From the desk of Steve Shultz:
There are many issues that our nation continues to come to grips with. This is because as the nation goes, so goes its people. Right now there is a lot of good work being done on African American reconciliation and discussions are coming together; white and black. Much work of reconciliation is left to do.
Just as important, however, is the reconciliation and repentance concerning our treatment of the "First Nations People" or as some would call them, "The Indigenous people" or even the "Host people" of our great land.
When I was young, we played cowboys and Indians, as if one was good and one was bad. It is not so. The Native People are a great people and I believe James Goll is correct—that God is calling for our repentance.
There is a deep, primal wound to this day with the First Nations People and this Country, the United States of America. The same is true of the Indigenous people in other countries as well.
Many would say that the KEY to healing of the land is the reconciliation of those of us who are HERE, whose ancestors came and oppressed those who were already here (or those they brought here with the descendents of those who were oppressed).
Nothing could be more prophetic as when Jesus said, "You WILL know the truth and the truth will set you free." This can refer to many things; Jesus HIMSELF being THE TRUTH.
For this word below, James Goll refers to the desperate need for the wounds of our FIRST NATIONS people to be healed. Only JESUS can make this happen. It's our job to cooperate.
Blessings,
Steve Shultz
James W. Goll:
"Healing the Wounds of the First Nations People"
Called to Be Reconcilers
According to 2 Corinthians 5:18-19, as Christians, we are called to be reconcilers. Just as God seeks to reconcile the world to Himself through Christ, so we should urge lost people to be reconciled to God. If we want to see genuine reconciliation in our day, we must be willing to take the first step. We cannot ignore the sins and injustices of the past. That's what passionate intercession and confession of generational sin are all about.
If Native Americans had a "battle cry" to memorialize their experiences with "European" America, it would be, "Remember Sand Creek!" For many Native Americans there is no greater source of offense and bitterness than this action in Colorado on November 29, 1864, by elements of the U.S. Army under the command of a former Methodist minister against a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, many of whom were women and children.
Prelude to Tragedy
After several years of mounting tensions, by the Fall of 1864, a practical state of war existed in Colorado between the Indians and the white settlers. The Indians had become increasingly concerned and frustrated that the whites were taking over traditional hunting grounds, plowing up the land, and raising cattle on grasslands needed by the buffalo. Whites, on the other hand, were angry and fearful over the increasing number of raids by small bands of Indians who robbed farms and stole cattle, horses, and food. The murders of a rancher and his family by Indians in June 1864 had brought the anger, fear, and panic to a fever pitch.
Unfortunately, misunderstandings between Indians and soldiers inflamed the situation until major raids by the Indians on wagon trains and ranches left as many as 200 whites dead. Colonel John M. Chivington, commander of the Military District of Colorado and a former Methodist minister, was ordered by General Samuel Curtis to deliver up the "bad" Indians and see to it that stolen stock was restored and hostages secured. Chivington was to make no peace with the Indians without orders from Curtis.
At about the same time Chivington and Governor Evans met with Black Kettle, White Antelope, and several other chiefs near Denver. Chivington advised them that peace required that they lay down their arms and submit to military authority. Major Wynkoop, the commanding officer of Fort Lyon, had promised Black Kettle earlier that any Indians who reported to Fort Lyon wanting peace would be protected and safe from attack.
In early November, a band of 650-700 Cheyennes and Arapahos under Chiefs Black Kettle, White Antelope, Left Hand, and War Bonnet camped beside Sand Creek, as directed by Major Anthony, the new commanding officer of Fort Lyon. These Indians wanted peace with the whites and believed that they were under military protection. However, Major Anthony was not as sympathetic toward the Indians as Major Wynkoop was.
At dawn on November 29, 1864, Chivington and his command arrived on the ridge above the Cheyenne-Arapaho village on Sand Creek. Chivington's latest orders from General Curtis were, "Pursue everywhere and chastise the Cheyennes and Arapaho; pay no attention to district lines. No presents must be made and no peace concluded without my consent."
The Battle of Sand Creek
Chivington attacked around 6:00 a.m., just after dawn. The battle raged most of the day, ending around 4:00 p.m. Amid accusations of massacre and mutilation, demands were made for inquiries into the military actions at Sand Creek. One Army investigation was inconclusive. Two Congressional hearings painted Chivington and his men as villains who attacked a peaceful village of Indians who believed they were under military protection, indiscriminately slaughtering men, women, and children and scalping and mutilating their bodies.
