sunday worship.
The hymns set the tone and rhythm of the new life, and they are today remembered less as the stuff of cultural chauvinism with which they were originally deployed by those missionaries and more as the “Ojibwe songs” of those faithful Ojibwe people, making a new traditional way under difficult circumstances. In the 125 years, since, the hymns have become deeply associated with the deep wisdom of Ojibwe deacons, priests, and elders like Enmegabowh, Madwegononind, Edmund Kah-O-Sed, Suzanna Equaymedogay Wright, the Rev. George Smith, and the contemporary elders in those communities who are the principal singers.
III. Hymn Singing at Lent
Along the way, there emerged a tradition of gathering each Sunday during Lent to sing hymns, witness, and pray. The tradition likely goes back much before the 1950s, when it first shows up in the documentary record, but in any event it annually recreates a journey that stitches together the traditional communities of the Anami’aajig on the Northern reservations. Always beginning with Onigum village on the Leech Lake, and proceeding through Cass Lake, and other communities on the Red Lake and White Earth communities, and completing the journey at the mother church, St. Columba’s, White Earth. As with virtually any sacred moment in Ojibwe life, the sings begin with food, and often foods of the land: wild rice, deer meat, swamp tea, and of course Jello.
In keeping with this rich tradition, the hymns are always sung a cappella, beginning with #25 Ondashan Kiche Ochichag (“Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove”), and following with songs chosen by respected elders, who also set the texts to any number of tunes that agree in meter. Although hymn books remind singers of the texts, the bulk of this musical knowledge is carried in the oral tradition, where most knowledge of traditional importance remains.
The songs typically are sung very slowly, with a dignified calm and sense of sincere purpose, though it is subtly up to each song leader to set that tone. There is no metronome or piano or even clergy that regulates the life of these songs: importantly, they proceed according to the spirit. The language in which they are sung is a rich, imagistic language: the language that belongs to this land and which is tied to it in important ways. There are many ways that the Ojibwe language draws out distinctive themes and important matters of the Gospel, but it is also important that the songs bear the language as a living entity.
What happens between songs is as important to the sings as what happens during the singing. People – especially lay elders – may stand and offer prayers or testimony about their own faith, or words of advice and encouragement for others. The documentary record shows that such words have been offered whenever hymns were sung, giving hope to the people. So listen to these words, and this beautiful singing tradition. They teach much about the Christian life.”
Submitted by The Rev. Canon Robert Two Bulls, Oglala Lakota Oyate, is the missioner for Indian Work and Multicultural Ministry for the Diocese of Minnesota. Fr. Two Bulls serves as the Director of the Dept. of Indian Work and is the vicar of All Saints Indian Mission in Minneapolis, Minn.
Dance of the Elders, a Commentary and Reflections on a traditional Purepecha Dance
The sound of “tata tata tatatatata” tapped out by the huaraches grows louder and faster as we approach the great celebrations of the winter months beginning with the Feast Day of The Virgin of Guadalupe through the Feast of the Presentation.
Each year, beginning in November, about 100 people gather three times a week to practice the traditional “Dance of the Elders,” which originated with the Purepecha people in the modern Mexican state of Michoacán. The Purepecha called the land home long before Europeans arrived.
The first time I saw the dance preformed, I was drawn into its spirit, colorful, energetic, and entertaining to say the least but, there was something else, it was peeking into a culture I did not know a lot about. The “Dance” however was inviting me to explore something that took this immigrant community and first generation non-immigrant children back to a time to find their hearts, soul and roots.
I have been watching the practices and the dance for seven years now and have learned bits and pieces about it. When I was asked to write this article, I thought “OK, I will try to tell what I know – which is so little and so presumptuous. What follows is a result of conversations around three questions with seven Purepecha people who have found their way into The Episcopal Church, and bless us with maintaining and sharing traditional music, dance, food and ceremony, and insight into the impact of immigration on native people from Mexico. Included in the seven are two children who have never been to Mexico.
What is this dance about?
Minerva, a college educated native of Tanaquio, Michoacán says it is a traditional dance of Michoacán and it was developed to mock Europeans. The white masks were added to highlight the quicker aging process of white people than brown people. Juan, a carpenter by day and instructor of traditional music and dance tells me that each Purepecha village has their own version of the dance. The original dance was done by four priests, not Christian priests, but the priests of the indigenous religion. Each priest represented one of the four seasons of the year. It was a dance of thanksgiving. The original masks were red or dark but were later replaced by white masks to make fun of the Europeans.
