By: Richard Twiss
Hennepin County Library paperback 213 pages plus appendix, notes, etc.
Published: 2000
Genre: Non-fiction Christianity
This book is five days overdue because I've had too many books to read at once! I've just finished it and need to get to the library. I was curious enough to look up the author. He died in 2013 at age 58. That makes me so sad. He was born on the Rosebud Reservation and actively worked to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with other First Nations People.
Page 37: It is said that those who win the wars get to write the history books. Most recorded history is actually a very subjective accounting of past events. People with pen and paper sit down and attempt to accurately and ethically describe their perceptions of events they have seen, heard about and researched - a far cry from any guarantee of accuracy.
I'm no history buff, but I understand that there are different perspectives. I am trying to read from multiple POV to better understand what has happened in the past.
Page 38: Yet as a fellow believer in Christ, please allow me to challenge your assumptions about nationalism, patriotism, and Christian love.
I love this! There is not just one "right" way to follow Jesus Christ. Or to be patriotic.
Page 39 has a long list of the statistics about Native people in Canada and the United States. It's heart breaking to think that a population of 10 to 12 million (pre-Columbus / conservative estimate) people became "By 1900 only 237,000 Native people were left in the United States." This entire page is just filled with sorrow for me.
Page 54: We all see and experience life and the kingdom of heaven differently. Our ethnic cultures as well as our experiences heavily influence how we perceive, define and interpret the world around us. Our worldviews are filters and lenses through which we see and focus, or take in, our world. Then, after our experiences have been filtered, we project our interpretations onto the world as though what we define to be normal, rational social behaviors are the only acceptable behaviors - for ourselves and everyone else.
Ouch. It's too easy to have our own perspective feel as though it is the best perspective. Lord, please help me to listen and learn.
Page 81: I asked if they had ever heard anyone teach that their cultural expressions could be used to praise and worship Jesus Christ. Some of the family members had been Christians for 20-plus years, but they answered, "Never."
It's kind of amazing that any Native peoples became believers if they were told that their cultural identity was demonic. How glad I am for Twiss' ministry and for other Native believers like him!
Page 91: As I mentioned, the Navajo have a word or concept called Hozho, which roughly means "walking in beauty" or "walking in harmony." The Navajo believe harmony is the perfect way to live in this world. When things go wrong - sickness, disasters, communication of human problems - it is because someone is out of harmony and no longer walking in beauty.
I wish I could hear what words like "hozho" sound like. I listened to some Native music (after a portion later in this book where he talked about Johnathan Maracle and Broken Walls.)
Page 95: Instead of dividing our lives into sacred / spiritual and secular / natural compartments, as Christians we would all benefit by seeing our faith as central to everything we do. . . . We are spiritual beings living in this physical world.
I can't think of the Scripture right now that encapsulates this idea, but it makes so much more sense than having our faith be separate from everything else.
Page 98: A word to describe one of the major qualities of time among the Indians is "appropriateness." An event begins when it is appropriate. Most Indian languages do not even have words to designate time. In Western cultures, however, time is regarded as a commodity. Americans sell it, buy it, borrow it, waste it, kill it, make it up, take it, and, if we run afoul of the law, do it.
As a fairly time-obsessed person, I see myself in this statement. It's a hard habit to break, being cognizant of the calendar and the clock!
Page 101: Our greatest strength as the Body of Christ lies in the fact that though we are different individuals, we are one in Him. We must regain what Natives have never lost: the understanding that our togetherness is more important than our individuality, that we are members one with another.
Honestly, I don't see that changing in America. Individuality seems to be our priority. Selfishness reigns.
Page 107: Native children by and large are not "disciplined," however - at least not in the Anglo-evangelical sense of the word. One characteristic of child raising that has not changed much among most tribes is the almost complete freedom given to children. Love and affection are lavished upon the young, and they are allowed to run in an unruly and undisciplined manner.
This made me think of working at the Akina camp this summer! He went on to explain how children are raised and trained. It was very interesting. And a bit contrary to my parenting approach!
Page 158 mentioned a young Native man sitting in a church pew. His name was Moses. "He explained to me that he knew if he made a commitment to Jesus Christ it would mean he would have to stop hating White people and learn to love them." I immediately thought of the character Mose in William Kent Krueger's This Tender Land. This church pew scene is the opening of the chapter "A World in Need of Healing."
Page 163: Reconciliation is the healing and restoring of divided or broken relationships. It is only in the fertile seedbed of repentance that true reconciliation can find life. Biblical repentance is always a turning away from a former way and turning to God, authenticated by actions.
Repentance and reconciliation are things I've not thought about much lately. I haven't been very good about confession in my own prayer life, either.
Page 167: Jesus didn't tell us that to practice a truth we have to understand it intellectually first. He didn't tell us to understand his word and then do it. He said do my Word (see John 14:23; Jas. 1:22). I've found that understanding often comes as the result of doing, not the reverse.
God's Word has the answers for us!
Page 175: As the family of God, we are being called to bring healing to these divisions among cultures and people groups and to demonstrate to the world a power and grace to walk with one another in true honor and respect, declaring that there is a better way - the Jesus Way.
Bringing healing sounds good to me!
Page 177: Today the former military post in present-day Spokane is named in his honor - Fort Wright.
How horrific! Twiss has just written about a delegation of Indians flying a white flag of truce, coming to the fort to discuss a peaceful resolution (at Wright's request) and being immediately gathered up and hung. And after becoming known as the "hanging general," he is honored with the naming of the fort?!?! That is messed up!
Page 177: The U.S. government broke more than 98 percent of all the hundreds of treaties - signed and ratified by Congress - made with the sovereign First Nations of North America.
Twiss goes on to talk about God's covenants, which he always kept. A treaty or covenant should be an unbreakable promise. But our history as white people in dealing with the First Nations is horrific.
Page 185: Few will disagree that America is struggling spiritually. With violence in the schools, increased social dysfunction, economic concerns, decreasing church attendance, shrinking financial giving and political animosity, one must wonder about the apparent loss of spiritual power and influence of the Church in this land.
Knowing that he wrote this 24 years ago . . . and he has since passed away, I wonder what he would think of America now. It can be disheartening to think about. But Praise God! He is able to do what we cannot do!
Page 211: We represented Wesleyan, Baptist, Nazarene, charismatic and Pentecostal traditions. Various tribal backgrounds were also represented, including Mohawk, Lakota, Cherokee, Dakota, Wyendot and Navajo. Reaching lost people with the good news was the vision and purpose that drew us together, rather than lifting up culture, denomination or religious traditions.
I'm glad I read this book. It gave me a lot of food for thought. God is good.
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