. . . in 25-year snap-shops.

Where have we been? Where are we headed?

1807
David Thompson was putting what is now western Canada on the map—literally. His love for the outdoors and his skills with surveying equipment combined in a calling to explore the mountain ranges of the northwest with his surveying equipment and draw maps of where he went. He took his Indian wife and thirteen children everywhere he went.

The greatest love of David Thompson’s life was Jesus Christ. Everywhere he and his family walked and canoed, he would tell the story of Jesus’ love, planting seeds in the hearts and minds of hundreds and thousands of Indian peoples that their Creator sent His Son to be their sacrifice for sin.¹

This year, 1807, he surveyed the homelands of the Flathead Indians of what is now southern Alberta and northern Montana. David noted in his memoirs that his stories of Jesus excited the entire tribe. These people were on a search for truth, a search that would culminate twenty-five years later in one of the most riveting speeches a Native Indian man has ever made!

1832
Flathead Indian Rabbit Skin Leggings and three other men decided to make the treacherous trip from their homeland to Saint Louis Post (now St. Louis, Missouri) to find what David Thompson had referred to as the Book of Heaven. After walking 1600 miles they were greeted by General William Clark (of the Lewis and Clark Expedition), then ushered to the priest with their request. They were received with the greatest hospitality and shown pictures of the Virgin Mary and of the saints, but they were steadily denied their oft-repeated request for the Bible.

Their journey had been so exhausting that two of these Native men died from their hardships. The other two after a time became discouraged and prepared to return to their far-off home. Just before leaving the city a feast was prepared, speeches were made, and the general and others bid them God-speed on their journey. During the addresses at the close of the feast Rabbit Skin Leggings was asked to respond. He spoke with conviction and grave disappointment:

“We came to you over the trail of many moons from the land of the setting sun beyond the great mountains . . . we came with an eye partly open for our people who sit in darkness; we go back with our eyes closed.

“We made our way to you with strong arms through many enemies and strange lands, that we might carry back much to them. We go back with our arms empty . . . Our people sent us to get the white man’s book of heaven . . . You took us where they worship the Great Spirit with candles, but the book was not there. You showed us images of the good spirits and pictures of the good land beyond, but the book was not among them to tell us the way.

“We are going back the long, sad trail to our people of the dark land. You make our feet heavy with gifts, and our moccasins will grow old and our arms tire in carrying them, yet the book is not among them. When we tell our people after one more snow in the big council that we did not bring the book no word will be spoken by our elders or our young men. One by one they will go out in silence. Our people will die in darkness . . . they will have no white man’s book to make the way plain. I have no more words.” ²

1857
Word of this speech spread quickly.³ In a few years numerous missionaries from north-eastern US and England began coming west to tell the story of Jesus and the life He offers. One of them, James Evans, invented the Cree syllabics and began translating white man's Book of Heaven into Cree.⁴ By 1857 the Cree Bible translation was completed! A missions movement was well underway among Native people from lands that are now Quebec to Alberta. Family devotions became a wide-spread tradition. Literally thousands of Indian families burned the fetishes of their traditional spiritism and embraced the gospel of God’s grace. New believers were discipled. Churches were established.⁵

1882
Sadly, the memories of the life that Jesus gave their parents and grandparents began to fade. Gaps in missions strategy resulted in fewer and fewer Native men becoming equipped to pastor their churches. The missions tradition of Native men starting the churches and turning them over to the new missionaries wasn’t working. There were no Native-directed fellowships of the churches. With the founding of the dominion of Canada (1867) and the Indian Act of Canada (1876) came a major blow to Native dignity. According to the Indian Act the definition of personhood was the absence of Native Indian heritage (on page 2). The baton of Native leadership was not being passed from second generation leadership to the third.

1907
Darwinism and liberal theology was infiltrating into colleges and seminaries that had been producing evangelical missionaries committed to the inspiration of Scripture, evangelism, discipleship and church planting. This downward spiral of Native missions and church life became even more dismal when the Canada government began requiring (by law) Native children to leave their parents and attend residential schools. Mainstream mission policy reinforced this by providing staff for the schools. Many of these schools became known for their stories of abuse.

1932
Christianity among Native Indian people across Canada reached the lowest point yet. This year you could count on the fingers of one hand the number of missionaries who were telling the love of Jesus and teaching the Bible among Native peoples. You could possibly count on the fingers of your other hand the number of Native people in Canada who were born again Christians. Spiritual darkness ruled the North once again. The revival stories of the latter 1800’s were only a memory told by everyone’s grandparents.

1957
By now the light of God’s grace was once again shining beams in a few communities across central Canada. A couple of missions were started. The remote community of Weagamow Lake, Ontario had recently experienced a major spiritual awakening with the majority of the community accepting the life that Jesus offers. “Has Jesus given you life yet?” was the question they asked one another as they visited in their homes a few years previous. The Good News spreads; Native men emerge as leaders of their fellowships. Eventually a group of Native pastors birth the larger fellowship of Native churches that were springing up across Canada.

1982
By now there were ten evangelical missions across Canada that had covenanted to partner together to reach Native Indian peoples in North America with the gospel of Jesus Christ toward the establishment of a strong and reproductive Native church. The partnership was known as IMCO—Inter-Mission Cooperative Outreach. These mission agencies had about 700 missionaries, all committed to evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development for the churches being established in Native communities and urban centers across Canada, Alaska, and parts of the US and Mexico. The Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada was in the process of passing the baton from its first generation to its second. Every year many hundreds of Native people and families were accepting the life that Jesus offers.

2007
Today, a full two hundred years after explorer David Thompson first shared the story of Jesus’ love with the Flatheads, there are probably some 100,000+ Native people living across North America who’ve accepted the life that Jesus offers.

This is the twenty-first century. We’re living in post-colonial times! Colonized people around the world are assuming their Indigenous Peoples identity, independence, and self-governance. This is of God. Christian Native leadership increasingly recognize their God-given responsibility to initiate ministry, partner strategically and “go for it!” With the world getting smaller and knowledge increasing at an accelerating rate, First Nations leadership is pioneering new structures to equip leaders to more effectively reach the exploding First Nations population for Christ. Remarkably, one IMCO director estimates that IMCO ministries could comprise as little as less than half of what God is doing to build His church among First Nations communities in Canada.

“Whiteman’s Book of heaven” is being acknowledged as a book just as relevant to First Nations life and times. IMCO leadership is transitioning to at least fifty percent Indigenous leadership repre-sentation around the IMCO table. Together IMCO is committed to adjusting our methodology while remaining firm in our passion for the spread of the life Jesus Christ offers. And this time, by God’s grace, we are partnering together to prevent the baton being dropped again between the second and third generations. Amen.
























FOOTNOTES

¹ David attended a school where the aim of the founders included training "solid Christians."

² Young, Egerton. Stories from Indian Wigwams and Northern Campfires. Originally published in 1893. Reprinted (1974) by Coles Pub. Co., Toronto. Pgs. 88-92.

³ Ludwig, Charles. Jason Lee. Mott Media, 1992. P. 40.

⁴ Shipley, Nan. The James Evans Story. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1966.

⁵ Nix, James. Mission Among the Buffalo. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1960.
__McLean, John. The Indians: Their Manners and Customs. Toronto: Williams Briggs, 1889. Pgs. 287-350.

Note: More links coming soon. (drw, 10/19/07)