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DAY TWO MORNING

Gathering Song/Announcements (25 minutes) and Worship in Song (10 minutes)

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PLENARY II: MISSIONARY CONFERENCES (60 minutes)

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OPENING HYMN: “Heleluyan, We are Singing” (Singing the Sacred: Sing, Prayer, Praise, #13 or United Methodist Hymnal, #78)

Introduction: Video Montage

Live or recorded drumming to a video montage of sounds, video clips, and images taken from study, including Alaskan native pastors, communities, Oklahoma trail of tears, maps, Native American reservations, orphanages, schools, Appalachian people, mountain top removal, and deindustrialization.

Purpose of Video Montage: To show the complex, layered reality of history. As the montage is being shown, there is low drumming playing in medium-tempo half notes. After the montage ends, the drumming continues for a few more beats and then the Worship Leader begins.

WORSHIP LEADER:The Heleluyan that rises from Missionary Conferences is not an easy one. It is not Pollyanna. It is not taken for granted. It is a deep, profound expression of trust in the faithfulness of God in the midst of a very difficult journey.

STORYTELLER 1:From the history of treaties made and broken; forced migration; the acquisition of ancestral homelands; massacres; and more recently, the struggle to protect water, the journey of Native American persons in and outside of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference is not and has not been easy. Nonetheless, their Heleluyan rises.

STORYTELLER 2:From the mountains of Appalachia hollowed by strip mining and mountaintop removal, the decline of coal industries, the loss of jobs, and persistent poverty, the journey of the Appalachian peoples in Red Bird is not and has not been easy. Nonetheless, their Heleluyan rises.

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STORYTELLER 3:From the loss of culture and language the loss of indigenous lands, the impact of climate change, thinning ice, melting permafrost, and a people excluded from mainstream society, the journey of Alaska Natives is not and has not been easy. Nonetheless, their Heleluyan rises.

WORSHIP LEADER:We gather to bear witness to the faithfulness and resiliency of brothers and sisters in missionary conference areas, to be in solidarity and learn how to further solidarity with them.

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Movement #1: Voices (30 minutes)

Three Storytellers and the Worship Leader are at the level of the participants. The one who shares Cobell’s story remains standing.

After each story is spoken, a drum beat is heard.

All storytellers rise and the Proclamation is spoken as a

litany. (“ALL” means the whole assembly.)

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The Story of Blackfeet Warrior, by Elouise Cobell

STORYTELLER 1:Let’s hear the story of the Blackfeet Warrior, Elouise Cobell.

Born in 1945, Elouise Cobell—also known to her people as Yellow Bird Woman—fought against the biggest institution in the world—the United States of America.

(Pause.)Imagine Montana in the winter. Deep snow. Dangerous frigid temperatures.

Impassable roads and rural areas. This is where Elouise Cobell and members of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation lived. Surrounded by the beauty of nature, the life of these American Indians [Native Americans] revealed a sin of society that most of the U.S. chose to ignore.The structures that people called “home” had leaky roofs and no electricity or indoor plumbing. Unemployment soared. And education for children was insufferable.

On that same Blackfeet land, non-Indian [non-Native American] ranchers raised

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thousands of cattle; farmers covered acres with alfalfa. Oil companies drilled millions of gallons of oil; logging companies cleared countless forests.

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Generations of non-Indian [Native American] tenants got rich off the land. They built nice homes, drove new cars, and sent their children to good schools, while generations of Blackfeet landlords lived in squalor.

It didn’t take an expert to see the economic gaps.(Pause.)Beginning with her childhood, Elouise Cobell could see these great social and

economic discrepancies. She heard stories of how over 500 Blackfeet Indians [Native Americans] were buried in a mass grave in the hills of Ghost Ridge. These were the ones who died of starvation one harsh winter when the promised government rations did not come. It is these stories of the dead that drove her. It is “[f]ighting for them,” she says, “Fighting the same government that tried to get rid of this entire race of people.”1

Graduating from Montana State University as an accountant, she committed herself to investigating the role of the government in leasing land to non-Indians [non-Native Americans] and where that money went. It obviously wasn’t going to her people. Revenue generated from these lands were supposed to be part of the Blackfeet Nation’s trust money.

