Racial Justice Ministry Team
Trinity’s Racial Justice Ministry Team
Taking steps individually and as a faith community towards understanding, confronting and dismantling the racial bias and systemic racism that is around us, among us, and within us. This team was formed in the fall of 2020 and is committed to both education and action. If you have a heart for this work and are interested in joining our team, please contact Gary Cross or Ann Wolff.
Below is a presentation summary of our team’s work from April 2023, as presented to the Saint Paul Area Synod’s Advocates for Racial Equity (ARE) work group.
Trinity’s Racial Justice Ministry Team Presentation>>
UPCOMING EVENT
Trinity’s Land Story with Jessica Intermill
Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024 at 6:45 p.m. | River Room (formerly called the Garden Room)
This content is appropriate for ages 12 and up, open gym available for younger children.
Trinity’s Racial Justice Ministry Team has engaged a consultant to uncover the specific history of the land currently owned by our church in downtown Stillwater and at our drive-in property in Houlton, Wisconsin. This research project is paid for with funds from the Harvest Grant from our Saint Paul Area Synod. Join us for a special reprise, all-in presentation by Jessica Intermill, owner of Intermill Land History Consulting to learn more about Trinity’s land story. We will learn how land became property at the Trinity locations.
Jessica is an attorney that has fought for tribal nations’ treaty rights in court and advised them in governance work for more than a decade. Jessica says: “In that work, I have seen the power and the limits of the law. But I have also seen tribal and non-tribal neighbors who are battling in court sit down at a conference table. I’ve helped them puzzle through generations of misunderstandings, disinformation, and assumptions. I’ve felt the room exhale when we reach through roadblocks to tailored solutions that build a shared future. It’s not easy. It takes humility, vulnerability, time, and a good dose of humor. And it’s always, always worth it. I make land history accessible because I believe in the change that we make together.”
As we explore our land history, we’re learning whose land we stand on, how we came by that territory, how that territory was carved into today’s landscape, and how that history informs our present-day relationships. We will practice asking hard questions, sitting with uncertainty, and stretching creativity. We will see the current of history that came before us and our power to direct tomorrow’s course. And we will learn how to hold both the past and the future today.
To dive in to the materials Jessica has prepared, visit our project page which includes the following five sections:
- Introduction (describing the scope of the project)
- Mni Sota Makoce (introducing a voice of decolonized life)
- Settler Colonization (introducing voices of colonization and Dakota responses, and with buttons linking treaty primary sources and “markups” with highlighted passages marking relevant sections)
- Current Law (with more primary sources and “markups”)
- There’s more (a curated resource list for additional learning)
Bring your questions as we learn together.
In March 2022 Trinity’s Racial Justice Ministry Team was awarded a $15,000 Harvest Grant by the Saint Paul Area Synod (SPAS). The grant is being used to bring greater awareness through: education on past and present Native culture and experiences; stories of the Native Peoples who lived on this land long before us; Indigenous land acknowledgement; and inspiration for action and relationship-building as we go.
Read the full grant proposal>>
Our team has finished phase one of the proposal funded by our grant, the Education Series entitled: Listen, Understand, Connect. The Education Series included two main components: Teaching sessions and a traveling exhibit.
We hired Vance Blackfox to teach three class sessions at Trinity Lutheran Church. Vance is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Indigenous theologian, founder and director of Other+Wise, and serving as the Director of Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations for the ELCA. Vance presented three classes that he developed: The Blanket Exercise, Indigenous Thought & Theology and Indian 101. These sessions were held on Oct. 2, 4, and 5, 2022. The classes were attended by 255 individuals, including Trinity members and confirmation youth, other local church members and confirmation youth, and people from the broader community. Events lasted one to two hours with additional time for reflection and questions, led by Vance. Additionally, Vance was our guest preacher at both our worship services on Oct. 2. Worship was attended by 245 people.
We are especially grateful that we were able to offer the education series at no cost to participants as provided by the generous grant from our Saint Paul Area Synod. We did collect a free-will offering at each event which was allocated to the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center. We raised $900 for their important work.
Coinciding with the education series, we were honored to host the traveling exhibit: Why Treaties Matter – Self-government in the Dakota and Ojibwe Nations. The exhibit was in our narthex from Sept. 28 to Oct. 9 with 20 public viewing hours and many more viewing hours for our faith community and other groups. This exhibit is made possible through an application process with the Minnesota Humanities Center, in collaboration with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. (There was no cost to have this exhibit, we were the first church to host this exhibit.)
The “Why Treaties Matter” exhibit drew more than 330 participants of all ages due to the variety of weekday and weekend hours it was open, including between worship services on two Sundays. The public viewing times were staffed by our team.
Comments from participants in the teaching session and to the exhibit were overwhelmingly positive, and engagement was high. Consistent with our objective for this phase of our work, participants learned about our Indigenous siblings, gaining a greater appreciation for their history, including their pain and resilience, their wisdom and ongoing contributions. Another very important aspect of this phase of our work is the relationship building of our team and faith community with Vance.
These learnings and experiences have deeply affected our team and helped prepare us for the next phase of our work entitled, Native Stories. In this work, we plan to develop relationships and invite members of the Dakota and Ojibwe nations to tell their stories, seeking to learn more about the truth of the history of the land of Trinity and Stillwater, both pre-colonization by Europeans and into the present day.
ELCA-Related Resource Links:
Advocates for Racial Equity Resource Page: https://spas-elca.org/resources/for-congregations/advocates-for-racial-equity/
Facebook Group (network sharing in TC area): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1861713910714174
ELCA Repudiation of Doctrine of Discovery: https://www.elca.org/JLE/Articles/1202
ELCA Social Statement on Race, Ethnicity and Culture: https://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/RaceSS.pdf?_ga=2.132632654.1712050709.1605457206-1785032419.1605457206
ELCA Strategy for Race and Diversity: https://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Strategic_Authentic_Diversity.pdf?_ga=2.30790911.1712050709.1605457206-1785032419.1605457206
Doctrine of Discovery
The Doctrine of Discovery provided legal justification for colonization and seizure of land not inhabited by Christians. Learn more by watching the video from the Mennonite Church below. What’s the role of our churches today?
