Free to be both Native American AND Christian

A woman was advocating for rights of tribal members and freedom from tribal government tyranny, while at the same time telling me that my husband and I were wrong to share our Christianity because the only way tribal members can be free from alcohol is through traditional religion.

So... while on the one hand she decried being dictated to and controlled by tribal government, she was attempting to dictate to and control other tribal members when it came to spirituality.

This is a very important point about freedom for tribal members. Some tribal governments do try to dictate that tribal members follow traditional religion, not any other.

When my husband, Roland, was testifying in Seattle against tribal jurisdiction, a representative of the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) told us that reservations have a right to keep Christians off their property - and Christians have no right to speak to tribal members about their religion.

We asked "What if an elder has lived there all his life and becomes a Christian - and wants to talk to his grandchildren about it?" The NICWA representative answered that the grandfather had no right to speak to his grandchildren about it and would have to move.

This is not an unusual point of view within some tribal circles, nor was it unusual in many historical dictatorships where one religion was chosen for the entire country and all had to abide by it. This was why many settlers came to America and why the very first phrase of our constitutional amendments addresses freedom of religion.

Then comes the Indian Child Welfare Act, which is used by some tribal governments to dictate the religion Indian children must be raised in. Some times exposure to powwows and traditional Indian religion is mandated by courts and tribal governments as a condition of foster care or adoption. Other times, children are simply removed from Christian homes. This can happen even if the parents and grandparents placed the children in that home and want the children to be raised Christian.

Because ICWA is a federal law, the U.S. Congress is just as much to blame for this robbing of individual freedom and 1st amendment rights as tribal governments.

My husband and I knew who we wanted to be guardians of our kids if we were to die. We chose a man from our church. His race didn't matter to us - his spirituality and heart were all that mattered. This was - and is - our constitutional and God-given right as parents to choose. Neither Congress nor any tribal government should be allowed to steal that from us.

NO ONE else in America is put underneath a law that dictates how you are supposed to spiritually raise your kids. The 1st amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"... but the ICWA Congress enacted comes dangerously close to doing just that.

Dying in Indian Country is available at: http://dyinginindiancountry.com

Has God used the Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare to impact you or a loved one?

Consider impacting someone else by giving a gift

   

Sit by the Fire and Chat with Beth Ward

The true story of an American Indian who realized just how much tribal and federal government policies were destroying his extended family.  

Roland grew up watching members of his family die of alcoholism, child abuse, suicide, and violence on the reservation. Like many others, he blamed all the problems on “white people.”  

Beth Ward grew up in a middle class home in the suburbs. Raised in a politically left family, she also believed that all problems on the reservation originated with cruel treatment by settlers and the stealing of land. Meeting her husband, her first close experience with a tribal member, she stepped out of the comfort of suburban life into a whole new, frightening world.  

After almost ten years of living with his alcoholism and the terrible dangers that came with it, they both realized that individual behavior and personal decisions were at the root of a man’s troubles, including their own, and no amount of entitlements would change that.  

What cannot be denied is that a large number of Native Americans are dying from alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, and violence. The reservation, a socialistic experiment at best, pushes people to depend on tribal and federal government rather than God, and to blame all of life’s ills on others. The results have been disastrous. Roland realized that corrupt tribal government, dishonest federal Indian policy, and the controlling reservation system had more to do with the current pain and despair in his family and community than what had happened 150 years ago.  

Here is the plain truth in the eyes of one family, in the hope that at least some of the dying in Indian Country — physical, emotional, and spiritual — may be prevented.  

Dr. William B. Allen, Emeritus Professor, Political Science, MSU and former Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1989) has called the book, “…truly gripping, with a good pace.”  

Meet the author at an online book signing, Saturday, October 13th, 3 pm eastern time, 12 noon pacific, at https://dyinginindiancountry.campfirenow.com/room/533942

The book sells for $29.99 and is available online. For more information about the author and to purchase the book, please visit http://dyinginindiancountry.com/

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Dying in Indian Country

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A suburban white girl stupidly stumbles into Indian Country and takes years to figure out what a dumb move that was. Dying In Indian Country -- http://bit.ly/5Gy8Cu
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Global Christians -

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“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Rom. 12:1

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Sarah Palin's Church torched - but no one is hurt.