Where was the money? (Dramatic pause.) History was repeating itself.The year is 1887. Congress passes the Dawes Act, also called the General Allotment

Act. Land is removed from tribal control, divided into plots and given to individual Native Americans. The government then assumes the authority to issue leases on the land to oil, timber, cattle grazing and agricultural development. Revenue generated from those leases is supposed to be paid to individual Indian landowners.

Instead, what Cobell found was a history of mismanagement and diversion of funds to other programs.

(Dramatically): “It was the Indians’ money… but one administration after another treated it as slush funds.”2

For 118 years, Indians [Native Americans] across the U.S. experienced the same thing as the Blackfeet members.

The time to organize for a half million Indians was now.In 1996, Elouise Cobell filed the largest class-action suit ever on behalf of Native

Americans across the United States. She declared…(Dramatically, like speaking to a large audience): The government has been “grossly

negligent in its 118 years of managing the Individual Indian Trust!”(Pause.)One hundred seventy-six billion dollars negligent!The class action suit became a long battle for justice. It continued through… (Slowly…) Three presidencies. (Pause.)Fifteen years of litigation. (Pause.)Ten appeals. (Pause.)

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Seven trials. (Pause.)

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Elouise Cobell and her peers refused to back down. Many lost their lives during that time.Finally, after thirteen years, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar agreed to settle

the case in 2009.In 2010, President Obama signed the Claims Resolution Act with a $3.4 billion

settlement for Native landowners. It was the largest settlement in the history of the United States.

A far cry from the $176 billion of the initial claim, Cobell and her team agreed. They needed to end the suffering. Tribal elders had died in poverty and never saw a penny. Now was the time to move forward.

The Claims Resolution Act is one step toward justice. Blackfeet landowners and Native Americans across the country could begin to invest in future generations. At Cobell’s request, the government gave $60 million to create the Indian Education Scholarship Fund for Indians [Native Americans] to attend college and vocational schools.

Elouise Cobell died the following year. (Pause.) Her legacy lives.

<<Animated PPT with text that advances automatically>>(in silence)

The Native American struggle for dignity and accountability is part of a long litany of treaties made and broken by the U.S. government. A few examples:

1851. The Treaty of Fort Laramie marks the boundary lines and land rights of the Sioux and several other Indian nations.

1862. The Homestead Act opens up land west of the Mississippi, land previously promised to relocated Native Americans.

1868. The U.S. government signs the second Fort Laramie treaty, guaranteeing Native American ownership of the Black Hills.

1874. Gold is discovered in the Black Hills of Montana; onslaught of settlers with gold rush fever trespass Sioux land.

2017. Standing Rock, a fast-tracked multi-billion dollar pipeline going through Indian land, threatens the water supply and violates sacred Sioux sites.

“This is the third time that the Sioux Nation’s lands and resources have been taken without regard for tribal interests… Whether it’s gold from the Black Hills or hydropower from Missouri or oil pipelines that threaten our ancestral inheritance, the tribes have always paid the price for America’s prosperity.”3

David Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux.

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STORYTELLER 1:Before her death, Elouise Cobell was asked why she started her fight for justice. Her words are truly telling. “I never started this case with any intentions of being a hero. I just wanted this case to give justice to people that didn’t have it.”4

(Drum beat. All Storytellers and Worship Leader rise for the Proclamation.)

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Proclamation

WORSHIP LEADER:In the midst of these journeys,

ALL:We belong in covenant together; these stories are part of our story.

STORYTELLER 1:Our sisters and brothers are afflicted in every way,

ALL:But they are not crushed.

STORYTELLER 2:They may be at times perplexed,

ALL:But they are not driven to despair.

STORYTELLER 3:They have been persecuted,

ALL:But they are not forsaken.

WORSHIP LEADER:They are struck down,

ALL:But not destroyed.

(Storytellers take a seat. Appalachian story reader remains standing.)

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The Story of Eula Hall and the Mud Creek Clinic, Appalachia

STORYTELLER 2:Listen to the story of Eula Hall in her own words.

“I’ll tell you, to get to where I am today has not been easy. I was born an Appalachian child in poverty. I was reared in poverty, deprived of an education. But you know, I held onto one dream. I wanted to be somebody. I wanted to do things for other people, and I wanted to change lives for people in the same position I was in.

