EDINA COMMUNITY LUTHERAN CHURCH
WELCOME TO ECLC'S INDIGENOUS RIGHTS PAGE
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Indigenous Rights Monthly Email Update Archive
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COMING OPPORTUNITIES
September 30, National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding School Survivors
- Wear your orange shirt and tell someone what it means.
- Participate in the National Day of Remembrance locally in Powderhorn Park, hosted by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. See details here.
- All Nations Indian Church with host a Prayer Wall 10am-8pm, and a screening of the Sugarcane documentary about Indian residential schools 6pm-8pm. All Nations Indian Church is at 1515 23rd St. E., Minneapolis.
- The Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery is hosting a panel discussion at 6:30 p.m. about how churches are working towards truth telling and repair, and how you can join in this work. Vance Blackfox is among the presenters. Register for the Zoom link
- Native Women Run—Every Child Matters Run and Walk, Theodore Wirth Park, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
- St. Paul Area Synod is a sponsor for the NABS Healing Coalition events for September 30th. One of those events is a film screening of Medicine Ball followed by panel discussion. As a sponsor SPAS has some seats reserved; general registration is full. If you’d like to be one of those guests with SPAS please connect with Pr. Liesl Spitz at pastorliesl@sttimothylutheran.org.
Thursday, October 8, 7:00-9:00pm (CDT): Newcomer orientation (online) - last chance in 2026 for people to join the ELCA’s initiative to address Boarding Schools; complete the Get Involved form here. 43 new people went through orientation in June and July! We are now 150 participants across 46 (of 65) synods.
Monday, October 12, 10 a.m., The Fourth Annual Haha Wakpadan Water Blessing on Indigenous Peoples' Day at Westwood Hills Nature Center, 8300 West Franklin Avenue, St. Louis Park.
Friday, October 16, early in-person voting starts in MN for the November 3 general election.
Go to MNVOTES.gov to find out more.
To trace our initial education emphasis during the fall of 2022, you can access lists of curated resources and activities below. Use them to broaden your understanding of our Indigenous neighbors, the sovereign nations who were here before European settlers took over their land.
In spite of the U.S. government’s and the Church’s intentional, systemic attempts to exterminate their life-ways, their languages, their cultures, and their religions, Indigenous People are still here and are our neighbors.
This kind of history calls for the long and difficult work of justice, confession and healing, hoping to rebuild the respect and honor our Indigenous neighbors deserve as sovereign nations and children of God.
For Christian white people, “doing the work” is a baptismal calling, and expresses the mission of our congregation: to give witness to love and justice at God’s welcome table and in the world.
LAND, LAND, LAND
Injustice legitimized by the Doctrine of Discovery spread across centuries and geographies. In the US, treaties almost always forced Indigenous people from their homelands.How might we, who now occupy these lands, acknowledge this history and act in ways that move us toward justice?
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INDIGENOUS STORYTELLING FOR ALL AGES
Indigenous peoples have a long history as storytellers. Take time this week to listen to some of these contemporary storytellers.
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ADVOCATING FOR JUSTICE
There are many opportunities to advocate for a better way. The insidiousness of the assumptions driven by the Doctrine of Discovery manifested in the late 19th Century and forward as Indian Boarding Schools. Indigenous children were taken from their families and sent to boarding schools which forbade their language and other cultural expressions. In our day, Indigenous people continue to disappear, too often murdered, proportinately far more often than other groups. These are just two justice issues that call for our attention.
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A DIFFICULT HISTORY
Our county's history with its Indigenous peoples is a record too often unknown because it is too often unspoken.
Begin with the Doctrine of Discovery.
Let learning open your heart.
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INDIGENOUS EXPRESSION - THE ARTS
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INDIGENOUS CUISINE - DECOLONIZED FOOD
Our Indigenous neighbors are taking some fascinating approaches to their own health and wellbeing,
returning to the foods that sustained them for thousands of years before their economies were destroyed
when our government used treaties to take the land that had sustained them.