October issue of Response

The familiar tune of Gene Autry's "Happy Trails to You..." brings back memories of cowboys and Indians, the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and Dale Evans and Roy Rogers.

Yet a closer look at our memories can enable us to realize how carefully and consistently our dominant society has taught us to devalue and dismiss Indigenous Peoples.

This issue of Response brings you wisdom and challenges from a number of Indigenous writers.

"The writers ask us to struggle with economic issues and systems including those impacting land use and ownership. They ask us to honor their spirituality and sovereignty. They ask us to become supporters in their struggles to maintain ancestral lands and relationships to the land. They ask for a leadership place at the table to share their knowledge about preserving our environment," says Dana Jones, editor of Response.

"Read, listen, pray. Get in touch with stereotypes and justifications for genocide you've been taught," she says. Then let us explore trails that create space for all God's peoples.

On the cover: Response this month looks at issues facing Indigenous Peoples of the world, like the U'wa mother and child on the cover. The U'wa of Colombia are in a battle to save their ancestral lands from oil drilling. Photo by Paul Jeffrey.

The Rev. Marvin B. Abrams, Seneca, states that storytelling is the key to understanding Native-American spirituality and Native-American sovereignty. Through some of the stories, the reader catches a glimpse of the meaning and lessons. Then, by comparing the Biblical and Native American stories, the reader can begin to look at the lessons of caring for self, family, creation and Church.

"Economic globalization is bringing prosperity for a few at the expense of the human rights and the very lives of millions, especially Indigenous Peoples," says author Carol Kalafatic. Indigenous peoples are peoples, not populations. And it's actions like that of the World Trade Organization that are damaging and threatening these peoples by dismantling environmental, labor and human rights laws. This is the story of Indigenous Peoples trying to be heard amidst the world powers.

Maxine Barnett, 75, is the former conference president of the Oklahoma Missionary Conference of United Methodist Women. "She is also one of the few people who can speak Euchee, a language, culture and People that nearly slipped away in rural Oklahoma until elders came together to remember," writes the author. This story is about the quest and importance of remembering a culture.

This is a glimpse of the diversity of Native-American ministries within the United Methodist Church and the ways these programs are enhancing ministries among Native-American communities.

"In every deliberation we must consider the impact on the seventh generation," says the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. It is also the principle behind sustainable-development initiatives in Indigenous communities throughout the Americas. This is an article about what it means to live with an understanding that social and economic systems need to be governed by a religious or spiritual mandate that requires adherence to natural law. Its a worldview that conflicts with the idea of competition for high Gross National Products.

Frances Smith takes a look at three United Methodist Women-supported institutions serving Native American Peoples: Dulac Community Center in Dulac, La.; Navajo United Methodist Center in Farmington, N.M.; and Nome Community Center in Nome, Alaska.

"In a remote corner of Colombia, near Cubara where the mighty Andes Mountains begin to tumble down to the border with Venezuela, some 7,000 U'wa are determined that history is about to change," writes the author. This is where the U'wa indigenous peoples are confronting Occidental Petroleum. It's a story of the pursuit of oil by a large corporation; the betrayal of a government; the politics of the U.S.; and the plight of a People who would rather die than give in.

Jan. 17, 1993, 18,000 Hawaiians marched on Ioilani Palace in Honolulu, demanding control of the Hawaiian Trust Lands. Their cry was for sovereignty. "The date is significant because it was 100 years since U.S. Marines overthrew the democratically elected Native Hawaiian government in support of the white U.S. sugar-planter hegemony," writes the author. This is the story of the Peoples of Hawaii, their land that was taken by force, the oppression of Hawaiians today, and the ruling that the U.S. illegally occupies Hawaii.

Accompanying the Kaiowa People
by Maria Imaculada C. Costa and Paulo Da Silva Costa

The weaving of hammocks for sleeping; the use of community gardens for disease prevention; bi-lingual instruction for pre-schoolers, and evangelism by involvement with love-- all are projects of Tapeporã Methodist Mission as staff work with Indigenous Peoples of Brazil.

Indigenous Peoples

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