Today, says Juan, “We do the dance to give thanks to the Virgin and to God.” Mari and Carlos, from Quinceo, Michoacán say the dance is deeply imbedded in their culture; it is something that children participate in as soon as they are able to walk (two and three year olds practice along with the older children, youth and adults). The dance has another name in Purepecha that does not translate well into Spanish “I cannot explain it,” says Mari, “but it is something like dance of the pants.” We had a good laugh over that.
Antonio Flores, who for the last several years has dedicated his time and energy to community organizing around grass roots immigration reform and to founding “Orgullo Purepecha,” (The Pride of the Purepecha). Antonio has become well-versed in the traditions and history of his people. Antonio tells me that the dance originated as a sacred dance to honor God, and the elements of God, fire of the earth and sun of the heavens. He stressed that fire and sun themselves are not gods, but are expressions of God. The dance would go on all night, and it was considered a sacrifice, a sacrifice of energy.
One of the stories about the dance after the introduction of Christianity, is that one year, the baby Jesus was too heavy to be lifted (elevating of Baby Jesus in February is one of the most important events in the Church calendar year for Purepecha communities). The elders were called on to dance, and they danced all night, in the morning it was very easy to lift up the baby Jesus.
The original masks said Antonio were those of deer heads because the deer is the caretaker of the people. Later, the masks became human faces, brown, and were representing the elders, upon contact with Europeans, white masks were added, eventually “the white masks and brown masks became an expression of economic classism and the dance became a joke to mock the white conquerors.” Almost as an after thought, Antonio added that the noise and rhythm of the “tata tata tatatatata” from the shoes represented the end of a rain storm and the water rushing off roof tops.
Why do you come, to practice, even in the rain, snow, ice and wind?
Mari and Carlos say they come to keep in contact with their culture and to give honor to the Virgin who is very important. Juan reminds me that his brother Salvador was the teacher a few years ago, and now he has taken over the teaching. “I have become more interested in who I am as a Native person, especially after coming to the United States. It is very important to protect our tradition,” he said.
Minerva sent to Mexico to purchase traditional dress for herself and her children. She says when she puts on the traditional dress, she feels like she is back with her people and her land. Minerva said she of course has always known she is Purepecha, but does not speak the language. She has learned much more about traditions after she came to the U.S. (mainly through Orgullo Purepecha), and it has become very important to her.
Antonio says “We have to keep the dance for spirituality,” the dancers are not professionals and they do not dance for money. The process for bringing the community together to practice during November begins a few months before. Each household is visited by the teacher who asks for a donation of time and energy. It is understood, that later in the year when the family is in need, the “community of dancers” will take care of them. It is reciprocity. Antonio also says there is a lot of pressure to participate, and to refuse would anger the Virgin or Jesus.
What are one to three things that are important to teach Purepecha children about their culture?
Minerva says it would be language; she is very frustrated that she missed out on learning it, the customs are very important, and that “my children know that they are indigenous people.” Juan says, “it is very important to teach our roots, especially to our children who are born here (in the U.S.).” Mari and Carlos do not want their children to forget where they came from. “They are from here and of here (meaning the U.S.), but they need to know where they came from.”
Antonio has a different request: he says alcohol is abused during the celebrations, and even small children are given sips of tequila. “Please, in the church can you help me to start a campaign beginning with the children on education around alcohol abuse?” We have agreed to take that on in 2012 as a team.
What the children say
I talked with 10-year-old Salvador and nine-year-old Erik, both born in the U.S., and have never been to Mexico. Salvador says, “It is a dance we do for God every year, and it comes from Quinceo,” Erik says, “Coming to the dance of God, it is from Michoacán and it is Purepecha.” Erik speaks English, Spanish and Purepecha, Salvador speaks English and Spanish.
In closing
Each night of practice is a community night, a meal is provided and the hospitality is generous. At St. Matthew/San Mateo, Auburn other church activities are happening in the building, an Education for Ministry (EFM) group for example, and those members who peek into the parish hall to watch for a few minutes are immediately brought a plate of food and welcomed.
At St. Elizabeth in Burien, the community calls itself “Santa Maria Magdalena” after the patron saint of Quinceo, also welcome all who come by. Between the two communities about 200 people are participating in the dance three to five nights a week (three in Auburn and two in Burien).
There is so much here – as we approach this Christmas season, the Purepecha and many Indigenous communities also are observing Las Posadas (The Inns) by re-enacting Mary and Joseph looking for a room in Bethlehem. Like Mary and Joseph, these communities are knocking at the doors of our churches, and we must ask ourselves when do we open those doors? They bring a great gift.
