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Honoring Indigenous Peoples and Alaska Natives in November

In the United States, November is Native American Heritage Month. Racial Justice Ministries would like to elevate the voices and work of our Indigenous siblings by bringing attention to the multitude of events by the ELCA’s Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations. A full list of offerings for this month can be found here, but there are three events that we would especially like to highlight:


Toward Truth and Healing: How Churches Face Accountability for their Indian Boarding Schools

Sunday, November 10, 2024 – ONLINE

7 – 8:30 p.m. Central time

Hosted by the Quaker Church’s Friends Peace Teams, Vance Blackfox and Liz Andress will be joining representatives from Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist and Quaker faith communities to discuss how churches are re-examining the roles their denominations played in operating Indian boarding schools during the 19th and early 20th centuries, in collaboration with the federal government’s policy of forced assimilation. They will talk about the harm done to Native American families and nations as well as the ongoing impacts on Native communities today. Representatives from these communities will share how they are conducting research and approaching questions of accountability, apology, reparations, and healing.

Register


Vine Deloria Jr. Theological Symposium

Monday, Nov. 18, and Tuesday, Nov. 19 – ONLINE

In 2013 the annual American Indian and Alaska Native Symposium at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) was renamed in honor of Vine Deloria Jr., an alum of Augustana Seminary in Rock Island, Ill. (a predecessor school of LSTC). The symposium has been held in November every year since it began 16 years ago and is co-sponsored by the Pero Center for Intersectionality Studies at LSTC and ELCA’s Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations.

All events will be accessible online, and this year’s symposium will focus on Deloria’s book Custer Died for Your Sins.

At the height of the American Indian Movement and beyond, Vine Deloria Jr. played a significant role in strengthening tribal sovereignty for federally recognized tribes in the United States, from serving as executive director of the National Congress of American Indians to serving as a law professor at the University of Arizona during his retirement and so much in between. In Custer Died for Your Sins, Deloria writes about the challenges posed to Indigenous people by non-Native people, the U.S. federal government, churches and others. He offers new ways of thinking about those challenges and a philosophy for how Native Nations and leaders of the American Indian Movement and others might respond. Deloria offers both pragmatic and philosophical wisdom about moving forward toward justice. We challenge readers to consider the questions “How much has changed?” and “Might we still be dealing with similar challenges even today?” Symposium participants will hear from scholars and leaders, who will reflect on the text and how Deloria might be speaking to us today about the challenges we face and how we should respond.

Vine Deloria Jr. Theological Symposium
Presenter information to be posted here soon!
LINK COMING SOON

NEW: A discussion guide is now available to help readers think more deeply and critically about Custer Died for Your Sins, the wisdom that Vine Deloria Jr offers therein, and the challenges Indigenous people still face today. Download the guide below and begin a Truth and Healing Movement Reading Circle with members of your community.


National Day of Mourning

Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024 – Patuxet (Plymouth, Mass.)

Since 1970 an annual march and rally organized by the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) have taken place on the fourth Thursday in November, a day known as the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States but a day that many Indigenous people and supporters have come to know and commemorate as the National Day of Mourning. This tradition and commemoration serve as a solemn occasion to honor Native ancestors and Wampanoag stories while fostering greater awareness and understanding among the U.S. public about the destructive presence of pilgrims and settlers in and around Patuxet, also known as Plymouth.

You are invited to Patuxet (Plymouth, Mass.) to stand in solidarity with the Wampanoag people and the United American Indians of New England at this year’s National Day of Mourning and to gain deeper insight into their vital mission.

If you are interested in joining us on Patuxet (Plymouth, Mass.) for the National Day of Mourning, please contact Jennifer De Leon, ELCA director for Racial Justice, by clicking HERE.

**TOMORROW** Free Class: Indigenous Thought & Theology

Class: Indigenous Thought & Theology

Indian people have unique and beautiful ways of understanding the world. Indigenous wisdom – as it relates to living in relationship with the Creator, Mother Earth and other created beings – should be centered if we want to provide better care for our home and all our relatives. Indigenous Thought & Theology introduces participants to this wisdom and examines Indigenous ways of understanding, respecting and interacting with this wondrous world we inhabit.

No pre-registration is required to participate. Just click “join the class” to attend.

Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024

Class: Indigenous Thought & Theology
2 – 4 p.m. Central time
Presented by Vance Blackfox

JOIN THE CLASS

 

For more information:

The Truth & Healing Movement:  Truth & Healing Movement – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

ELCA Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations:  Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

 

Wearing Orange In Remembrance of Indian Boarding Schools

In observation of National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools which is observed in the United States September 30, we share the following article which is cross-posted from the Women of the ELCA website. The original post can be found here.

