Around the Sacred Fire: Native Religious Activism in the Red Power Era: A Narrative Map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Around the Sacred Fire: Native Religious Activism in the Red Power Era: A Narrative Map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference George E. Tinker (bio) Around the Sacred Fire: Native Religious Activism in the Red Power Era: A Narrative Map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference by James TreatPalgrave Macmillan, 2003 his is a volume about a little-known part of the broader Indian activist movement of the 1970s called the Indian Ecumenical Conferences. In the foment generated by the American Indian Movement, National Indian Youth Council, Indians of All Tribes, and several less-remembered "Red Power" or movement organizations, the Indian Ecumenical Conferences gave voice to one smaller but distinct slice of the American Indian nationalism of the day. With deeper roots in Canada than in the United States, this part of the movement brought together traditional Indian religious adherents along with those Christian Indians who leaned more toward affirming traditional culture and values. It is, as the subtitle announces, a narrative history rather than a critically argued analysis. The book begins by tracing Treat's account of the beginnings [End Page 203] of what he calls the "red power movement" from the early twentieth century on, but with particular attention paid to the 1960s. Treat's rendition of this critical period in the development of Indian activism is seriously deficient in its near total disregard of the beginnings of the American Indian Movement but does nicely treat some of the other currents of foment and their intertwining relationships. Curiously enough, in his brief retelling of this history he fails to note the foundational work of Ward Churchill or the excellent analysis of Robert Warrior and Paul Chaat Smith and their discussions about this historical period.1 It becomes apparent through the end of the volume that his disregard of AIM in this first chapter is much more than an oversight; it is an intentional disavowal. The second chapter introduces the renowned Cherokee anthropologist, Robert Thomas, who was an important figure in the early development of the Indian Ecumenical Conferences, and gives a thumbnail sketch of his life and work. This is in some respects the best writing of the book, yet this chapter is wholly derivative, relying as it does on critical work that has already been published by others on Thomas's life and work. The third chapter shifts the focus of the book decidedly toward Canada and Canadian Native peoples' history, focusing on the history of Christian missionary outreach, the work of Edward Ahenakew, one of the early Native Anglican priests, and the ongoing tensions within that church over their missionary enterprises. The last part of the chapter is given over to contemporary church activism, focusing rather unfortunately on one extremely well-meaning non-Native priest—who is important to Treat's project because of the priest's closeness to Robert Thomas and their joint role as organizers in the Indian Ecumenical Conferences. The shift here to almost exclusive concern for the context of Canada signals what is to come in the rest of the volume. This book is essentially about Canada and Treat's strange contention, carried by the weight of anecdotal narrative rather than by argumentation, that the resurgence of Indian traditional religious traditions was initiated and significantly advanced by the Episcopal Church in Canada. This is an inference, of course, that would be greeted with certain surprise by most Episcopalians in Canada today, who only know that Native peoples continue to exist because of the intense public scandal surrounding reve-lations of the persistent history of white Episcopalian sexual abuse of Native children in mission boarding schools and the resultant law suits that have threatened the continued existence of their church. The fourth chapter continues this exploration of the Canadian context, focusing on the Canadian counterculture movement of the late 1960s and its expression in the alternative higher education experiment at the University of Toronto, and moving toward a discussion of Canadian Indian author and activist Harold Cardinal. The experimental [End Page 204] education unit, called Rochdale College, also housed the Institute of Indian Studies. Chapter 5 initiates descriptions of the ensuing conferences with a discussion of the organizing efforts during the few...