Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 25

Traditional Native American blanket
 

It is important to note that when we speak of Indigenous peoples, we are not speaking about a monolithic group of people who share the same experience and culture. Today, there are over 500 federally recognized Indigenous communities in the United States of America. 500 communities that have their own culture and language.

“In my culture, I believe we carry pain until we can reconcile with it through ceremony. Pain is not framed like a problem with a solution.”
― Terese Marie Mailhot, Heart Berries

On Holy Thursday, we commemorate the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being” [1325]. Every time we partake in the mystery of the Eucharist, we are giving thanks to God for creation, redemption, and sanctification.

Most common in the United States, lessons about Indigenous and Native peoples are first heard around Thanksgiving. What is taught to children is that Native Americans greeted the early settlers and shared their bounty. Our national myth tells us that the first Thanksgiving was a meal of mutual appreciation where the English Pilgrims gave thanks to the Native Americans. As we know, history is often written by the victor. The history of Indigenous peoples in North America is far more deadly and violent than our national myth leads us to believe.

In order to move toward reconciliation, the first step is to recognize and acknowledge reality. In her book An Indigenous People’s History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes, “to say that the United States is a colonialist settler-state is not to make an accusation but rather to face historical reality, without which consideration not much in US history makes sense unless Indigenous people are erased.” Traces of the Indigenous communities which populated the land we call the United States are found, interestingly enough, in our military. Often the code name “Indian Country” is used to identify enemy territory. Deadly assault aircraft, like the Apache helicopter, often bear the names of Native tribes. Dunbar-Ortiz traces this use of this language to the brutal and vicious warfare that Anglo settlers employed on Native peoples. The claiming of land and resources by settlers and the westward expansion is the result of t genocide carried out against the Native population. This history goes untold in our narratives of Thanksgiving because it disrupts our myths of manifest destiny and the founding of America.

The lasting effects of the genocide of Indigenous peoples and forced displacement off of their ancestral lands continue to impact Indigenous peoples today. Mark Charles traces the impact of trauma from a single person to a community. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a diagnosable condition where acute stress responses continue long after a traumatic event. PTSD is commonly discussed among survivors of sexual assault or veterans coming home from war. It is an individual diagnosis. Then there is Historical Trauma Response (HTR) which is a communal and corporate form of trauma that affects an entire community. HTR is under the umbrella of transgenerational trauma, where trauma is transferred from generation to generation, and the offspring of survivors exhibit PTSD symptoms. This has been well-documented among survivors of the Holocaust, their children, and even their grandchildren. Speaking of Indigenous trauma, Charles writes “this transgenerational manifestation of trauma matches the experience and observation of anyone who has spent significant time on an Indian reservation with a tribe that endured the ethnic cleansing and genocide removal policies of the US government and the horrors of boarding school.”

For Indigenous and colonized people today, there is a movement toward healing through a process of decolonization. The process of decolonization is a process of deconstructing harmful colonial and white supremacy ideologies and dismantling the systems that uphold them. For many, it is about reclaiming history, culture, language, and identity. For Dunbar-Ortiz, “that process rightfully starts by honoring the treaties the United States made with the Indigenous nations by restoring all sacred sites, starting with the Black Hills and including most federally held parks and land and all stolen sacred items and body parts, and by payment of sufficient reparations for the reconstruction and expansion of Native nations.”

Gathering around the Eucharistic table is an act of giving thanks to God. It is there that we partake in the mystery and are in communion with the divine. The Potawatomi citizen and Christian author, Kaitlin B. Curtice writes that “decolonizing our table means recognizing that sacredness moves and breathes all over the place, in all people, in all creatures, in all things, so communion becomes the space in which we say everyone and everything is loved.” She reminds us that decolonization and racial justice are not just for the survivors of oppression but for the healing and reconciliation of all peoples.

Click the video to watch and listen to the TEDx Talk
 

Click the photo to view the article

When did you first learn about Native Americans? What were the stories that were passed on to you? What characteristics or caricatures did those stories hold?

How can you disrupt harmful narratives and stereotypes?

As we begin the journey of Jesus’ passion, what does a reimagined and reframed Eucharistic celebration look like, one that is in communion with divine life and the unity of all people?

Where have I been led in my prayer thus far? What movements of the spirit have I noticed over these past few weeks?