"MY OUTLAWED RELIGION, RESTORED IN 1978"

An essay donated by Troy Bakel

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As an engineering consultant I have worked the past 25 years on every continent except South America and Antarctica. I have been able to work among all the different religions I encountered because I have no organized religion. The religion of my mother’s people was outlawed by the Christian government of the United States in 1883.

When I inform the inquisitor of this fact they are always stunned. They can be Muslim, Hindu, Christian, or Buddhist and my answer to their questions regarding my faith always catches them up short.

If it is a devotee of Christian asking the questions, my answer is not believed until I mention the Indian Religious Freedoms Act of 1978. Every time I have given this answer the recipient has not believed me until they researched the legislation.

Many times I have had to point out that the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 gave my people the same rights as American Christians with the exception of religion, so my religion was basically taken away in 1883 and then denied me as one of my rights in 1968. When my religion was given back in 1978 it was a little too late for it to have an impact on how I worship the Creator.

My ancestors learned, as a conquered people, not to keep something in the open that the Christians would want or fear. So my mother’s people adapted spiritually in a fashion that made us come closer to the Creator.

When you cut away the ceremony and hierarchy of an organized religion you are left with the question of how do I as an individual alone worship the Creator. To some of my people the answer was Christianity, to others such as my mother, this choice made no common sense. Only a religion that was not the true religion of the Creator would be insecure enough and vain enough to outlaw another religion. Upon further thought my mother’s people realized that organized religion in and of itself was most likely just human vanity manifested in its most horrible form.

So here is how I worship the Creator, as passed on to me by my mother who had no preacher, no book, no church, no human interdiction between her and her Creator:

Originally posted: 2005-DEC-26
Latest update: 2005-DEC-26
Author: Troy Bakel