"How Can You Go to a Church That Killed So Many Indians?": Representations of Christianity in 20Th Century Native American Novels
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Frank Schulz Betreuer: Dr. Jürgen Heiß Matrikelnr. 130409 Universität Potsdam Magisterarbeit "How can you go to a Church that killed so many Indians?": Representations of Christianity in 20th Century Native American Novels vorgelegt am Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik der Universität Potsdam Potsdam, den 12. Dezember 2002 1. Gutachter: Dr. Jürgen Heiß 2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Kunow Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................3 2 THESIS .....................................................................................................................5 3 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND............................................................................11 3.1 Christian Premises of Colonization in Contrast to Indigenous Religions .......................................................................................................11 3.2 Christian Missions and Indian Schools.........................................................13 3.3 Christianization: Tribal Histories Of Conversion .........................................15 3.4 Changing Conditions in the 20th Century......................................................20 4 LITERARY REPRESENTATIONS .......................................................................25 4.1 'Pagan again': Rejection of Christianity in D'Arcy McNickle's The Surrounded (1936) ........................................................................................25 4.1.1 "It's all lies": Critique of the Christian Church ............................25 4.1.2 Literary Methods and Structures ..................................................30 4.2 Assuming the Names and Gestures of the Enemy: N. Scott Momaday's Syncretic Strategies in House Made of Dawn (1968)................37 4.2.1 Pueblo Syncretism in House Made of Dawn.................................38 4.2.2 Biblical Allusions in the Novel: Tosamah, The Albino, Abel & Cain...............................................................................................41 4.3 "June walked over it like water": Louise Erdrich's Indian New Testament of Love Medicine (1984/93)........................................................49 4.3.1 A Female Native American Christ: Adaptations of the Bible .......51 4.3.2 Catholicism in Love Medicine and Tracks....................................54 4.4 "Forget the book. We've got a story to tell": Thomas King's Rewriting of the Bible in Green Grass, Running Water (1993)....................61 4.4.1 Subverting Christian Rules with Intertextual (Re-)creation Stories............................................................................................62 4.4.2 (Post-)colonial Literatures, or: Moby-Dick meets Columbus.......68 4.5 "Father Arnold, we're not laughing with you, we're laughing at you": Sherman Alexie's Catholic Indians in Reservation Blues (1995) and Indian Killer (1996) ......................................................................................71 4.5.1 "Irony, a hallmark of the contemporary indigenous": Postmodern Irony and Satire in Alexie's Novels...........................71 4.5.2 "Looking for a new name for God": (Indian) Christian Conflicts ........................................................................................76 5 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................82 6 APPENDIX: PLOT SUMMARIES ........................................................................85 7 GERMAN ABSTRACT / DEUTSCHE ZUSAMMENFASSUNG........................86 8 WORKS CITED......................................................................................................87 1 Introduction Do you take the bread and wine because you believe them to be the body and blood? I take them, as other Indians do, too because that colonial superstition is as beautiful as any of our indigenous superstitions Sherman Alexie, The Sasquatch Poems 1 Introduction At the heart, if not the heart, of contemporary fiction by Native Americans writers is the struggle of Indians living between two cultures; often personified in mixedblood protagonists (which corresponds frequently with their authors' biography). A 'heart of darkness,' indeed, given that the colonial experience for the indigenous people living in the United States, albeit their citizenship, has not really come to an end yet. Therefore, it has also been avoided to characterize contemporary Native American texts as 'post-colonial'. Nevertheless, one can profitably apply concepts and results from the studies of post-colonial literatures, where appropriate. One of the main concerns of almost all authors who write about colonized people, is their experience with Christianity; the religion, justification, and tool of the Western colonizer. The Indian-Christian discourse is also the earliest matter recorded by Native Americans writing in English. In fact, nearly all original documents by native authors from the 18th and 19th century deal with their conversion to Christianity or are clerical texts, e.g. sermons, itself. Ironically, one of the oldest literary accounts of Indian-White contact in North America – and what Charles Larson calls "our oldest myth" –, the Pocahontas legend, is also one of the first that deals with the Indian-Christian theme. For being able to marry John Rolfe, Matoaka (her real name) had to be baptized first in 1614. Pocahontas thus became our first Christian convert – a beacon that would bring light to an entire continent of savages. She was living hope for the religious leaders of the colony – proof that savages could be converted. [Larson 23] This is one side of the story, the one that has been recently favored not only by movie makers – after years of displaying John-Wayne-like characters killing the 'red savages' on screen. The other side is history, the history of mostly forced Christianization of thousands of Native Americans, at the cost of the destruction of their families, cultures, and lives. In his struggle for his very existence the Calvinist who had looked upon the native as a being to be redeemed from the power of Satan soon became satisfied that the enemy of God was to be exterminated at any cost, and that the only good Indian was a dead Indian. In his peculiar religious intolerance and fanaticism he reputedly fell first upon his knee and then upon the aborigines, prompted to do the first in the hope that the second might be more successful. [Larson 25f] 3 1 Introduction Nevertheless, even after 500 years of Indian-Christian contact and conflict, the descendants of America's indigenous peoples are still present. Moreover, despite persecution and punishment they have managed to preserve (elements of) their tribal traditions, beliefs, and even languages. Since the 1960s and 70s, Native American religions and philosophies have experienced a revival of interest and practice. However – but not really surprisingly –, centuries of Christian missionary efforts, joined with legal prohibition of tribal customs, violent removal and destruction of native communities, and forced assimilation left deep marks in the Indian's soul: it (often) turned Christian. While no reliable figures of religious affiliations among Native Americans are available – since it cannot be recorded by the U.S. Census and many practice multiple beliefs –, it is generally assumed that a majority was at least baptized. Churches today estimate a native following of more than 400,000 [cf. Davis 349], probably indicating only active members. Keeping in mind that more than 80 percent of all U.S. citizens regard themselves as Christians and a growing number of Native Americans have not grown up in tribal communities but in disparate 'Westernized' environments, higher numbers are possible. However, and this is the problematic and interesting part, a Christian Indian does not necessarily exclude tribal philosophies, rituals or beliefs. The "now day Indi'n" (Kenneth Lincoln) is not only often of mixed blood, but also of and in mixed cultures. Indians can be Roman Catholic or Episcopalian, Baptist or Mormon, yet still pray with a Lakota medicine pipe in a plains ceremony or take peyote to see Christ in the Native American Church. They can ride the Manhattan subway and go to an Iroquois sweat lodge for purification; run a small business in Phoenix and attend a Navajo Beautyway ceremony with medicine people. [Lincoln 186] This peculiar duality of today's Native Americans, who not only live between two cultures, but often embrace both, a tribal and Western lifestyle, became a special point of interest for me when reading contemporary American Indian fiction. In many of these narrative accounts, Christianity among Indians plays an important role. These representations occur in many forms, can deal with the colonial past, the various conflicts between Indians and Christians, and the inner conflicts of Native American Christians, who have accepted a faith that helped to extinguish their ancestors and tribal culture. Moreover, increasingly Native American authors are employing biblical texts for "intertextual references, thus enabling transcultural communication" [Wilke 83] with non-native readers, as well as challenging the Western society and its major religion. The central question of the modern Christian Indian, as well as one of many non-Indian Christians, – "How can you go to a Church that killed so many Indians?" [Alexie, RB 166] – is implicitly stated and attempted to answer by many contemporary