Friends were brought in by President Grant in the hope of mitigating the evils of an appallingly evil system. The meetings that became involved — some Hicksite, some Orthodox, but none Wilburite — were required to obey the law (including the laws requiring forcible enrollment) — but, within those limits, did indeed mitigate the suffering as best they could, doing things like making sure that tribes got the supplies that Congress voted for them. (Prior to Grant’s “Quaker policy”, the agents assigned to the tribes would take the supplies for themselves instead and sell them off to white buyers.) Some individual Friends appointed to this work were strongly prejudiced regarding the supposed inferiority and savagery of the native; others were remarkably enlightened. As with every part of the human drama, it was never simple, but the meetings that took up this project genuinely struggled to do their best.
Great Plains Yearly Meeting — our neighbor yearly meeting to the west and southwest — still maintains a presence with the Osage nation, which is the last truly lively relic of that Quaker policy. I have visited their meeting at Hominy, Oklahoma, the center of that effort. There are native American members there who are fourth-to-sixth generation descendants of the original native American members of the meeting. The pastor at the time I visited, David E. Nagle, is Anglo by birth, but an adopted member of the tribe; he participates in the tribal dances (and there are photos of him doing so on FB), and he took a prominent role in the work of creating a dictionary of the tribe’s language and reviving the use of the language among its children.
Great Plains Yearly Meeting itself is a bridge-builder. It is fully affiliated with FUM, but various of its individual meetings maintain affiliations with EFI or FGC. I know of no other Friends yearly meeting that is so dedicated to maintaining *all* those connections and making them meaningful. David Nagle himself is an associate member of Ohio Yearly Meeting, our sister Conservative meeting.
Yesterday afternoon a group of Midwest Quakers gathered via Zoom in response to the terrible news of the remains of children at Native residential schools in Canada. Tragically there is no doubt many more will be found.
We began with an hour of worship together. For those not familiar, many Quakers worship in silence. If so led, vocal messages can be given. Afterword we had a discussion about what we might do.
I believe those gathered shared my appreciation for a chance to listen for the Spirit, and to each other, for strength and guidance for what we might be called to do. Many, if not all of us, wonder what our responsibility is for the trauma of forced assimilation. We are aware that Quakers played some role in some of those institutions in the land called the United States.
These traumas have been passed from generation to generation. Described as an open wound in Native communities today.
We must look to Indigenous peoples to learn how we can support them. I’ve been asked to tell people about the concept of LANDBACK. I created the website https://landbackfriends.com/ as one way to do that. There you can find explanations of the concepts of LANDBACK and Mutual Aid. And a number of posts about Native residential schools.
If you are so led, you can add your signature to the LANDBACK epistle. You can also add your email address if you’d like updates.
My friend Christine Nobiss, of the Great Plains Action Society, asks us to support the July 4th event Stop Whitewashing Genocide and Slavery This is a real opportunity for us to demonstrate our support for her work. I would also encourage you to invite young people to attend.
Photos I took at last year’s event can be found below.
This is likely to be a kind of stream of consciousness. Exploring proximity of distance, of time, proximity to the Spirit. How proximity changes our perspective.
I’m floundering. I seem to have become unmoored from the Quaker faith community I was raised in and chose to remain part of my entire life.
Throughout my life there have been tensions between us. One related to the profligate use of fossil fuels. I had hoped when I was led to live without a car, other Friends might also. Had hoped other Friends would be draft resisters. Find ways to join communities of color. Ways to be accountable for settling on Native lands. For participating in the cultural genocide of institutions of forced assimilation.
There have been some Friends who have done some of those things.
A number of things contribute to my current condition. One is realizing the inherent racism, evil of the colonial capitalist economic system. How have we become immune to the hunger, houselessness, disease and despair of millions of people? To endless wars? To the utter devastation of Mother Earth? All predicated on capitalism and white supremacy.
The vast majority of Quakers in the United States are white and relatively well off financially. Benefactors of capitalism and white dominant culture. Many avoid looking at the evils of the capitalist economic system they/we live in. Which, I would contend, is why we don’t have a diverse membership. Why many of us have trouble comprehending racism and privilege.
My perspective has radically changed over the past decade. First when I was blessed to become part of the Kheprw Institute community in Indianapolis. A black youth mentoring and empowerment community. I was mentored myself in the process. I learned there is no substitute for spending a great deal of time in oppressed communities. Justice work is founded on relationships. Without this development of friendships, no meaningful work can be done. This is the proximity of physical distance.
Over the past four years I have been similarly blessed to build relationships, friendships with Native people in Iowa. This was another example of the proximity of physical distance, which was the intention of the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March I am profoundly grateful to have been part of. For a week in September, 2018, a small group of about 15 Native and 15 non-native folks walked together, and camped along the route of the Dakota Access pipeline. Walking down rural gravel roads, we shared our stories with each other. Began to build friendships and trust. Since then, there have been numerous occasions when we worked together.
For over a year now I have been so grateful to become part of Des Moines Mutual Aid. My good friend Ronnie James, an Indigenous organizer with more than twenty years of experience, has been generously, patiently mentoring me about Mutual Aid and activism in Iowa. I spend several hours every Saturday morning with a very diverse group of friends as we put together and distribute boxes of food for those in need. Another example of proximity of distance. Over these times together we share our stories. Get to meet family members. Share our joy of being with each other. My perspective relative to Quakers and black, indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC) has changed significantly as a result.
What has brought about my crisis of connection with Quakers has been the recent verification of the remains of Native children at residential schools in Canada. Verification because Indigenous peoples knew children were buried there.
A problem for me was Quaker involvement in some of these schools in the land called the United States. I doubt those Friends harmed the children physically. But looking back from our perspective today, grievous harm was done by forceful attempts to assimilate the children into white culture.
