One Church, One Tribe

We finally made it up into the north country this September when we formed our “Talking Circle” and attended the Native American Awareness Conference in Minneapolis. We seized this opportunity to visit with friends from Trinity PC in Rochester, MN.  You may remember the article in our ’09 Spring update: The Dakota-Hunkpati Connection, where we reproduced Wes Petersen’s journal of how over the last two years the folks at Trinity have been reaching out in love and reconciliation to the Dakota Sioux of the Crow Creek Indian Reservation.  We were eager to meet these friends face-to-face and hear first hand the stories of their journey.  Helen Laack graciously put us up for a couple of nights and created a place for another “talking circle” on her deck on Sunday evening; there we shared out stories, our visions, our hopes.  We were encouraged by the keen insights of this group and their deep love and passion for developing long-term relationships and offering the “good news” of God’s grace to the Dakota-Hunkpati people.

Something that we don’t always think about is the fact that when we visit these tribes, we are visiting Wes Petersen addressing Soverignty of Native Nations.  It is so important that we respect their rights as a sovereign nation and secure permission and acceptance for our presence there.  Please take time to read Wes Petersen’s update and his eloquent explanation of the importance of respecting tribal sovereignty as it was fleshed out in their mission: