Over the next months this page will provide opportunities to learn the true history and current realities of Indigenous people. It is these truths, truths that have been ignored by most for hundreds of years, that will bring healing for both Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people.
Some of these opportunities will be calls to individual action, and some will be activities that congregations and small groups should coordinate and participate in together. All these opportunities can be easily promoted by sharing links on social media or other communication platforms.
Here are some initial activities that you can share with your circles and networks. Watch this page as well as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for additional opportunities to engage.
Recorded Events
Some of the events that have taken place as part of the Truth and Healing Movement have been recorded. Watch them and other video resources here!
Upcoming Events
Custer Died for Your Sins
This year the ELCA’s Truth and Healing Movement introduces the Truth and Healing Movement Reading Circle. Your congregation may already have a book club or book study group. The Truth and Healing Movement Reading Circle is the same thing, but it offers an opportunity for members to read and discuss a book written by an Indigenous author, scholar, leader, theologian, etc. This year the reading circle will be studying Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Vine Deloria Jr. (Standing Rock Sioux).
Can you imagine ELCA communities across the church joining together to read the same book by and about Indigenous people? Get your group together, get your book and get reading! Order books here.
In November the Vine Deloria Jr. Theological Symposium will focus on Custer Died for Your Sins, with presenters sharing their take on Deloria’s book. This is sure to be a good discussion.
If you are the leader of your reading circle, here is a gift for you! Use this discussion guide to lead your circle through Custer Died for Your Sins. Take your time reading and discussing the book, but start your reading now!
Hosted by the Quaker Church’s Friends Peace Teams, Vance Blackfox and Liz Andress will be joining representatives from Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist and Quaker faith communities to discuss how churches are re-examining the roles their denominations played in operating Indian boarding schools during the 19th and early 20th centuries, in collaboration with the federal government’s policy of forced assimilation. They will talk about the harm done to Native American families and nations as well as the ongoing impacts on Native communities today. Representatives from these communities will share how they are conducting research and approaching questions of accountability, apology, reparations, and healing.
Sunday, November 10, 2024
Toward Truth and Healing: How Churches Face Accountability for their Indian Boarding Schools
7 - 8:30 p.m. Central time
In 2013 the annual American Indian and Alaska Native Symposium at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) was renamed in honor of Vine Deloria Jr., an alum of Augustana Seminary in Rock Island, Ill. (a predecessor school of LSTC). The symposium has been held in November every year since it began 16 years ago and is co-sponsored by the Pero Center for Intersectionality Studies at LSTC and ELCA’s Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations.
All events will be accessible online, and this year’s symposium will focus on Deloria’s book Custer Died for Your Sins.
At the height of the American Indian Movement and beyond, Vine Deloria Jr. played a significant role in strengthening tribal sovereignty for federally recognized tribes in the United States, from serving as executive director of the National Congress of American Indians to serving as a law professor at the University of Arizona during his retirement and so much in between. In Custer Died for Your Sins, Deloria writes about the challenges posed to Indigenous people by non-Native people, the U.S. federal government, churches and others. He offers new ways of thinking about those challenges and a philosophy for how Native Nations and leaders of the American Indian Movement and others might respond. Deloria offers both pragmatic and philosophical wisdom about moving forward toward justice. We challenge readers to consider the questions “How much has changed?” and “Might we still be dealing with similar challenges even today?” Symposium participants will hear from scholars and leaders, who will reflect on the text and how Deloria might be speaking to us today about the challenges we face and how we should respond.
Monday, Nov. 18, and Tuesday, Nov. 19
Vine Deloria Jr. Theological Symposium
Presenter information to be posted here soon!
NEW: A discussion guide is now available to help readers think more deeply and critically about Custer Died for Your Sins, the wisdom that Vine Deloria Jr offers therein, and the challenges Indigenous people still face today. Download the guide below and begin a Truth and Healing Movement Reading Circle with members of your community.
Since 1970 an annual march and rally organized by the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) have taken place on the fourth Thursday in November, a day known as the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States but a day that many Indigenous people and supporters have come to know and commemorate as the National Day of Mourning. This tradition and commemoration serve as a solemn occasion to honor Native ancestors and Wampanoag stories while fostering greater awareness and understanding among the U.S. public about the destructive presence of pilgrims and settlers in and around Patuxet, also known as Plymouth.
You are invited to Patuxet (Plymouth, Mass.) to stand in solidarity with the Wampanoag people and the United American Indians of New England at this year’s National Day of Mourning and to gain deeper insight into their vital mission.
If you are interested in joining us on Patuxet (Plymouth, Mass.) for the National Day of Mourning, please contact Jennifer De Leon, ELCA director for Racial Justice, at jennifer.deleon@elca.org.
Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024
National Day of Mourning
Patuxet (Plymouth, Mass.)