National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools

The National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools in the United States is Monday, September 30. It originated in Canada as the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in 2021 when the Government of Canada passed Bill C-5, making it a federal holiday. Canada has done work in healing its Indigenous people and the trauma inflicted by residential schools by designating a day to honor the survivors, their families, and communities.

Why do we need a Day of Remembrance?

Residential or boarding schools inflicted trauma on Indigenous children that is still being felt today, generations later. Indigenous children were taken from their families, some as young as four years old. These children were often put on trains and taken as far away from their community as possible. Many of these children died and were buried on the grounds of the schools. Many that survived were no longer accepted in their own communities. Many of these children were forced to believe in Christianity and weren’t allowed to speak their language, sing their songs, or dance their ceremonial dances. This forced erasure of Indigenous culture is still felt in every tribal nation across the country.

As an Indigenous person, I am a descendant of four residential school survivors, my grandparents. I grew up listening to the stories of how the nuns treated the children at the mission school and how they forced them to cut their hair, learn English, and worship Jesus. In any other context, children worshipping Jesus would be a good thing, but when people are indoctrinated into a belief by force, later there can be some resentment.

I am grateful every day that I received, learned, and was shown the love of God in the way it was intended so that I can help my people heal with God’s good love. I am grateful to be a leader in a church, the ELCA, which is leading the way in reconciliation with Indigenous people.

Monday, September 30, 2024 is the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools. Learn ways you can support this day by wearing orange and more. Visit ELCA.org/IndianBoardingSchools 

Use hashtags #ELCA #FaithAndHealing #DayofRemembrance #WELCA

Learn more about the Indian Boarding Schools: ELCA Truth Seeking and Truth-Telling Initiative

 

 

 

Wanda K. Frenchman is an Indigenous leader in the ELCA. She is a member of the Oglala Lakota (South Dakota) and Lenape (Oklahoma) tribes and serves as the vicar for Native American Urban Ministry in Phoenix, Arizona.

A version of this blog post appears on the Cafe (https://Boldcafe.org) website.

 

 

 

To purchase the orange logo t-shirt, click here

May 5 is Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Awareness Day

May 5 is Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s (MMIW) Awareness Day.

In 2021, as a follow-up to the 2016 Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery, the ELCA Church council adopted the Declaration to American Indian and Alaska Native People by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It reads, in part:

“…We commit to advocacy for and being in solidarity with Tribal Nations, MMIWGR organizations, families, and friends who have gone missing or who have been murdered.

“Indigenous women and girls go missing at a much higher rate than any other group in the United States. Indigenous men also disappear at a higher rate than other males. There are 2 foci in this commitment. One is advocacy. Tribes, states, and the US government can and should pass legislation to coordinate work to alleviate the problem. The second focus is relational. Synod leaders can establish relationships with Tribal Nations, express solidarity, help with prevention, with search and rescue, with comforting the anxious and bereaved. Congregations can, as well.”

How to honor MMIW Awareness Day (May 5) in your congregation:

  1. Wear red (T-shirts available from the ELCA) and take pictures. Use social media to raise awareness. Use hashtags: #MMIW #NoMoreStolenSisters #TruthandHealing #ELCA
  2. Organize a prayer vigil (using this resource).
  3. Include MMIWGR in the prayers for the day.
  4. Say the names of MMIWGR (this would be especially meaningful if you also did the research to identify locally/regionally specific MMIWGR) and light candles for them during worship.
  5. Invite (and compensate) a local Indigenous expert to share on this topic as part of your educational time.
  6. Invite (and compensate) local Indigenous musicians to play/sing during worship.

This new resource guide provides an extensive list of resources that you and your community can use to learn more about MMIW & ways to take action! To download, click HERE.

For more information on Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations of the ELCA, please visit:  Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (elca.org) and Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (elca.org)

A first-of-its-kind education for Indigenous leaders: Theological Education for Indigenous Leaders program launches

The following is cross-posted from Living Lutheran. The original post can be found here.

The inaugural cohort of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary’s (PLTS) Theological Education for Indigenous Leaders (TEIL) launched on Oct. 9 with an opening ceremony and shared celebration attended by leaders from across the ELCA. Photos: Courtesy of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary

Larry Thiele, a pastor in the Eastern North Dakota Synod, teaches a TEIL course as one of the program’s wisdom keepers.

Some of the Indigenous leaders and wisdom keepers of the TEIL program with Moses Paul Peter Penumaka, director of Theological Education for Emerging Ministries (far right); PLTS Rector Raymond Pickett (center); and Francisco Javier Goitia Padilla, director of theological formation for seminaries and schools of the ELCA (second from right).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Centuries after colonial models of education were first forced on Indigenous people in North America, their effects are still keenly felt. Western theological education has remained the default methodology within the church, including the ELCA. This fall, Native leaders from across the ELCA, in partnership with leaders from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (PLTS) of California Lutheran University in Berkeley, are seeking to change that with the launch of the Theological Education for Indigenous Leaders (TEIL) program.

