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Act of Repentance Tuesday, 10 A.M. #5 ACT OF REPENTANCE TUESDAY, 10 A.M. #5 INTRODUCTION: of speakers Over the last four to five years, Saint Paul School of Theology at OCU has offered both a Native American Immersion course and a Native American Religious Traditions course that I have co-taught at the seminary. During our Religious Traditions course, we actually discussed at lengths the subject of repentance as the General Conference was preparing for its own Acts of Repentance towards Native American people. Students on both campuses in Oklahoma City and Kansas City worked with OIMC local churches on the service and we did services with both congregations and we all learned much from each other. So in preparation for this service today with Oklahoma, we have asked students who have taken those courses to present the materials. They are students who have been engaged with the subject matter and the text and we are thankful for their participation. Jeff Mildren, associate pastor at Mayfair Heights in Oklahoma City and Shannon Rodenberg, pastor of Fairland UMC will present part one of our presentation which speaks of the work and ministry of the Indian Mission before statehood. Kathy Brown, pastor of New Life UMC in Moore and Stephanie Stephens, pastor of St. Marks UMC in Shawnee will present part two, which chronicles the role of churches with the Indian Mission after statehood. Steve Davis, pastor of First UMC in Watonga and Jennifer Ahrer-Sims, a very soon to be graduate of Saint Paul School of Theology at OCU will present part three, the life of the Indian Mission after statehood and into the future. Thank you to these six persons who have put great time and effort into sharing this time with us. We are very pleased to have the D.D. Etchieson UMC of Tahlequah,Oklahoma with us today. The choir is made up of members of the church and the community. They have performed across the country and most recently taped a session that will be broadcast on public television in the near future. They enjoy sharing their Cherokee culture through music and it is an honor to have them with us. The first song they will sing is titled, "One Drop of Blood." it is song that was composed and sung on the Trail of Tears from their homelands in the Southeast to Indian Territory. The beginning line states, "What can we do for you Jesus? It is a powerful song given the fact of all they endured on the trail. It is a testament to the faithfulness of the Cherokee people who survived the forced march who held onto their faith in the midst of all of the tragedy. The hymn was composed to give those who were suffering at the hands of the soldiers strength to endure all the traumatic things that were happening.The hymn is a reminder of the most difficult journey as many Cherokees did not survive that journey due to exposure to the weather, disease and injuries. The song recognizes the presence of God among the people.Even with all of the hardships, the song asks the question,"What can we do for you,Jesus?" The second hymn is a Kiowa hymn. titled, "God I Thank you." The Kiowas composed songs for many occasions in their lives. After conversion, men and women composed songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. It is a song that is heard often 1 among Kiowas and this song gives thanks to God for answering prayers. Again, the irony of the tribes to create these beautiful songs in the midst of all the wrong that the government and the church had inflicted upon their people is a reminder of their trust and faith in God. Part 1 KEEP Slides up until next slide We are indeed thankful to Dr. Tash Smith for preparing the script that will be presented today. SLIDE 1: They are excerpts from his book to be released this fall, entitled, "Capture These Indians for the Lord: Indians, Methodists, and Oklahomans, 1844-1939" Dr Tash told some of us that there is a lesson that he gives the freshmen on the first day of class. He tells his students that history happens two ways – there is “what happens” and then there is “what we say happens.” “What happens” is the most basic form of history. It is the simple who, what, when, and where – the people, places, dates, and events – that we study. These things never change. But the second form, “what we say happens” – that changes all the time. It changes based on who’s telling the story; it depends on who they are and what information they have access to; what biases and prejudices they have; what agenda they’re trying to get across. This second type of history is especially important to consider when we talk about Indian history and role of Christianity and missionary work in native culture. So often, Indian history has been told from the white perspective, chiefly because they were the individuals in charge of the work and the ones who left most of the records. While Dr. Smith is not suggesting that these men and women deliberately misled us with the history they told, nonetheless it left us with an incomplete story of what exactly happened. The goal today with this presentation is to round out the story further to give us a more complete picture of Methodism’s history in Oklahoma. With this in mind, there are two larger themes to come through. First, Oklahoma Methodism of the 20th and 21st centuries owes much of its success to the work of native converts and communities in the 19th century. Indian members, many of whom remain unnamed to us today, spread the denomination throughout the region by creating churches, circuits, and districts – these vibrant foundational aspects of the denomination – much of which was later used by whites for their own purposes or to strengthen their own society. Second, Indian members have always shown an autonomy to shape the church’s work. These members showed that being “native” and being “Christian” were not mutually exclusive. Even when whites were outright hostile to native culture, Indian members found ways to persevere, often by infusing Christianity with cultural elements important to their communities. The history of Methodist-Indian relations actually extends back to the work of John Wesley in the 18th century. However, Wesley found little success with his initial efforts and it wasn’t until almost 1820 that the church began a sustained effort with native peoples. That year, conferences in South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia sent out white missionaries to nearby Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, and 2 Choctaw populations. The goal of these missionaries was a goal shared by many within white society – create an assimilated population of Indians who mimicked white society in thought and deed. To do so, the church supported missionary efforts that promoted Christianity and Anglo-American culture. These efforts came at a time when mainstream America debated what place Indians should have in an expanding United States. As white Americans moved west, they coveted Indian-controlled land they now deemed valuable and wanted Indians removed. Much like the rest of American society, Methodist missionaries were conflicted over the “Removal Question.” One missionary, Alexander Talley, worked with the federal government to remove the Choctaws from their land, while the church’s three missionaries among the Cherokees, on the other hand, openly rejected the removal impulse and condemned the government’s actions. For this, the church censured the men. Among Creek Indians, the church abandoned its efforts in 1829 due to increasing anger over removal, which it did not renew until after they relocated to Indian Territory. SLIDE 2: The Removal era of the 1830s and 1840s remains one of the most devastating periods in Indian history. Called by various names such as the Trail of Tears or the Trail of Death, the forced migration of thousands of Indians left many communities shattered as they rebuilt their homes what is now Oklahoma and Kansas. In perhaps the best known case of removal, the United States army marched Cherokees west at gun point in the winter of 1838 where they faced a brutal march of starvation, physical punishment, and the daily threat of rape from abusive soldiers. During this time, Methodist Indians maintained their congregations by holding regular meetings and Bible study even as they faced the privations of the trail. In some cases, white missionaries moved with their congregations. Yet their connection to white society, which many Indians harbored deep resentment toward, hindered their work. Among Creek Indians, for instance, the Creek Council expelled white missionaries in 1838 and banned Christianity for nearly a decade, leaving only Creek converts to sustain the church often under the penalty of public whippings. SLIDE 3: Even under these difficult circumstances, Methodism grew in Indian Territory with more than 3000 members by the mid-1840s. Recognizing this success, the church created the Indian Mission Conference at its 1844 general conference in New York. Initially stretching as far north as Kansas City, the IMC’s boundaries would soon change and it would focus on the Five Tribes – or the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole Indians – in Indian Territory. With this in mind, the IMC’s first meeting at Riley’s Chapel in the Cherokee Nation in 1844 is the start of a nearly unbroken Methodist presence in the region that extends to the present day. With the exception of a brief disruption in 1862 and 1863 during the Civil War, Methodists have gathered in conference every year since then.
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