wfn.org | Native American delegates tackle 'Chief Wahoo' logo, other issues

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CLEVELAND (UMNS) - Thirteen Native Americans are among the 992 delegates of
the United Methodist General Conference addressing legislation that could
affect the American Indian community, ministries and programs.

Issues affecting Native Americans are being addressed in five of the 10
General Conference legislative committees. Petitions and resolutions are
handled by the committees first, then sent to the full conference for
action. The committees that are dealing with Native American concerns are
Global Ministries, Church and Society, General and Judicial Administration,
Finance and Administration, and Conferences.

Measures that are being considered include a "Chief Wahoo" petition, asking
delegates to denounce any organization or sports team using "offensive
racist logos" as their mascots. The petition cites the Cleveland Indians
baseball team's use of the "Chief Wahoo" logo.

The United Methodist Church has 19,000 Native Americans among its 8.4
million U.S. members. In addition to the delegates, American Indians are
represented at General Conference by observers and staff people from the
National United Methodist Native American Center; the Native American
International Caucus (NAIC), the church's American Indian advocacy group;
and the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference.

The delegates and reserve delegates (listed alphabetically, with tribes if
known) include: the Rev. Marvin Abrams (Seneca), Anaheim, Calif.; Betty
Admussen (Eastern Shawnee), Kansas City, Mo.; Robby Lowry (Lumbee), Rowland,
N.C.; Eli McHenry (Choctaw-Creek), Hominy, Okla.; Jim Morris, Beverly, Ky.;
Joe Parker (Nitmuck), East Woodstock, Conn.; the Rev. Thomas Roughface
(Ponca), Oklahoma City; Ann Saunkeah (Western Cherokee), Tulsa, Okla.; Penny
Schwab, Copeland, Kan.; Pete Taylor, Oakland, Calif.; the Rev. David Wilson
(Choctaw), Oklahoma City; Robert Wood, London, Ky.; and the Rev. Samuel Wynn
(Lumbee), New Bern, N.C. 

The General Conference, the top legislative body of the United Methodist
Church, is meeting in Cleveland through May 12. 

Offered by NAIC, the "Chief Wahoo" petition says that the mascot demeans
American Indians, and it continues to be used even after meetings between
Native American representatives and the Cleveland Indians team owner and
administration.

The Native Americans attending the General Conference will join with a local
group of American Indians in a protest directed at the Cleveland Indians on
May 11, when the team plays its next home game.

Conference delegates will address a related petition between May 9 and 12
directing that the General Conference not be held in cities that have Native
Americans as mascots.

The legislative committee of Church and Society will address concerns of
Native American human rights. If the committee supports legislation, it will
go before the General Conference for discussion about global issues of human
rights. 

Supporters of the Native American Comprehensive Plan (NACP) want General
Conference to approve the initiative for another four years. The NACP,
created by the 1992 General Conference, emphasizes congregational and
leadership development, Native American spirituality and involvement in the
total life of the United Methodist Church. A task force guides the plan, and
its goal is to help United Methodists view American Indians as partners in
ministry and no longer as a mission of the church.  

A Global Ministries legislative committee supported continuing the NACP. The
committee will offer an amendment to the entire General Conference that
entails a change in the task force's membership. Supporters say the
amendment will enable a broader spectrum of grass-roots Native American
people to be involved in the NACP's policy and decision-making procedures.
The amendment removes voting rights for church agency staff people and the
Council of Bishops representative, and it gives voting privileges to Native
American members from each of the five geographic areas of the church.  

General Conference also will consider a petition dealing with economic
strategies for Native American tribes and communities. Tribes for many years
have sought ways to become economically independent of government funding
and to establish viable business opportunities on Indian land. 

"The advent of gaming has enabled some tribes to find a measure of economic
independence while other tribes continue to be impoverished," according to
the legislation. 

The petition seeks support of a four-year study that will explore innovative
alternatives to gaming as the primary source of economic development in
Indian country. If approved, a report will be presented to the 2004 General
Conference.

Another petition, currently in a subcommittee, is "Caring for God's
Creation." It urges the United Methodist Church to commit to vigorous
protection and healing of the environment, using a resource and
recommendations that have a Native American perspective.

Native Americans also are calling on the denomination to agree to a
four-year land study. The church owns land or ministries on reservations or
tribal lands, and Indians are asking for a study on the disposition of those
properties. The group wants the lands that are not being used returned to
the tribes whose ancestors owned them. The conference also will deal with
concerns about protecting the Native American land base and sacred sites,
supporting Indians' rights and sponsoring a social witness program for
Native Americans.

Delegates to the conference are being asked to adopt a resolution calling
the United Methodist Church "to repentance and reconciliation for the
historical subjugation of native people." The resolution calls on the church
and all of its constituencies to study issues concerning American Indians,
Alaskan and Hawaiian natives and to recognize and respond to the needs of
native people.

A 1990 Census report estimated that 1.9 million American Indians live within
the boundaries of the church's 66 U.S. annual conferences, and more than 60
percent live in urban areas. The denomination has 200 Native American
churches, ministries and fellowships in the country, and 28 are in urban
areas.

Oklahoma, with 49 tribes, has the largest concentration of American Indians
in the United States. The largest amount of Native Americans in the United
Methodist Church resides in the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, which
has 7,500 members and 91 congregations. Native American United Methodists
and ministries can be found from the tip of Florida to Alaska, and the
denomination has large populations of American Indian members in North
Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Arizona, New Mexico and
California.  

The strong United Methodist presence in the Southeast and Southwest is due
to the "comity agreements" of the late 1800s and early 1900s, according to
the denomination's Native American Office of Communications. Agreements were
made between major mainline denominations and the U.S. government in the
late 1800s, and the denominations were assigned regions of the country for
their work among native people.
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         -- Linda Green

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United Methodist News Service
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