The good will, the good faith, on the part of the Native American people and Christian missionaries will gradually dwindle as communications on a cross-cultural level fail to take place.

The urgent need exists to recognize the "good news" that Native American people and cultures already possess in their rich traditions and ways of living. Until this is fully appreciated in cross-cultural approaches, it would appear arrogant for the established Christian churches to claim to be or to bring Good News to Native American people.

In hindsight, it is most unfortunate that from the very beginning, a consistent, cross-cultural dialogue did not take place with any continuity. Many dedicated religious men and women came to assist the Native American people and respond to the needs they recognized. But their recognition came from their own Western-European cultural understandings. Consequently, there were many needless mistakes. The ways of the Native American people were bypassed and, at times, even condemned, without first taking the time to listen, learn, or understand the wealth and wisdom embodied in the teachings and traditions of the Native American people.

In this respect, the Christian churches are in need of reconciliation with the Native American people. Unconsciously, the Christian churches have contributed to the cultural disorientation and dislocation of the people. By not taking time to listen and learn the language and culture of the people, the missionaries and religious educators who followed them gave the impression that the white man's ways were better. The Native American languages and cultures frequently were neither respected nor acknowledged. In the course of time, this left many people, including many missionaries and catechists, caught between both cultures and, at times, uncomfortable in each.

Christians need to appreciate the manner in which the creator has made himself known in other religions. Until the missionaries and religious educators master the language of the Native American people they cannot hope to understand the symbols, covenants, teachings, stories, myths, art and music which Native Americans use to express their religious beliefs and feelings. To attempt to share the mysteries of Christianity, without taking into account the traditional values of Native American cultures, is to perpetuate a paternalism that is demeaning for all par-ties concerned.

On the other hand, until the Native Americans themselves take renewed pride in their traditions they cannot enter into dialogue with the dominant white culture as equals. Historically, they socialized their members through living tradition, ritual, storytelling, oral teachings, and a gradual initiation into holistic experiences. The family, the kinships and/or clans, in short, the entire tribe was involved in giving an identity to its members. Today, subject to many of the same influences as the dominant white culture, the Native American family is faced with disintegration. Without the oral traditions and support of familial ties, the task of socialization is becoming more difficult. The Native Americans for their part need to recover their ideals, and moral convictions. They must assert leadership not only in the political-economic spheres of life, but also in the church if they would find identity as Christians.

In the following pages I provide two lists.

The first is a series of imperatives which must govern any honest effort at cross-cultural missionary and catechetical activity. For the most part these "principles" affirm what the more far-sighted among the Native Americans have been saying for some time.

The second is a list of guidelines which we who are of the dominant culture must keep in mind when working with the Native Americans and with any minority group.

PRINCIPLES FOR CROSS-CULTURAL CATECHESIS

The following principles are to be observed in cross-cultural catechesis for without them there can be none of the mutual trust which is essential.

****Each culture needs to respect the other and accept the other as an equal partner in dialogue.

****Each culture must take the steps and acquire the skills to understand the other. This implies a knowledge of one another's history, and mutual listening and learning in shared work sessions.

****Each culture needs to recognize the difference between the realities of their religious faith and the cultural expressions of these realities. It means that each culture must demythologize the essential elements of their belief system in order to share the basic realities with other cultures. Decisions need to be made by each culture as to which expressions are integral to it and which can be better expressed by borrowing from another culture. In mutual respect and humility it must be recognized that while language, and other constructs, can image the faith realities, they never fully capture or circumscribe reality.

****Each culture needs to reflect continuously on the realities of faith, in prayerful searching of the sacred and needs to find ways to express these realities in their richest language, symbols and cultural forms. It involves a process of "re-mythologizing", wherein one culture can serve as a resource for the other.

****In a cross-cultural religious dialogue one does not speak of "bringing" good news to another culture. The parties to dialogue rather engage in a kind of consciousness-raising, whereby they assist each other in recognizing the "good news" within their own traditions. By mutually searching out the sacred, each culture heightens its own awareness of how the spiritual presence is manifested through its own symbols and sacramental forms.

Learn the pedagogical principles proper to each culture. Some of the pedagogical principles in Native American cultures are the following:

Oral tradition, primarily storytelling, is the natural vehicle of instruction.

Experiencing the realities by personal presence in the family, tribe and tribal sacred ceremonies, rather than by simply being told about the experiences, is the ordinary manner of learning.

Specific instructions are given by specific individuals recognized to give the instructions.

Older people teach younger people.

Observe cultural forms of etiquette in all communications. Each culture is different in this respect.

Concrete, descriptive, pictorial expressions communicate, rather than abstractions of realities.

A close relationship to the creator, as a way of living, is normal. Religion, as an abstraction with little or no experiential content, is foreign.

RE-EVANGELIZATION

Before we can realistically expect any new directions in catechetical activity among the Native American people, it is important to reflect on the stages that lead to maturity of faith:

PRE-EVANGELIZATION approaches people, where they are and discovers with them a sense of the creator and what is sacred.

