A Jubilee Call to Healing: Embracing Forgiveness and Reconciliation

by Sr. Rita Ostry, ND

An important focus of this jubilee year calls us to healing and forgiveness.  These two experiences go hand in hand very intimately.  After living 28 years on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation my life has been deeply impacted by the Lakota people.  I have come to know that the Lakota people live forgiveness.  Forgiveness in the bible is not just something that the offended person offers; it requires the offender to receive it, bringing reconciliation and healing to the relationship.

Living in a poverty-stricken area ravaged by the horrible effects of the disease of alcoholism with Native People who have endured discrimination, the violation of their basic human rights, and a disregard for their culture and spirituality, I experienced forgiveness. These people did not cause poverty, their lands were stolen from them, and they were forced to live on land they had no knowledge of how to tend. The treaties were violated with the use of alcohol to get the chiefs to sign the changed documents.  They were considered uneducated because they lived primitively and were unaware of the latest inventions.  They couldn’t read because their language was oral and not written.  Their cultural ways were considered foreign, strange, and savage; they were seen as needing to be converted and their ways changed.  Yet these people allowed those who treated them so unjustly to come live and work with them.  It took me a long time to realize that the blessing of forgiveness was showered upon me each day I shared with them.

I arrived on the reservation shortly after Wounded Knee II which happened in 1973.  There was a spirit of unrest evident.  As a teacher assigned to a Native American School, I was required to take a workshop on Native American Culture.  I registered for Lakota Thought and Philosophy.  I was looking forward to this workshop to learn more about the culture.  I entered the auditorium, and there on the stage stood four, confident, tall, strong Native American men.  One fellow began by saying, “What in the hell are all you white people doing here?”  Right then and there I felt like crawling under my chair and disappearing.  It felt like a bolt of lightning just hit me.  It wasn’t the kind of welcome I was expecting.   Yet, a voice within said, “I’m here to teach fourth grade.”  As difficult as it was to hear that question, it was an important one I needed to answer.  That question haunted me in those beginning days.  It challenged me to search deeply: why did I want to be teaching here?  What was the reason I came?  Did I feel I needed to help change them, save them, or convert them?

Over the years of sharing life together – enjoying pow-wows, celebrating birthdays and special events, or standing together in painful, sorrowful times – I came to realize it was the call to enter into forgiveness.  I must admit I grew up with stereotypical views of Native people and had very little understanding of these wonderful people.  My images of Native people came from TV shows like the “Lone Ranger” or movies where the Natives were ridiculed, caught in doing something wrong, and put in prison.  I also came to realize our history books do not include the true story of their history.   Information about how Native Americans were treated, discriminated against, not allowed to eat in restaurants or shop in certain cities was left out.  We did not learn that the government manipulated the treaties and stole their lands.  We did not learn that the Doctrine of Discovery promoted by some popes gave European nations the right to claim and colonize lands not European settled and impose Christianity on the people.  So much of the original history of this country is missing and untold because of grave injustice and violation of the people’s rights.  In justice, forgiveness is needed.  Unfortunately, this is not only about Native Americans but also African Americans, Asians, Central Americans, and so many other cultures considered different.  There is so much in our world that needs healing.  How does one begin?

It begins with an openness to believe these things actually happened.  We can’t justify, ignore, or obliterate such treatment.  We must acknowledge, admit, and accept that these things happened and caused terrific abuse and harm to others.  I remember vividly an experience in 1994, 500 years after the arrival of Columbus in America.  Two Lakota women from the Pine Ridge Reservation and I attended a workshop in Spokane WA.  It was a workshop for Native American women and any women who worked together in schools and parishes.  It was a sharing of stories, prayers, and healing.  At this workshop I was very uncomfortable hearing the painful, horrific stories these Native American women endured in schools they attended or the parishes and places they worked.  At one point I said, “how can you have me sitting here at the table with you since I represent institutions which have hurt you so deeply?”  They replied, “But you are willing to be here and listen to our stories, our pain.  That means a lot.”  This was a powerful example of forgiveness to me and very humbling.

The depth of their ability to forgive and to want to work at building relationships was the openness to reconciliation.   It reminded me of the part of the statement that says (forgiveness) requires the offender to receive the forgiveness, bringing reconciliation to the relationship.  Listening to the stories, believing the deep pain and hurt, and reaching out in seeking a relationship with the other – these are the ways that bring healing.

For forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing to happen it takes courage to admit I may still be perpetuating some stereotypes and attitudes towards people who are different.  It takes commitment to work at identifying and trying to eliminate racist comments when we hear them.  It requires a desire to learn and understand different cultures.  It takes initiative and patience seeking ways to connect with different cultures in the city I live or those living in my neighborhood.  Sometimes it is being aware of those who seem sad, alone, and seldom included and taking time to have short conversations with them, inviting them into a relationship.  Offering healing and reconciliation is respecting the truth and initiating a transformative relationship of care and concern.  I believe each person created by God belongs to God’s loving family.  The Lakota people graciously offered me acceptance into their family. They have a beautiful way of ending their prayers or at the end of a speech they say “Mitakuye Oyasin” which means “we are all related.”  What a wonderful reminder to hold in one’s heart as we journey together in this world.  And may we take seriously the one main commandment we’ve been given “Love one another, even your enemies.”