Love's Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England

The back cover of my copy of Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England is, of course, a pretty good introduction or teaser to what is on the inside. In bold letters it says "W. DeLoss Love's biography of Samson Occom is a work of its time."

It was reprinted in 2000 with an introduction by historian Margaret Connell Szasz. In the 100+ years between it's original publication and the reprint, nobody managed to write a better biography of Occom. Szasz's introduction, however, was needed because it brings needed perspective to today's readers - and she correctly pointed out the book's shortcomings vis-à-vis the reality that it was written by a white man in the 1890's.

In regards to Occom himself, Szasz notes that he was part of a tradition of Native Americans who converted to Christianity and then visited Britain. The first Indian to do so being Pocahontas in 1616. But Occom took it another step farther. Not only was he a Christian, but he was an educated and ordained Presbyterian minister. He raised over 12,000 pounds in a speaking tour. Only to see it go towards establishing a white institution (Dartmouth College) instead of the Indian school he intended the money to go to.

Use this link to read other posts about Samson Occom.

 

In Colonial Times, Native Americans Looked at Things in Two Different Ways

It might be a hard concept for some of us modern people to grasp (or at least hard for some to accept), nevertheless, it explains everything in terms of the belief systems of Natives in early America.

Bear with me for a few moments here and just forget all the things that you already know about Indians. Now we are going to place all the Indians from early America in one of two categories. If you understand those categories well enough, you should be able to explain why some Indians became Christians and others pursued forms of revitalization of traditional systems of belief and action.

The two groups are nativists and accommodationists.

Katy Chiles describes the Nativists on page 13 of her book, Transformable Race..

[They believed] that Natives, whites, and Africans were created separately. They also became aware that they should practice entirely discrete religions: Christianity was for Europeans exclusively, since God did not give the Bible to the Indian or to the black man.

The Nativists, of course, are the type that us moderns readily understand, because we are aware of the importance of one's own culture. It is healthy to observe your own culture and be proud of it, right, I mean, isn't that just obvious?

It is obvious to most of us now, but there is another group of Native Americans in early America. Just because they are known as accommodationists does not mean that they didn't have integrity. They just looked at things in a different way. As Samson Occom, one of the leaders of the Brothertown Indians once put it (quoted by Chiles on page 14):

[There is] but one, Great ^good^ Supream and Indepentent Spirit above, he is the only Living and True God [who created] this World.

Chiles also brings Captain Hendrick Aupaumut of the Stockbridge Mohicans into her discussion, noting that

Both Occom and Aupaumut endorsed the biblical creation story, the idea that all races descended...from this single creation, and that, therefore, Indians should be seen as equals and "brothers" with the white man.

So the case is made that becoming a Christian did not mean that one stopped being an Indian. If one God created all people, then all races could practice the same religion.