Editor/Historical Activist: Terri Jean
Director of The Red Roots Educational Project
Contact: the_native_truth@yahoo.com
Established year 2000

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When Religion is a Weapon of Mass Destruction... there is no Freedom
by Terri Jean

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"[Education] cuts the cord that binds [Indians] to a Pagan
life, places the Bible in their hands, substitutes the true God for
the false one, Christianity in place of idolatry…cleanliness in
place of filth, industry in place of idleness."
~ 1887 Superintendent of Indian Education Annual Report ~
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When Religion is a Weapon of Mass Destruction

In the United States, the concept of religious freedom has long been
a founding creed seemingly uniting all citizens together. But freedom
of religion is not the same for all Americans. Prejudices and
self-imposed proclamations of cultural superiority have long enabled
certain groups to use religion as a weapon AND an
excuse/justification for mistreatment of people they deem inferior
to themselves.

In the last few hundred years, the United States government has done
all that it could to force this continents first people to assimilate
into "civilized" white culture. Religious persecution was
felt time and time again when policy after policy was passed
authorizing the taking of children from their families and placed in
"white" boarding schools, ceremonial dances and practices
were outlawed, leaders were placed in prison for refusing to conform
and convert to Christianity, and entire Native nations were placed in
dirty, designated confinements - living as wards of the government
and of the armed services.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution says that
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The original draft, written
by Madison, read: ''The civil rights of none shall be abridged on
account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national
religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of
conscience be in any manner, or on any pretense, infringed." Yet
it wasn't until August 11th of 1978 did the US Congress recognize
the Native American peoples freedom to believe, express, and exercise
their native traditional religions. This act stated that
...henceforth it shall be the policy of the United States to protect
and preserve for American Indians their inherent right to freedom to
believe, express, and exercise the traditional religions of the
American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, and Native Hawaiians, including but
not limited to access to sites, use and possession of sacred objects,
and the freedom to worship through ceremonial and traditional
rites."

It is evident that the United States has a catastrophic record of
religious suppression and the attempt to eradicate Native culture,
religion and communities. Treating indigenous nations as godless
pagans in need of conversion - and therefore denying them of their
religious freedom - has long been a TRUE founding American creed ...
a tragic legacy of Christopher Columbus, the Puritans and others who
claimed to be doing their work in the name of God and country.

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" ... [W]e bestow suitable favors and special graces on those
Catholic kings and princes,... champions of the Christian faith ...
to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all... pagans
whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and ...
to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to apply and
appropriate ... possessions, and goods, and to convert
them to ... their use and profit ..."
~ Romanus Pontifex, January 8, 1455 ~
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The Spanish Invasion
The attitude of the invading Spanish towards the indigenous people of
the western hemisphere in the fifteenth and sixtieth centuries was
that of conquest, domination, subjection and slave
ry."Indians" were considered uncivilized savage beings in
need
salvation and conversion to Christianity became a `Do or Die'
option.
Those who did not comply and pledge their allegiance to Spain and to
the Pope would be subjected to forced baptisms, incarceration,
beatings,humiliation, torture, the loss of limbs, the waging of war
and even death.

Christopher Columbus
The Taino Indians were generous and hospitable to Christopher
Columbus and his crew in 1492. Columbus himself reported that the
Tainos were "So tractable, so peaceable, are these people, that I
swear to your Majesties there is not in the world a better nation.
They love their neighbors as themselves, and their discourse is ever
sweet and gentle, and accompanied with a smile..." Though hailed for
their unbelievable kindness, Columbus also stated, "I could conquer
the whole of them with fifty men, and govern them as I pleased."

During his second voyage, Columbus laid out his self-righteous plan
for control of the "New World" by stating "I certify to you
that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your
country and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that
we
can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church
and of Their Highnesses. We shall take you and your wives and your
children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and
dispose of them as Their Highnesses may command. And we shall take
your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can,
as to vassals who do not obey and refuse to receive their lord and
resist and contradict him."

All of this, Columbus asserted, was done in the name of the Church -
and to people who he knew to be peaceful, loving, and kind.

What Followed....
Salvation soon became synonymous with cruelty, destructiveness, and
callousness. Spanish missionaries raided and collected individuals
from distant villages, forcing them to submit to Spanish rule,
BRANDING them with religious symbols, and demanding the
"converts" to work as slaves physical and even sexual slaves.

The Spanish were known for their torturous cruelties. In the name of
Christ Our Savior, they hung thirteen Natives just above the ground
and tested their swords against their bodies; cutting some completely
in two and gutting open others. Some were burned alive, used for
target practice, and even babies were hung from trees while hungry
dogs ate them piece by piece. A Dominican fryer recorded this event,
"Some Christians encounter an Indian woman, who was carrying in her
arms a child at suck; and since the dog they had with them was
hungry, they tore the child from the mothers arms and flung it still
living to the dog, who proceeded to devour it before the mothers
eyes."

