A Sad Tale

SAT., MAY 4, 1991, 7:06 AM
FARM, STUDY

You have seen again, and now with some remembrance, a sad tale that is part of the history of your country. From the viewpoint of these Native Americans you white people were an invading, usurping, dangerous people. Though the tale as you saw it told did not include this you white people had an underlying feeling and conviction that I, as the Almighty Christian God, was giving you this land. If there were pagan savages on the land it was right to drive them off or kill them. There was some attempt to bring the Christian Gospel to them, but very little attempt to find out and understand how they related to Me.

These natives were both warlike and gentle. They loved their land, and they loved their children. They enjoyed feasts, and they endured hardship. I gave them a Gospel which was not written on paper but was carried in the spirit of each. It was a Gospel of love for the land and all of its creatures because I was manifested in these. My Spirit was in the wind, the snow, the buffalo, the great stretches of prairie, and the bodies of water. I was in all of existence, and they were to live in harmony with the nature. Thus, their spirits and Mine would be in harmony.

This is not counter to the Christian religion, and I have given you a theology that is quite akin to this native one. However, the dominant Christian interpretation of the time, for you white people, was that I was apart from the earth. I had given it to you, almost as a punishment for disobedience, and you were to dominate the earth. Your ministry was only to other people, and if they didn’t readily accept your message of salvation they were to be hated and slain like animals.

On this continent there was an attitude like unto that of My chosen people, the Jews, as they came into the Promised Land. This was a land given to them by Me, and it almost a duty to drive off and push away these pagan savages who inhabited “their”… and My… land. Because the natives could act in fierce ways… and they did have wars among the tribes… wars that did not harm the earth… they caused fear to arise in the white settlers and soldiers. Fear can lead to violence, and the theology was more of an eye for an eye rather than turn the other cheek.

Isn’t it interesting that the saddest moments of the film for you were the killing of the horse and wolf. Each had been faithful companions when John had no others. Each was killed with an element of fear and a spirit of domination. And you felt no remorse when the soldiers were killed, as if the lives of humans who did not respect the spirits of animals could be taken without regret… a sort of karmic retribution.

Many of these native Americans have not become a functioning part of this white person’s world. They have been given land that is largely unproductive, and their values and traditions do not fit well with your dominant culture. You offer some support to St. Labre School, and you should, for here is the Christian faith trying to minister, through education, to these native children.

I have told you that the dominant interpretation of My Gospel in your culture must change, and, ironically, it must come to more congruence with that of these native peoples. Your dominance is bringing harm to the earth and happiness to only a relative few. It is a sad tale when an energetic, dedicated people cannot change a system that overbenefits some and leaves many others in need… and the earth fighting for its continued life.