So I met and married this big handsome prince. I thought, ‘this will solve my problem.’ Well, you know what you see ain’t always what is. What I got was a wolf in lamb’s clothes. First thing after my marriage, I became pregnant with my first child. My husband was very threatening, very abusive. And here I was, stuck.

When you see women in horrible situations like this, you ask, ‘Why does she stay? Why doesn’t she leave?’ I’ve been there. I know why you stay. I know why you don’t leave. You can’t leave. You have nowhere to go.

So here I was, pregnant, having a child, but the abuse was still going on. But I never gave up. I had one dream. Someday I would be free and I’d be somebody. And I’d help other people do the same. That kept me going.

I raised four children with this man before I saw an opportunity to break away. During the War on Poverty in the 1960s, there were Appalachian Volunteers and the VISTA workers. I signed up as a VISTA volunteer [and later switched] to being an Appalachian Volunteer. That gave me a vehicle and fifty dollars a week. Well, that wasn’t enough money to pay rent and leave, but it was enough money to make plans.

“During this time, we Appalachian Volunteers were working on problems of all people in Appalachia: roads and schools and school lunches and health care and education… I’d seen so much suffering from the lack of health care.

[When we did the health screenings] we found out that most had no family physician and that they had severe medical problems: hypertension, strokes, black lung disease, too many heart problems. They had nothing, nowhere to go, no money, no medical insurance.

It would really haunt you at night to see a mother with five or six children suffer and die from a nail puncture and tetanus when one shot could have saved this woman and those babies…

I’d think, if the government’s going to spend money on anything worthwhile, why can’t they spend it on health care? But the really big money for such problems just ended up in the politicians’ hands and pockets.

So I took the fourteen hundred dollars left from the Appalachian Volunteer bank account and the volunteers and started the Mud Creek clinic. I said, ‘well, if we can’t get federal money to do it, we’ll do it ourselves. We’ll take care of everybody…’ People tell

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me today

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they never thought that there would be a clinic in Mud Creek. You see, you just don’t know. You really don’t know how far you can go or how much you can do until you try. I moved the clinic into my house.

I thought, ‘[but] the first thing I have to do, I’ve got to get rid of my old man.’ You all might think this is awful, but I did it… I set him up with some drinking buddies in order to get him to sign the papers. That’s how I got my divorce.

I kept the clinic in my house until 1982, when the clinic burned to the ground. The patients asked, ‘What are we going to do? We’ll die without the medicine and we’ll die without the care.’ So I talked to the staff and said, ‘Let’s not give up. If we give up, we’ll never be able to come back again. It was hard to get started. And it will be even harder now to get it back if we give up.’

We got hold of an old, used double-wide trailer and [moved the clinic in there] and I started fund-raising. I got in touch with the Appalachian Commission and they indicated that we could get funded to build a primary care center if we had the local matching funds. We had to raise eighty thousand dollars in ninety days.

Even my family said it was impossible. They said, ‘You’ll never do it, raise eighty thousand dollars in a poverty area like this.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’ll have to try. You never know how far you can go, you don’t know what you can do, until you try.’

So I started fund-raising, and the news media was my biggest source of help. Local people really came through. At the end of the ninety days I had about $102,000 more than even I had bargained for.

The clinic shows what you can do if you just try and you’ve got the will-power. But as far as having the education, I didn’t have it. Sometimes I think, is it common sense or am I just crazy to take the chances I’ve taken and the things I’ve done? Like trying to stop the strip mining. A lot of times it was just women. Those strip miners […] They’d get the police, but we’d get into areas the police couldn’t get to […] and stopped the strip mining on Mud Creek. It was the women who did it.

But to organize the women, to get them together, to get them to do anything, you have to get them away from their husbands. I’d go out and I’d try to talk to women about problems we had, and they were interested. But if their husbands were there at home, they were different. They don’t talk much. [And the husband] would be the one to tell you what she could or could not do.

I got away from that, but the price I paid for my freedom and the price I paid to be here today was high. My husband was one of the most violent people that you could ever meet. I don’t know how I survived a few times… I’ve had several fractures, I’ve been stabbed, and I’ve been shot. And I praise God that I’m here. But I can still see why there aren’t many women in Appalachia in the same abusive situation who manage to get out. They really can’t. They’re destroyed physically by men.

