Sitting sumud at Standing Rock: EPF PIN member Newland Smith reflects

That Monday morning, October 31 in response to the call issued by John Floberg, I joined five Lutheran School of Theology students and a New Testament professor at that seminary in the two-day drive to Cannon Ball ND in order to be present for the solidarity event that Thursday.

There were three reasons why I made this trip.
- First as Seabury-Western’s librarian I witnessed the agonizing and tragic experiences of many of the Native Americans who attended Seabury-Western Theological Seminary between 1985 and 1991 where they were confronted with a Eurocentric curriculum and daily chapel services that failed to incorporate Native American spirituality.
- Second, as a member of the Task Force on the Doctrine of Discovery which came into being as a result of the adoption of the resolution, “Repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery,” at the 2009 General Convention, I worked with twelve members of our Church, half of whom were Native American, to prepare the curriculum, “Exposing the Doctrine of Discovery,” which I fear has yet to be used in many of our congregations.
- Third, as part of the three-hour long Service of Lament held one evening during the 2012 General Convention in Indianapolis, I spoke as the Connecticut Yankee.
- I also was deeply moved by Bishop Curry’s call to be in solidarity with the protectors of land and water – a call that connected the water of baptism with the living giving water of the Missouri River at Cannon Ball.

For me the most moving part of that Thursday morning gathering at the Oceti Sakowin Camp was the opening with short speeches by representatives of faith groups that have repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery and the decision by the Elders to place in the fire a copy of a fifteenth-century Papal Bull. As one speaker said the root cause of the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline goes back to the Doctrine of Discovery.

I was deeply moved by the peaceful, prayerful and non-violent witness being made by members of over 200 North American tribes. The word, “sumud”, used by Palestinians to describe their steadfastness in resistance to the Israeli occupation of their land can also be used to describe the steadfastness of the Native Americans at Cannon Ball. Solidarity with the Native Americans at Cannon Ball invites me to be steadfast in speaking out wherever I am about this injustice to an indigenous people.

Photo by EPF member Jessie Smith