{"id":266,"date":"2019-02-25T18:15:30","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T18:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/?p=266"},"modified":"2019-02-25T18:15:55","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T18:15:55","slug":"colonial-ideas-in-rural-montana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/2019\/02\/25\/colonial-ideas-in-rural-montana\/","title":{"rendered":"Colonial Ideas in Rural Montana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professor Sonja Thomas presented on the hiring of missionary priests from India in eastern Montana. This area is prevalent with opinions of anti-immigration, white supremacy, and anti-Native racism. Thomas explored settler-colonial history, Catholicism in rural Montana, and the migration of priests from India to Montana. Thomas began her presentation with current events surrounding her larger topic. She began by presenting images from yearbooks and reflecting on the Covington Catholic High School boys at the Indigenous Peoples March (https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/outlook\/2019\/01\/20\/catholic-churchs-shameful-history-native-american-abuses\/?utm_term=.65b4ee54f52d<\/a>). This example leads to discussion about Catholic history through prep schools. This helped to orient the listeners and also set up an argument that Thomas would then return to at the end of her lecture. Thomas then continued into giving a basic overview of history of Native Americans. She explained that Native People were not considered citizens until 1924 and that the last state granted Natives the right to vote in 1965.<\/p>\n

Following this context, Thomas explained her background. Thomas comes from an Eastern Catholic family in Montana. She grew up surrounded by Indian Priests, in a predominately white town, near multiple Native People\u2019s Reservations. Her research began when she heard of people going on a Christian tour to India with an Indian Priest from Montana. Thomas decided to interview some of the participants from this trip and this research then turned to focusing on Indian Priests in predominantly white towns on reservations.<\/p>\n

I was especially struck during the lecture by how little I had learned about before. Native history is not part of a general curriculum, and much of this information was new to me. One of the most fascinating points to me was the conflict between the Crow and the Cheyanne (https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/2015\/02\/20\/clara-caufield-northern-cheyen-10.asp<\/a>). These nations have been placed next to each other with no regard for their history. This has created a conflict and a disregard for Native People.<\/p>\n

After understanding the context of the Reservations that Thomas is studying, we discussed the racism in these areas towards both Native People and towards Indian Priests. Much of this racism can be attributed to a lack of education and also to language. When a white Priest travels to another country, they are referred to as a missionary, but when an Asian Priest travels to another country, they are referred to as imported priests. This difference in language has created a misunderstanding.<\/p>\n

I was also struck by the willingness of interviewees to speak about Catholic settler-colonialism. These issues are clearly recognized by many yet continue to persist. Thomas concluded with the same image of yearbooks that she presented at the beginning of her lecture. These yearbooks along with Thomas\u2019s archival research show the efforts to erase the presence of the past. It is important for the past to be preserved in order to move forward. The preservation of opinions through yearbooks and media are important for communication. The fact that these topics are often not covered in the American education system is a flaw and an effort to forget the past. Thomas is making efforts to preserve the past through her interviews and research.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor Sonja Thomas presented on the hiring of missionary priests from India in eastern Montana. This area is prevalent with opinions of anti-immigration, white supremacy, and anti-Native racism. Thomas explored settler-colonial history, Catholicism in rural Montana, and the migration of priests from India to Montana. Thomas began her presentation with current events surrounding her larger … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Colonial Ideas in Rural Montana”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7447,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[440730],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7447"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions\/268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}