recently i was given a "Pentecostal Evangel" .... it is the monthly magazine printed by the Assemblies of God. The main article of focus was about the AG missionaries on the Dineh reservation. It starts with how a child was scared because his father conjoured up "eveil spirits" in thier house because of ceremony. We all know that as indian people, our children are "wakan" .... these lies and AG propaganda must be stopped.

I am asking all that read this, to send e mails, write letters, to the Assemblies of God Headquarters in Springfield, Mo. Ask them to stop this cultural genocide of First Nations people .... ask them to remove thier missionaries and allow the people to return to thier own culture and traditions.

I have started to apply pressure to ALL AG churches here in the Springfield , Mo and surrounding areas to ask the AG general council to stop this practice. Remember...there is power in numbers.

wopila

From the end of XVIII Century religious mission was totally fused with a nationalistic drive and Christianization became synonymous with americanization. The missionaries were Protestants of various denominations who were sponsored by east coast societies such as the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission. Despite doctrinal differences, their programs for the Indians were essentially the same: to spread the Gospel and thereby gain conversions to Christianity. Teaching English, in order to read the Bible and moral training was important parts of that program. And this involved instilling in the Indians the 'values' of american society. The missionaries were Baptists, Presbiterians, Mormons...During the following decades they converted to their confession whole parts of tribes.
The results are under the sun (using an italian expression!) and some are those you are talking about, Ndn.
A very sad effect of this evangelization, among the others, was - for me - to create deep division between parts of the same tribe or Nation...
I don't have a complete and up-dated vision of the real situation, but I suppose a lots of Native nowadays are Christan..
I hope a lot of people will join you!
For me, it's a long time I, with other good friends, try 'to open the eyes' of people here about First Nations' genocide...

Here is more on what was written above:In the 1700's each white nation's colonist governor set up his own missionary projects and his own scheme to convert
the "heathens". The friendly Indians fell for the sweetened water and the words of the black robe priest or missionary and his "Good Black Book." But the conservative Indians valued their own religion and the rites of The Ancient One Above and couldn't understand the priest or missionary's words of a God who would punish people in the burning fires of hell and would talk about the wrongs called "sins". It didn't make sense to the Indians for the whites to continually commit wrongs against their own,the black people,and as well as the Indians.The Indians thought that the priests and the missionaries were foolish and confused.These "Good Men" preached peace and brotherhood and in the same breath, endorsed slavery and wars in their nation.The Christian Indians were encouraged to "go teach their heathen brothers" The Indian converts could teach the other Indians the white man's language so that the Indian scribes could understand the treaties. Some of them could listen to the white man's talk though they pretended not to understand what was said.Jennifer

With the government determined to eliminate the Red man still to this date.Why not let the federally recognized tribes be and allow us un-recognized to take DNA test to prove we are red,of course at no expense to them and issue us a card recognizing us this way.At least we would not go extinct as other tribes have in the past.All we want is our heritage to hand to our children.It is nice to know that our country will practice and work to keep animals from extinction.Where does that leave us??? Jennifer

I don't want to undermine the atrocities committed by Christians on the native populations. As a white person I cannot grasp the depth of the damage done to tribes of this land and their progeny. So when I say that Christianity has hurt the white race too, well, I know it is much less than what has been done to ndn's. Psychologically many of all races have been hurt by the teachings of missionaries and such. There is something called Religious Trauma Syndrome which makes sense to me. Being brought up a Catholic I was taught by nuns who, to put it mildly, were nuts. Mass everyday, confession every Saturday (what possibly could a young child have to confess?), fear of eternal damnation, etc. Then when one comes to the conclusion that this all is totally ludicrous, well, one can be pretty lost. I'm not looking for any sympathy; just thought I would post something I find interesting.
http://journeyfree.org/rts/

I think we all have been done wrong.Life can be unfair and I do not understand people who think they are on a power trip to control others.Jennifer