American Indians and Christian Missions: Studies in Cultural Conflict

by Henry Warner Bowden

Book Overview

In this absorbing history, Henry Warner Bowden chronicles the encounters between native Americans and the evangelizing whites from the period of exploration and colonization to the present. He writes with a balanced perspective that pleads no special case for native separatism or Christian uniqueness. Ultimately, he broadens our understanding of both intercultural exchanges and the continuing strength of American Indian spirituality, expressed today...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226068129
• ISBN13: 9780226068121
• Release Date: June 1985
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

A worthwhile read but disturbing as well

Summary Bowden characterizes Christian missionary activities among native Americans as "in any case a general failure" with "obviously disastrous results." (pages xv-xvi). Bowden emphasizes the strong connection between the beliefs and the behaviors within any culture. Because the two tend to reinforce each other, he sees it as inevitable that the European missionaries would help to destroy the cultures of the people they wished to help. However, Bowden further emphasizes that "change" does not have to be interpreted as "destruction." All cultures have a dynamic existence that allows them to grow and adapt as they interact with one another. With this perspective, the effect of Christianity on Native American cultures is cast in a less negative light. Bowden makes no attempt to exhaustively catalog every example of Native American culture or of European missionary effort. He primarily treats three major representative populations. His study is limited to the northern continent and, initially, to three local geographic regions. The Native American tribes addressed are the Tanoan-speaking Tewa tribe contacted by Spanish missionaries, the Iroquoian-Speaking Huron tribe contacted by French missionaries, and the Algonkian-speaking Massachuset tribe contacted by English missionaries. Bowden attempts to "provide a detached analysis of volatile issues and a chronological survey of their prolonged conflict." (p. xv). He promises to neither defend "the Christian agents nor the natives opposed to conversion." (p. xv). However, Bowden does not convince the reader that he is presenting a neutral account. With few exceptions, he seems to blame the Europeans for the demise of Native American cultures. Regarding Spanish Franciscan missionaries he writes, "The intruders had no misgivings about their right to dominate local affairs or to enforce a new life-style on the natives." (p. 42). By referring to the Europeans as the invaders or intruders Bowden reveals a degree of negativism toward the Europeans. He uses emotionally-charged language such as "destroyed", "overwhelmed", "devastated", and "ravaged" to describe, throughout the book, the effects on native culture inflicted by Europeans. Each time Bowden disparages the Europeans for destroying yet another native culture, he defends them with another restatement of the same argument. Bowden defends the Europeans with his assertion that "all human cultures are dynamic." (p. 22). Flexible cultures survive by changing to meet new challenges. Inflexible cultures that do not change must disappear. Throughout the text, Bowden returns to the proposition that Native American cultures had never been "unspoiled." Constantly from the time of their first arrival each group's culture was affected and changed by contact with surrounding cultures. When Europeans joined the mix of cultures on the continent, they did not meet and contaminate an unspoiled native culture. The rate of change increased