American Indian and the Missions

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Chaparral

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Cradle Catholic in need of advice. My American Indian ancestors were decimated in California under the Mission System. I now am on the Tribal Council. The USPS postal service is dedicating a stamp to the Mission our Tribe was affiliated with.A lot of resentment towards the Mission and Catholic history has surfaced on the history of ‘Oppressive Catholicism’ and it’s history in this region even so much as to chastise the USPS for ‘honoring’ the Mission
There is a Council meeting this weekend and it looks like I am to defend Catholicism and it’s Mission system history.
What I have so far is this.
Tribal members were and are in the Military, do we chastise them for serving a Country with an Oppressive History?
The USPS is not honoring, just acknowledging history
Quite frankly I’m at a loss on what else to say at the Council meeting
BTW Our Chairwoman who is Catholic posted the ‘Love Jesus, Hate Religion’ video on FB
Thanks for direction and Have a Blessed Lent
 
Chaparral said:
Cradle Catholic in need of advice. My American Indian ancestors were decimated in California under the Mission System. I now am on the Tribal Council. The USPS postal service is dedicating a stamp to the Mission our Tribe was affiliated with.A lot of resentment towards the Mission and Catholic history has surfaced on the history of ‘Oppressive Catholicism’ and it’s history in this region even so much as to chastise the USPS for ‘honoring’ the Mission
There is a Council meeting this weekend and it looks like I am to defend Catholicism and it’s Mission system history.
What I have so far is this.
Tribal members were and are in the Military, do we chastise them for serving a Country with an Oppressive History?
The USPS is not honoring, just acknowledging history
Quite frankly I’m at a loss on what else to say at the Council meeting
BTW Our Chairwoman who is Catholic posted the ‘Love Jesus, Hate Religion’ video on FB
Thanks for direction and Have a Blessed Lent
Click to expand...
Hi Chaparral,

Born and raised in California here, but I have forgotten more about the study of the missions (only from state education, not church) then I ever knew. Wasn’t the mission “era” long before California was a state though?

Was there specific abuses at that particular Mission? Let’s face it, most of the major cities is California are named for the Missions they grew around. Is this something they wish to suppress?

I no longer live in California and have regretted not visiting more of the Missions. Good Luck and pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance.
 
Chaparral said:
Cradle Catholic in need of advice. My American Indian ancestors were decimated in California under the Mission System. I now am on the Tribal Council. The USPS postal service is dedicating a stamp to the Mission our Tribe was affiliated with.A lot of resentment towards the Mission and Catholic history has surfaced on the history of ‘Oppressive Catholicism’ and it’s history in this region even so much as to chastise the USPS for ‘honoring’ the Mission
There is a Council meeting this weekend and it looks like I am to defend Catholicism and it’s Mission system history.
What I have so far is this.
Tribal members were and are in the Military, do we chastise them for serving a Country with an Oppressive History?
The USPS is not honoring, just acknowledging history
Quite frankly I’m at a loss on what else to say at the Council meeting
BTW Our Chairwoman who is Catholic posted the ‘Love Jesus, Hate Religion’ video on FB
Thanks for direction and Have a Blessed Lent
Click to expand...
Sorry, I would like to know this part of history:
“decimated in California under the Mission System”
Thanks.
 
As disease killed 90% of the indians in the Mission, they were decimated. Padres saw a Utopia for the Indians. Wanting to civilize the savages the indians were trained under brutal conditions. These are human errors. The same errors that Black culture endured and other cultures.
Christianity still shined in the souls of man under these conditions. I would like to point that out
 
The Indians got a better deal from the Spanish than they did from the English or the Americans, that’s for sure. The Spanish saw your people as children to be raised up to be good citizens. The Mission Lands were being held in trust. Then some corrupt politicians secularized the missions, sold the land that wasn’t theirs to sell, and essentially ruined everything. From the east coast, natives were seen as essentially annoying varmints, to be driven off the land. The Spanish missionaries didn’t barter smallpox-infested blankets; the same can’t be said for others.

