Me with Robert Thrower

Andrew Jackson—worse than Hitler? I never thought about this before, but Robert from the Poarch Band of Creek Indians thought so. It’s not that he is right or wrong about this statement, but, when you take into account the horrific things Andrew Jackson did to the Native Americans, you can understand why Robert would feel this way. Prior to coming on this trip, I had never interacted for an extended amount of time with someone who was a good part Native American. Robert who oversaw the soon-to-be-completed Cultural Center was my first experience.

Our visit to the Poarch Creek Indian reserve on Friday put us in contact with Robert Thrower. Rober was the director of the Cultural Center and took much time to tell us about Native American history—how the Creeks used to setup their homes, how they intermarried with Europeans very early on, and how Andrew Jackson sought to extinguish them.

Robert was also an ordained Southern Baptist, medicine man. Yes, read it again—ordained Southern Baptist, medicine man. He is ordained in the Southern Baptist Association (although he wouldn’t completely identify with the association), but he is also the tribe’s medicine man. Robert spent great lengths explaining how he would often taken traditional Creek Indian rituals and perform them for individuals at the reservation. Now, it was always focused on Christ, but it definitely mixed elements from Christianity and Creek Indian ritual. For instance, Robert told us about how he uses stones, worn out from water, to perform these rituals for members of the tribe who were dealing with certain issues—psychological, spiritual, emotional, and so forth. He said he would put a rock in someone’s hand, hold his hand above the other person’s (which was holding a rock), and feel “energy” coming from between their hands. To him, the energy is Christ.

K.J. and I were definitely thrown off by this. I mean, we’ve heard about people mixing elements from Christianity and tribal tradition before (like in Africa or some place), but we were never confronted with it head-on. I’m not sure how to think about this. On one end, I see the value. On the other, what appears to me to be, obvious danger. I will continue to wrestle with this. Like his stance of Andrew Jackson, I never thought about it this way, but it might just be that I’m not Creek Indian. Right now, I’m just not sure, but I would never doubt the spiritual maturity of Robert. He seems to be a strong Christian—evangelical, passionate, compassionate. And maybe that’s where I just need to stop. I’m not Creek Indian. I don’t understand, and it would be naïve for me to think that I don’t mix my own culture into our church. So, maybe I will just leave it at that…