Submitted by Dianne Aid, TSSF, Jubilee Ministry Coordinator, St. Matthew/San Mateo, Auburn, WA
Each year, beginning in November, about 100 people gather three times a week to practice the traditional “Dance of the Elders,” which originated with the Purepecha people in the modern Mexican state of Michoacán. The Purepecha called the land home long before Europeans arrived.
The first time I saw the dance preformed, I was drawn into its spirit, colorful, energetic, and entertaining to say the least but, there was something else, it was peeking into a culture I did not know a lot about. The “Dance” however was inviting me to explore something that took this immigrant community and first generation non-immigrant children back to a time to find their hearts, soul and roots.
I have been watching the practices and the dance for seven years now and have learned bits and pieces about it. When I was asked to write this article, I thought “OK, I will try to tell what I know – which is so little and so presumptuous. What follows is a result of conversations around three questions with seven Purepecha people who have found their way into The Episcopal Church, and bless us with maintaining and sharing traditional music, dance, food and ceremony, and insight into the impact of immigration on native people from Mexico. Included in the seven are two children who have never been to Mexico.
What is this dance about?
Minerva, a college educated native of Tanaquio, Michoacán says it is a traditional dance of Michoacán and it was developed to mock Europeans. The white masks were added to highlight the quicker aging process of white people than brown people. Juan, a carpenter by day and instructor of traditional music and dance tells me that each Purepecha village has their own version of the dance. The original dance was done by four priests, not Christian priests, but the priests of the indigenous religion. Each priest represented one of the four seasons of the year. It was a dance of thanksgiving. The original masks were red or dark but were later replaced by white masks to make fun of the Europeans.
Today, says Juan, “We do the dance to give thanks to the Virgin and to God.” Mari and Carlos, from Quinceo, Michoacán say the dance is deeply imbedded in their culture; it is something that children participate in as soon as they are able to walk (two and three year olds practice along with the older children, youth and adults). The dance has another name in Purepecha that does not translate well into Spanish “I cannot explain it,” says Mari, “but it is something like dance of the pants.” We had a good laugh over that.
Antonio Flores, who for the last several years has dedicated his time and energy to community organizing around grass roots immigration reform and to founding “Orgullo Purepecha,” (The Pride of the Purepecha). Antonio has become well-versed in the traditions and history of his people. Antonio tells me that the dance originated as a sacred dance to honor God, and the elements of God, fire of the earth and sun of the heavens. He stressed that fire and sun themselves are not gods, but are expressions of God. The dance would go on all night, and it was considered a sacrifice, a sacrifice of energy.
One of the stories about the dance after the introduction of Christianity, is that one year, the baby Jesus was too heavy to be lifted (elevating of Baby Jesus in February is one of the most important events in the Church calendar year for Purepecha communities). The elders were called on to dance, and they danced all night, in the morning it was very easy to lift up the baby Jesus.
The original masks said Antonio were those of deer heads because the deer is the caretaker of the people. Later, the masks became human faces, brown, and were representing the elders, upon contact with Europeans, white masks were added, eventually “the white masks and brown masks became an expression of economic classism and the dance became a joke to mock the white conquerors.” Almost as an after thought, Antonio added that the noise and rhythm of the “tata tata tatatatata” from the shoes represented the end of a rain storm and the water rushing off roof tops.
Why do you come, to practice, even in the rain, snow, ice and wind?
Mari and Carlos say they come to keep in contact with their culture and to give honor to the Virgin who is very important. Juan reminds me that his brother Salvador was the teacher a few years ago, and now he has taken over the teaching. “I have become more interested in who I am as a Native person, especially after coming to the United States. It is very important to protect our tradition,” he said.
Minerva sent to Mexico to purchase traditional dress for herself and her children. She says when she puts on the traditional dress, she feels like she is back with her people and her land. Minerva said she of course has always known she is Purepecha, but does not speak the language. She has learned much more about traditions after she came to the U.S. (mainly through Orgullo Purepecha), and it has become very important to her.
Antonio says “We have to keep the dance for spirituality,” the dancers are not professionals and they do not dance for money. The process for bringing the community together to practice during November begins a few months before. Each household is visited by the teacher who asks for a donation of time and energy. It is understood, that later in the year when the family is in need, the “community of dancers” will take care of them. It is reciprocity. Antonio also says there is a lot of pressure to participate, and to refuse would anger the Virgin or Jesus.
What are one to three things that are important to teach Purepecha children about their culture?
Minerva says it would be language; she is very frustrated that she missed out on learning it, the customs are very important, and that “my children know that they are indigenous people.” Juan says, “it is very important to teach our roots, especially to our children who are born here (in the U.S.).” Mari and Carlos do not want their children to forget where they came from. “They are from here and of here (meaning the U.S.), but they need to know where they came from.”
