WINNIPEG, Man. — Canadian Mennonite University made headlines this fall when it was revealed that workers at the CMU Farm, in collaboration with members of the Métis community, had successfully grown an ancient variety of squash from seeds shared with them by the White Earth Seed Library in Minnesota.
Thanksgiving’s roots in an encounter between European settlers and indigenous people point to a dark side of that history. Mennonites who want to raise awareness of unjust treatment of indigenous people are using a little-known historical precedent — the Doctrine of Discovery — to show how indigenous people are still being negatively affected today.
ELKHART, Ind. — In the spring of 1942, as World War II was intensifying, some American Mennonites were mobilizing to confront a growing challenge on the home front: the training of ministers and other church workers. It was a domestic problem with direct connections to the war.