JOURNEY the LEGACY
"Honor and Healing our First Nations'
Peoples Campaign"
Why is Honor and Healing Needed?
How You Can Support & Be Involved?
Circle Legacy Center is implementing an "Honor and Healing our First Nations' Peoples Campaign," creating a network of primarily religious and educational institutions interested in rebalancing injustices of the past with the First Nations' Peoples.
Recently several churches have come forward publicly and disavowed the Christian Doctrine of Discovery which has been an important step in healing the collective trauma of Native Americans today. The Doctrine gave Christian Europeans the right to claim the lands and resources of non-Christian peoples or forced them to live under a system of dominance. The Doctrine sanctioned the genocide, dehumanization, and domination of indigenous peoples in the "New World." This doctrine continues to have influence today as it is embedded in U.S. law through Congress' assumption of plenary power over Indian nations and various U.S. Supreme Court rulings. The United States government still uses this archaic doctrine to deny the rights of Native Americans.
Circle Legacy Center is outreaching to other religious institutions and organizations including the United Religions Initiative, the Council of the World Parliament of Religions, Methodists, the Universalists Unitarians, Catholics, the Collegiate Church that are interested in making efforts with this movement in this direction. There are several first steps that can be included in a national campaign that could have major implications for Native Americans, including advocating for the U.S. to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2007, and it establishes a framework of minimum standards for the survival, health, safety, dignity, and basic rights of the indigenous peoples of the world. A national campaign can advance this process and create an outreach to religious and educational institutions to educate them about the significance of these issues and how we can be a collective force for positive reform and healing.
"Five Hundred Years of Injustice: The Legacy of Fifteenth Century Religious Prejudice" by Steve T. Newcomb.
"Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery"
by Steven T. Newcomb
Discovery Doctrine - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
United States Supreme Court Case - Johnson v. M'Intosh in 1823
- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
United States Supreme Court Case - Cherokee Nation v. Georgia in 1831
- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Native Americans and the Law: Native Americans Under Current United States Law" by Lindsay G. Robertson, June 2001.
Why is Honor and Healing Needed?
There has never been a formal honor and healing campaign in the U.S. as there has been in other parts of the colonized world (often called healing and reconciliation). There are many actions that could begin to heal the collective trauma that still negatively impacts Native Americans today as a result of a legacy of atrocities and a history of dominance in U.S. law and policy. Here in the U.S., First Nation's Peoples remain severely marginalized and continue to strive to revitalize their cultures and communities and maintain sovereignty often in the face of substandard living conditions, dire poverty, lack of employment, inferior educational facilities, inadequate health care, as well as exploitation of their spirituality remain issues that prolong the collective trauma of the First Nations Peoples.
Many Native American youth feel a sense of hopelessness, isolation, and powerlessness. This is evident in the current tragic suicide epidemic among Native American young people. Honoring and Healing campaigns can create awareness of the challenges that Native people face and the many contributions that Indigenous knowledge and wisdom has made and will continue make to the world; it can open the door to other opportunities that could assist Native Americans with needed resources for revitalizing their communities.
Despite the odds, Indigenous Peoples worldwide are a testimony to the resilience of their people and their ancestors to survive as distinct and unique cultures. It is time to honor the First Nation's Peoples and their many gifts to the circle of humanity, and begin to heal and bring balance to the profound neglect on the part of our society. In order to move forward as brothers and sisters with mutual respect and dignity under the will of Creator, to begin the healing, there must be an acknowledgement of the genocide and the profound loss of life, homeland, and liberty that Indigenous Peoples have suffered.
How You Can Support & Be Involved?
The focus of this campaign is to support and create a growing movement of religious and educational organizations towards rebalancing the past with Native Americans with specific actions such as publicly disavowing the Christian Doctrine of Discovery and advocating for the adoption of the UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights by the United States and a formal acknowledgment by the United States Government for the inhuman treatment of the children of the Boarding Schools.
In our research for this Campaign, we discovered that some Church institutions have had Honor and Healing Events, and several churches have come forward publicly and disavowed the Christian Doctrine of Discovery which has been an important step in healing the collective trauma of Native Americans today.
The Circle Legacy Center has created this online Network Information Hub so that churches and educational institutions and others can share their experiences, and inspire others to follow in their footsteps. It would also be a place to share information, and facilitate cooperative efforts together.
Initially, this campaign would assist churches and educational institutions (i.e., colleges and universities) to initiate their own Native American Honor and Healing events and initiatives in a manner that is culturally sensitive and appropriate.
If your church or educational institution is involved with Native Americans, let us know, so that we can share this information on our web site. We encourage you to contact your church or educational institution to see if they would like to form a Native American Honor and Healing Committee. This committee would outreach to Native American communities (locally or nationally) in order to create authentic relationships and hear and listen to their concerns, needs, and visions for their people, and to support their self-determination with opportunities and needed resources for revitalizing their communities. This committee may also work to create an initiative to disavow the Christian Doctrine of Discovery.
