John Stiles: In spite of conflict, something in common

Discussions of a bitter past can help us become better human beings today.

By JOHN STILES

Last update: December 21, 2007 - 5:24 PM

I've read with interest the many views regarding the Dakota Conflict of 1862. Ten years ago I was a pastor at a church in Mankato, mere blocks from where the hangings of the 38 Dakota took place.

One day while perusing the church archives I found a lithograph of the hanging that was discovered in the church's cornerstone during a rebuilding phase some 40 years ago. I later learned that the 38 were baptized by local ministers and were given Christian names prior to the hanging. Today a solitary buffalo, carved in stone, stands on the site of the hangings.

Surely, the church was also culpable in the efforts to wipe out native culture and religion. And yet many Dakota embraced Christianity and found it compatible with the traditions of their ancestors. Tales are also told of Catholic priests who walked the Trail of Tears alongside native peoples who were forced from their lands, refusing to abandon them in their time of need.

As we commemorate and celebrate our sesquicentennial, it is important to put the past into perspective with lively debate and discourse. It could be argued that there is blame to be owned and heroism to be emulated on either side.

I wonder, though, how these conversations will influence the ways we treat each other today. In our increasingly global community, what would happen if we viewed the Dakota Conflict (and wars today) as civil war -- wars between brothers and sisters in the human family? What would it mean for how we treat those who are a different color, or who are richer or poorer than we are?

Sure, I run the risk of oversimplifying the geopolitical landscape, but consider a key teaching of both Christians and the Dakota: We are all related. Christians teach about the Body of Christ, where the member who seems weakest is indispensable. The Dakota have the saying Mitakuye Oyasin, which means: "We are all related." Somehow, in the vast world we live in, our existence vitally depends on one another.

When we finally get it -- that it's "all us" in this world together, that no human being is intrinsically superior to another, that even creation itself is intimately connected to the human family -- then we will have learned something about what happened the day after Christmas in 1862.

John Stiles is pastor at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Oakdale.

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