“….History says that we needed missions because we were savages and we needed religion,” says Carolyn Rodriguez, a youth group leader with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. “But we had our religion. We had our own way of life. We didn’t need to be forced into another one.”
On Saturday, the Tribal Band led a ceremony to signify the removal of a bell marker from the intersection of Soquel and Dakota avenues in Santa Cruz, which is now the first city in California to remove all bells from public property. The Tribal Band is comprised of descendants of the tribal groups who fell under the influence of the San Juan Bautista and Santa Cruz missions in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
Originally, the Tribal Band planned to remove the bell following a public speaking event at Mission Plaza Park and a procession to the site. But late Friday night or early Saturday morning, the bell was stolen.
Santa Cruz Police Chief Andy Mills confirmed the theft on Saturday. Mills said police do not yet have any suspects, but they did collect evidence and are searching for surveillance footage.
“We believe we will be able to make some progress in the not too distant future,” he says. “We certainly will investigate the hate crime aspect of this, should it be a hate crime. [Saturday] we are making a visual presence so people feel comfortable and safe.”
Former Santa Cruz Mayor Justin Cummings spoke out against the theft of the bell at the rally in Mission Plaza before a crowd of about 400 people.
“I strongly condemn the illegal removal of the bell in the cover of night,” he said. “These types of shameful acts are not acceptable. This is a time to honor all Indigenous people. Today we are not here to cancel history, but to get it right.”
Valentin Lopez, Chair of the Tribal Band, says the theft does not matter in the long run.
“It was going to come down anyways,” Lopez says. “The most important thing is that it has been removed. The ceremony was a time for prayer and for the community to come together. It was a time to acknowledge the true history of the missions and move towards healing.”
He also says that the removal did not change the ceremony “in any way.”
“We had the same prayer, same speakers and same message,” he says. “[It] brought Native peoples and non-Natives together to reflect, pray, to learn, and to recognize it is time for change and time for healing.”
….The bell was replaced Saturday with an informational metal sign that describes the reasons for its removal. The sign will eventually be replaced by a permanent memorial which will be developed by the Tribal Band and the city of Santa Cruz.
Lopez said the Tribal Band is continuing its work in removing more bell markers statewide. This includes a campaign asking for bells on state property to be removed….
The above comes from an Aug. 31 story in Good Times.
Its theft was a crime which should not be covered up with Woke excuses. Liberal politics minimizing the deed only leads to more flagrant law breaking.
Charges should be filed and swift justice given to the perpetrators and given the religious nature of the incident, it’s a hate crime too.
The community came together, native and non-native, for prayer? What were they all praying to?
This country is so screwed in the head. Liberalism has done that. Liberals don’t think a millimeter below the surface.
To the aggrieved Tribe: Very sorry for our intrusion into your culture. Now, may we please have back, our books, automobiles, computers, TVs, tools, buildings, clothing, industry, and all the other artifacts of our “horrible, prejudiced” Western Christian Society. You don’t need your cars, education, or jobs anyways, now that you are returning to your cultural roots. All the best for surviving out in the bush.
Yes vr, I find their cultural appropriation of our Western ways most offensive.
Don’t forget the casinos. It’s offensive that Indians run casinos. They are appropriating Western, White Man culture. If Whites can’t make and sell Mexican or Chinese food, Indians can’t run casinos.
And also, give us back that Bell immediately. (What an arrogant group…)
Let’s say that the government took away your house, your Church, taught your children to think, talk, walk like atheists and secularists and then your children discovered Catholicism and tried to learn about it and tried to get some kind of justice for your losses, would you want the government to say to them “Fine, just give back everything you earned while you walked with us. Enjoy yourself around that altar. Dress and live like Jesus did.”
You are OK with that?
Let’s say that it’s late on a cold night, and raining hard. One of the old ladies of the tribe, has to get up and relieve herself. Oh wait…no washbasin, no toilet, no running water, and the roof (such as it is, leaks.) She must go outside, into the bushes, and get soaked…
You are OK with returning to that?
Really, would you please grow up and realize where we are now? It’s too bad, but you have to stop playing the “I’m such a victim” game.
No, you and your family are NOT victims, thanks to modern Western culture. You no longer have to go into the bushes and get wet at night.
Half the people in the world live like that.
Yes, much of the world lives in poverty. But here in the US, people including Indians, have a better standard of living, and live well. So why are these tribes complaining? What is their problem with living better than most of the people of the world?
And most of them would rather not.
Do you know that there are people in US without indoor toilets and without water?
This is off the subject, though.
No, this is on topic. I visited an indian reservation once to go to Canyon de Chelley. I was appalled at the poor conditions on the reservation. They didn’t know how to live in a civilized manner. The hotel had dirty water for bathing and drinking, so they handed out bottled water. Third world conditions there. Alcoholism and abuse are rampant. Poverty is ubiquitous even though they get generous federal handouts. Columbus coming to America and the US are the best things to happen to North America. Ever. I will never go to an indian reservation again because I’m civilized.
This is why there was the joke about General Custer being the first head of the Department of Indian Affairs and telling them “Don’t do anything until I get back.”