“The TEIL program is a historic and first-of-its-kind opportunity for Indigenous leaders and for our church,” said Vance Blackfox, ELCA director of Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations. “It gives students an opportunity to access education and leadership development—and possibly become ordained—so that they might be even more effective leaders in their communities and congregations.”

Though modeled after PLTS’ Theological Education for Emerging Ministries (TEEM) certificate program—which is offered in collaboration with Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., and the Lutheran Center of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod in Indianapolis and aims to prepare students for ordained ministry in the ELCA—the TEIL program is distinct in groundbreaking ways. “While the timeline looks like the traditional TEEM program, the content and teachers look very different,” said Blackfox, a partner in the development of TEIL and one of its instructors.

“Ninety percent of our instructors, whom we call wisdom keepers, are Indigenous, and the students will experience Indigenous pedagogy, or ways of learning about ministry and biblical studies, that are not offered anywhere else in our church,” said Blackfox, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

The TEIL curriculum was designed by and for American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) leaders, with their leadership and ministry formation and Indigenous theologies in mind.


“Students will experience Indigenous pedagogy not offered anywhere else in our church.”


The program gave its developers the freedom to look at why some of the courses traditionally offered in TEEM weren’t relevant to Indigenous students’ ministry and context, and what would be meaningful for their experience, said Moses Paul Peter Penumaka, director of TEEM.

“One of the first classes we offer in TEEM is ‘Ministry in Context,’ but TEIL leaders named it as ‘Ministry in Indigenous Context,’” he said. Other classes offered in the 16-course curriculum include “American Lutheranism and Indigenous History” and “Truth and Healing.”

“This program that the wisdom keepers put together is their own program,” Penumaka said. “They are defining what land, context, ministry and theology mean to them, for their own communities and their own people. So it is very unique, authentic and charismatic.”

In many seminary courses, the gospel is read through a Western lens, said Penumaka. The TEIL program offers students “an education that can empower and enlighten them, that’s not enforced upon them,” he said.

Blackfox has a personal understanding of the model’s importance. “There has never been a time in my own studies where the class was made up of 100% Native students, from early childhood until graduate-level seminary classes,” he said. “So for the students in TEIL to have that opportunity is unique and will be, I believe, invaluable to the ways they learn and what they learn.”

“Strengthening our ministry”

The inaugural cohort of TEIL, comprised of 10 students representing a range of ELCA Indigenous ministries and congregations, began their program on Oct. 9, Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The program was launched with in-person classes hosted at Augustana Lutheran Church in Portland, Ore., and an opening ceremony and shared celebration attended by leaders from across the ELCA.

“The ELCA has committed to supporting Native-focused and Native-led leadership and education, and to developing future Native leaders, pastors and theologians,” said Elizabeth Eaton, ELCA presiding bishop. “The Theological Education for Indigenous Leaders program is one important way to honor that commitment. Our Indigenous leaders have vital gifts to offer this church, and the TEIL program is an opportunity to meaningfully support their development.”

Joann Conroy, president of the ELCA’s American Indian Alaska Native Lutheran Association (AIAN), agreed. “We’ve been invisible people for too long,” she said of AIAN members and leaders of the ELCA. “Being able to have TEIL is something that not only strengthens our ministry, wherever we happen to be situated, but strengthens the church and recognizes the gifts we bring to the church.”


“The ELCA has committed to supporting Native-focused and Native-led leadership and education.”


Conroy, an Oglala Sioux Lakota pastor who serves as a TEIL wisdom keeper, began meeting with Blackfox and Penumaka several years ago to decide how the program would take shape. Eventually that group broadened to include a team of Indigenous leaders who helped determine what the distinctive courses would be.

“We discussed what the Indigenous pedagogy might look like for each of those classes and who would lead them,” Blackfox said. “We met multiple times to develop this Indigenous learning experience together.”

Blackfox identified several primary goals for the program. “One would be providing quality and appropriate classes and experiences for Indigenous students that empower them to be even stronger ministry leaders in their communities, congregations and Indigenous ministries, both as ministers and with their fellow lay members,” he said. “Two, to allow for their experiences and tribal life ways to also be contributing gifts to their learning environments while in the TEIL program.”

He also hopes to “continue to connect the church at large—the churchwide organization, synods, congregations, individuals—with ways of supporting Indigenous ministries in our church. And this is one tremendous way in which that can happen.”

Seeds planted

The TEIL program is open to lay leaders and those on the ordination track alike. “Students don’t have to be candidates for ordination to be in the program but will be introduced to candidacy in case they do want to pursue ordination,” Blackfox said.

