CREATING CHRISTIAN INDIANS: Native Clergy in the Presbyterian Church

CREATING CHRISTIAN INDIANS Native Clergy in the Presbyterian Church Bonnie Sue Lewis University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2003. Illustrations, maps, appendixes, notes, bibliography, index, xix + 281 pp. $34.95 cloth.

Until fairly recently, scholars in American Indian studies have too often been tempted to assail Christianity in Indian country as either a spiritual outrage perpetrated on unwitting dupes, or, in the case of converts to the church, as a sign of cultural decay that confirmed suspicions about the incompatibility of native and Christian belief systems. A growing body of work published in the last decade, however, has challenged these assumptions by demonstrating that what was going on at missions and in the churches was a complicated cross-cultural encounter in which Indian people exerted considerable influence and agency. Taking her cue from these studies, Bonnie Sue Lewis has written an insightful and informed account of the Presbyterian Church and native Christianity among the Nez Perces and Dakotas between 1865 and 1935. Rather than telling the timeworn story of failed missions and resistance movements, Lewis argues forcefully (and correctly) that, in fact, "where Indians remained Indians and yet became Christians, missionary efforts succeeded" (p. xii). Moreover, they succeeded in the case of the Nez Perces and Dakotas because tribal members took control of the missions in ways that met their cultural needs and assuaged their spiritual hunger. "Where Indians became Christian," Lewis writes, "and yet incorporated their cultural and behavioral patterns and constructed institutions and practices reflecting both identities, there is no story of failure" (p. xiii).

The key component in this complicated story is the native clergy. Between 1865 and 1935, the Presbyterian Church ordained nearly sixty pastors from the Nez Perce and Dakota communities, a number that accounted for more than half of all native Presbyterian clergy and nearly a quarter of all ordained Protestant native clergy in the nation as a whole. In addition, Lewis points to several other factors that frame the story of native Christianity among the Nez Perces and Dakotas. On the one hand, she adroitly points out, in the late nineteenth century Christianity offered important sources and forces of support to native people living in chaotic if not desperate situations. Impatient with an either/or scenario, Lewis reminds readers that native people had good reasons to consider and accept conversion to Christianity, not the least of which was that doing so did not mean the end of their identity as Indian people. "An Indian was no less Nez Perce or Dakota," she reminds us, "because he was Christian" (p. 90).

Indeed, one of the book's most important contributions is to situate native Christianity in the context of Indian communities and cultures. Band membership, for example -a hallmark of pre-reservation political economies-was often most intensely maintained not by those who resisted Christianity, but by those who joined the churches. Indeed, among the Dakotas, the churches proved crucial in the maintenance of band affiliation. Moreover, these churches and their pastors became "a unique institution responsive to the needs of Indian peoples in each particular locale" (p. 92). And though there were obvious departures from "traditional" practices such as dancing and multiple marriage partners, these churches and their pastors nonetheless proved to be one of the vital elements in the maintenance of traditional concepts. "Indian congregations reflected Indian values, support systems, and leadership," notes Lewis, and in doing so "continued to serve both as perpetuators and innovators of Native culture within the Presbyterian Church" (p. 119).

Creating Christian Indians is an important and inspired contribution to the literature. Well-written, carefully researched, and argued with clarity and precision, this book helps illustrate the cultural and institutional complexities that came to the surface in missions not only among the Nez Perces and Dakotas, but across all of Indian country.

Clyde Ellis

Elon University, Elon, North Carolina

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