The acts of Columbus and the entourage that soon followed caused the
death of over 4 million people. Though many died of disease, others
perished either by the hands of the Spanish or from that of their own
- since suicide seemed the only option for many.

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"[T]he changing of the language of a barbarous people, into the
speech of a more civil and potent nation that have conquered them,
hath been an approved experiment, to reduce such a people unto the
civility and religion of the prevailing nation."
~ Daniel Gookin~ New England, 1674
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The Pilgrims, the Puritans, and the inhuman Pagans
In 1620, the Pilgrims first came to the Americas. 10 years later, the
Puritans arrive and lay claim to land in Massachusetts. Both sects
came for religious freedom (with the Puritans believing they were on
a mission from God to create the perfect Christian society.) The
Natives were considered the children of Satan by the Puritans, and
they celebrated a smallpox epidemic of 1633-35, which devastated the
aboriginal population, by claiming it to be "a remarkable and
terrible stroke of God upon the Natives." Using their God as a
rationalization for death and the theft of land, the white invaders
of the seventeenth century celebrated the murdering of men, women and
children - some of which were burnt together while trapped in village
homes and buildings.

"It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire and the
streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stink and
scent thereof; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they
gave the praise thereof to God" ~ Governor William Bradford ~
Plymouth

The birth of the Plymouth Plantation, the first permanent English
colony in the Americas, was the birth of American contradiction and
religious racism. Those same people who sought religious freedom in
the "New World" denied the right for others to live unlike
themselves.

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"How inhuman it was in those wretches to come into a country
where nature shone in beauty, spreading her wings over the vast
continent, sheltering beneath her shades those natural sons of an
Almighty Being, that shone in grandeur and lustre like stars of the
first magnitude in the heavenly world; whose virtues far surpassed
their more enlightened foes, notwithstanding their pretended zeal
for religion and virtue. How they could go to work to enslave a free
people, and call it religion, is beyond the power of my imagination,
and out-strips the revelation of God's world. Oh, thou
pretended hypocritical Christian, whoever thou art, to say it was the
design of God, that we should murder and slay one another, because we
have the power."
~ William Apes (Appes, Apees) ~ January 6, 1836, Pequot Indian.
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Religious Subjugation and Manifest Destiny
The first two centuries of European exploration and colonization
brought forth manipulation and prejudice to the indigenous people -
with no regards to the lives of millions who rightfully inhabited
this continent for thousands of years. The Spanish had no regard for
the life of the innocent people they were slaughtering, and the
Pilgrims and Puritans felt it was their godly right to murder those
who thought differently than themselves. Both groups used their
religion to achieve what they wanted: total domination of people and
of land. Human lives were of no consequence.

In the 1700's, Spanish aggressors located land they deemed
valuable, built forts to protect their people, laid claims to the
property, sought out Natives for conversion, and once the people were
herded together where they could be captured and controlled, a work
forced was commandeered by the Europeans who then used the Natives as
slaves.Those captured were forced to convert to a "civilized"
faith and then forbidden to return to their people. Harsh penalties
were received if they tried to escape.

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"The establishment of Christian missions should be encouraged,
and their schools fostered… The religion of our blessed Savior
is believed to be the most effective agent for the civilization of
any people."
~ Board of Indian Commissioners Annual Report ~ 1869

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"He is ignoble--base and treacherous, and hateful in every way. Not
even imminent death can startle him into a spasm of virtue. The
ruling trait of all savages is a greedy and consuming selfishness,
and in our Noble Red Man it is found in its amplest development."
~ Mark Twain ~ "The Noble Red Man," 1870
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Eventually government policy shifted and the sentiment of the growing
European settlements pushed towards "taming" the indigenous
communities with Christianity. Missionaries set out to
"civilize" and assimilate, therefore remaking the Native
population in the image of their white dictators. Missionary schools
were established and children were forced to leave their families and
reside at a military-type school; forbidden to speak their own
language or practice their own religion, the Indian children were
given civilized names and civilized instructions as how NOT to be an
Indian. Parents were kept from their children so their involvement
could be kept to a minimum, many children were given difficult,
laborious "chores," and hash punishment was dispensed to
those who disobeyed. The goal was to erase the "Indian" from
the
Indians... therefore turning "dirty savages" into presentable
civilized people. In 1869 the Board of Indian Commissioners Annual
Report concluded that "The legal status of the uncivilized
Indians
should be that of wards of the government;the duty of the latter
being
to protect them, to educate them in industry, the arts of
civilization, and the principles of Christianity…"