TEIL student Amanda Vivier, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, had been looking for just such a program. “My heart has been yearning for this connection and acceptance as an Anishinaabe leader and as a follower of Christ Jesus, so it was a no-brainer when the opportunity presented itself,” she said of enrolling in the program.

Vivier has served as spiritual director and minister for The Way (formerly Native American Christian Ministry) in Fargo, N.D., and Moorhead, Minn., since 2017 and is seeking ordination. “This is a huge blessing to the Indigenous population of followers of Christ Jesus,” she said of the TEIL program. “It has opened the door for me to pursue becoming a pastor while still [being] very engaged with my family and ministry.”

She has already found her TEIL coursework directly applicable to her ministry context. “In the short first week I spent in TEIL, I picked up teachings I was able to bring back to The Way that following Sunday,” she said. “It has also actually encouraged me to look at the Bible in my lens of an Anishinaabe kwe [woman] and share it in a language that becomes more relevant for the population I’m serving.”


“This is a huge blessing to the Indigenous population of followers of Christ Jesus.”


Gabe Wounded Head is an Oglala Lakota student completing his undergraduate degree at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks this year. He has also applied what he is learning in TEIL to his college campus, where he is a chapel service leader and an active member of Campus Ministry. “I have learned that the idea that there is one path down any road, whether it be education style, church service style or leadership style, is false,” he said. “This program provided me with a unique opportunity to take advantage of a new alternative viewpoint in biblical exegesis.”

In his ministry experience, Wounded Head has found that “most of the people who have turned away from their adolescent churchgoing habits have done so because they’ve learned a new perspective of history, one of the colonized people, that church leaders have historically desired to keep under wraps.” But he believes that TEIL can help enrich people’s faith while also inviting new members by offering important context.

“A historical context creates a picture that the good news was not just meant for the European church, and it wasn’t just meant for the American church—it was meant for the people of God, worldwide,” Wounded Head said. He believes the seeds being planted with TEIL will invite more voices into the ELCA, both from Indigenous communities and beyond current church membership.

When Conroy was in seminary, she experienced that lack of context as a missing piece of her education. “A lot of what I was being taught was very white-focused—my cultural understanding wasn’t being taught,” she said. “TEIL is now bringing those things to the table for our young leaders, where their voice and their cultural relevance can finally be applied to theological learning.

“If you look to the future of the church, if you look at [Indigenous] elders, children, young adults, it really is necessary to keep working toward this. It’s important.”

John Potter
John Potter
John G. Potter is content editor of Living Lutheran. He lives in St. Paul, Minn.

Vine Deloria Jr. Theological Symposium

Vine Deloria Jr. Theological Symposium

In 2013 the annual American Indian and Alaska Native Symposium at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago was renamed in honor of Vine Deloria Jr., an alum of Augustana Seminary, Rock Island, Ill., a predecessor school of LSTC. The symposium has been held in November each year since it began 15 years ago and is co-sponsored by the Pero Center for Intersectionality Studies at LSTC and the ELCA’s Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations. All events will be accessible online, and the theme is tribal sovereignty.

At the height of the American Indian Movement and beyond, Vine Deloria Jr. played a significant role in strengthening tribal sovereignty for federally recognized tribes in the United States. Throughout his work — from serving as executive director of the National Congress of American Indians to serving as a law professor at the University of Arizona during his retirement and so much in between — Deloria influenced how Native Nations, Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people understand Indigenous self-determination and explore ways to further tribal sovereignty. During this year’s Vine Deloria Jr. Theological Symposium, participants will hear from scholars and leaders who continue this work. Attendees will learn what tribal sovereignty means and how securing sovereignty is justice work.

Learn more about this year’s speakers

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Monday, Nov. 13

Symposium Chapel Service
11:30 a.m. Central time

The Rev. David Wilson (Choctaw), Preaching
Bishop of the Great Plains Conference of The United Methodist Church

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Symposium Lecture
6 p.m. Central time

Stacy Leeds (Cherokee)
Willard H. Pedrick Dean and Regents Professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University

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Tuesday, Nov. 14

Symposium Panel Presentation
6 p.m. Central time

Dr. Aaron Payment (Chippewa)
Vice President of Tribal Relations and Learning for Kauffman and Associates

Fawn Sharp (Quinault)
President of the National Congress of American Indians

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Wednesday, Nov. 15

Symposium Chapel Service
11:30 a.m. Central time

Vance Blackfox (Cherokee), Preaching
ELCA’s Director of Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations

The Rev. Dr. Linda Thomas, Presiding
Director of the Pero Center for Intersectionality Studies

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Preregistration is not required to participate. Just click the “join” buttons to attend.