Resources - White Earth Declaration
Preface to White Earth Declaration.
At our recent Executive Council’s Committee on Indigenous Ministries’ meeting at White Earth Nation in Minnesota (May 14-17, 2009) we invited the Rev. Christopher Johnson, staff of the Domestic Poverty Alleviation project of our church to give us a presentation, especially since the project would like to emphasize the poverty found on many of the reservations throughout the country and in areas where the church has a unique relationship and history.
Chris presented us a background of the project through the Presiding Bishop’s summit on poverty which was attended by several Native Americans, including ECCIM member Dr. Erma Veiznor, the Tribal chair of White Earth. Pervious to this presentation we had already had a discussion concerning the White Bison foundation and their work on healing, so our dialogue with Chris enlarged upon that discussion, too. Many of us expressed the fact that any “war” poverty in the realization of funds, food, jobs and other material help would be greatly appreciated, but they are symptoms of a greater poverty, that of the demise of our faith, traditions, culture, language and recognition as indigenous peoples of our homelands. The analogy was made that in traditional healing we seek to treat the symptoms of illness so we can find the root causes to end the illness and to alleviate poverty we need to look at in the same way.
This led to a very serious and deep discussion about, what I believe is the very essence of what indigenous ministry in the Episcopal Church is about and needs to address now. Together, and with special thanks to the Rt. Revs. Mark MacDonald and Michael Smith, we were able to put our thoughts down into a statement or a “word” to the church about what we had just talked about. We also talked about what can be done by the church and by you and I to move from this point in time, together and those points are listed after the statement.
All of us who signed on understand the importance of what is being said and are more than willing to engage with you in discussing it. As chair, I believe this sets forth a clear direction for Indigenous Ministries in our church to embark upon with very real and tangible goals. Our thanks are also extended to the Rev. Brian Grieves for suggesting and arranging Chris to be with us.
