Indianz.Com > News > Charmaine White Face: Indian inmates continue to fight for their rights
Fighting for Religious Freedom…again
Friday, May 21, 2021
Only forty-three (43) years ago, in 1978, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) was passed in the United States Congress. That’s not that long ago.
Many of us were adults who remember this. The fact that such a Bill had to be written in the first place, and then ultimately passed was astonishing because it exposed the hypocrisy of the United States. The establishment of the United States and the U.S. Constitution were based on Religious Freedom, as long as it was Christianity. That is not Freedom.
So in 1978, after more than 100 years of religious persecution in the middle of North America, AIFRA was passed. Now, American Indians could pray and practice our spiritual beliefs openly. This author was an outlaw prior to 1978, practicing our old spirituality (life philosophy) for years and teaching my children…in secret.
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Charmaine White Face (74) is Oglala Tituwan Oceti Sakowin, a great-grandmother, scientist, and writer. She can be reached at cwhiteface@gmail.com
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