Reservation Activist: Missionaries Go Home!

One American Indian entertainer and activist has a serious problem with Christian missionaries proselytizing on Native American reservations.

“For the most part, people don’t want [missionaries] here," says singer/songwriter/activist Davidica Little Spotted Horse. "But because of the poverty, I guess people put up with them...I think many locals wish we had our own resources so that we didn’t have to do that.”

Reservations have seen an uptick of missionary presence in recent years, and according to Ms. Little Spotted Horse, their influence has been far from universally positive.

“Everything got worse after the Diane Sawyer report,” she says, recalling the ABC News 2011 segment “Hidden America: Children of the Plains,” which some locals say painted an unrealistically bleak picture of reservation family life.

It was shortly thereafter that the presence of missionaries surged, bringing with them churches, people, and according to Ms. Little Spotted Horse, physical, spiritual and sexual abuse.

She also believes Christian missionaries may be baptizing babies on the reservation without their parent's consent.

“I don’t have anything against anyone’s beliefs,” she says. “But when you start conversion tactics, that’s wrong.”

[Source: Oxy.com]