From the editor

We as Europeans basically annihilated the Susquehannocks, who were here, and to the rest of the tribes we committed acts that scattered them across the nation. Any way I can connect to the past as a European and a Mennonite and a Christian, I ask for forgiveness.—Lloyd Hoover

If our forefathers heard what we are talking about here, they’d be dancing for joy.—Gray Wolf

On July 22, the Lutheran World Federation asked Mennonites for forgiveness for the Lutherans’ treatment of Anabaptists in Europe beginning in the 16th century. Now it is time for some Mennonites with roots in North America to ask for forgiveness from the people who lived on this land before our forebears arrived.

Lloyd Hoover did just that. He represented the Mennonite church on a committee planning the Oct. 9 “Public Acknowledgement and Commemoration of the Native American Legacy” in Lancaster, Pa. Hoover’s statement and the response from Gray Wolf, an Apache man, came in a Sept. 23 release from the committee.

November has been designated Native American Awareness Month, and at least one Menno­nite high school has planned activities to raise awareness. But we cannot find an explanation why this month was chosen. Perhaps it is because of the legends that focus on the first Thanksgiving— when people who lived here first provided food for the Pilgrims.

Coincidentally this year, Native voices have been increasingly prominent in both Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA. In July at the Native Assembly in Montana, a Cree leader called on the church to listen to indigenous voices.

The group also traveled to the Little Bighorn Battlefield, where George Custer and his U.S. cavalry were prevented from attacking a peaceful encampment of Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux men, women and children. The Native American account of the battle differs significantly from what is usually recorded in U.S. textbooks.

Mennonite Church Canada has been even more intentional about examining its history than has Mennonite Church USA. At their July assembly, delegates learned how Canadian Mennonites may have been complicit in the Indian Residential School system, which sought to eradicate First Nations cultures. Although neither Mennonite Church Canada nor its predecessor, the Conference of Mennonites in Canada, operated any residential schools, some members of their con­gre­­­­­- ­­gations supported the schools and volunteered in them. The delegates acknowledged this complicity and “destructive individual attitudes, such as paternalism, racism and superiority, are still present among us.”
For me, the Lancaster event hits closest to home—literally. My ancestors arrived in Penns Woods in 1747 and established the Adam Thomas farm in southern Lancaster County. At my home, eight miles away, we found arrow and hatchet heads. Although that land was originally granted to William Penn by indigenous tribes that shared his vision for a peaceful coexistence, it is clear that my part of the Mennonite church did too little to resist later abuses and attacks.

One small way for all of us to observe Native American Awareness Month is to learn something about the people who lived on the land before our houses and roads and towns existed. Then at our Thanksgiving meal we can offer a prayer of confession for any complicity we and our ancestors may have had in annihilating them.