Loving Our Indigenous Neighbors
Loving Our Indigenous Neighbors
Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:37-39)
On Monday, October 10th, in observance of Indigenous People’s Day, the Easter staff watched a film called Gather. This documentary tells the stories of several Native Americans who are learning about and reclaiming their culture, especially through food. Nephi Craig, a chef from the White Mountain Apache Nation in Arizona, opened an indigenous café as a nutritional recovery clinic. Elsie Dubray, a high school student from the Cheyenne River Sioux Nation in South Dakota, conducted a prize-winning science fair project on bison. A group of environmental activists from the Yurok Nation of Northern California, called the Ancestral Guard, worked to save the Klamath river, a traditional source of food for their people.
After watching this inspiring film, we enjoyed a delicious lunch prepared by Darci using a recipe from Sean Sherman, a local James Beard Award-winning chef who uses traditional indigenous ingredients and systems.
A new phrase I learned from the film was “food sovereignty,” which refers to the process of gaining control of the systems of food production and distribution. Food sovereignty is important to the people featured in Gather and to many indigenous people because it creates access to much healthier food, especially since many indigenous people live in food deserts, without nearby grocery stores. Food sovereignty can also be a way of reclaiming indigenous culture and taking steps to heal from the trauma of colonialism.
This August at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, a document was presented that acknowledged our church’s past mistreatment of indigenous people. You can read the full declaration at the link below, but it states in part,
We confess that we, as a church with European and immigrant roots, have benefited from and perpetrated settler colonialism…We do not understand the implications of the broken treaties that have benefited settlers and decimated sovereign nations. We commit to better understanding the Doctrine of Discovery, identifying the ways in which it is still used to oppress Indigenous people, and how best to realize our church’s repudiation of such a sinful ideology.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to acknowledge our role in the harm caused to indigenous people, including their food and culture. The race and equity team at Easter are leading important efforts to learn and to stand in solidarity with our indigenous neighbors. I am grateful for the ways they are helping us to better love our neighbors.
A prayer by Kelly Sherman-Conroy (Oglala Sioux Tribe)
Creator, you made the world and declared it to be good:
The beauty of the trees, the softness of the air,
The fragrance of the grass speaks to us;
The summit of the mountains, the thunder of the sky,
The rhythm of the lakes speaks to us;
The faintness of the stars, the freshness of the morning,
The dewdrops on the flower speak to us.
But above all, our heart soars, for you speak to us
In your Son, Jesus Christ,
In whose name we offer these prayers.
Amen.
A Declaration of the ELCA to American Indian and Alaska Native People