By the standards of the time, the Missionary Fathers were benevolent.
 
Richard320 Thanks for the you’re summary. Sometimes I think I study too much but can’t put things in a nutshell. You did it well. I will use your summary and my notes to evangelize secularism in the tribe. A prayer will do well. I hope to let every one know a positive outcome
 
hannjomar…Yes St Katherine Drexel. My first grandchild will be Negro/Indian blood!
 
Chaparral said:
As disease killed 90% of the indians in the Mission, they were decimated. Padres saw a Utopia for the Indians. Wanting to civilize the savages the indians were trained under brutal conditions. These are human errors. The same errors that Black culture endured and other cultures.
Christianity still shined in the souls of man under these conditions. I would like to point that out
Click to expand...
I think it should be obvious that the spread of disease was almost always completely unintentional, and was a historical inevitability, because natives in the Western Hemisphere did not have the exposure and immune systems that were the results of millenia of high density living conditions in Asia, Africa, and Europe. The Americas were bound to be discovered by the “Old World” eventually, and when that happened, the germ cocktail that was your average European would be catastrophic for those natives who had no immunity. The same story essentially repeated itself in every corner of the Americas whether those areas were settled by the Spanish, French, English, Dutch, Pourtugese, or Swedes (am I missing anyone?).

So the heart of the question is whether or not the Spanish missionaries perpetrated unjust acts against the native tribes in California. Even if the interaction was detrimental on some level (though I think many of us would suggest that the primary gift of the missionaries was the Catholic Faith, which is really of inestimable value), I think one would have to argue that the there was malice of forethought, which I don’t think you will find evidence of, at least not significantly so, and not by the missionaries themselves.

Without malicious intent, why should the missionaries be blamed?
 
I don’t know much about the tribes in CA, although I lived there many years ago.
I was born in TX. After completing an internship in Galveston, I visited my brother in San Antonio. He took me to several of the different missions surrounding the city. One of them showed a film about the development of the mission system.
You might want to put your focus on why the CA Indians sought shelter in the missions, if the reasons was the same as those of the Texas Indians. Many of the tribes sought sanctuary in the missions and protection from attacks from the more aggressive tribes.
Basically, what we are looking at is war refugees.
We are aware of the negatives, especially the loss of tribal identity that resulted.
I hope this helps. I really don’t have much more to add.
 
You have got to get a hold of the book “Seven Lies about Catholic History” by Dr. Diane Moczar. There is a chapter of the Chuch’s history in the Americas. I have not gotten to that chapter yet but it might have some answers for you. Or maybe someone who has read it can give you some ideas.
 
The Indians were drawn to the Missions more by curiosity. As California natives had one of the most hospitable environments in America, with little aggression. Once there, they were not allowed to return to the tribe. If they escaped they were hunted down and returned by Spanish soldiers. Often chained and separated in inhospitable conditions. One parallel today is that Govmt often sees that taking one from his environment or natural ability and offering entitlement enslaves one today as it did 250 years ago
Any way, I have great anticipation that the Catholic perspective will be well represented thanks to you. I have prayed that we may even work with the Mission again
God Bless
 
Sadly, the Tribal meeting did not go well. But I did try to shine the light of Christianity, and was promptly shouted down. Hopefully it will penetrate some darkened souls. I was called names too embarrassing to mention
At the USPS mission stamp unveiling, The Tribal Chair is going to speak with a twisted tongue and ‘untruths’ to an audience which includes Catholic school children on how brutal (Millions murdered) THEIR Mission was to our ancestors.
No no, I am not done yet to stop this. I doubt that I will be on the Council when I abort this nonsense
Please pray for me and the Mission kids.
 
