wfn.org | Racism poses Indians' biggest challenge, speaker says

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Aug. 2, 2000 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-31-34-71BP{354}

NOTE: A photograph is available with this report.

By Tammy Ward*

NEWARK, Del. (UMNS) - The principal player in the "Chief Wahoo" mascot issue
told United Methodist Native Americans attending their annual family camp
that racism is the biggest single issue they will face in their lives.

Juanita Helphrey, a staff member of the United Church of Christ (UCC), was
the keynote speaker for the 2000 Native American Family Camp, held July
24-28 at the University of Delaware. The four-day meeting focused on the
whole family, and workshops emphasized spiritual, social, political and
physical awareness and wholeness.

Before her UCC affiliation, Helphrey spent 16 years as the executive
director of the Indian Affairs Commission in North Dakota. It was from this
perspective that she spoke to the youth and adults attending the family camp
gathering.  

Helphrey led discussions aimed at empowering the 280 participants, and she
provided resources to assist them in protests and activism against racial
discrimination and the exploitation of sacred symbols. 

Negative stereotypes of Native Americans have existed for a long time,
Helphfrey said. The terms "redskin" and "squaw" carry a negative meaning,
she said. "Their message is of hate, inequality. We are 'not as good as,'
and it gives other people the right to get rid of us, to keep us without
jobs, a good education, into reservation depression, in ghettos," she said.

Exploitation of symbols is one of the reasons United Methodist Native
Americans joined Helphrey and other Native Americans from the Cleveland area
in protest of "Chief Wahoo," the mascot of the Cleveland Indians baseball
team. The protest was held during the 2000 General Conference, the top
legislative meeting of the United Methodist Church.

In a show of solidarity, the delegates meeting in Cleveland approved a
resolution denouncing the use of "offensive racist logos" by any team or
organization. In particular, they cited the Cleveland Indians' use of the
Chief Wahoo mascot, saying it demeans and diminishes Native Americans by
denying them recognition as human beings.

Delegates at the 2000 conference said the use of negative and "denigrating
images" increases the struggles of young Native Americans and prohibits
development of the strong self-esteem needed to compete in society. "The
Chief Wahoo mascot increases the isolation, confusion and hostility which
are expressed so graphically by the statistical records of such social
dysfunction as alcoholism, school drop-out rates, teen suicide and violence,
and family disintegration among Native Americans," the approved resolution
stated.  

As Helphrey gave the participants a look at how she has been molded by her
life experiences, she also described herself as "a racial justice advocate
and activist, a mom, a grandma and a survivor of genocide" because of her
ancestors.

Helphrey is a sixth-generation Christian, being part of the first tribe in
the Dakotas to be converted to Christianity by the Rev. Charles Hall, the
first missionary in the area. Hall had converted Poor Wolf, a spiritual
leader in the tribe, and the entire tribe followed suit.

A serene village shielded her while she grew up, and she said she didn't
know what it meant to be on the receiving end of racism because she was
surrounded by people who looked like her and who were non-controversial. She
began noting racism when congressional actions stripped families of their
land and flooded it to provide electricity to cities such as Denver. The
once self-sufficient and agriculturally solvent families had to become
recipients of social services.

Helphrey said that is where her journey into low self-esteem and heartbreak
began. Her downward spiral was assisted by her placement in all-white
schools and hearing and reading aloud from history books that called her
people "savages." It was in junior high school where she became aware that
skin color made a difference in the United States. Throughout her school
years, she said she tried hard to fit in and tried various things to feel
better about who she was. "Maybe if I did it like them, I would be better or
as good as," she thought, in response to the racism.

The hardest lesson she has had to learn was the feeling of "white power"
among Christian people in her life. She was raised thinking pastors were
next to God and Native Americans could not be pastors, she said. She placed
them on pedestals and expected them to behave as examples and followers of
Jesus' teachings, such as "love thy neighbor." However, actions from the
pastors and her Christian friends led to a re-evaluation of the Christian
community.

Not an ordained minister, Helphrey said she finds her theology and walk in
life in three parallel paths: Christianity, Alcoholic Anonymous' 12-Step
program and native traditions.

The four-day camp included an excursion to visit the United Methodist
Building in Washington.  The participants met with the Rev. Thom White Wolf
Fassett, a Native American who is top staff executive of the denomination's
Board of Church and Society, and the Rev. Chester Jones, top staff executive
of the church's Commission on Religion and Race.

In his presentation, Fassett talked about issues of interest to Native
Americans. He highlighted toxic waste dumps, treaties and child labor. 

He spoke candidly about the recent case involving 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez
and its importance to him. "We try (at the board) to work quietly behind the
scenes, but the Elian case didn't let us do that," he said. The board helped
reunite the Cuban boy with his father.

"When I was 5 years old, I was taken away from my birth mother," Fassett
continued. He was sent to an orphanage, and then there was a custody battle
over him, he said.

Jones described what the Native Americans have in common with African
Americans. "Something was stolen from us," he said. "Our bodies, were
stolen, the Native Americans' land was stolen." 

He speculated about what an Emancipation Proclamation would mean for Native
Americans. "Would they get land back? Feelings of land are important." He
said he had a kindred feeling about the land. As a young man, he could not
wait to leave the sharecropper's life he had known, but now he looks forward
to returning to the family farm.

The family camp is sponsored by the denomination's Native American
International Caucus and partially funded by the churchwide Native American
Comprehensive Plan. The 2001 camp will be July 16-20 at Flathead Lake, a
United Methodist camp in Elmo, Mont.

# # #

*Ward is the communications coordinator for the Peninsula-Delaware Annual
Conference.

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United Methodist News Service
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