Antonio has a different request: he says alcohol is abused during the celebrations, and even small children are given sips of tequila. “Please, in the church can you help me to start a campaign beginning with the children on education around alcohol abuse?” We have agreed to take that on in 2012 as a team.
What the children say
I talked with 10-year-old Salvador and nine-year-old Erik, both born in the U.S., and have never been to Mexico. Salvador says, “It is a dance we do for God every year, and it comes from Quinceo,” Erik says, “Coming to the dance of God, it is from Michoacán and it is Purepecha.” Erik speaks English, Spanish and Purepecha, Salvador speaks English and Spanish.
In closing
Each night of practice is a community night, a meal is provided and the hospitality is generous. At St. Matthew/San Mateo, Auburn other church activities are happening in the building, an Education for Ministry (EFM) group for example, and those members who peek into the parish hall to watch for a few minutes are immediately brought a plate of food and welcomed.
At St. Elizabeth in Burien, the community calls itself “Santa Maria Magdalena” after the patron saint of Quinceo, also welcome all who come by. Between the two communities about 200 people are participating in the dance three to five nights a week (three in Auburn and two in Burien).
There is so much here – as we approach this Christmas season, the Purepecha and many Indigenous communities also are observing Las Posadas (The Inns) by re-enacting Mary and Joseph looking for a room in Bethlehem. Like Mary and Joseph, these communities are knocking at the doors of our churches, and we must ask ourselves when do we open those doors? They bring a great gift.
Submitted by Dianne Aid, TSSF, Jubilee Ministry Coordinator, St. Matthew/San Mateo, Auburn, WA
Exposing the Doctrine of Discovery: a Journey of Healing and Hope, Part II: Advent 2011, the "Four Directions and Magnificat"
Since early this year a working group of clergy and lay people have been working on a four part series in direct response to resolution D035, passed by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 2009. The resolution repudiated and renounced the Doctrine of Discovery (DOD), a set of legal and ecclesiastical documents and policies providing full blessing and sanction by the Church to the colonizing dispossession (genocide) of the Indigenous peoples and lands of the Americas.
Part one was released this fall, entitled “Looking at Columbus Day through the Lens of our Baptismal Vows,” which included a bulletin insert, DVD, video on YouTube and the congregational resource, “Faithful Reflection for Small Groups, Adults, Youth and Children.” Second in the series is an Advent guide for “Personal Reflection in Light of the Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery.”
Part three will be released for use during Lent 2012 and is a “Communal Reflection and Action in Response to the Repudiation of the DOD.” The fourth and final part of the series “International Lament over the Doctrine of Discovery” will be shared at General Convention at 7 p.m. on July 10, 2012 in Indianapolis, Ind.
“Four Directions and Magnificat,” part two of the series is designed to build upon a rediscovery of the history of the Church and this nation that began with “Looking at Columbus Day through the Lens of our Baptismal Covenant.”(See “The Episcopal Church Exposes the Doctrine of Discovery” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drLnI_k5b6s .
The purpose of part two is to invite people to use Advent as a time of personal spiritual preparation for broader communal work by congregations, dioceses, and regions later on in Lent and summer of 2012. While the long term goals of resolution D035, “Repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery,” call for concrete changes in Church, societal and political structures, policies, and behaviors, those changes will become substantive and more than cosmetic only when we who seek to carry out these changes are ourselves transformed and healed from the inside. The dots connecting efforts to change Church and public policy with the Gospel need to become very clear and to be represented and grasped again and again, “in every generation.”
The idea behind this series is to bring together the shape of the Advent wreath, along side of the Four Directions so as to invite a reflection about the Doctrine of Discovery (DOD), as implemented in the Conquest of the Americas, in light of that familiar Advent text and prayer, Magnificat. Part of the challenge of grasping the extent of damage brought about by the DOD is a lack of knowledge and insight into how the Gospel looks from an Indigenous perspective. The series invites us to hear some of the powerful language of Magnificat:
You have mercy on those who fear you
in every generation,
You have shown the strength of your arm,
and have scattered the proud in their conceit,
You have filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
You have cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly
and use it as an orientation of Christian faith for pondering the implications of the Doctrine of Discovery. As the Four Directions connects us to the web of relationships and gifts surrounding us – a web that helps us to know who we are and how we fit into this world – so might this approach to the DOD through the Magnificat help us to hear this strong critique of injustice, and see other more respectful and gracious ways of being in the world. This sharing of the Four Directions is offered in the hope that those who may not be familiar with that way of looking at the world, may come to appreciate the immense damage to communal identity when such perspectives are lost.
