{"id":13061,"date":"2021-06-18T10:38:40","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T14:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=13061"},"modified":"2021-06-18T10:38:40","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T14:38:40","slug":"ivan-star-comes-out-christianity-did-its-best-to-erase-our-lakota-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/06\/18\/ivan-star-comes-out-christianity-did-its-best-to-erase-our-lakota-ways\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivan Star Comes Out: Christianity did its best to erase our Lakota ways"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Holy<\/a>
Stained glass windows inside the Holy Rosary Mission on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Photo: Raymond Bucko, SJ<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Papal Bull-ology<\/div>\r\n
Friday, June 18, 2021<\/div>\r\n
By Ivan Star Comes Out<\/DIV>\r\n
Native Sun News Today Columnist<\/DIV>\r\n
nativesunnews.today<\/A> <\/DIV>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nDuring the war in Vietnam (68-69), I was asked \u201cWhy do your people take to Christianity even though it nearly wiped<\/a> you out?\u201d \r\n

<\/P>\r\nHere I am, 52 years later and I can finally respond to that challenging question. But, I could be off the mark, especially since I\u2019m not \u201ceducated\u201d with a degree in Theology or History, especially American history. Instead, I went to the University of Life regarding religion and history.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nI begin with the stuff that was hidden for centuries. In 1454, Pope Nicholas V decreed with his man-made law (Papal Bull) that Christians have the right to enslave, kill, and take the land from the \u201cenemies of Christ wherever they may be found.\u201d After 567 years, we are still reeling from this man\u2019s law.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe 1875 words of Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin (1829-1902) helps to explain what I mean by that, \u201cWe instill in them a pronounced distaste for the native life so that they will be humiliated when reminded of their origin. When they graduate from our institutions, the children will have lost everything native except their blood.\u201d\r\n

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<\/IMG> <\/DIV>\r\n
Ivan F. \r\nStar Comes Out. Photo courtesy Native Sun News \r\nToday<\/A><\/FIGCAPTION> <\/DIV><\/DIV>

<\/p>\r\nGrandin was a key architect of the Canadian Indian Residential school system that is now described as an instrument of cultural genocide. The remains of 215 little children were found in a mass grave under one of his \u201cschools\u201d in Kamloops, British Columbia. As of June 4, 2021, Edmonton and St. Albert\u2019s city officials removed his name from their infrastructure (streets, buildings, etc.)\r\n

<\/P>\r\nAnyway, my English language vocabulary was very limited when I entered a Roman Catholic residential school at age 6 here on the Pine Ridge. There my first language was strictly forbidden and was punished when I spoke it, which was often. Ironically, our principal, a Jesuit priest, learned Lakota and spoke it often. \r\n

<\/P>\r\nYears later, I learned that the school\u2019s mission was to \u201cChristianize\u201d and \u201ccivilize\u201d us.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nFor ten years, I was made to pledge allegiance to the American flag every weekday morning and had to attend mass every single day, twice on Sundays. The name of the school was Holy Rosary Mission where the erasure of Lakota language, culture, and history was the standard throughout the 50s and 60s. I had to spend my entire adult life relearning how to be a Lakota person, and I\u2019m still learning.\r\n

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