wfn.org | Heritage kits from United Methodists set record straight about

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Native Americans

Aug. 16, 2001 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-34-71B{352}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)-Resources that debunk myths and stereotypes of
Native Americans and give guidance for teaching Vacation Bible School to
native children are being released in a heritage kit and sent to all annual
conferences and resource centers of the United Methodist Church.

The Native American Communication Office, a unit of United Methodist
Communications, has produced a "Sharing the Heritage Kit" that contains
facts about native people, booklets, cassettes, videos, computer diskettes
and other information and materials.

  Dancing With a Brave Spirit: Telling the Truth About Native America, is one
of the kit's offerings.  This revised publication seeks to clarify many of
the widely held myths and beliefs about native people.

Dancing was first produced in 1999 as a response by native organizations and
tribes to the amount of misinformation surrounding native people, said Ray
Buckley, director of the Native American Communications Office.

The first booklet was distributed to members of the U.S Congress, tribal
offices, several denominations, delegates to the 2000 United Methodist
General Conference and to the press.

Due to the acclaim and enthusiastic endorsement of the first booklet and
because of a need for updated information, an expanded second edition for
2001-2004 has been released. The revision includes more coverage of Alaska
natives, the unique status of certain tribes, more cultural information and
a more comprehensive synopsis of issues affecting native people.

Buckley said Native America is ever changing and those changes bring about
new perceptions about native people, some positive and some negative.

The revised Dancing booklet includes three sections: questions and answers
about native people; native people and United Methodism; and a directory of
organizations working with native people.

Another resource in the kit, "Seeing Through Native Eyes, " was developed to
provide culturally relevant tools for Vacation Bible School among Indian
people. The communications office along with the Native American
Comprehensive Plan brought together a team of native educators in 1999 and
again in 2000 to share ideas and concerns regarding the teaching of native
children.

According to Buckley, the critical conclusion from both meetings was that
native people learn best when culturally relevant tools are used. Cultural
considerations among American Indians are currently employed in public
schools and colleges but have never been fully addressed in the church, he
said.

Native children growing up on reservations or those being raised in
communities where tribal traditions are still strong often have very
different concepts of appropriateness and etiquette, said Buckley, who is a
member of the Tlingit/Lakota tribes.

As an example, he noted that native children will not raise their hands to
respond to a question even if they know the answer. "Educators who are not
familiar with native traditions will assume that these children do not work
well in social settings and place them in remedial education," he said.
"The result is that many of our rural children drop out of school by fifth
grade and those that do stay usually give up."

Teaching native children in mainstream education without identifying
cultural differences has been ineffective, he said. "It is like serving soup
with a slotted spoon. It just doesn't work.  We have never developed a
method of teaching Christian education that will help native people."

"Seeing Through Native Eyes," which has been sent to all native
congregations in the denomination, is a study of native cultures and
includes illustrations designed to strengthen and illustrate Christian
beliefs.

  "We have deliberately avoided accessing native religions, out of respect
for them, and have focused on cultural elements," Buckley said. "We have a
strong commitment to the belief that by affirming culture, we also affirm
self-identity."

The historical relationship between the United Methodist Church and Indian
people is largely carried in the memory of elders and is being lost, Buckley
said. In an effort to preserve the stories and information about historical
events, the "Elders Project" was initiated in 1999 and is an ongoing
initiative of the communications office. Stories from older people are being
recorded and sent to the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History
and specific tribal communities.

Each story an elder provides is copyrighted in that elder's name and becomes
the property of that elder, Buckley explained.   "In native tradition, a
person's story belongs to them and should only be told by them. It is
considered rude to tell someone else's story."

A Native American Hymn Preservation program is another on-going effort to
document native culture, heritage and songs. Tribal hymns are being
digitally recorded to preserve them for future generations.  The
communications office has recorded hymns from Montana, Alaska, and the
Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference.  A compact disc featuring hymns
recorded live at the 2001 session of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary and
representing 11 tribes will be available in October.

Some of the resources available in the Sharing of the Heritage Kit also may
be found, without graphics, on the Native American Communications Office Web
site: www.naco.umcom.org. The site also contains cultural information and
links to native sites and educational institutions.

For more information about Native American resources contact Buckley at
naco@umcom.org or (615) 742-5414.

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United Methodist News Service
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