The Journal Gazette, 600 W. Main St., Fort Wayne IN

Monte Sheets, pastor of Cedarville Community Church, isn’t sure, but he thinks he might have a measure of Native American ancestry.

What he is sure about is that he feels a measure of guilt about how Native Americans have historically been treated.

Last month, Sheets and other members of the Fort Wayne area’s religious community did something about that feeling during a landmark gathering at Heartland Community Church in Fort Wayne.

Called “Restoring Ancient Gates: Seeking the Creator for a Regional Prophetic Awakening,” the late-January event brought together more than 500 people seeking reconciliation between Christian churches and native peoples.

Attendees came from area congregations and 20 Native American tribes, with many arriving in traditional tribal dress.

The weekend’s highlight was the presentation of a document from a group of Fort Wayne pastors, including Sheets, acknowledging past sins and unjust acts against the Miami Indians, the region’s original settlers.

The document also committed the signatories to treating Miami descendents with respect as “a spiritual people” and as “the original gatekeepers and caretakers of this land.”

Sheets said the pastors, meeting under the auspices of Fort Wayne Renewal Ministries for several years, have been praying for a way to restore a true Christian spirit to relations between themselves and native peoples.

“One of the things we sensed is that there has been unjust treatment of Native Americans in our region, and Scripture tells us that God does not take lightly broken covenants or broken treaties,” he said. “So we were looking for a way to say, ‘Lord, we repent of this,’ and work toward reconciliation, and we came up with this.”

Among the sins against the Miami outlined in the document: the “unjust acquisition of your ancestral homelands”; the breaking of treaties and covenants; the “forceful removal of your ancestors from their homeland”; the division of families; the “dehumanizing” of the Miami people and “the cultural genocide that followed”; and the abuse of children and families as children were sent off to religious boarding schools “that degraded their way of life and language.”

Pastors giving their assent were Sheets; John Backes, Bethel Assembly of God in Huntington; Ben Bouwers, International House of Prayer in Fort Wayne; and Ron Allen and John Youse of Heartland.

The apology was presented to Brian Buchanan, chief of the current Miami tribe in Indiana, who attended with several council members.

Terry Wildman of Fort Wayne, a Heartland member who is Native American and helped organize the gathering, says it also aimed to raise awareness among area Christians that Miamis and members of other tribal groups still live in and around Fort Wayne.

“We were actually shocked when the chief said there are more than 6,000 Miami enrolled in Indiana and another group in Oklahoma,” he says.

The Indiana Miami have a tribal center and some donated land near Peru and are trying to get federal recognition as a tribe, he says. Recognition could mean federal help with health care and economic development, Wildman says.

“We would like to see the Miami people helped. They are struggling in many ways,” says Wildman, who is Ojibwe and Yaqui on his father’s side.

He performs Native American-inspired Christian music and storytelling with his wife, Darlene, who is not of Native American descent.

An offering of $2,600 was given for immediate needs with utility bills at the Miami tribal center in Peru and for scholarships to its Miami Language Camp.

The event also included Christian worship services in Native American style.

“What was really beautiful is, we set the building up powwow-style with chairs in a circle and people singing and playing drums. Some danced and some wore their native outfits,” Wildman said.

“We did a blended style of music, with guitar, and Native American flute and hand drum and a big powwow-style drum. … On Saturday night, the Miami came and brought their singers and sat at our drum and sang one of their traditional songs. It was part of honoring them and them responding back.”

Tribes represented included the Delaware (Lenni Lenape), Potawatomi, Ojibwe, Odawa, Fox, White Mountain Apache, Yankton Sioux, Cherokee, Blackfoot, Southern Paiute, Lakota, Navajo, Pueblo, Choctaw, Yaqui/Zacateca, Powhatan, Shoshone, Bannock and Colville.

Wildman says he sees the apology as mostly symbolic.

“But it’s more than symbolic. It’s important because of the covenants and treaties that were made and broken,” he says, noting that he would like to see the Miamis have land in the city for a cultural center.

“To be honest, I think for God’s blessing to be on this city, we’ve got to acknowledge that wrong things were done,” Wildman says.

Sheets, 52, says he thinks he might be part Shawnee through a great- or great-great-grandmother.

He says he especially regrets that “sometimes the church or the religious community was involved with the government, in that the church was asked to come in and ‘civilize’ the Native Americans, which was, in many ways, telling them to deny their culture.

“We believe now we’ve made a gesture that some of the things that happened in the past were just wrong,” he says. “We don’t see it as the end. We’ve extended a hand of friendship.”

rsalter@jg.net