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" The missionary authorities have an entire race placed under
their control, to treat with in accordance with the teachings
of our higher Christian civilization."
~ Columbus Delano ~ Secretary of the Interior, late 19th century
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[T]he great evils in the way of their ultimate civilization lie in
these dances. The dark superstitions and unhallowed rites of a
heathenish as gross as that of India or Central Africa still infects
them with its insidious poison, which, unless replaced by Christian
civilization, must sap their very life blood.
~ J.H. Fleming ~ 1882 Commissioner of Indian Affairs Annual Report
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The Forbidden Ghost Dance

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"[I]f it is the purpose of the Government to civilize the
Indians, they must be compelled to desist from the savage and
barbarous practices that are calculated to continue them in savagery,
no matter what exterior influences are brought to bear on
them."
~ Henry Teller ~ , Secretary of the Interior, 1883
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Throughout the 19th century, the Natives of the Americas had been
hunted, blamed,poisoned by disease, wrongfully accused, and
subjugated to the white mans rules and prejudice. By the 1880's the
United States government had managed to round up most of the
aboriginal population, relocating them to reservations where the
conditions for living and growing food were so poor that the whites
deemed the land unusable. Promised supplies and food rations were in
short supply and if they did arrive, were of poor quality.

Then came the Ghost Dance - a prophecy and celebration of hope,
rejuvenation, vindication and justice. Leaders of the Ghost Dance
preached the rejection of white culture while sensational newspaper
reports from the frontier spread panic among whites who feared
retaliation and warfare. Reports of crazed Indians dancing wildly in
the snow until they collapsed reached Washington and an army was sent
to curtail the bizarre ritual. As panic and hysteria grew within the
white community, the Ghost Dance, and others such as the Sun Dance,
were outlawed and anyone caught doing so would receive imprisonment
or worse. The Native people refused to curtail their religious
practices. The end result for the Natives disobedience was the death
of Sitting Bull and then Big Foot and hundreds of others at the
massacre at Wounded Knee. The Ghost Dance and the Sun Dance would
remain outlawed until the Religious Freedom Act was passed in 1978.

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[The sun dance, and all other similar dances and so-called religious
ceremonies, shall be considered] "Indian offenses, and any Indian
found guilty of being a participant in any one or more of these
offenses shall… be punished by withholding from him his rations
for a period of not exceeding ten days; and if found guilty of any
subsequent offense under this rule, shall be punished by withholding
his rations for a period not less than fifteen days nor more than
thirty days, or by incarceration in the agency prison for a
period not exceeding thirty days."
~ Secretary of the Interior ~ Regulations of the Indian Office,
Effective April 1, 1904
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Five Hundred Years Later
The 1970's was a time of self-determination, fighting for civil
rights, and of public attention focused on Native people, issues and
their losses. Awareness of racism and unjust government actions swept
across the Americas as activists and supporters fought for justice.
Indian tribes demanded changes in the federal legislation concerning
religious rights and freedom, and in 1977 Senator James Abourezk
sponsored the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. The law, passed
on August 12, 1978 and signed by President Carter, states "In the
past Government agencies and departments have... denied Native
Americans access to particular sites and interfered with religious
practices and customs. It would now be the policy of the United
States to protect and preserve the inherent right of American Indian,
Eskimo, Aleut,and Native Hawaiian people to believe, express, and
exercise their traditional religion."

Unfortunately, the act did not allow for certain rights such as the
use of peyote in traditional ceremonies, the bones of ancestors
returned for proper burial, or for sacred sites and burial grounds to
remain untouched.

In 1990 the issue of ancestral remains was decided with the passing
of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
Finally, universities and museums were ordered to return human
remains and sacred objects to the appropriate tribes and/or
descendants. In 1994, President Clinton signed into law the right for
usage of peyote in traditional ceremonies and in 1996 President
Clinton issued an order calling for the protection of sacred sites
and
to provide access to traditional practitioners on such sacred land.

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"This agency forbade the peaking of Indian languages, prohibited
the conduct of traditional religious activities, outlawed traditional
government, and made Indian people ashamed of who they were. Worst of
all, the Bureau of Indian Affairs committed these acts against the
children entrusted to its boarding schools, brutalizing them
emotionally, psychologically, physically, and spiritually... The
trauma of shame, fear and anger has passed from one generation to the
next, and manifests itself in the rampant alcoholism, drug abuse, and
domestic violence that plague Indian country ... So many of the
maladies suffered today in Indian country result from the failures of
this agency. Poverty, ignorance, and disease have been the product of
this agency's work."
~ Kevin Gover ~ Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Department of
the Interior, Sept. 8, 2000.
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Admittedly, Native Americans have come a long way since Christopher
Columbus and his "Do or Die" ultimatum. Unfortunately,
complete religious freedom and restriction of government interference
is not yet a reality. Many issues remain unresolved, including the
following three:

1. Native Americans in jails and prisons are currently fighting for
the same spiritual rights and freedoms granted to those of other
religious groups.