A more accurate description: Western culture took away your hunting, your tents and huts, your bows and arrows, your deerskin garb, your moccasins, your feathered bonnets, your outdoor skills, your tribal teachings, and your medicine men. They have been replaced with a written alphabet, books, housing and sanitation, mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, the world atlas, machines, farms, manufacturing skills, medicine and hospitals, cars, planes and rapid transit, TVs, Computers, and YES, freedom of religion. In other words, your tribe had a quantum leap forward into the new century.
It’s your choice – return to the tribal medicine men and hunting, or continue (as you are now doing) shopping down at the supermarket.
And YES, you have the freedom to return back to your roots – the government is NOT interfering with your tribal religion.
Now, as in accord with the laws of our country, here Freedom of Religion, please allow us to celebrate our Christian religion.
Your vandalisms are felonies, and you should be punished for these crimes.
(And please bring back that bell)
They were going to take down the bell but someone stole it.
The Cherokee had a written alphabet. Ancestors of the First Nations taught European settlers how to survive in America. Navajo codetalkers had a large part in winning WWII.
You did not start from scratch either.
The largest religion among Americans of First Nations origin are Catholics.
Sequoia developed the first alphabet for the Cherokee tribe in 1821, based on the European alphabet…. The whole point of this discourse is not to belittle Indians and their accomplishments, but to awaken them that this is the 21st century, and Freedom of Religion is a basic law in the United States. Indians are given the right of freedom in their religious beliefs. Will Indians please allow Catholics the Freedom of Religion? Please, no more vandalization, no more damaging Churches or statues.
“Two wrongs do not make something right” Sister Mary Thomas Aquinas used to say to her second graders. Yes – some of the native peoples were harmed by the Spanish conquest of California. But St Father Serra was not involved in acts of harm against the native people. Did the native people kill some of Father Serra’s brother priests? Yes – they did. So healing and prayers are needed by both sides. Then…it is time to move on and deal with the issues needing our attention and energy today.
Tragically, too many believe that it’s okay to lie about Saint Junipero and the Franciscan missionaries to California. And, sadly, too many unquestioningly believe the lies. This is fake “history” or the “revisionist” history of a “cultural revolution.” Some believe (with religious or irreligious fervor) that they “must” erase our history and memories. For those interested in a serious, scholarly look at Father Serra and the missions, see Junípero Serra: California, Indians, and the Transformation of a Missionary by Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz (of Santa Clara University).
Saint Junipero and all Franciscan Saints, pray for us!
Some of my tribes want to go back to their “roots” too. Every summer and winter solstice they gather around such places as Stonehenge in England and do their little thing, pouring out beer and other offerings to their gods. As for me I will not go back to that. Morrigan, Danu, Freya, Thor and and Woden and all those great gals and guys were only deified humans with the same sins as the rest of us. i will take the Lord Jesus any day over them. I do not have to sacrifices any one to my God as he sacrificed himself for me and others.
There are plenty of places and monuments named after Native Tribes,
Thanks for the reminder Anne TE.
Things can get hectic during “the holidays.”
If I forget in December: “Happy Solstice.”
Yours, in political correctness
Well, Old Druid, Samhain will soon be coming a lot sooner than the solstice, so I expect you will be blotting and celebrating soon, and since you are from the northern tribes and not the southern ones, you’ll most likely be missing out on Saturnalia on December 17, not December 24. You know Saturn? that great guy who swallowed all his children as soon as they were born, so a prophecy would not be fulfilled. Sounds like a most fitting patron for the pro abortion movement.
Now we are promoting false gods and false religions here.
People, go to confession.
Exodus 23:13
Evidently you cannot recognize satire when you read it. What I said was “tongue in cheek”, except the part about Saturn being a good patron for the demonic pro abortion movement since he is one of their patrons whether they know it or not. Whether the person calling him/herself “Old Druid” was being facetious I do not know. I can only speak for myself.
No need for confession here. At least not for that post.
Oh boy, I do apologize for the first line to my reply, though, as it was somewhat rude, and it is hard sometimes to tell if someone is using satire.
the aggrieved tribe is seeking the no bell prize.
maybe this tribe took the Black Theology seminar
and came to the only conclusion possible:
White Man Bad!!!
A dozen years ago while lobbying against abortion I came upon a tribal gambling casino in Oregon that donates to Planned Parenthood. There are others that donate regularly. I call that “payback” because their donations fund child killing in the womb of non-natives. It gets more interesting. The other thing I learned was native women who are feminists lobby for legal abortion … of their own offspring!! Does that make any sense? On the one hand they’re p*ssed about ancient wrongs, alleged mass killings, by the settlers from Europe. But on the other hand, the natives approve of killing their own offspring in the womb by non-native abortionists.
“Therefore, abortion has never been taboo in most Indigenous American societies.” Quote from https://indioheathen.blogspot.com/2006/03/abortion.html
#FakeIndians. The squeaky wheel gets the casino license. The Amah Muts are not federally recognized.
The new Red Guard.
Removing bells is not the answer. Is one’s history more important than another’s. The fact is the Franciscan Friars traveled up the California and built Missions. The Indians were enslaved by the Spanish military. That is raw history. It is part of California history, Spain’s history, Catholic Church history and Native American history and California history as well as Mexico. It all deserves to be preserved. The taking down of monuments or landmarks does not encourage respect and give dignity to the people who suffered back in the day. It does not remember them. It only temporarily appeases those who find offense. I find offense that the removal of bells negates the lives and suffering of my peoople on Mission Lands and elsewhere in Baja and Alta California.