Excellent to discuss this. Good timing too, w/ Columbus Day.
In Denver each year for a long time the Italians have marched in honor of Columbus, and Native Americans and their supporters have protested and practiced civil disobedience in protest of their march.
I thank God I was able to march with both groups, in different years, warmly received by both.
Sin is the problem, and whites are not alone in suffering with and because of it.
Any honest person would have to agree every race bears the scars and shames of sin.
While marching with the Italians I saw many instances of sheer hatred directed against them, invectives and gestures. I saw teenage Catholic schoolgirls and boys very courageously march with religious banners straight down streets lined with masked 'Black Bloc' anarchists screaming and threatening them. There was a very real threat of violence.
When I marched with the Indian side I saw very great bravery in the face of fully equipped riot police. At one point those who chose to risk arrest non-violently blocked the street. The Indians began to chant in their way and that sent chills up my spine and I felt a great admiration for them. They also were without exception kind and generous to me, a non-Indian.
So, it's not so simple. Good and bad on both sides, saints and sinners among us all.
God wants us to love one another. Sins of greed and individual and racial pride have deeply harmed both sides.
Only if we look to God, all of us, and humbly follow his admonition to Love each other, forgive one another, will we be able to deal with the brokenness.

This was a great read. Thanks so much for posting this. It was incredibly powerful.

"Then the killings started." Wow, no killing before the black book arrived! Amazing!
"Now, they're confined to a narrow wedge of land…" Wow, like they can't go out at all or move anywhere else? That's really bad.
"…EVERY encounter between white and native people in our country (in North America, actually) involved deception, betrayal, empty promises, often violence." Wow, every single one - no exceptions! All white people of that time must have been like the Nazis.

Zechariah 8 - Inspired words for sure.
"Good news is embodied" That is sure needed and is very difficult to make happen when the church thinks it must maintain the pulpit and pew routines.

Am I the only one not buying the Indian peaceful utopia destroyed by white men with the black book story? Please pardon my sarcasm but the extreme of of this "history" lesson is such a fib.

Tim, I agree people often tend to go to extreme in their language when trying to make a case. It's unfortunate because one can lose credibility for an otherwise valid claim. But you can't deny that the European conquest of the American continent did not have devastating consequences for the North American tribes that were already here at the time, whether intentional or not.

The question isn't whether or not the North American peoples were living in a "utopia" prior to European settlement; the question is whether those carrying and claiming the black book lived up to its precepts. And re: native experience w/Europeans in general and Christians in particular:

- how many treaties with the native American nations were honored by the U.S. government?

To what extent were Christian (yes, evangelical) missions complicit in government efforts to "pacify" and forcibly assimilate native people, especially children?

What was the only time a U.S. president baldly disregarded a Supreme Court decision, taking real action against real (and often Christian) people, costing real lives?

I'm not a native activist, and tend to be on the conservative side in my politics. But I live in a part of the country w/a strong Native American presence and history and, as a Christian, feel the God of that black book calls me to honestly face our intersecting histories.

Being a late-comer to Christianity, born & raised by "Christians turned humanists, turned atheists, I have often been perplexed by how unlike the black book the Church sometimes is. Or at least the people making up the church. The Church feels powerless to practice any tough love to challenge people, and people know it.

In our NYState we are loaded with "native Americans". They have their own extremely nice school while down the street the public school is crowded. They don't pay taxes but can use every gov't social program available. The Indians originally from Southern NYS now own city land thanks to the state and have a casino and huge hotel on the former city land which has resulted in killing local businesses because the Indians pay no taxes. Before the white man came the casino indian tribe killed the original indian tribe in this area because they wanted their land; and, our third and last indian tribe moved up from the south to here. When the priests came the casino tribe was dying out from sexual diseases and the priests showed them how to clean themselves to wipe out what was wiping them out. In 1812 war broke out between Canada and the U.S. The Casino tribe went with the British and the tribe from the Southern states went with us. Yes the two tribes didn't hesitate fighting with each other picking sides. The Casino tribe liked to remove heads and burn houses with people in them to the point where the Southern tribe had to save our village and fed and clothed the village survivers for three winters and summers while the surviving whites rebuilt homes. Thank God the Southern tribe that went with us locals, didn't kill like the casino tribe, and the Southern tribe now has their own land and also live among us. Yes there are differences among tribes and that has nothing to do with the white man and his black book. Their differences and their wars were among them before they even saw us. Women and children were kidnapped from other tribes to replace those lost in ones tribe and this was a normal accepted practice to the point where the kidnapped didn't try to return to their tribes because it wasn't expected of the kidnapped because their tribe did the same kidnapping.
Oh, the priests stopped that practice, the beheading of male prisoners and other "cultural" practices. Of course we locals did lose some priests as not all indians wanted to change their "wonderful culture". I'll end here. Thank God for the black book and the priests and the churches that the "Southern" tribe now worship in.

It could be worse. You could have to give them their land back and move.

We like to excuse genocide by making it the victim's fault. They needed to be exterminated.

Original Anna, I don't think anyone is denying that there was not violence among tribes before the Europeans showed up, or even after they showed up. I don't think anyone would deny that there aren't some tribes in general, or individual Native Americans, who are well off in contemporary society. And I don't think anyone would deny that certainly there were and have bee Christians and churches who did good things for the Native Americans. But at the same time, we can't deny that in the name of Christianity, we also did some bad things! We did things that were not consistent with the faith we profess or with the Book we claim to live by! The solution for going to one extreme is NOT to go to the other extreme. The solution is to be realistic and honest about the mistakes we have made in the past and commit ourselves to rectifying those mistakes and living more in harmony with the teachings of the Scriptures.

As an Afro-caribbean person (yes, I believe Columbus was also credited with discovering our islands while en route to India), who has also lived in Canada and has had First Nations friends, I believe the hardest part is owning up to the disconnect between what we as Christ-followers say and do. Until you've met a person who has endured abuse in a residential school, lost their language, or sees it better to be viewed as latino than First nations, you can never comprehend their pain. We clasp the black book in one hand and pointedly harm with the next. How could any of this have glorified our God?

It should be noted, historically, that the Native American way of waging "war" and the European way of waging war were based on two very different philosophical concepts.

for the Native American, killing your opponent was an easy thing, and usually, easily accomplished, however, getting within arms reach of the guy, giving him a hearty hello beat-down while he was armed, and then running back to your own side of the property line was considered awesomeness personified.

When the Euro's arrived, the European methodology of warfare was to kill en masse, butcher whole-sale, and not leave. Ergo, hence, therefore dropping the pwnage, and to the victor goes the spoils.

Obviously, by the 18th century, the East Coast Indians got on board with the Euro methodology of warfare and were quite apt and laying out their own version of "eat this!"

tl;dr : the Indians fell victim to different strategy of warfare and adopted to the new maxim with a vengeance.