This collective force of church and educational institutions for positive Native American honor and healing could be also focused to advocate the U.S. to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Tell us how you or your church and/or educational institution
would like to help and support this national "Honor and Healing
our First Nations' Peoples Campaign."
Contact Us!
The Episcopal Church raised the visibility of the Doctrine of Christian Discovery, when in July 2009, the Episcopal Church passed an historical and landmark resolution called "Repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery." The resolution passed unanimously by the Episcopal House of Bishops and by an overwhelming majority of the House of Delegates during the church's 76th General Convention in July of 2009.
The Collegiate Church of New York, established in New Amsterdam in 1628, held a healing ceremony (Healing Turtle Island) with representatives of the Lenape Indians on Friday, November 27, 2009 in the plaza on Bowling Green in front of the old U.S. Custom House (now the National Museum of the American Indian) in New York City.
On December 14th, 2009, the Indian Committee of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends issued a minute analogous to a resolution renouncing the doctrine. The Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Minute read, "We find this doctrine to be fundamentally inconsistent with the teaching of Jesus, with our understanding of the inherent rights that individuals and peoples have received from God, and inconsistent with Quaker testimonies of Peace, Equality, and Integrity."
On Jan. 24, 2010, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tarpon Springs, Florida issued its Statement of Conscience to "repudiate this Doctrine of Christian Discovery, urging its removal from any standing in U.S. law. Article - Indian Country Today
Equally, the Episcopal Church, the Philadelphia Yearly
Meeting, and the Unitarian Universalist Church all
voiced their support of the U.N. Declaration of Indigenous Rights
and urged the United States to adopt and implement the U.N. Declaration
of Indigenous Rights." This declaration was adopted by the
UN General Assembly in September 2007. It establishes a framework
of minimum standards for the survival, health, safety, dignity,
and basic rights of the indigenous peoples of the world. A national
campaign supporting Indigenous Peoples in these efforts backed
by religious institutions could greatly advance this process.
Download Honor and Healing Events and Info (PDF)
These Honor and Healing events are Post Parliament of the World's Religions Events:
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Saturday, October 9th, 2010
"Public Acknowledgement and Commemoration of Native American
Legacy"
Organized by a committee of the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (composed of Mennonite, Amish, Quaker, and Presbyterian church members, Native Americans and Lancaster county residents) to help implement and facilitate this Lancaster Roots 300 Anniversary Celebration event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Mission: "Bring forth a new beginning and healing to our First Nations Peoples by honoring their native cultures and by restoring William Penn's original vision of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to be a place of peace and sanctuary for all."
This event is to be a first step in creating an authentic relationship with Native Americans residing here and supporting Indian heritage in Pennsylvania. The morning ceremony "Acknowledgement & Apology to Native Peoples" event will occur at the First Presbyterian Church, 140 East Orange Street, Lancaster, PA., 10 am to 12 noon - Church Map / Directions. Parking: Handicapped Parking in rear of Church only. Public Garage Parking at Chestnut and Duke Sts. - Public Garage Parking Map / Directions. An "Acknowledgement & Apology to Native Peoples" will be read and religious (Mennonite, Amish, Presbyterian and Quaker), local and state government and Native American representatives will respond. While event is free; because of limited seating space at the Church, advanced tickets must be obtained. If you are interested in attending this event, please email us your request.
In the afternoon, there will be a Multi-Cultural Celebration (Native American, Mennonite, Presbyterian, Quaker, Amish) at the 1719 Hans Herr House, 1849 Hans Herr Drive, Willow Street, PA, 1: 00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. At 2:00 p.m. is the dedication of the site where a Native American long house will be built. The event is free and open to the public. There will be multi-cultural music and dance, cultural & historical exhibits, and food vendors. Map / Directions.
Sunday, October 10th, 2010
Honor and Healing our First Nations' Peoples Campaign Roundtable
Millersville University, Millersville, PA
This event will bring together expertise
and interested parties interested in implementing a national "Honor
and Healing our First Nations' Peoples Campaign", including
respected Native Americans to give some insight to U.S. federal
Indian law and policy and the Christian Doctrine of Discovery
that still affects Native American communities and self-determination.
We will also invite some church representatives from around the
U.S. who are interested in implementing their own regional Honor
and Healing campaigns and helping to strengthen this national
campaign. There will be approximately 30 Native American and Religious
representatives at this Roundtable due to the size of the
conference space. We encourage involvement by people not attending
this event, and who would like to help out with this ongoing "Honor
and Healing our First Nations' Peoples Campaign." If you
are interested in the Roundtable and the Ongoing Campaign, please email us.
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