LIVINGSTON LETTERS
Provocative exchange between a white Christian man and a Native American woman as part of CPI

From: "Livingston" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: Repentance and prayer
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 13:46:20 +0100

I wanted to ask you a few questions about your prayer for repentance from your God. My fathers mother was born in the Qualla Boundary in Wolf Creek Swain Co NC. They were stripped of their land, humiliated, oppressed, wounded beyond human endurance. I think to be ask forgiveness after all the brutality inflicted on our people is a good thing and long overdue. 

But our Native beliefs are just as strong as your Christian beliefs, we were not the pagans, we did not kill under the name of our God. Our Creator helped us survive the horrors that took place under the Christians hands in the name of their God.

How do we now join in your christian beliefs? Is ours still not good enough for you?

Ask forgiveness from our people, the descendants of those horribly misused, but don't try to do this to convert them to your faith. That's how it happened in the beginning. These are the exact words used to take our national identity away in the beginning. Accept the fact that our people are more spiritual than Christians even still today. That's why we were named Indian, Indios people in/with God, because we were constantly in prayer to our Creator. Our beliefs will always differ. You accept my beliefs and I'll accept yours. But don't try to convert me in the name of God, or Jesus, and I won't try to convert you to my faith.

My mother is Tuscaroran this is my Tribe.
Marilyn Mejorado-Livingston Office Manager
Southern Band Tuscarora Indian Tribe
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From: Mission Carolina <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Repentance and prayer
Date: Thursday, July 01, 1999 5:13 AM

Dear Marilyn,
Osiyo.  Thank you for writing.  I agree with you.  Your people *were* totally humiliated and brutally ethnically cleansed, both your Tsalagi ancestors in their homeland (over 200 massacres) and your Tuscarora ancestors (at places like Cotechnea and Neoheroka where we have prayed as well.)

For these terrible things, Marilyn, I ask your forgiveness as a yonega, a white man.  I and my people have no defense.  If there ever have been a group of bad people on this continent, they were the colonists and white settlers who committed genocide against Native Americans.  Before the Creator we are guilty and deserve the worst treatment. 

The Creator in wisdom has already provided for the yonega and the Tsalagi (and all peoples) an escape from what we deserve.  If you can find it in your
heart to forgive me and my people, Creator will heal the deep and old wounds.

Marilyn, I am so happy you wrote and challenged me.  You didn't do it out
of hate, but out of a genuine desire for peace for the land.  Thank you.

Being a Christian is not synonymous with being yonega.  That is a tragic mistake that whites made in the last 500 years.  Being a Christian is about following Jesus in one's own cultural tradition.  I should follow Christ in my white, Anglo-Saxon, Scot-Irish way.  You should follow Christ in a Tsalagi or Tuscarora way.  I'm talking about taking things in your culture which are wonderful gifts of the Creator like dance, the drums, etc., and using them to worship Him, the only one true One who deserves worship. 

Many yonega Christians still have not figured this out, but a growing number of culturally-sensitive Christians are now understanding these things. 

For this latter group of believers, their purpose is not to "proselytize" or "convert" Native Americans.  The purpose is to see you and your culture come into the fullness of its destiny in Christ Jesus (who was not white - but who was a Middle Eastern Aramaic Jew).  In fact, it should be obvious to most that Tsalagis as well as other Native peoples are more spiritual than most whites.  It is the redemptive gift of Creator to Native Americans.  They also are much more prayerful.

Our prayer teams are praying that the land be healed so that the peoples may be healed.  We believe only Jesus' sacrifice can make payment in the spirit realm for the horrific massacres of the past.  We still labor under the curses of these deeds.  It is time to proclaim freedom for the captives and light for those in the darkness.  It is time for an end to bitterness and bigotry.  It is time for peace to reign in the land.

Please let me know your thoughts.  Please don't cut me off because you may disagree.   The last thing I want to do is sound like an arrogant, condescending white person.  I want to be a servant of Creator.

Blessings,
Gene Brooks
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From: "Livingston" <[email protected]>
To: "Mission Carolina" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Repentance and prayer
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 15:27:10 +0100

Gene,
I received your email and tears flowed. I couldn't even finish reading the first time around. My Chief wondered what was wrong, and I pointed to the screen and went outside to talk to the ancestors. The Chief came out with tears in his eyes as well. You touched the heart of those who have held onto generations of pain, which expressed itself in anger for 7 generations. 

All we have ever wanted was to be recognized as a race, a people, and have the rights of all Americans to hold onto our Traditional beliefs, our cultural and social systems. But today so many of our people are still told they do not exist.  And still written off as extinct.

A heartfelt apology does go a very long way, and my people are very soft hearted underneath the shield they use as protection. If only the president of the United States of America would truly apologize to the Native Americans like he did the African Americans. Then more old wounds could be healed.

I will read your letter to my Tribe and the General Body at our next meeting. We meet the last Sunday of each month. And I will forward this to all the Native Americans sites I am linked to.

Nyeahweh(Thank You) from myself and my ancestors.......
Marilyn Dreamwalker Mejorado-Livingston
Southern Band Tuscarora Indian Tribe
121 Granville St.
Windsor, NC 27983
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Subject: Using messages for lecture and learning
   Date:  Sat, 30 Oct 1999 13:41:18 -0500
   From: "Marilyn Livingston" <[email protected]>
     To:   <[email protected]>

I have no problem in your using the messages. Maybe it will show others, we still hurt, we are still distrustful of  US Government Agencies. Also I have included an attachment that we are fighting now. A Fed. prison is to be built on some of our oldest prehistoric land here in NC. And we are still fighting to get our Ancestral remains back from Archealogist, they have had in boxes some over 20 years, and don't follow NAGPRA laws. Maybe someone will hear you that cares.

Nyeahweh (Thank You)
Marilyn Dreamwalker Mejorado-Livingston
Southern Band Tuscarora Indian Tribe PO BX 14 Winton NC 27986
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