Catholic Church historical colonies persecution of Native Americans

[Daisy]

My daughter came home from catholic school and asked me if it was true that the Catholic Church “tied up the Indians” and whipped them into believing their teachings. I was appalled she had been taught this by the new teacher there at the school. Upon looking into this with Saint Junípero Serra, I found that there was no documentation for this occurring. I notified the principal who then asked the teacher. He said he put it differently and within some more context. I asked for an email for him to explain. This was his email:

I am sorry about the confusion in Religion as well as the feeling regarding Junipero Serra. I did not mean to imply that he was whipping and jailing the Native Americans or that the Catholic Church participated in this. I was trying to clarify that all colonies had taken advantage of the Native Americans because they were seen as souls that needed to be saved and sometimes the punishments were harsh which is what I was trying to imply. There has been documentation of mistreatment of the Native Americans and I think its important to America’s history and to the Native Americans that we respect and honor their culture.

I am not sure how to respond to this or what to do. Any recommendations for me to consider? Thank you.

 

[KevinK]

The violence perpetrated on Canadian indigenous people in so called “residential schools”, many run by the Catholic Church, is also well documented.

 

[angel12]

I am not sure how to respond to this or what to do. Any recommendations for me to consider? Thank you.

What he said in the email is true. It should be taught in history classes. My only question is what grade this is.

 

[Daisy]

I guess it’s bothering me that he’s using blanket statements in his response letter. “All colonies” persecution stemmed from a desire to save souls. Also, this is not a part of their curriculum.

So while I do agree that there were certain instances of persecution in order to subjugate Native Americans into conforming to European thought and culture, I’m very troubled at how he has presented it.

 

[Daisy]

So you think the right thing to do is to ignore?

 

[ProdglArchitect]

So you think the right thing to do is to ignore?

No, but the issue is that accusations like this generally aren’t intended to teach history, but rather to undermine the Church.

It is important to know our history, even the bad bits; it is altogether another thing, and grossly inappropriate, to say that a few bad actors is indicative of the nature of the Church entirely, which is usually what people who being up this sort of thing are trying to imply.

 

[Daisy]

Daisy:

So you think the right thing to do is to ignore?

No, but the issue is that accusations like this generally aren’t intended to teach history, but rather to undermine the Church.

It is important to know our history, even the bad bits; it is altogether another thing, and grossly inappropriate, to say that a few bad actors is indicative of the nature of the Church entirely, which is usually what people who being up this sort of thing are trying to imply.

Exactly how I felt! This teacher has also expressed to the students and parents that he is not very religious. So I question his intent when he is teaching the students these types of touchy and controversial issues.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

This teacher has also expressed to the students and parents that he is not very religious. So I question his intent when he is teaching the students these types of touchy and controversial issues.

You questioning his intent is not the same thing as him actually having bad intent.

He did not say anything that was factually inaccurate. You should want your child to know that people in the church have sometimes done bad things. It is a good thing for your child to be exposed to this now while you have the opportunity to explain it instead of being blindsided by it in college and having that information potentially drive them from the church.

I don’t think there is anything more to be done.

 

[Augustinian]

What he said in the email is true. It should be taught in history classes. My only question is what grade this is.

Just because something is true, doesn’t mean it needs to be taught in public schools. There is only a limited amount of time to teach in school, everything can’t be taught.

The purpose of history is to build interest and knowledge in civics and our current body politic and laws. In America, looking back at the heritage of the American state and the civil war, the American Revolution, and back through our historical forefathers in England and before that in classical Rome, you can see about American ideals and how the state evolved. Even in the case where people didn’t physically descend from the English, they still live in a society which is the offspring of English civilization.

Never ignore anything, but the idea should be to build civic knowledge and pride

 

[mrsdizzyd]

As a high school history teacher (World History, Civics, Government) by training I could not disagree with you more!

 

[catholic1seeks]

What does it mean to be run by the “Catholic Church”?

 

[Daisy]

He did not say anything that was factually inaccurate.

He did say “all colonies had taken advantage of the Native Americans because they were seen as souls that needed to be saved.” This is inaccurate interpretation.

I have already expressed my concerns with the principle and have fw his response on to her. She can keep it in her files along with all of the other (many) complaints about him from other parents. I don’t agree with standing by and letting people miseducate our children because they’re going to run into misinformation anyhow. I don’t think I’m overprotecting them. It’s educating them.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

Not to keep quibbling over this because you have obviously already made up your mind, but it was a common belief that the Indians (and Africans) were savages that needed civilizing. That especially included religious conversion. This viewpoint was expressed by all the colonizing nations.

 

[Daisy]

Not to keep quibbling over this because you have obviously already made up your mind, but it was a common belief that the Indians (and Africans) were savages that needed civilizing. That especially included religious conversion. This viewpoint was expressed by all the colonizing nations.

I don’t particularly disagree with this. I understand where you are coming from, and your concern is that this is a disrespectful attitude to have, and that there was a general consensus that European culture was more advanced. But do you think it’s disrespectful to evangelize other cultures? Is the Catholic faith better?

 

[mrsdizzyd]

Disrespect has nothing to do with it.

The facts are the facts. When your colonizer told you to convert you converted or you would face very unpleasant consequences. This was the widely accepted practice at the time.

This does not negate the fact that Catholicism is the true faith. The reality is that sometimes people did things for the faith in ways we would not condone today.

 

[Daisy]

The facts are the facts. When your colonizer told you to convert you converted or you would face very unpleasant consequences. This was the widely accepted practice at the time.

There was no historical documentation that Saint Junipero Serra educated the Native Americans in this manner. Please provide me with this.

 

[Augustinian]

There was no historical documentation that Saint Junipero Serra educated the Native Americans in this manner. Please provide me with this.

Apparently the administrators at Stanford think otherwise, as Serra’s name has been removed from some campus buildings.

Although Serra High School in McKeesport PA isn’t changing its name even after its patron was canonized.

 

[Daisy]

Stanford did this because of political and social reasons. They wanted to keep their donors.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Teacher has a reasonable response to you, but I would tell him that first of all it is important that he also respect and honor the culture of the Catholic Church to which you, your daughter and probably some of his other students belong, and that second of all he should not be presenting this tying up and whipping as a universal activity of all those associated with the Church because many of the early Church missionaries did not punish the Native Americans harshly. Furthermore, much of the exploitation of Native Americans did not come so much from the religious missionaries but from other settlers from Spain or other foreign countries seeking economic gain.

You might link him to a couple good articles showing this - I know there are some - and also I don’t know if his lesson was only focused on Fr. Serra and California, but if he was talking about Native Americans in general you could also cite examples like Fr. Jean de Brebeuf and the North American Martyrs.

You might also make sure your daughter understands the situation and also understands that teachers tend to be biased against Catholicism so that when she hears this stuff from other teachers or professors, she will know to do her own research or take it with a grain of salt.

 

[niceatheist]

Bartolomé de las Casas, a priest and onr of the earliest settlers to the New World , wrote a pretty damning indictment of the treatment of the natives of the Spanish colonies in 16th century. So this idea that somehow five hundred years ago no one knew that attrocities were being committed is, frankly, totally false.