Epidemics, Prophesy, and Self-Christianization

Historians and anthropologists have extensively researched spiritual encounters between America’s indigenous people and Christian missionaries. One group of scholars, who more often than not are linked to Native American cultural activism, took a strong critical approach and came to view missionary activities as the tool of colonialism. Another group of scholars, who are mostly people with a theological background, on the contrary, treat missionary activities apologetically as the vehicle of social and moral improvement. The third group of researchers, to which I belong, avoids moral assessments of the missionary activities. Dialogues of indigenous people with Christianity were multifaceted and cannot be pigeonholed in some partisan “post-colonial” or “theological” scholarship. Using archival records of Alaska Russian Orthodox Mission and my own field notes of the 1990s, I examine a case of an abortive Russian Orthodox mission to the Ahtna Indians of Alaska. In the 1880s, this Athabaskan-speaking group suddenly took efforts to learn about Russian Orthodoxy, and many of them simultaneously began to actively seek conversion. My paper explores the driving cultural, economic, and psychological motives behind this peculiar case of “self-Christianization”. References Allen, H.T. 1887. Report of an Expedition to the Copper, Tananá, and Kóyukuk Rivers in the Territory of Alaska in the Year 1885. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Doroshin, P. 1866ю Iz zapisok vedennykh v russkoi Amerike [From notes written in Russian America]. In Gornyi zhurnal https://evg-nemetz.livejournal.com/86331.html (access: 15.01.2019). Grinev, A.V. 1997. Forgotten Expedition of Dmitrii Tarkhanov on the Copper River. Alaska History. 1997.Vol. 12. No. 1. Militov (Hegumen Nikolai), N. 1863 Vypiska iz zhurnala kenaiskogo missionera igumena Nikolaia s 1858 po 1862 god [Extract from the journal of the Kenai missionary, Abbot Nikolai from 1858 to 1862]. Pribavleniia k Tvoreniiam sv. Ottsov 4 (22): 1–30. Mitropolsky, N. 1888. In the Alaskan Ecclesiastical Board of the Acting Kenai Missionary Priest Nikolai Mitropolsky Report, July 22. Povarnitsyn, P. 1944. Tri goda missionerstvovaniia na Aliaske (1937-1940). Iubileinyi sbornik v pamiat' 150-- letiia Russkoi pravoslavnoi tserkvi v Severnoi Amerike [Three years of missionary work in Alaska (1937–1940). The anniversary collection in memory of the 150th anniversary of the Russian Orthodox Church in North America], 57–62. New York: ed. Publishing Jubilee Commission. Oleksa, M. 1987. Alaskan Missionary Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press. Osterhammel, J. Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview. Princeton, NJ: M. Wiener, 1997. 145 pp. Petroff, I. Alaska: Its Population, Industries, and Resources. Washington, DC: G.P.O., 1884. 189 pp. Povarnitsyn, P. Tri goda missionerstvovaniia na Aliaske (1937-1940). Iubileinyi sbornik v pamiat' 150-letiia Russkoi pravoslavnoi tserkvi v Severnoi Amerike. N'iu Iork: izd. Izdatel'skoi iubileinoi komissii, 1944. P. 57-62. Romanova N.V., and N.Iu. Lazareva. 1999. Puteshestviia i podvigi sviatitelia Innokentiia mitropolita Moskovskogo, apostola Ameriki i Sibiri [Travels and exploits of St. Innocent Metropolitan of Moscow, Apostle of America and Siberia]. Moscow: Pravilo very. Tinker, G.E. 1993. Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Wallace, A. F. C. 1956. “Revitalization Movements. American Anthropologist 58 (2): 264–281. Wallace, A. F. C. 1970. The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca. New York, Knopf. Znamenski, A. 2002. Through Orthodox Eyes: Russian Missionaries of Travel to Dena'ian and Ahtna, 1850s-1930s. Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska Press

Christianity · Christianization · Orthodoxy · Theology · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies · Philosophy · Religious Studies

• Colonialism

  Jurgen Osterhammel•Colonialism•1997

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• The death and rebirth of the Seneca

  Anthony F C Wallace•The death and rebirth of the Seneca•1972

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• Revitalization Movements

  Open Access•Anthony F C Wallace•American Anthropologist•1956

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