Chaparral said:
Sadly, the Tribal meeting did not go well. But I did try to shine the light of Christianity, and was promptly shouted down. Hopefully it will penetrate some darkened souls. I was called names too embarrassing to mention
At the USPS mission stamp unveiling, The Tribal Chair is going to speak with a twisted tongue and ‘untruths’ to an audience which includes Catholic school children on how brutal (Millions murdered) THEIR Mission was to our ancestors. She’s calling this a prayer.
No no, I am not done yet to stop this. I doubt that I will be on the Council when I abort this nonsense
Please pray for me and the Mission kids.
Click to expand...
 
As the speech never wavered, I had no alternative but to step down as Tribal Councilmember. Thank you all for your (name removed by moderator)ut. I believe if any thing is benefited from this, it is the fact that open season on Religion in the future, will not be tolerated in our tribe. We are in turmoil since I submitted my resignation.
 
Chaparral said:
As the speech never wavered, I had no alternative but to step down as Tribal Councilmember. …] We are in turmoil since I submitted my resignation.
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I’m sorry to hear that. I hope things stabilize soon for everyone.
 
Hi Chaparel. I wish that I saw this posting a few days ago. I too am an Aboriginal Canadian and our history with the Catholic Church is the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. I am not sure why you felt it to be your obligation to stand up for the church.

I would describe the church’s history with our people has fallen short. It can be best describe in my mind as a checkerboard. While many awesome things were done by the missionaries (i.e. utilizing indigenous symbols and ideas to explain the Christian faith, recording our languages in the form of prayer books, etc., and even in some cases creating the linguistic tools so that we can retain our languages some 300 years after), the church was a tool of the state if honesty were to be held. Catholic and other churches were contracted to have residential schools, etc., and the purposes of those schools was to take the “indian” out of the child and many of the methods today would be considered child abuse.

So when your band members shouted you down, they probably had good reason and to a great degree I stand with our people who reject the church as there are many reasons to do this.

Now, how do we as indigenous Catholics look at things; one is to find that bridging theology that links aboriginal spirituality with basic catholic teachings; we don’t have to be traditionalist Catholics of the Latin type, we can in fact participate in the church through the full expression and articulation of everything the generations that our ancestors knew and learned.

We need to remind our non-native Catholic brothers and sisters, that the work of the Holy Spirit did not wait for the church to arrive some 1400 years after Christ; the work fo the spirit was alive and well, pre-contact America was that North American Old Testament (Read James Treat, an Episcopalean Aboriginal theologian) and that the ceremonies we learned, created, “invented” where responses to the Holy Spirit and our natural connection to the Creator as evidenced through our indigenous and traditional teachings.

Also, if you want to you tube "Aboriginal theologians’ there are a couple of good videos where Aboriginal Christian theologians are talking about that bridging theology between Christianity and our peoples way…

Take care.

Bruce
Trickster (Aboriginal Concept for Transformation)
 
trickster said:
…
Now, how do we as indigenous Catholics look at things; one is to find that bridging theology that links aboriginal spirituality with basic catholic teachings; we don’t have to be traditionalist Catholics of the Latin type, we can in fact participate in the church through the full expression and articulation of everything the generations that our ancestors knew and learned…
Click to expand...
I have seen this before when I learned of the Native American idea of the fourteen generations paired with the Communion of Saints.
One of the differences between the Catholic Church and other denominations is the willingness of the Catholic Church to welcome different cultural expressions. I am not overlooking the past sins of “removing the Indian” from the individual.
 
DebChris said:
I have seen this before when I learned of the Native American idea of the fourteen generations paired with the Communion of Saints.
One of the differences between the Catholic Church and other denominations is the willingness of the Catholic Church to welcome different cultural expressions. I am not overlooking the past sins of “removing the Indian” from the individual.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing that DebChris…I wasn’t aware of that connection. I also remember that when I was in New Mexico, we visited an archeological site “La Salinas Mission” a 16th century Franciscan friary…in the middle of the ground there was a round circle laid out in the original foundation…and the best guesses of the anthropologists is that is where a kiva stood and where '16th century style " inter-religious dialogue occurred…I appreciate adn concur that the Catholic Church has always been more progressive than it protestant contemporaries with respect to indigenous communities…

Bruce
 
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