Around the Sacred Fire: Native Religious Activism in the Red Power Era

Rating:
Summary: Informative and inspiring...!
Review: The author calls this book a "narrative map" of the Indian Ecumenical Conference - and reading this book really does make you feel like you have traveled on a journey, crisscrossing the map of Canada and the US, hearing stories about so many outstanding and memorable people who were the shakers and movers behind the IEC. The focal point of this movement was a summer conference that took place every year, starting in 1970 and carrying on up into the 1980's - these are the meetings around the "sacred fire" of the book's title, a coming together of people seeking a dialogue between tribal religious traditions and Christianity. These are not people who are famous... with one possible exception - if you have read Margaret Craven's I Heard the Owl Call My Name, you might remember "Gordon", a character based on a real person, Ernie Willie, a Kwakiutl Indian who (as I learned from this book!) became one of the main leaders of the Indian Ecumenical Conference. The life stories of the people in this movement, like John Snow and Andrew Ahenakew and Bob Thomas, provide a really illuminating perspective on the lives of Indian peoples in the 20th century, as played out in many different parts of the United States and Canada (living in Oklahoma, I was really glad to learn about Oklahoma connections to this movement). Before I read this book, the word "ecumenical" to me mostly just meant Protestants and Catholics in dialogue. The Indian Ecumenical Conference was something much more radical, with Christian ministers and tribal medicine men finding ways to understand and respect and support one another. From the start, the theological questions were connected with social and political issues - these conferences naturally became a place where the youth movement and the environmental movement found expression throughout the 1970's, along with the Red Power movement that was unfolding at the same time. There are some great books about the American Indian Movement that have become required reading for people who want to see beyond the self-deception and hypocrisy of mainstream society - and this book would make a great companion piece, showing a different kind of effort in the late 60's and 70's to find answers to hard questions about being Indian and being white in America. Like one of the movement's leaders, Ernest Tootoosis, said: "I believe us Indians, as custodians of North America, will have a contribution to make to white society. We have to go back and take some very fine things about our culture, about our teaching and our way of praying to God, take these good things and try to find something good about the white man, the way they are living now, and piece these two things together for survival." The Indian Ecumenical Conference was built on that hope for survival, piecing things together. And this book tells the story of that movement in abundant, loving detail. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Informative and inspiring...!
Review: The author calls this book a "narrative map" of the Indian Ecumenical Conference - and reading this book really does make you feel like you have traveled on a journey, crisscrossing the map of Canada and the US, hearing stories about so many outstanding and memorable people who were the shakers and movers behind the IEC. The focal point of this movement was a summer conference that took place every year, starting in 1970 and carrying on up into the 1980's - these are the meetings around the "sacred fire" of the book's title, a coming together of people seeking a dialogue between tribal religious traditions and Christianity. These are not people who are famous... with one possible exception - if you have read Margaret Craven's I Heard the Owl Call My Name, you might remember "Gordon", a character based on a real person, Ernie Willie, a Kwakiutl Indian who (as I learned from this book!) became one of the main leaders of the Indian Ecumenical Conference. The life stories of the people in this movement, like John Snow and Andrew Ahenakew and Bob Thomas, provide a really illuminating perspective on the lives of Indian peoples in the 20th century, as played out in many different parts of the United States and Canada (living in Oklahoma, I was really glad to learn about Oklahoma connections to this movement). Before I read this book, the word "ecumenical" to me mostly just meant Protestants and Catholics in dialogue. The Indian Ecumenical Conference was something much more radical, with Christian ministers and tribal medicine men finding ways to understand and respect and support one another. From the start, the theological questions were connected with social and political issues - these conferences naturally became a place where the youth movement and the environmental movement found expression throughout the 1970's, along with the Red Power movement that was unfolding at the same time. There are some great books about the American Indian Movement that have become required reading for people who want to see beyond the self-deception and hypocrisy of mainstream society - and this book would make a great companion piece, showing a different kind of effort in the late 60's and 70's to find answers to hard questions about being Indian and being white in America. Like one of the movement's leaders, Ernest Tootoosis, said: "I believe us Indians, as custodians of North America, will have a contribution to make to white society. We have to go back and take some very fine things about our culture, about our teaching and our way of praying to God, take these good things and try to find something good about the white man, the way they are living now, and piece these two things together for survival." The Indian Ecumenical Conference was built on that hope for survival, piecing things together. And this book tells the story of that movement in abundant, loving detail. Highly recommended!