Searching for 'Some Accommodation': American Indian Religion in the Iron House

Abstract

Religious freedom claims by American Indian prisoners are disfavored in law and policy, even more so than most other prisoner civil rights claims. This disfavor reflects the continuing influence of the cultural distance between traditional Indians and Christianity, a distance with an unfortunate history from the Indian point of view. The salutary effects of Christian religion within prisons have been assumed for as long as prisons have existed, an assumption based upon scant evidence. Treating Indian religious expression as inferior to Christian religious expression within prisons is often allowed by law, but it is insupportable in policy without reference to the historical power relationship between Indians and the dominant culture. Indian spirituality, like Christianity, can engage prisoners in the moral discourse demanded by the tenets of restorative justice. Accommodation of Indian spirituality is as much in the public interest as accommodation of religion within prisons at all.