wfn.org | Indian leader bestows the gifts at gathering in her honor

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Indian leader bestows the gifts at gathering in her honor

By Cathy Zollo
(ENS) Members from 24 tribes of native peoples gathered at Winter Talk 10 to explore and revisit their centuries-long connection with the Anglican community and determine how best to 
implement the New Jamestown Covenant.
 The five-day retreat in Seminole, Oklahoma also celebrated the career and retirement of Owanah Anderson, national officer for Native American ministries, who worked 13 years as an advocate for indigenous members of the church in North America and Hawaii.
At 72, the outspoken Anderson, a member of the Choctaw nation, is considered by many to be the spiritual matriarch for tribes throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
"I felt like dry grass before Owanah," one woman said at Anderson's farewell party. "She's been like a grandmother to us."
On the second day of Winter Talk, Anderson honored friends and colleagues through a traditional Indian "giveaway." She gave 70 treasured possessions she had collected over a lifetime.
Anderson gave away Pendleton blankets, colorful shawls, assorted jewelry and other gifts to the gathered group. Five colleagues from the Episcopal Church Center in New York surprised her by arriving at the ceremony.
"In our culture, it is a tradition when something important happens in your life, or there is a transition in your life, you have a giveaway," Anderson said. "You invite people and honor them by giving them gifts."
Indian dancers from Sapulpa performed ancestral dances and told stories to the group, which enclosed them in a circle of celebration.
After a time of prayer and dance, Anderson was led into the circle by her loved ones and friends, who danced in a show of respect.
The delegation from Alaska, in special thanks for Anderson's help in their efforts to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, sang their farewell song to the beat of a drum. Then the group huddled in a tight circle for a final blessing.

Covenant discussed
Each year, delegates from many tribes assemble here at the wooded, 400-acre retreat of St. Crispin's to exchange ideas about faith and reaffirm their connection to Christ.
The Jamestown Covenant, a decade-long agreement for remembrance, recognition and reconciliation between the Anglican Church and Native Americans, was the main topic at this year's meeting.
"[In] that great document ... we pledged ourselves to certain things," said Virginia Doctor, Winter Talk chair. "At this Winter Talk, we were trying to give breath to the covenant."
That breath will come from delegates taking their knowledge of the document back to their constituents and returning with fresh insights.
"We wanted people to talk about those issues to see if we could begin to develop some kind of strategy or plan that we could present to the larger church," Doctor said.
The group identified two areas of concern: racism and how to eliminate it and how to be better guardians of the planet.
"We spent a whole day on stewardship and something strange happened that I didn't expect," Doctor said. "We had people coming forward making personal commitments to take care of the Earth.
"Every time you talk about taking care of the Earth, everybody points to the Indians as the people who know how to do that. At the same time, we buy into trashing it too. Every time we buy a piece of Styrofoam or leave our cars running, we buy into that garbage."
The message of the covenant, according to Doctor, is that Christians must navigate a path of spiritual responsibility in all aspects of their lives. The document will be a moral compass in that endeavor.
"The Jamestown Covenant is going to shape our future for the next 10 or 20 years or so as we begin to live into it," Doctor said.
Anderson, whose career has revolved around the ideals outlined in the historic document, will no longer lead the charge to implement them. She is optimistic, however, about the future as she passes the mantle of leadership to the next generation.
"I've seen a network of leaders emerge," Anderson said. "We've gotten better funding at General Convention, and we have more attention to our desire to design our own programs, rather than following the missionary model of an old white priest saying what's good for us."
Anderson said she would miss her role in the church where, at the urging of her late husband, Henry, and her friend, Ada Deer, she had found her calling.
"I was running around active in lots of social change activities and anti-Vietnam War activities, and Ada kept saying, 'There are so many people to speak for women, to speak for all those other social issues, but who is there to speak for the Indians?'
"Then I realized that's what I had to do."
 	"She'll be a tough act to follow," Doctor said.

-Cathy Zollo is a free-lance writer in Wichita Falls, Texas. This article appears in the current issue of Episcopal Life.