Featured Photo Caption: St Christopher’s Mission “Relational healing lives, on the landscape of St Christopher’s Mission through pilgrimage”
In my faith journey as a Mennonite, I am aware of the wounds that were inflicted on Indigenous People by European settlers, and how I have benefited from the consequences of the Doctrine of Discovery. The Kanza People were forcibly removed from Kansas in 1873. My ancestors arrived in 1874 to farm, and built a church named Hoffnungsau, meaning Hope Meadow. Wherever there’s a wound, healing needs to happen, and I want to engage in relational healing of the harms caused by Christian domination.
I joined the Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples Pilgrimage to Navajoland, a collaboration between Mennonite Mission Network and the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, in order to learn from Diné Elders and to deepen my understanding of how to form meaningful allyship with Indigenous communities and leaders. Our pilgrimage was led by Sarah Augustine, the Executive Director of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, and Joe Hubbard, Episcopal priest and convener of the Episcopal Indigenous Roundtable.
During the pilgrimage at St. Christopher’s Mission, Sarah and Joe shared meaningfully about their opposite cultural upbringings, and the way that the Doctrine of Discovery impacted their lives. Hearing them authentically share clarified the personal dimensions of harm done and my own complicity in it. Each participant identified how the Doctrine of Discovery has impacted their life.
Our group of 24 participants learned many teachings which I’m continuing to integrate. Learning about the contrast between the extractive world view (Western) versus the cosmology of Indigenous interdependence in the concept of “our body, our land” inspires me. There is only a finite amount of soil, water, and air. When we harm the land, water, and air, we are harming all of us, every (living) body. When we connect our bodies with the land, with reverence for her, our bodies are nurtured. It calms the nervous system and we attune with the earth’s body and spirit of life. If we as humans centered ourselves to practicing this lifeway, we would thrive in better sustainable ways for those who come after us.
We learned to re-frame “afterlife” as the shaping of our choices, and how they impact those who will be here after our lives. This is the important “afterlife.”
I will recap some lessons that I learned during my time on the pilgrimage through the elements of wind, earth, water, and fire. Seeing that this was a pilgrimage, we weathered the unexpected, resulting in lessons which were amazing and miraculous!
Wind: Walter, an Elder who was with us for several days, told us how our voices are from the wind, our breath — expressing our heart through sound waves. The love in our hearts when we speak or sing is a beautiful thing to hear, and encourages me to share my songs in community. As leaders, Walter explained, it is important how we give out sound waves and communicate our prayers and songs.
Earth: The concept of “Our Earth, Our Body” reminds me of my direct personal relationship with more than humans and humans. Being aware the earth is our Mother and how we walk on her body, is important. What we do to the earth is also what we are doing to ourselves. Are we keeping her waters clear and soil healthy? As we rode home from Monument Valley, surrounded by huge sculpted geography, I saw a murky turquoise area, and I assumed that it was polluted water. I learned that it is actually an uncapped uranium mine which had been left open, with nothing but a load of gravel covering its hole. When it snows, sometimes children scoop up the snow and eat it. How is it that uranium mining companies are allowed to abandon their sites so dangerously?
Water: On our arrival at St. Christopher’s Mission on Tuesday, we were told that the annual rainfall is 4 to 6 inches. About half of that fell during the 5 days we were there! The rain provided a lesson that was an unexpected part of our pilgrimage. We went to two hogans (round spiritual lodges) on Thursday and Friday. Roy Sampson, an Elder, shared teachings with us in the hogan about the sacredness of all life and the balance within Creation. The wood-burning fire stove was sacred in its role of bringing prayers up to the Creator. Roy’s son Jason took us on a long ride near the San Juan River, which included a steep descent on a section of road with deep sand, followed by a left turn. Going down through the deep sand wasn’t a problem, but I wondered how the voyage uphill would go. Well … it didn’t. We made a lot of trials to find our way up: trying different parts of the road, different speed approaches to get momentum versus a steady slow climb. We were making significant ruts but not much upwards progress due to the recent rainfall. Finally, staff at the Mission drove three vehicles to scoop up our group. A local Diné man, Armondo, approached the stuck van and the destruction of the road that he travels regularly. Armondo held the answer to our dilemma, which was to deflate the tires! It worked. We learned through humility and deflation that getting out of trouble was possible! What a miracle — the tow trucks were over an hour away, outside of working hours, and costly too! What a blessing to have relationships in times of need.
Fire: The night before our morning departure to Durango (where most in our group were flying from), it rained all night. In the wee hours of the morning, we lost electricity (fire), including cell phone service and kitchen power. Our group packed up and loaded the van in the dark. Thankfully, there was a gas stove to heat water for instant oatmeal and coffee. Some of the couples staying in the tiny houses had sandy puddles of water to navigate with their luggage, so the loaded van drove closer to their place for convenience. However, … the van sank into the sand and water and got stuck again! This time, cell phones were useless to call for help, so our hostess Margaret drove to fetch Walter, who was able to rescue the van with his truck and tow! Folks arrived in time to fly home.
We receive opportunities to learn from the unexpected. When we listen with open hearts and humility, we are blessed with wisdom from the Elders. This was a profound lesson of interdependence with grace. The relationships Joe Hubbard has with the Elders allowed them to share their experiences as children at the Mission, boarding schools, and summer outings, where some children never came back. To hear what they endured was heart wrenching. Elders shared their experiences of going to school from ages 4 to 6 at St. Christopher’s Mission. One day, suddenly and without explanation, they were made to board buses at the Mission. Children at age 6 were removed from their homes and sent to the boarding school in Shiprock NM, nearly 100 miles away, where they were punished harshly and abused, both physically and emotionally. I respect the courage and vulnerability of the Elders in sharing their stories. It was profound, really, to sense the trust that exists between them today, though what they endured as children — when the Mission allowed them to be sent away to harsh and cruel boarding schools — was harmful beyond words.
I long for wisdom on ways to support healing from personal and intergenerational trauma from Christian domination.
It’s important for us to understand how we are complicit in the systems that continue to harm Indigenous People and engage with organizing, including the process of repair which includes:
- Telling the truth, hearing the truth, and knowing the truth
- Taking responsibility (response-ability)
- Embarking on the process of repair
- Stopping the harm
- Asking for forgiveness
How can we do the work of reparative justice when we often don’t see our way clearly? Walter shared that we each hold a key to open a door, unique with our experiences and gifts we offer. When we collaborate, weaving loving relationships of interdependence, I call this love looping — a web of loving relationships with the intention of relational healing that our world needs to thrive. It’s essential for the collective lift. If we can imagine it, we can create it. Our imagination gives us the map.
In closing, there is a Diné expression of giving thanks for the dawn coming forth from the darkness: náádiitsááh. May we bring our light forth together.
Resource List:
The website for Mennonite Mission Network (MNN) has 2 pages about the pilgrimage:
- https://www.mennonitemission.net/serve/placements/solidarity-with-indigenous-peoples-pilgrimage/
description, plus how to sign up - https://www.mennonitemission.net/blog/a-journey-of-self-reflection-photos-from-the-solidarity-with-indigenous-peoples-jpp/
brief report of the pilgrimage, with several very nice photos - Joe Hubbard has his own Substack report: https://joehubbard.substack.com/p/let-the-air-out
