Table Of ContentAROUND THE
SACRED FIRE
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AROUND THE
SACRED FIRE
Native Religious Activism
in the Red Power Era
A Narrative Map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference
JAMES TREAT
Palgrave
macmillan
*
AROUND THE SACRED FIRE
Copyright© James Treat, 2003.
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 2003 978-1-4039-6103-7
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ISBN 978-1-349-73098-8 ISBN 978-1-137-05175-2 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-1-137-05175-2
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First edition: January 2003
1
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
As with any generation
the oral tradition depends upon each person
listening and remembering a portion
and it is together-
all ofu s remembering what we have heard together
that creates the whole story
the long story of the people.
Leslie Marmon Silko, Storyteller
If an arrow is well made, it will have tooth marks upon it. That is how
you know.
N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain
I have not cared to pile up more dry bones, but to clothe them with flesh
and blood. So much as has been written by strangers ofo ur ancient faith
and worship treats it chiefly as matter ofc uriosity. I should like to empha
size its universal quality, its personal appeal!
Charles Alexander Eastman, The Soul oft he Indian
Every day is a reenactment of the creation story. We emerge from dense
unspeakable material, through the shimmering power ofd reaming stuff
This is the first world, and the last.
Joy Harjo, The Woman Who Fell from the Sky
CONTENTS
Prologue "All This Religious Squabbling" 1
Contexts
Chapter One "Spiritual Revival for Indians" 13
Traditional Movement • Unity Convention •
Intertribal Solidarity • Spiritual Revolution
Chapter Two "Disharmony and Religious Feuds" 37
Cherokee Prophecy • Action Anthropology •
Cross-Cultural Education • Ecumenical Personality
Chapter Three "The Churches Must Listen" 61
Anglican Missions • Indian Work • Hendry
Report • Clerical Activists
Chapter Four "About Saving the World" 89
Rochdale College • Indian Studies • Ecumenical
Conference • Buckskin Curtain
Conversations
Chapter Five "Modern Indian Religious Life" 123
Steering Committee • Crow Agency •
Interreligious Organization
Consequences
Chapter Six "These Hills and Mountains" 173
Stoney Country • Ordained Chief • Indian Park •
Sacred Fire
Chapter Seven "Dissatisfaction Evidenced by Some" 201
Growing Concern • Crash Course • Battle Royal
• Liberation Process
Chapter Eight "This Sacred Event Interrupted" 229
Ideological Investment • Divine Disapproval •
Elaborate Representations • Numinous
Encounters
Chapter Nine "To Implement Meaningful Change" 257
Personal Transformations • Impending
Obsolescence • Tarnished Reputation • Lingering
Embers
Epilogue "Teachings from This Fire" 291
Acknowledg;ments 307
Notes 309
Index 373
Sharing, the great Indian tradition, can be the basis ofa new thrust in religious de
velopment. Religion is not synonymous with a large organizational structure in In
dian eyes. Spontaneous communal activity is more important. Thus any religious
movement of the future would be wise to model itself on existing Indian behavioral
patterns. This would mean returning religion to the Indian people.
Vine Deloria, Jr., Custer Died for Your Sins
We should have started something like this a long time ago. We have almost let all this
religious squabbling smother our spiritual power and destroy us as a strong people.
Andrew Dreadfulwater, Indian Ecumenical Conference
PROLOGUE
"ALL THIS
RELIGIOUS SQUABBLING"
I HAD COLD FEET. MY BOOTS HAD BEEN WET ALL DAY, soaked through
by the dew still heavy in a thick carpet of summer grass. Morning sun had
given way to overcast and the smell of rain; a light breeze tumbled down the
eastern slope of the Rockies, filling the Bow River valley with the exhalation of
glaciers. Waiting for dinner to be served, I stood next to the open door of my
rent-a-car organizing my things and my thoughts. Fog covered the Kananaskis
Country to the west and shadows moved across the clearing as thunderclouds
jockeyed for position above my small, leaky tent.
We were nearing the end of the second day of the Indian Ecumenical
Conference, an intertribal gathering being held once again in 1992 after a hia
tus of several years. Stoney Indian Park in western Alberta had been the home
of the religious encampment for over two decades, since the second annual
meeting convened there in 1971. The Stoney Reserve at Morley is an idyllic
setting in late July, full of natural drama. Traces of the forest, of weeds and
wildflowers, of scattered campfires hung in the air as I jotted down some notes
on events of the day. A herd of bison grazed in the meadow at the lower end of
the valley. Mosquitoes scouted my neck and a streamliner sounded a crossing
in the distance, every noise muffled by the moist atmosphere. Children played
among the evergreens and white poplars that enclose the camping area, a
plateau overlooking the river with room enough for a circle of tipis sur
rounded by other transient accommodations-canvas cabins, nylon A-frames,
pickup truck campers. I could practically taste the fresh buffalo steak being
grilled in the cookhouse nearby.