EVANGELIZATION is the dynamic presentation of the basic KERYGMA, the essence of Christian realities, in terms that relate to the life experience of the people.

CATECHESIS builds on the acceptance of the message and develops the "kerygma" as it relates to the personal and communal expression of faith in respect to the unique circumstances of culture, age and stages of growth.

RE-EVANGELIZATION is a remedial process. It represents a tacit admission that earlier attempts at evangelization and catechesis, for one reason or another, were severely limited and defective.

One of the first steps in re-evangelizing the Native American people is to discover to what extent the limitations and defects in their catechesis were the result of lack of cross-cultural sharing. The aim is to discover what communications have taken place and to evaluate with the people whether or not the basic message, Christian community, and service realities of the Catholic way have been understood. The entire re-evangelization approach involves thorough research, scholarship and accurate record keeping. Often it involves a study of the correspondence, the private and public papers of previous missionaries in order to discover the materials and methods they used. When primary sources are not available, one falls back on the memory of the elders of the tribe cross-checked against the public records that are available. In the process of this analysis certain common denominators and patterns emerge.

Natural time units of previous catechesis will unfold as the previous history of catechesis is known. Thus a knowledge of the past is of help in sorting out the many different approaches and efforts on the part of various missionaries and religious educators.

We are coming out of a recent history, when those of the dominant culture who engaged in the educational ministry knew only a UNILATERAL approach. They introduced the Native American people to the realities of the Christian faith solely and almost exclusively from the perspective of their own cultural background and way of life.

The end result is that at present we find ourselves in a situation wherein RE-EVANGELIZATION, PRE-EVANGELIZATION, EVANGELIZATION and CATECHESIS are taking place simultaneously. Nothing can be presumed. The task of preaching and teaching is a complicated one, under these circumstances, but missionaries and religious educators have no other choice but to accept this reality.

CAUTIONS FOR THE DOMINANT CULTURE

To continue to apply the approaches used in catechesis by the dominant culture (which approaches have not been entirely successful even in the dominant culture) is to perpetuate the image of Christianity as "a white man's religion". If we want the Native Americans to accept the Christian faith as their own and to identify with it, it will be necessary to become conscious of some of the pitfalls which made previous attempts ineffective.

In taking a cross-cultural approach to sharing the faith, representatives of the dominant culture must consciously discontinue explanations and use of instructional material developed in and for the dominant Euro-American culture.

For the most part, textbooks, catechisms, audio-visual materials and other resources, which express the realities of the Catholic Way in Native American idiom, simply do not exist. Until such a time that resources which utilize language, symbols, myth and ritual of the Native Americans are at hand, materials developed for the white man may be used. They must, however, be selected with discrimination and used with care. The cultural expressions of Christianity must be distinguished from the underlying reality of the faith. When used creatively they can serve the purpose of clarifying misconceptions and of identifying cultural traits.

Where no material can be found for this kind of cross-cultural catechesis, it is better to depend entirely on indigenous resources. The vacuum left by the discontinuance of instructional materials from the dominant culture can be creative. The vacuum, will, hopefully, motivate people to take the initiative in developing their own way of expressing the Christian faith. Representatives of the dominant culture may be resource persons in this process, but they must be aware that they, themselves, have much to learn in cross-cultural catechesis.

In this situation, they need to "break" the word of the creator with Native American people, more on a personal and communal basis than through a formal, academic means, based on educational structures. Both parties, together, need to search out the necessary groundwork and foundations which are needed for the formation of a faith community that is truly Catholic.

A cross-cultural dialogue undertaken in earnest demands that both parties examine how, why, when, where and in which ways they leave themselves open to receive and be enriched by each other. This can never take place unilaterally. Each needs to understand and respect the expectations of the other, if it would have a true appreciation of its own.

Unfortunately, in Christianity, as in many areas of endeavor, theory and practice frequently do not coincide. In various Roman Catholic documents, the right of a particular culture to express the realities of the Christian Good News in its own tongue, in its own mentality and thought patterns and in its own cultural milieu is not only recognized but encouraged.

In practice, the emptying of self, and of one's own cultural heritage, is a form of ministry rarely achieved. The incarnational balance of taking on the human condition of another culture, while gradually letting the spirit lead the way to a new expression, often involves dying to self and rising to a new life. It demands a complete trust in the power and direction of the spirit.

This difficult, arduous and delicate process of incarnational catechesis is slow, gradual, and must be freely chosen. Each culture needs to search out objectively, prayerfully, scientifically, bilingually and trans-culturally, the creative and revealing dimensions of a lived faith.

Both cultures need to look to their heritage and see the richness of the present moment by seeing in the present moment all that is sacred in their past. With the living traditions of the past embodied in the present, both cultures need to re-examine and re-express in terms relevant for the present generation that which is sacred.
GILBERT F. HEMAUER, OFM Cap.