By John Henson
Kthhe Mnedo (Great Spirit), we pray to you on this Indigenous Peoples’ Day …
For freedom from unjust systems that exist and continue the oppression of Indigenous people in North America and around the world.
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
For the healing of old and new wounds among Indigenous people whose family members were taken from their parents and forced into Indian boarding schools to erase their identity, language, and way of being.
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
For true repentance from the Doctrine of Discovery that white churches and settlers used to justify the oppression, erasure, and genocide of Native Americans and other Indigenous people throughout the world.
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
For the arc of the moral universe to bend toward justice now in our time to repay that which has been stolen, repair that which has been broken, heal that which has been wounded, and honor that which has been dishonored.
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
For Indigenous people who have departed this world as a result of hatred, indifference, poverty, and neglect. May light perpetual shine on them.
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
For forgiveness of sins done to the beauty of Mother Earth—the land, the air, the waters, and all creatures you have made.
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
For the following of Gzheshos (Jesus) as our guide for love, life, justice, and the way of walking on this earth.
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
For new dreams, hope, peace, and prosperity to flourish among tribal nations in North America and with Indigenous people in all lands of earth and their generations to come.
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Migwetch, Mamogosnan (Thank you, Father of us all)
As a Potawatomi, I am grateful and proud to be a part of people with roots on this continent for several millennia, long before colonizers arrived. My ancestors were Bodewadmi (Potawatomi), one of three tribes formed when the Neshnabek disbanded after following a prophecy to migrate from the East coast of North America to the Great Lakes region. Europeans would eventually enter that region, forcing the Potawatomi into Wisconsin. French explorers, fur traders, and missionaries made contact with them there, developing trade and alliances with them as they colonized the area as “New France.” European colonization continued, even as Potawatomi would go to war to fight for their land, resources, and way of life. As a result and forty-three treaties with the U.S. Government later, the Potawatomi were forced to give up all their lands between Wisconsin and Ohio, the largest of which being 5 million acres in the 1833 Treaty of Chicago.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forcibly removed the Potawatomi from their land, with the justification from the Governor of Indiana that the Potawatomi couldn’t live alongside a “civilized” American population. Soldiers shackled tribal leaders in a wagon, burned the tribe’s homes and fields, and force-marched a band of 849 Potawatomi on a 660-mile walk to Indian Territory in Kansas, a trail my ancestors would refer to as the Trail of Death as so many of them died along the way and were left behind in shallow graves along the trail. My great, great, great grandfather arrived in Kansas in 1839 and shortly thereafter married and started a family. The trail didn’t end in Kansas though, as their children were promised land allotments in Oklahoma if they moved out of Kansas. And so they did in and around Shawnee, where my grandmother’s family moved and where my mother was born.
The trail, though, has not ended. Indigenous people of this continent still exist and walk within a system never intended for them or their way of living on this land. The history of America is still told from the colonizer’s perspective (e.g. Columbus Day), which is why the voices and stories of Indigenous people are to be heard and celebrated every day in America.
I offer you this prayer with just such a voice. It is from Bemwetek (James Thunder), a Potawatomi elder, one of the few left with the language, history, and stories of the First Nations:
Today, we see what the People who have knowledge of coming events, our Elders, were trying to tell us in the past. We were told to respect all living things – those that soar above us in the sky, those that walk or crawl upon the earth, those that belong underwater, all of the roots, trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers. We were cautioned to take only what we need, for the Creator has set these upon Mother Earth for all our use.
Today, we are abusing our Mother Earth. Our air, water and soil is polluted. We are told not to eat fish out of certain streams and lakes. I pray to our Creator that we look back so that we may see ahead.
Let us examine our lives so that we are respectful to our fellow humans and to nature. Let us respect our children and, above all, let us live our lives in accordance with our beliefs. Let us share our natural resources for the good of our People. Let us work for clean air and water and pray for the courage to stand up to those who would abuse our Mother Earth.
Ttha ge na gom ge (So be it).
Source for prayer: Bemwetek (James Thunder)
Sources for Potawatomi history: potawotami.org, fcpotawotami.org
Rev. Dr. John Henson is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. He is the Pastor of Church for the Highlands in Shreveport, La., affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists and CBF. He is currently a Candidate for the Holy Order of Priesthood in the Episcopal Church.
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