From Our Sacred Ground In Action (SGIA) Ministry:
Recently, High Country News and Grist have collaborated on an exposé shedding light on fifteen states that profit from the land – reservation land – and resources of 79 tribal nations. Click Here for the article.
The director of tribal resources for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Tony Incashola Jr., stated, “It’s not that they’re mismanaging everything, but their management philosophy and scheme do not align with ours…which in turn affects our capability of managing our land.” Oftentimes the revenue goes to public institutions serving non-Indigenous people. Sometimes the trust lands went to states upon receiving statehood; more often the lands were taken through a federal policy of allotment, where reservations were forcibly cut up into small parcels.
October 14 is Indigenous People’s Day. How will you recognize this commemoration?
God our Father, you see us your children growing up in an unsteady and confusing world: Show us that your ways give more life than the ways of the world, and that following you is better than chasing after selfish goals. Help us to take failure, not as a measure of our worth, but as a chance for a new start. Give us strength to build our faith in you, and to keep alive our joy in your creation: through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
