Native Women's Double Cross: Christology from the Contact Zone

Abstract

One of the hallmarks of American Indian colonial experience was the arrival of Christian missionaries. The response of Native cultures to missionization has been complex, with some resisting the white (wo)man's religion and others embracing it. Throughout their contact with Christianity, however, many American Indians appropriated its stories on their own terms and for their own purposes. Stories about Jesus comprise one of the most important sites for this appropriation. This essay examines the ways in which the cultural production of American Indian women makes a crucial intervention in the debates about Jesus' identity. It argues that the narrative negotiations of Native women in the contact zone of Euro-American encounters transform the theological category of christology.