Truly, my suffering and my witness to the suffering and other bad things happening in our area made me what I am. I had one dream and one hope, and I followed it and it came true. I could get away and I could get myself free and I could help other people.

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(Pause.)

(Slowly): Things just don’t happen, especially for women. You have to make them happen.”5

(Drum beat. All Storytellers and Worship Leader rise for the Proclamation.)

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Proclamation

WORSHIP LEADER:In the midst of these journeys,

ALL:We belong in covenant together; these stories are part of our story.

STORYTELLER 1:Our sisters and brothers are afflicted in every way;

ALL:But they are not crushed.

STORYTELLER 2:They may be at times perplexed;

ALL:But they are not driven to despair.

STORYTELLER 3:They have been persecuted;

ALL:But they are not forsaken.

WORSHIP LEADER:They are struck down;

ALL:But not destroyed.

(Storytellers take their seats. Alaska story reader remains standing.)

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The Story of Alaska Native Pastor, Charlie Brower

STORYTELLER 3:The Story of Alaska Native Pastor, Charlie Brower

STORYTELLER 3:Hear now the story of Charlie Brower, an Alaska Native Pastor serving in Nome, Alaska’s Community United Methodist Church....

I was once known as 74,not Charles Brower,not Asiaqnataq (my Inupiaq name),not even “Hey You.”

I was sent to Wrangell Institute in Wrangell, Alaska about a thousand miles from my home in Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow, Alaska) as a ten-year-old to finish my primary education. All my clothes and everything I owned were marked with 74.

I was assigned a bunk in a room of eight children from several communities throughout Alaska. Kids similar in age, all of us away from homes of caring families, and most of all away from the cultures that cared and taught us to survive.S L O W L YMy mother died while I was still adjusting to the Wrangell Institute; I could not go home for her funeral.

Then came Mount Edgecumbe High School in Sitka, Alaska. Over four years, I made many friends from many cultures and communities throughout Alaska.

Yes, I learned my social studies, mathematics, proper English, world history, and an introduction to trades —

but would those studies help me to survive in the Arctic once I returned home? The skills and knowledge I acquired helped me to live in the world of the dominant culture—not in the traditional hunter and gatherer world of the Inupiaq.

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I graduated from high school in May of 1963. Then in August of that year I was plucked from a hunting trip somewhere out in the tundra, quickly bathed, and was on an airplane to Los Angeles, California. I remember being mesmerized by the endless lights as we approached Los Angeles. Nothing prepared me for the immensity of the city!

I was to learn an electronic technician trade so I could help maintain early warning systems spread across the arctic—or so the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs had planned for me. The RCA technician school at Sixth and Main in Los Angeles closed and we were moved to New York City and live in tenement apartments in Newark, New Jersey.

My culture (Inupiaq of northern Alaska) is primarily a hunter/gatherer tradition. Our food comes from the ocean, rivers, and the tundra surrounding our village. To become a successful contributor to our society, one must learn how nature impacts not only our weather, but also how the animals and plants we eat, live and develop alongside our communities.

PAUSESafely hunting, traveling, and LIVING IN A HARSH CLIMATE requires learning how winds, ocean currents, and temperatures impact how we travel, live and learn. Hunting and gathering successfully requires TEAMWORK among family groups, partnership formed with friends, and being part of a traditional “crew.”

PAUSEIf one grows up NOT KNOWING WHAT IS EXPECTED and WHAT COULD RESULT from not knowing, one’s options are very limited. Textbook and classroom learning DO NOT TEACH ice conditions, prevailing winds, ocean currents, or safe weather predicting and survival—all items needed in an intimate, innate sense if one is to survive arctic life. Without the training of the senses, how could one be considered as a hunting partner?Pause

Many boarding school survivors struggle with fitting into the cultures they come from. S L O W L Y

Some find ‘PEACE’ in a bottle. Some find ‘GOODWILL’ in substance abuse with friends.

Some find ‘A LIFE’ attempting suicide.

All struggle with this ‘PEACE, GOODWILL, AND LIFE’ in attempts to fit in. To fit into a society they lived in, but culturally do not belong in. Or to fit into a culture they were born into but never learned.

Their daily struggles impact their family and children as well. Many survivors do not cope well.