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Friday night, Sarah Palin's church in Wasilla was torched by an arsonist. The Wasilla Bible Church has an estimated $1 million worth of damage and the Wasilla fire chief has said that the fire was "definitely suspicious."

The anger directed at Sarah Palin during the campaign was unwarranted. Apparently, a lot of people hate Christians.

But Sarah has said to have faith in "the scriptural passage that what was intended for evil will in some way be used for good."

Pastor Larry Kroon told KTUU TV, "I've had a lot worst calls at night. When one of your parishioners dies or loses a child, it's a whole different thing than the building's on fire."

Give thanks to God for everything. Praise God for His goodness. Sarah is right, good will come out of this evil.

Please pray protection for Sarah, her family and her church and that God come against those that would try to hurt them. But also pray for those that set the fire. They must have a lot of anger and pain in their hearts to have done something like this. They really need Jesus Christ.

So many people in our country are lost without Jesus Christ. It's the only explanation for the amount of anger they have when confronted with the Holy Spirit, indwelling in a person such as Sarah. She's someone they can't touch - at least not that they can see. She doesn't react to their barbs. So they just get angrier and angrier.

Dear God, please Bless Sarah, and give her - our Esther - as well as her husband - her protector - all the strength and wisdom necessary for the job you have set before them.

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Thank You Sarah Palin

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Sarah, you are awesome. I didn't know anything about you prior to the Republican Convention, but I fell in love with you right off the bat.

A Conservative, Christian, home school mom. A praying, believing Mom. Just like the women I know and love in my church community - you reminded me of Kathy, Ann, and dozens of others.

I trusted you right away.

I listened to your pastor do interviews. I saw the prayer for you on the internet. (Interesting that the media now reports that Obama was prayed for in Kenya, in a "traditional Pentecostal" way, but apparently, it was okay for him)

I liked your pastors. I also liked that you were on the same page with us as far as the issues were concerned.

I could also relate to - and was hurt by - attacks on your oldest daughter. My daughter had her baby almost two years ago. I want to tell you, it was hard to learn she was pregnant, but that little guy, he's the joy of our household. He makes us all so happy, especially with everything being so stressful lately. He brightens my day by just walking in to the room.

You've done a great job with your kids. You've been a great Mayor and Governor. You did an awesome job standing up to all the pummeling these last two months. We look forward to working with you more.

We met your husband in Moorhead. He's so easy going; we loved him. My daughter told him she felt for your daughter, and showed him her baby. On the drive home, one of my adult daughters said that while listening to Obama speak earlier this year, she found it hard to pay attention. She said Obama had good inflection, but his content was too smooth. As she put it, too “politician.” But she really enjoyed listening to Todd. He wasn’t a polished speaker, but she said that’s what she liked. He was real, and you knew that what he was saying was coming from his heart.

I also told him that I'd like to talk to you about the Indian Child Welfare Act and how it is hurting families. Hope you got the message.

Why is Sarah Palin our Esther?

Every time Hollywood celebrities say vulgar things about Sarah, they are also saying it to me, a 40-something, Christian, former homeschooling, politically active, rural, not-always-perfect mom. When they mock her for being down-to-earth, pro-life, evangelical and the mom of a pregnant teenager, they are mocking my family as well. It appears that half of America bitterly hates Christians. That's kind of scary.

Sarah isn't perfect, but the jokers currently running Congress are far less perfect. It's beyond me why half of America is suddenly saying that the vice President needs to be one of the "Good Old Boys", after screaming for so long about "change. Why is it that their idea of change means putting someone politically nurtured by the corrupt Chicago establishment into the office of the President?

Not only is Sarah an average person from outside of the beltway, someone who truly represents change, but finally, here is a woman that is on the right side of the issues.

