Moving Towards Healing
At the recent ceremony for the return of the artifacts elders shared stories of their experiences growing up on the Wind River Indian Reservation. They were honest, vulnerable, angry, and at times, humorous. We all took this journey with them as we sat in the bright sun. They needed to tell their stories, and we needed to listen - actively, nonjudgmentally, nondefensively, and with open hearts and minds. It was an incredible privilege.
Healing doesn’t happen in a moment, it's a process. In our Christian faith, we have a tradition of confession, lament, atonement, and reconciliation. This teaches us that we can’t move toward hope, peace, transformation, and reconciliation without going through the hard stuff first. This is not a process that can be rushed or truncated.
After we listen, we need to acknowledge the pain and our complicity in it - when we have hurt people, broken promises, or simply ignored pain that is right in front of us. With historical wrongs, we don’t to need to take personal responsibility for what happened, but we need to acknowledge that wrong was done and continues to be done. Some may think this is ancient history, but the historic trauma is deeply embedded in the hearts and souls of Indigenous Peoples, and the trauma and mistreatment continue to this day.
On Sunday evening before the event, we held an intimate Service of Lament at the Diocesan office. We acknowledged wrongs perpetrated on Indigenous Peoples by white colonizers across five centuries, and specific actions taken in Wyoming, by the Federal and State governments and The Church. We acknowledged that we have ignored the truths, and turned away from the realities of the lived experience of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone people.
And then we apologized.
As I listened to this litany of lament, I was aware that two Arapaho friends were in the room, filming the service. I became self-conscious about how insufficient our simple apology seemed in the face of the extraordinary trauma. After the service, one of the Arapaho people stood and said, "I never thought I would hear white people acknowledge what was done to my people. And I never imagined I would hear an apology." And she thanked us, as she teared up. I was deeply moved, but also saddened that she had never heard these words before. We have never fully acknowledged the pain and trauma inflicted on Indigenous People in this land. We have certainly not apologized enough.
We cannot heal and reconcile and build true relationships of trust until we have done the hard work of confession and lament. Until we are ready to say that we are sorry. Until we are willing to make restitution in some form to the people we have harmed. Only then.
Love, Mary