I knew I could not have honest relationships with my Native friends if this wasn’t brought up. So I did. Those stories are for another time.
There are Quakers and many others who contend this was done in the past. Not something that needs to be dealt with today. Not a close proximity of time.
But that is not true. Some of those schools were still in operation until around the 1970’s. And the traumas that occurred at these residential schools have been passed from generation to generation. A close proximity of time. Native peoples suffering now.
Some have suggested we aren’t accountable because there were not residential schools close to us geographically. Proximity of distance.
More what I meant by the proximity of distance relates to physical presence. Because I am often in the presence of my Native friends, I see the great pain this latest news of the Native children has caused. This totally informs my perspective.
I don’t know how often my Native friends think about it, but I imagine our conversations about Quaker involvement come to mind.
There are calls now to look for children’s remains at all the residential schools. They will undoubtedly be found. Very likely found at schools Quakers were involved with. The numbers are already staggering, with over 800 children found at just two schools. Heightening tensions between Native and non-native peoples.
So there is proximity of time. Here and now. For some Quakers there is also proximity of distance. In various ways some of us are physically in touch with Native people. Close in terms of relationships with each other.
Don’t be a bystander to white supremacy
Christine Nobiss
I know I am fortunate, and many other Friends don’t have such relationships. That needs to change.
There are several reasons I have, hopefully temporarily, created distance from Friends. Many don’t acknowledge our responsibilities in this tragic history. Contend we don’t have accountability because these schools operated in the past. Don’t feel a proximity of time. Don’t realize the depths of the pain of Native peoples, because these Friends don’t have physical proximity.
So how can Friends find ways to be present with Native people? One way is to show up for Native gatherings. One such opportunity will be this July 4th, 2021, 1 – 3 pm. West terrace Iowa State Capitol. Stop Whitewashing Genocide & Slavery!!! Bring Back Critical Race Theory & Remove Monuments to White Supremacy in Iowa!
My friend Christine Nobiss is asking for a large turnout to support the removal of such statues in Iowa. She writes, “Don’t be a bystander to white supremacy. Fight back!” For more information: Stop Whitewashing Genocide and Slavery
I pray for proximity of the Spirit for all of us. Extremely trying days lie ahead of us. There will be an increasingly desperate need for Quakers learn about all this. So we will be prepared for what the Spirit will ask of us.
The intention of the website, LANDBACK Friends, is to help us learn and share about Quakers and Native peoples, about the Native boarding schools. Learn about the concepts of LANDBACK and Mutual Aid. LANDBACK Friends
I’ve been broken by the latest calamity, the verification of the remains of 215 Native children on the grounds of what was a residential school in British Columbia. More tragic is knowing hundreds of other Indigenous children died, or were killed, in these institutions of forced assimilation in the lands called Canada and the United States.
I’ve known about forced assimilation for years. But this is raw, because I see how devastated my Native friends are. And I know Quakers were involved in some of these institutions.
The trauma for Native families has been passed from generation to generation. Some of my Native friends have shared how this affects them and their families today. The news has re-opened deep wounds in Native communities. Many have been triggered by this atrocity. One of my Native friends wrote that she was NOT OK. Another told me, “I’m trying not to be enraged in my mourning.” [see: Time for a Reset]
I’m deeply troubled. I feel caught between my Native relatives and my Quaker community. To the extent that I’ve said I need to “step away” from my involvement with Quakers for a time. Even though I’m not sure what that means, or what will allow me to return.
It is frustrating to know all the work, the good intentions of Friends and others, will not lead to needed solutions as long as that work is done within the context of capitalism. [See the diagram below]
What it would take for me to return to Quaker justice work would be for Quakers to see capitalism must be abandoned. And to actively search for alternatives.
We do not have a new story yet. Each of us is aware of some of its threads, for example in most of the things we call alternative, holistic, or ecological today. Here and there we see patterns, designs, emerging parts of the fabric. But the new mythos has not yet formed.
We will abide for a time in the “space between stories.” It is a very precious — some might say sacred — time. Then we are in touch with the real. Each disaster lays bare the reality underneath our stories. The terror of a child, the grief of a mother, the honesty of not knowing why. In such moments our dormant humanity awakens as we come to each other’s aid, human to human, and learn who we are.
That’s what keeps happening every time there is a calamity before the old beliefs, ideologies, and politics take over again. Now the calamities and contradictions are coming so fast that the story has not enough time to recover. Such is the birth process of a new story.
The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, Charles Eisenstein
I am in that very precious, sacred time Charles Eisenstein describes. Abiding in the “space between stories”. The teachings of my Native friends have awakened the honesty of not knowing why.
I invite you to be open to new ways of being, such as LANDBACK and Mutual Aid. And pray we can hold onto the space between stories before the old beliefs, ideologies, and politics take over again. There is an urgency to this.
It is instructive that Eisenstein is expressing the concept of Mutual Aid when he writes “in such moments our dormant humanity awakens as we come to each other’s aid, human to human, and learn who we are.“
What we have is each other. We can and need to take care of each other. We may have limited power on the political stage, a stage they built, but we have the power of numbers.
Those numbers represent unlimited amounts of talents and skills each community can utilize to replace the systems that fail us. The recent past shows us that mutual aid is not only a tool of survival, but also a tool of revolution. The more we take care of each other, the less they can fracture a community with their ways of war.
Once we envision that world our ancestors want for us, finding our role is natural.
My friend and mentor Ronnie James, The Police State and Why We Must Resist
Friends express this as seeking what the Inner Light is asking of us.
I urge us to discern whether there are circumscribed limits we might not be aware of, that hold us back from venturing into a new story.
LANDBACK Friends 