Indians & Amish

Indians & Amish Who would ever make a connection between Native American people and the Amish people? Both of these people groups have one thing in common, disentanglement from the world. Both groups fiercely protect their cultural boundaries and try to live within the safety of what they have created. They are like water and oil; they just don’t mix. Having spent the majority of my life on the rez there is a sense of comfort and safety when I return. I remember the day I returned home from four years of military service. My eyes searched the horizon for a glimpse of mountain peaks off in the distance. When I crossed that rez line I felt the security of home. When I was growing up on the rez we encountered strange people called Hutterites. The Hutterites, Mennonites, and Amish are branches of the European Anabaptists. Hutterites settled mostly in the Midwest and Canada where they operate collective farms. Well, the Hutterites would stop by our dusty little farm house and sell my mom vegetables. I remember the dogs going crazy when these men in black clothes and black hats with long beards would come knocking on our door. We couldn’t understand their strong Germanic accent and they couldn’t understand our Indian lingo. I remember the boss man always called my mother, Mrs Hubberd. It was probably because he saw twelve kids and no food in the cupboards. I never did know the reason my dad took to chasing one of them around their truck one day. It’s a good thing he didn’t catch him, but there was one scared Hutterite. When I got older I had my own encounter with the Hutterites. They were building a new colony and several contractors had bids on their buildings. Being a builder myself I put a bid in on their work. That day I developed a deep prejudice in my heart when the job boss told me, “We don’t want any of you Indians working around here, the last Indian we hired took his first paycheck and went on a drunk.” Growing up rez has a way of spawning prejudice towards any one different, Mexicans, Blacks, and especially the White Man. Indians are so prejudice we hate each other. We hate Crows, Crees, Flatheads, those short west coast Indians, Cherokees, and any other tribe. We are even prejudice against our own children and grandchildren. Full bloods hate half breeds, half breeds hate full bloods, Catholics hate Pentecostals, Pentecostals hate traditionalists, and traditionalists hate them all. With all this prejudice going around who could ever imaging Indians and Amish coming together. Of all of the Anabaptist groups the Amish are the most separate of them all. They do not want any contact with the outside world unless it is unavoidable. They fiercely maintain their ancient traditions and religious practices. They have no electricity or modern equipment, such as cars and trucks. They still drive the horse and carriage and have maintained their traditional wardrobe. Men have beards, the ladies wear bonnets, and they continue to speak in their native German language. One thing about the Anabaptists, they love Jesus and remain devout pious Christians. I think God looked down from heaven one day and said, “I’m going to stir things up a little bit.” I’ll tell you about it on my next post.