A Look at Christianity on Indian Reservations
On Native American reservations in the United States, Christianity is often a dirty word. To be Christian somehow means to no longer be an Indian. This attitude is understandable-- the history of Christianity on the reservations is sordid at best. In many cases, native children were forced to attend missionary boarding schools where they were punished for speaking their native language, the only language they knew. In hastily erected churches natives were told they would join the rest of their ancestors in hell if they didn't believe in this white Jesus nailed to a wooden cross in front of them. They were told tales of a God of everlasting love yet punished with a sharp whip for daring to persist in their own traditions.
Today the tenor of reservation Christianity has changed somewhat. The popularity of Indian culture in the 1970s spread to the Christian community as well. Now it is not uncommon for priests to join members of their native congregations in their sweat lodges. Reservation churches are often beautifully decorated with native motifs, and depictions of Jesus show a dark-skinned man wearing eagle feathers. Still, however, Mormon and Pentecostal missionaries often ask their converts to give up all native traditions, including events as seemingly innocuous as pow-wows. These tactics have brought them little success. More liberal reservation pastors must fight the perception that it is completely unnecesary to go to church to worship the God whose presence is everywhere. But perhaps most troubling is that harsh missionary practice of the past has eradicated native traditions to the point where nothing is left but vague pan-Indian ceremonies like sweatlodges, Sun Dances and peyote churches. Welcome to Christianity on the reservation today.