Mennonite Church Peace Resources for Youth

American Indian communities had peacemakers and peace traditions long before the Whites arrived. And, as in all human communities, there were Indian war-makers.

When the Whites conquered the Indians and occupied the land, beginning with Columbus in 1492, they were more impressed with Indian "savagery" than with Indian friendliness. That attitude is typical of conquerors.

And so it has been ever since. White Americans, if they know about any Indians, remember the warriors. The Indian heroes in the history textbooks are those who fought back against the invading whites-Tecumseh, Sitting Bull, Geronimo. In the Black Hills of South Dakota today is the largest statue (still under construction) of any military hero in the country. It honors another Indian warrior--Crazy Horse.

A kind of political/military correctness is at work here. White Americans, guilty over what they did to the Indians, honor their great warriors as worthy opponents.

When will we give equal honor to Indian peacemakers? Their names are less well known-Deganewidah, Massasoit, Handsome Lake, Black Kettle, and among many others. The peace leaders sought to restrain the warriors, to make accommodations with the Whites. They believed Indian ways of living would survive best not in suicidal warfare, but in agreements that would save lives and adjust to change.

Where are the statues to the Indian peacemakers?

Mennonites have special reason to know about the Cheyenne legendary culture hero, Sweet Medicine, and the tradition of Cheyenne "Peace Chiefs." From the 1880s Mennonite missionaries worked among the Cheyenne Indians in what is now Oklahoma and Montana. Today one of the most famous American Cheyenne Peace Chief is Lawrence Hart, who is also a Mennonite pastor.

The Cheyenne Peace Chiefs carry the moral values of the tribe. At their installation a new Peace Chief hears these words: "If you see your mother, wife, or children being molested or harmed by anyone, you do not go and seek revenge. Take your pipe. Go, sit and smoke and do nothing, for you are now a Cheyenne chief."

In the face of the violent White invasion, the Peace Chiefs lost authority to the warriors. Their tribe came to be known as the "Fighting Cheyenne." But it is by no means clear that the Cheyenne warriors did more to preserve the authentic culture of their people than did the Peace Chiefs.

Chief Lawrence Hart says there is a kinship between the Cheyenne Peace Chiefs and the early Anabaptist teachers of peace. Along the path to a more peaceful world, we must find ways to honor peacemakers as energetically as the dominant American society has honored warriors.

For more on this topic, see: http://www.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/2001dec/juhnke.php

Why is war history more memorable than peace history?

For example, why do people know more about the Boston Tea Party of December 1773, than about the Philadelphia Tea Party that happened at the same time? Check your own knowledge with the following test (answers at the bottom.)

Boston

1. Why was the tea shipped to Boston a problem? _________________

2. What happened to the tea? ________________________________

3. What were the people at the Boston party wearing? ____________

Philadelphia

4. Did the Philadelphia people also protest the tea? _____________

5. What happened to the tea in Philadelphia? ____________________

6. What were the people at the Philadelphia party wearing? _______

If you are like 90+% of other Americans, you did better on Boston than on Philadelphia. Why? You even knew what the Boston patriots were wearing!!

American history textbooks all tell about the heroic patriots in Boston who protested against the unfair British tax on tea by throwing the tea into the harbor. Their bold action led King George to close the port of Boston and put the city under military rule. The Boston Tea Party led to the American War for Independence.

The history texts do not tell about Philadelphia, where the people nonviolently refused to accept the British tea. Some Quaker merchants negotiated a deal with the British ship captain. The captain took the tea back to England. The merchants helped with the captain's expenses.

Was the violence at Boston in December 1773 inevitable? No. The outcome at Philadelphia showed that nonviolent resolution of the conflict was possible. Don't we deserve to know more about how the people at Philadelphia solved their problem without violence?

The Boston Tea Party led to a war. If one goal of studying history is to learn how to get into a war, we should learn about the Boston Tea Party and celebrate what happened there.

But if our goal of studying history is to learn how to manage conflicts without going to war, we should learn more about the Philadelphia Tea Party.

One reason American history is so scarred by warfare, from Bunker Hill to Baghdad, is suggested by the fact that Americans know about the Boston Tea Party but not about the Philadelphia Tea Party. We have learned that violence is the way to solve our problems.

There are many events of successful conflict management in our history, akin to what happened in Philadelphia in December 1773. But we don't know about them. We don't know the peace heroes of our past. To recover that lost peace history is a challenge for budding history teachers and writers who bring Christian peace values to their study.

But it is a daunting task to make peace history as memorable as war history.

1. Taxation 2. Thrown into the harbor 3. Indian costumes 4. Yes 5. Shipped back to England 6. Customary Clothes.