8/2/2000 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn
NOTE: A photograph is available with this report.
By Tammy Ward*
NEWARK, Del. (UMNS) - The principal player in the "Chief Wahoo" mascot issue told United Methodist Native Americans attending their annual family camp that racism is the biggest single issue they will face in their lives.
Juanita Helphrey, a staff member of the United Church of Christ (UCC), was the keynote speaker for the 2000 Native American Family Camp, held July 24-28 at the University of Delaware. The four-day meeting focused on the whole family, and workshops emphasized spiritual, social, political and physical awareness and wholeness.
Before her UCC affiliation, Helphrey spent 16 years as the executive director of the Indian Affairs Commission in North Dakota. It was from this perspective that she spoke to the youth and adults attending the family camp gathering.
Helphrey led discussions aimed at empowering the 280 participants, and she provided resources to assist them in protests and activism against racial discrimination and the exploitation of sacred symbols.
Negative stereotypes of Native Americans have existed for a long time, Helphfrey said. The terms "redskin" and "squaw" carry a negative meaning, she said. "Their message is of hate, inequality. We are 'not as good as,' and it gives other people the right to get rid of us, to keep us without jobs, a good education, into reservation depression, in ghettos," she said.
Exploitation of symbols is one of the reasons United Methodist Native Americans joined Helphrey and other Native Americans from the Cleveland area in protest of "Chief Wahoo," the mascot of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. The protest was held during the 2000 General Conference, the top legislative meeting of the United Methodist Church.
In a show of solidarity, the delegates meeting in Cleveland approved a resolution denouncing the use of "offensive racist logos" by any team or organization. In particular, they cited the Cleveland Indians' use of the Chief Wahoo mascot, saying it demeans and diminishes Native Americans by denying them recognition as human beings.
Delegates at the 2000 conference said the use of negative and "denigrating images" increases the struggles of young Native Americans and prohibits development of the strong self-esteem needed to compete in society. "The Chief Wahoo mascot increases the isolation, confusion and hostility which are expressed so graphically by the statistical records of such social dysfunction as alcoholism, school drop-out rates, teen suicide and violence, and family disintegration among Native Americans," the approved resolution stated.
As Helphrey gave the participants a look at how she has been molded by her life experiences, she also described herself as "a racial justice advocate and activist, a mom, a grandma and a survivor of genocide" because of her ancestors.
Helphrey is a sixth-generation Christian, being part of the first tribe in the Dakotas to be converted to Christianity by the Rev. Charles Hall, the first missionary in the area. Hall had converted Poor Wolf, a spiritual leader in the tribe, and the entire tribe followed suit.
A serene village shielded her while she grew up, and she said she didn't know what it meant to be on the receiving end of racism because she was surrounded by people who looked like her and who were non-controversial. She began noting racism when congressional actions stripped families of their land and flooded it to provide electricity to cities such as Denver. The once self-sufficient and agriculturally solvent families had to become recipients of social services.
Helphrey said that is where her journey into low self-esteem and heartbreak began. Her downward spiral was assisted by her placement in all-white schools and hearing and reading aloud from history books that called her people "savages." It was in junior high school where she became aware that skin color made a difference in the United States. Throughout her school years, she said she tried hard to fit in and tried various things to feel better about who she was. "Maybe if I did it like them, I would be better or as good as," she thought, in response to the racism.
The hardest lesson she has had to learn was the feeling of "white power" among Christian people in her life. She was raised thinking pastors were next to God and Native Americans could not be pastors, she said. She placed them on pedestals and expected them to behave as examples and followers of Jesus' teachings, such as "love thy neighbor." However, actions from the pastors and her Christian friends led to a re-evaluation of the Christian community.
Not an ordained minister, Helphrey said she finds her theology and walk in life in three parallel paths: Christianity, Alcoholic Anonymous' 12-Step program and native traditions.
The four-day camp included an excursion to visit the United Methodist Building in Washington. The participants met with the Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett, a Native American who is top staff executive of the denomination's Board of Church and Society, and the Rev. Chester Jones, top staff executive of the church's Commission on Religion and Race.
In his presentation, Fassett talked about issues of interest to Native Americans. He highlighted toxic waste dumps, treaties and child labor.
He spoke candidly about the recent case involving 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez and its importance to him. "We try (at the board) to work quietly behind the scenes, but the Elian case didn't let us do that," he said. The board helped reunite the Cuban boy with his father.
"When I was 5 years old, I was taken away from my birth mother," Fassett continued. He was sent to an orphanage, and then there was a custody battle over him, he said.
Jones described what the Native Americans have in common with African Americans. "Something was stolen from us," he said. "Our bodies, were stolen, the Native Americans' land was stolen."
He speculated about what an Emancipation Proclamation would mean for Native Americans. "Would they get land back? Feelings of land are important." He said he had a kindred feeling about the land. As a young man, he could not wait to leave the sharecropper's life he had known, but now he looks forward to returning to the family farm.
The family camp is sponsored by the denomination's Native American International Caucus and partially funded by the churchwide Native American Comprehensive Plan. The 2001 camp will be July 16-20 at Flathead Lake, a United Methodist camp in Elmo, Mont.
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*Ward is the communications coordinator for the Peninsula-Delaware Annual Conference.
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