This Week

This week at praxis...Whose Land Is It Anyway?

When the God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, 
and he clears away many nations before you-the Hittites, the Girgashites, 
the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, 
seven nations mightier and more numerous than you- and when your God gives 
them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. 
Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.  Do not intermarry with them, 
giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 
for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. 
Then the anger of God would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.  
But this is how you must deal with them: break down their altars, smash their pillars, 
hew down their sacred poles, and burn their idols with fire.  
For you are a people holy to God; your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on 
earth to be his people, his treasured possession.   
It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that God's heart was 
set on you and chose you-for you were the fewest of all peoples.  
It was because God loved you and kept the oath sworn to your ancestors, 
that God has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you 
from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.  
Know therefore that Yahweh is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant
loyalty with those who love God and keep God's commandments, to a thousand generations,  
and who repays in their own person those who reject God, without delay. 
Therefore, observe diligently the commandment-the statutes, 
and the ordinances-that I am commanding you today.
-Deuteronomy 7:1-11


The obvious characters in the (Exodus) story for Native Americans to identify 
with are the Canaanites,k the people who already lived in the promised land.  
As a member of the Osage nation of American Indians who stands in solidarity 
with other tribal peoples around the world, I read the Exodus stories with 
Canaanite eyes.  And, it is the Canaanite side of the story that has been 
overlooked by those seeking to articulate theologies of liberation.  
Especially ignored ar those parts of the story that describe Yahweh's 
command to mercilessly annihilate the indigenous population.
-Robert Allen Warrior, "A Native American Perspective:  Canaanites, 
Cowboys, Indians" from Voices from the Margin

Long ago the ancients say 
this land was free
and we shared it all
with the mountains and the sea 
the birds and the trees
we lived in peace
long ago
before those others came
and built fences
by cutting the trees
dug mines
by cutting the earth
removed her blood
the oil that lies within
formed long ago
like us
who lived in peace
the birds sang less without the trees
the land became dry without the birds
to plant the flowers
and we too became quiet
watching our mountains die
listening for the birds 
that no longer flew-
but still we lived in peace
what sustained us
through all those years?
the nights of silence
and the songs of the frogs
for we know as the ancients said
this land will again be free
and we will again share it all
with the mountains and the sea
the birds and the trees
for we still live in peace
and we wish you the same
for we are all one
-Harriet Kofalk, inspired by the Bribri, indigenous Costa Ricans

We are the land.  To the best of my understanding,
 that is the fundamental idea that permeates American Indian life.
- Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop


These lands are ours.  Non one has a right to remove us 
because we were the first owners.  
The Great Spirit above has appointed this place for us, 
on which to light our fires, and here we will remain.
-Tecumseh, in a message to 
President James Madison, 1810 
  

Questions:


	(Being careful not to move into anti-Semitism,)  how does the Deuteronomy reading 
	make sense to you as scripture?  How does this understanding of God fit with your 
	understanding?
	How do you feel reading Warrior's statement that he sees the Exodus story from 
	the side of the Canaanites?
	Today the United Methodist Church celebrates Native American Awareness Sunday.  
	Warrior states in his essay that the Church and Native Americans have an uneasy 
	relationship.  How do we move forward from what happened, or should we?  
	How do we respond as the Church to the loss that Native Americans experienced?