Dear Fremont Family:
At Annual Conference last year, Rev. Allen Buck, Director of the Circle for Indigenous Ministries, invited local clergy and lay persons to join a Greater Northwest Area effort to begin the important work of truth-telling regarding Methodist history and participation in Native harm and removal across our area. I immediately signed up! Since our work at Fremont in 2020-2021 with Reckoning with Racism and the development of our land genealogy story and our Land Acknowledgment statement, I have felt deeply called to continue the work of truth-telling for the purposes of healing, repair and future opportunities for land back and wealth redistribution.
In November, the GNW truth-telling work began in earnest. In partnership with Sarah Augustine, the Director for the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, about 60 of us across the Greater Northwest Area have been meeting regularly to understand our tasks and begin our work of historical research. We created sub-groups that would focus on geographical areas and persons of interest. I joined the group focused on Salem and the first Methodist missionary to Oregon, Rev. Jason Lee. One of the reasons I was drawn to this group is that our upcoming Annual Conference in June will be held at First UMC in Salem, and it seemed the perfect opportunity to tell some of the stories and even bring a potential action to the gathering of Annual Conference.
Yesterday, for the second time in the last month, I visited Salem with Rev. Allen Buck and several of my truth-telling team members to begin to connect history with place. We travelled to the Willamette Mission State Park just north of Salem where Rev. Jason Lee and the first missionaries began their work in 1834. Originally, the place was called “Mission Bottom,” and the work there consisted of preaching and conversion of Native persons, but also the running of a boarding school for children and orphans. The work there also included the day-to-day activities of farming to feed the mission community. According to historian, Gray Whaley, the Methodist missionaries described their work as “reclaiming these wandering savages, who are in a very degraded state, to the blessings of Christianity and civilized life.” Of course, these words are exceedingly difficult to hear. Yet, they represent what was the justification for the seizing of Native land, the removal of Indian children from their families, and the decimation of local tribal life in the Willamette Valley.
Why go back to these places and stories of origin? Can’t we just forget the past and move on? In this work, I am learning that there is no “moving on” without going back. There is no healed future without a common and shared understanding of the past. As Methodists, we must know our history and take responsibility for our actions in order to enter into the beautiful and necessary work of healing and repair. And we can only do that through accountability and integrity.
Jesus reminds us in John’s gospel that the truth will “set us free” because only truth can lead us out of the shadows of self-deception and hiding and into the light of honesty and love. Honestly, I love doing this significant work, and I pray you that will join me in receiving the deep gifts of our collective truth and freedom.
Grace and peace,
Erin