This resource is available, free of charge, on-line from the national office of Indigenous Ministries. It is suitable for four once-a-week adult faith formation sessions during Advent. If the group has not previously heard of and reflected on the Doctrine of Discovery, it is strongly recommended that they watch the DVD mentioned above, first.)The sessions include opening and closing prayers, readings about White Buffalo Calf Woman, the Virgin of Guadalupe, Hannah, Mother of Samuel, and Mary, Mother of Jesus. For each session there is a recommended activity, including: labeling the Advent wreath with the strong language of Magnificat, pondering the Four-Directions for one's community, naming our hungers before trying to feed others, and using Magnificat to respond to some of the injustices of the past.
The planners of this series welcome responses from those who use it. Please send your comments to Sarah Eagle Heart at seagleheart@episcopalchurch.org.
Kathryn A. Rickert, Ph. D. is Chair of the First Nations Committee, Diocese of Olympia, and as a member served as project coordinator of the national planning group for “Exposing the Doctrine of Discovery.”
Part one was released this fall, entitled “Looking at Columbus Day through the Lens of our Baptismal Vows,” which included a bulletin insert, DVD, video on YouTube and the congregational resource, “Faithful Reflection for Small Groups, Adults, Youth and Children.” Second in the series is an Advent guide for “Personal Reflection in Light of the Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery.”
Part three will be released for use during Lent 2012 and is a “Communal Reflection and Action in Response to the Repudiation of the DOD.” The fourth and final part of the series “International Lament over the Doctrine of Discovery” will be shared at General Convention at 7 p.m. on July 10, 2012 in Indianapolis, Ind.
“Four Directions and Magnificat,” part two of the series is designed to build upon a rediscovery of the history of the Church and this nation that began with “Looking at Columbus Day through the Lens of our Baptismal Covenant.”(See “The Episcopal Church Exposes the Doctrine of Discovery” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drLnI_k5b6s .
The purpose of part two is to invite people to use Advent as a time of personal spiritual preparation for broader communal work by congregations, dioceses, and regions later on in Lent and summer of 2012. While the long term goals of resolution D035, “Repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery,” call for concrete changes in Church, societal and political structures, policies, and behaviors, those changes will become substantive and more than cosmetic only when we who seek to carry out these changes are ourselves transformed and healed from the inside. The dots connecting efforts to change Church and public policy with the Gospel need to become very clear and to be represented and grasped again and again, “in every generation.”
The idea behind this series is to bring together the shape of the Advent wreath, along side of the Four Directions so as to invite a reflection about the Doctrine of Discovery (DOD), as implemented in the Conquest of the Americas, in light of that familiar Advent text and prayer, Magnificat. Part of the challenge of grasping the extent of damage brought about by the DOD is a lack of knowledge and insight into how the Gospel looks from an Indigenous perspective. The series invites us to hear some of the powerful language of Magnificat:
You have mercy on those who fear you
in every generation,
You have shown the strength of your arm,
and have scattered the proud in their conceit,
You have filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
You have cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly
and use it as an orientation of Christian faith for pondering the implications of the Doctrine of Discovery. As the Four Directions connects us to the web of relationships and gifts surrounding us – a web that helps us to know who we are and how we fit into this world – so might this approach to the DOD through the Magnificat help us to hear this strong critique of injustice, and see other more respectful and gracious ways of being in the world. This sharing of the Four Directions is offered in the hope that those who may not be familiar with that way of looking at the world, may come to appreciate the immense damage to communal identity when such perspectives are lost.
This resource is available, free of charge, on-line from the national office of Indigenous Ministries. It is suitable for four once-a-week adult faith formation sessions during Advent. If the group has not previously heard of and reflected on the Doctrine of Discovery, it is strongly recommended that they watch the DVD mentioned above, first.)The sessions include opening and closing prayers, readings about White Buffalo Calf Woman, the Virgin of Guadalupe, Hannah, Mother of Samuel, and Mary, Mother of Jesus. For each session there is a recommended activity, including: labeling the Advent wreath with the strong language of Magnificat, pondering the Four-Directions for one's community, naming our hungers before trying to feed others, and using Magnificat to respond to some of the injustices of the past.
The planners of this series welcome responses from those who use it. Please send your comments to Sarah Eagle Heart at seagleheart@episcopalchurch.org.
Kathryn A. Rickert, Ph. D. is Chair of the First Nations Committee, Diocese of Olympia, and as a member served as project coordinator of the national planning group for “Exposing the Doctrine of Discovery.”
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