• Abortion is wrong. Even during the most difficult times of my very turbulent life, aborting my children has never been a consideration. Sarah understands this. The woman's movement has never understood women like me.
• Open up ANWR to drilling. If a few acres of American tundra can make a difference, we should be doing that rather than buying oil from overseas.
• None of us like the war. But I do believe, as Sarah does, that McCain is the only candidate that understands what to do in Iraq.
• Corrupt government employees - including corrupt Senators, State Commissioners, or even Troopers - need a swift boot out of office.
• Socialism is wrong. Although we have been low income, my husband vowed in 1992 not to take anymore welfare or entitlements. He made that vow and from that time until his death, he kept it - doing everything he could with his own two hands to feed us. We did not want our neighbors to have to take care of us. We came to understand Capitalism and agree with fiscal conservatives like Sarah. We do believe the Democratic push on the banks laid the foundation for this current crisis.
• My husband, a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, fed our family through hunting. He taught our children to hunt and cut up the meat on our kitchen table. There have been times when this was our only meat. We believe in hunting and gun rights for all US citizens(excepting convicted criminals).
• Yes, Creationism is something that many Americans believe in. We aren't nuts; it's part of our religion - (Remember? That thing that the first amendment allows us to have...) So when my kids come home from school, I need to re-teach them and explain that evolution is just a theory - there is no proof for it. Then I explain to them why. (Yes, as a former RN, I have an Associate in Science and can explain.) This is why many of us choose to home school. Something else we have a right to do.
• And yes, I and other parents like me are glad to have a home school mom in high office. You see, when so many from the left mock us and try to take away our right to teach our children our faith, that's a very scary thing.
• And Sarah believes in prayer. When I have listened to her pastors on the Internet, I have appreciated them. They are no different than any of the pastors I have grown to love here in the lower forty.

I am so glad that Sarah, a prayerful woman, is in the position she is in. I have said that with the amount of mocking she has received from the elite, she is like our Princess Di. But she is also like our Esther. God Bless you, Sarah. We are praying for you.

Why is Sarah Palin our Princess Di?

Every time a Hollywood celebrity says something derogatory about Sarah, they are also saying it to me, a 40-something Christian, former homeschooling, politically active, rural, not-always-perfect mother and grandmother. When they mock her for being down-to-earth, pro-life, evangelical - and hey, even being the mom of a pregnant teenager - their words cut into our family as well.

Don't celebrities understand that in mocking Sarah, they are alienating many of people that - up until this last month - used to watch their movies?

Liberal women's organizations have never spoken for me. Even when I was a teenager, those organizations never understood or spoke for me. Hillary Clinton has never understood evangelical mom's like me. Even further, I have never cared for any of the so-called top named Christian women's leaders, either. When I have seen video's of "inspirational" Christian women speaking, I've never felt any closer to them with their poofy hair, religious dogma and perfect lives than I have Hillary.

But Sarah is different. She isn't perfect.And not only is she like me in that respect, but finally, here is a woman that knows how I feel about the issues - and feels the same way.

• Abortion is wrong. Even during the most difficult times of my very turbulent life, aborting my children has never been a consideration. Sarah understands this. The woman's movement has never understood women like me.
• Open up ANWR to drilling. If a few acres of American tundra can make a difference, we should be doing that rather than buying oil from overseas.
• None of us like the war. But I do believe, as Sarah does, that McCain is the only candidate that understands what to do with Iraq.
• Corrupt government employees - including corrupt Senators, State Commissioners, or even Troopers - need a swift boot out of office.
• Although we have been low income, my husband vowed in 1992 not to take anymore welfare or entitlements. He made that vow and from that time until his death, he kept it - doing everything he could with his own two hands to feed us. We came to understand and agree with fiscal conservatives like Sarah. We do believe the Democratic push on the banks laid the foundation for this current crisis.
• My husband, a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, fed our family through hunting. He taught our children to hunt and cut up the meat on our kitchen table. There have been times when this was our only meat. We believe in hunting and gun rights for all US citizens.
• Yes, Creationism is something that many Americans believe in. We aren't nuts; it's part of our religion - (Remember? That thing that the first amendment allows us to have...) So when my kids come home from school, I need to re-teach them and explain that evolution is just a theory - there is no proof for it. Then I explain to them why. (Yes, as a former RN, I have an Associate in Science and can explain.) This is why many of us choose to homeschool. Something else we have a right to do.
• And yes, I and other parents like me are glad to have a homeschool mom in high office. You see, when so many from the left mock us and try to take away our right to teach our children our faith, that's a very scary thing.
• And Sarah believes in prayer. When I have listened to her pastors on the internet, I have appreciated them. They are no different than any of the pastors I have grown to love here in the lower forty. I am so glad that Sarah, a prayerful woman, is in the position she is in.

I have said that with the amount of mocking she has recieved from the elite, she is like our Princess Di. But she is also like our Esther. God Bless you, Sarah. We are praying for you.