Native American

Nic Hamilton, a Cheyenne and Arapaho, performs an original song during a presentation for a group of United Methodist visitors at Sovereign Community School in Oklahoma City. The group of about 40 people were participating in an immersion into Native American culture and ministries sponsored by The United Methodist Church’s Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference. Photo by Tim Tanton, UM News.

Programs support, develop Native American youth

An Oklahoma church and a public charter school are focused on teaching Native youth about their culture and equipping them to thrive.

Multicultural Ministry

Josephine Deere serves communion to participants in an immersion experience held by The United Methodist Church’s Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference. A group of 40 people spent several days learning about Native American history and culture, as well as challenges facing indigenous communities. Photo by Tim Tanton, UM News.

Group gets immersion in Native history, concerns

Invisibility is a problem for indigenous communities today, and United Methodists from nine states resolved to help raise awareness and support Native American ministries.

Church History

Visitors browse a gallery of artifacts at the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City. The museum held its grand opening on Sept. 18-19. It took decades to get funding and build the museum. Photo courtesy of First Americans Museum.

Native American museum makes belated debut

The First Americans Museum is open to the public after a protracted birthing process. United Methodist Native Americans involved with the new Oklahoma City museum say it is worth the wait.

Social Concerns

This portrait from 1887 shows people from the Chiricahua band of Apache Native Americans about four months after their arrival at the United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pa. Native Americans were taken from their homes and enrolled in boarding schools for many years, separating students from both their families and their culture. Image courtesy of the Richard Henry Pratt Papers, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University via Wikimedia Commons.

Pastor reflects on abuses at Indian boarding schools

As the U.S. Interior Department investigates the Indian boarding schools that took young Native Americans from their families and tried to expunge their culture from them, United Methodists address the church’s role and their hopes for the future.

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