Indigenous peoples have inhabited the Americans for millennia. One settlement, uncovered in what is now British Columbia, was dated back 15,000 years! Its discovery was exciting for Western archaeologists. Local Indigenous people pointed to their oral history to confirm, they already knew about it because their lives aren’t haphazard. They have long been organised, intelligent, and resourceful.
First Nations peoples reference diverse nations with diverse gifts. We are familiar with some of their names: Mohawk, Ojibwe, Anishnaabe, Haudenosaunee, Iroquois, Algonquin, and more. These nations had established significant trade routes throughout the Americas long before the arrival of the first European. They had patterns through which nations negotiated and shared their gifts. Indigenous peoples had their own forms of governance, health care, and education, they had their own approaches to spirituality and relationships to creation. Indigenous peoples were complex socially organised communities that co-existed for millennia.
And then, the white man came. European standards and perspectives on nationhood, existence, priorities, and gifts were very different from Indigenous peoples. While First Nations valued community, Europeans promoted personal agency. In European standards individuals should aspire to personal wealth and autonomy. There were hierarchies where the wealthiest gained the most advantages while those at the bottom were indentured servants with little hope of getting ahead.
Europeans believed their worldview to be superior to that of Indigenous peoples. After all, the Europeans were far better dressed, had more efficient ways to control the ground to produce food, and controlled people through dominance and, when necessary, violence. While Europeans could see Indigenous peoples loved their children, they could not understand why Indigenous peoples would allow them to run freely around with little structure and discipline.
These differences in worldviews impacted the relationships between Indigenous peoples and Europeans. For a time, Europeans sought to take advantage of the wisdom of Indigenous peoples as it contributed to the survival of early settlers. Efforts were made to respect the nations and treaties were drafted. Education was offered to help Indigenous peoples better conform to European standards, organisations, and structures. Promises were made to protect land, ways of life, and rights and then, promises were broken.
The father went to the second and said “Son, go and work in the vineyard today,” and he answered, “I go, sir”; but he did not go.
In our Baptismal Covenant we commit to respect the dignity of every human being. And yet, there is a long history in which settlers, our governing structures, and even our Churches have not respected the dignity of Indigenous peoples. With all the information available to us, we should know better and thus do better. So, why are so many reserves lacking in safe drinking water? Why are Indigenous children overrepresented in foster care? Why are there epidemics of suicide in Indigenous communities? Why aren’t we searching the landfills? Promises continue to be broken. We need to do better. We need to do more than acknowledge we exist on stolen land.
What would it look like to be more like the first son in Jesus’ parable? To admit that we have failed to respect the dignity of Indigenous peoples and then open our minds and hearts to create spaces through which Indigenous peoples can be themselves, share their gifts, and find healing and reconciliation. How does this parable invite us to reflect on the choices we make so that we can know better and do better, for all people and for creation?
Indigenous peoples are God’s beloved children, gifted by God in a myriad of ways. There is much that we can learn from them when we choose to engage in reciprocal relationship. May our hearts change like that of the first son, so that our relationship to Indigenous peoples might move us closer to ideal of truth and reconciliation today, tomorrow, and for seven generations. This we pray as we sing: 414 God of the Sparrow