Because the Cheyennes carried away their wounded and many of their dead, it was never completely clear exactly how many Indians died at Sand Creek. Colonel Chivington, in his first report to General Curtis, called Sand Creek "one of the bloodiest Indian battles ever fought on these plains." Whatever happened that day, "there can be little doubt that Sand Creek occurred because of white incursions, government mismanagement, broken treaties and the fact that there were not only 'bad' white men but also 'bad' Indians."
Although there are many sides to every story, most accounts of the battle at Sand Creek agree that as many as 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho, two-thirds of them women and children, were brutally killed and that many of the bodies were savagely mutilated.
Repenting for Sand Creek
The incident at Sand Creek still stands, along with the massacre of 250 Indians at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on December 29, 1890, as some of the most infamous and shameful events in the history of white American and Native American relations. Immediately after Sand Creek, enraged Indians went on the warpath, and news of the killings and mutilations shocked white Americans all across the country. No official apology has ever been offered. It is long overdue.
On April 22, 1996, the United Methodist Church, recognizing its link to the Sand Creek tragedy through the "Fighting Parson" Methodist lay preacher John Chivington, took an important step toward reconciliation.
John Dawson, founder of the International Reconciliation Coalition, participated in a Coalition-sponsored reconciliation gathering at the Sand Creek massacre site in Colorado on January 14, 1993. Everyone in attendance was a Believer and a mature intercessor. He described what took place:
I suggested that we make confession and ask forgiveness in the presence of the Lord and our Native American brothers. There were many tears. Prayers were heartfelt and deeply honest.
Four Areas of Confession
A carefully prepared confession itemized the injustices committed. It covered four categories (paraphrased below), and each concluded with a specific request for forgiveness:
• Government - military
Confession of dishonest actions by government agents and business interests that cheated Indians out of their rightful land and property; government failure to enforce more than 300 treaties; government failure to resolve the Sand Creek massacre. "For the wrongs committed, for the related betrayals of your trust, and for the atrocity of Sand Creek, we offer our apology and ask for forgiveness."
• Social injustices - prejudices
Removal of Indian children from their homes, often forever, to make them "white"; subjection of Indians to blatant prejudice and subservient positions in society; violation of Indian graves and selling of artifacts. "We apologize for these wrongs and injustices, and ask for forgiveness."
• Sins of those bearing Christ's name
Frequent attitudes of superiority on the part of Christian missionaries; imposition of Western culture along with the Gospel; economic exploitation of Indian children; John Chivington's unfeeling actions toward Indians at Sand Creek. "For the destructiveness of zeal without wisdom, and the misguided and insensitive ways in which the Church has dealt with you, we ask your forgiveness."
• Violation of stewardship of the land
Indians, who possessed the land by the first right of occupancy, lost the right to large parts of their land due to the greed and dishonesty of white businessmen, miners, and land speculators in direct defiance of treaty rights; wanton destruction of buffalo herds, the mainstay of food, clothing, and shelter for the plains Indians, which, through starvation, forced them onto reservations. "For the wrongs committed in the illegal taking of land, for the government's unwillingness to enforce legal treaty rights, and for the hundreds of Indian lives taken in defense of these treaty rights, we ask for forgiveness."
A Humble Confession
As a white American Christian of European descent, I ask the First Nations People—the Native American brothers and sisters—to forgive us for our colonization, for our prideful entry, for our cultural arrogance! Forgive us for the exploitation, the lies, the betrayal, the murder, the theft of your land, the destruction of your way of life, and the contempt for your dignity! Forgive us for showing you a Christianity without love, a "form of godliness" but without its power; for talking about the way, but not showing you the way. We have sinned!
Let's Pray: Father, lift the burden and stain of injustice that we bear for our sins against our Native American brethren. Forgive us for our fear, prejudice and pride. Help us together to heal the wounds and build bridges and move as one people into the destiny we share as Your children!
O Lord, raise up again in this generation your John Elliots and David Brainerds! Raise up again among them faithful ambassadors for Christ of their own. I release a true apostolic and prophetic anointing upon the First Nations' people.
(This short teaching is an excerpt of the chapter on Healing the Wounds of the First Nations People in my book on Intercession: The Power and the Passion to Shape History.
Amen! Let God's Healing Anointing flow through His many different delivery systems in Jesus Name!
Thanks for Praying and Caring!
James W. Goll
Encounters Network and PrayerStorm
Email: info@encountersnetwork.com
May 24, 2009 (10am)
Freedom Church
3945 N. Academy Blvd; Colorado Springs, CO
Contact: 719-548-8226
May 28-30, 2009
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