2. The Capitalization of Native spirituality and the New Age movement
which borrows from what is thought to be true Native American
spirituality, but is generally formulated from romanticized concepts
gathered from non-Native books and movies whose authors profit from a
belief system that is not theirs. They sell crystal "healing"
necklaces, give advice from Indian tarot cards, charge for Sweat
Lodge participation, and erroneously leading clients through Vision
Quests and their own version of the Ghost Dance.

"Some people want the medicine man and woman to share their
religious belief in the same manner that priests, rabbis, and
ministers expound publicly the tenets of their denominations; others
feel that Indian ceremonials are remnants of primitive life and
should be abandoned."

~ Vine Deloria ~

3. The third is a subtle form of racism that probably goes unnoticed
by most. It is the way Native American is described by people outside
of the culture. To better explain this issue, I asked James W.
Loewen, author of `Lies My Teacher Told Me' (The New Press,
1995, page 106 and 107) if I may reprint a section of his work that
appropriately describes this third point:

"...In 1970 the Indian Historian Press produced a critique of our
histories, `Textbooks and the American Indian.' One of the
press's yardsticks for evaluating books was the question,
"Does the textbook describe the religious, philosophies, and
contributions to thought of the American Indian?" A
quarter-century
later the answer must still be no.

Consider how textbooks treat Native religions as a unitary whole.
`The American Way' describes Native American religion in
these words:

These Native American [in the Southeast] believed that nature was
filled with spirits. Each form of life, such as plants and animals,
had a spirit. Earth and air held spirits, too. People were never
alone. They shared their lives with the spirits of nature.

"'Way' is trying to show respect for Native American
religion, but it doesn't work. Stated flatly like this, the
beliefs seem like make-believe, not the sophisticated theology or a
higher civilization. Let us try a similarly succinct summary of the
beliefs of many Christians today.

These Americans believed that one great male god ruled the world.
Sometimes they divided him into three parts, which they called
father, son, and holy ghost. They ate crackers and wine or grape
juice, believing that they were eating the son's body and
drinking his blood. If they believed strongly enough, they would
live on forever after they died.

Textbooks never describe Christianity this way. It's offensive.
Believers would immediately argue that such a depiction fails to
convey the symbolic meaning or the spiritual satisfaction of
communion."
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Though it is true that religious dissenters came to this continent
seeking spiritual and personal freedom, it is equally true that they
wanted that freedom only for themselves. Whether they forcibly
converted those who disagreed with them, or considered them
unworthy of conversion, the United States Constitution followed suit
by creating a First Amendment guaranteeing religious freedom while
creating policy to deny that same independence to those who followed
a different path - or born into a certain culture. This is the
epitome of hypocrisy ... and the true foundation of the United
States.
A foundation NOT built on freedom, bravery and independence - but on
control, conquest and forced conversion.

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Bibliography and sources of additional information:

Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven. New
York: Harper, 1993.
Deloria, Vine. "American Indian Religious Freedom." Native
American
Rights Fund Winter 1997.

Http://www.erowid.org/freedom/religious/airfaq.shtml
Http://www.erowid.org/plants/peyote/peyote_media5.shtml*.

Great Speeches by Native Americans, Bob Blaisdell (Editor). Dover
Publications, New York. 2000. (Page 93-115. Willam Apes.)
Todorov, Tzvetan. The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other.
NY: Harper and Row, 1984.
Loewen, James W., Lies My Teacher Told Me, The New Press, New York,
1995

http://www.indians.org/welker/thanksgi.htm. 1-2/
http://pilgrims.net/native_americans/index/htm.1/
http://dickshovel.netgate.net/wampa.html.2-4.
http://www.greatpeace.org/Misconceptions.htm
http://www.doi.gov/bia/as-ia/175gover.htm)
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PLEASE NOTE:

CORRECTION: The last issue of The Native Truth listed author, Twylah
Hurd Nitsch, as an appropriate representative of American Indian
culture. I have since found that this is not true - rather she should
be placed in the 'twinkie' category. Please remove her from my
recommended book list. Thanks.. Terri
**************

Reprinting of this column is permitted as long as you republish the
entire column. Be sure to include the author's byline and
subscription information to The Native Truth. Also, we would
appreciate notice of the articles republication. If you would like to
republish SNIPPETS of this piece, contact Terri Jean at the address
above.
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