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Their children do not know why their parents seek ‘peace, goodwill, and life’ in socially unacceptable ways.

Until we in churches, understand this group of survivors and their offspring, we CANNOT offer them meaningful ways of becoming disciples for the transformation of their world.Pause

Having experienced the cultural factions caused by boarding schools and relocation programs has helped me understand how some of MY peers could not deal positively with the destructive power of NOT belonging to the culture in which we were born.

Our loving God led me to this place — Nome, Alaska — to this ministry with many of Alaska’s native peoples. God’s presence is easily seen in this place, in the faces of the children and grandchildren of those suffering and not knowing their place in society.

By taking away so much of what we were born into, mainstream society rejects the very ones they once sought to forcefully ‘integrate.’

Despite such, God is still at work. Each day, I see God at work in this vast land drawing people together and renewing their lives. Joy and hope permeate my soul. Amen.

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(Drum beat. All Storytellers and Worship Leader rise for the Proclamation.)

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Proclamation

WORSHIP LEADER:In the midst of these journeys,

ALL:We belong in covenant together; these stories are part of our story.

STORYTELLER 1:Our sisters and brothers are afflicted in every way;

ALL:But they are not crushed.

STORYTELLER 2:They may be at times perplexed;

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ALL:But they are not driven to despair.

STORYTELLER 3:They have been persecuted;

ALL:But they are not forsaken.

WORSHIP LEADER:They are struck down;

ALL:But not destroyed.We stand with them, learn from them,We walk alongside them and let them lead us.

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Movement #2: Echoes (15 minutes)

WORSHIP LEADER:Friends, what we have heard in this place is only a sample of the many, many more stories that surround us. These stories were selected to give us a sense of the larger narrative; a narrative of perseverance, courage, faith, and hope, in the midst of pain and struggle.

Let us now take time to honor these and the many other stories that are part of our common journey… to find our own place in them and to let the echoes of these stories lead us into prayer.

(Pause.)

(Invite personal reflection for 2–3 minutes. Underscore with native flute music, if available.)

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WORSHIP LEADER:Where did you hear the pain of broken covenant? Where did you hear resilience? Please take a few minutes to reflect on your own.

(Silence.)

WORSHIP LEADER:Let’s hear God’s word to us through the Apostle Paul as he writes to the Philippian community:

“I thank my God every time I mention you in my prayers. I’m thankful for all of you every time I pray, and it’s always a prayer full of joy. I’m glad because of the way you have been my partners in the ministry of the gospel from the time you first believed it until now. I’m sure about this: the one who started a good work in [us] will stay with [us] to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus.”

(Philippians 1:3-6, CEB)

(Invite public witnessing.)

WORSHIP LEADER:As we continue in prayer, I invite you now to briefly share what rose within you during this time as you reflected on the pain and resiliency found in the stories that you just heard.

(After about 10 minutes of sharing, Worship Leader brings this moment to a close.)

WORSHIP LEADER:Thank you, all, for your receptivity and vulnerability in this time of sharing. Listen again to God’s promise:

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“[God] who started a good work in [us] will stay with [us] to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus.”

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HYMN: “I Feel Like Traveling On,” words and music by William Hunter, an 19th century minister who served in Appalachia

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Movement #3: Blessings (5 minutes)

(We come to the close of this plenary with blessings. Worship Leader begins with the words of Rev. David Wilson, district superintendent of Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference.)

WORSHIP LEADER:What we have learned and will continue to learn about the lives of the people of The Missionary Conferences is a viable reminder of our interconnectedness as people of God.

STORYTELLER 1:We share common needs.

STORYTELLER 2:We share common hopes.

STORYTELLER 3:We are each unique;

STORYTELLER 2:But bound together as the body of Christ.

WORSHIP LEADER:I invite you to stand and join with us in this closing litany:

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Closing Litany

ONE:Bound together in Christ, we journey on, Although the journey toward justice is long,

ALL:Let us not give up.

ONE:Though the journey toward freedom is risky,

ALL:Let us not give up.

ONE:Though the journey toward healing is intense,

ALL:Let us not give up! Let us not give up! Let us not give up!For God will make a way.

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REPRISE: “Hamba Nathi (The Journey is Long)” [Lead Me, Guide Me (2nd ed.), #542]