Traditional dance, or worshiping Satan?
A trio of Native American students say they were punished by their private Christian school for taking part in a traditional Native dance because school officials claimed it was "devil worship." Two were expelled, while the third was let off with a warning.
The students insist the dance is an important part of their Apache identity and culture. Clearly, the Lutheran administration didn't see it that way.
Details about the incident are now coming out, shining a spotlight on how private religious schools treat indigenous faith and cultural traditions.
The Sunrise Dance
Here's what happened.
Back in 2019, a female student named Caitlyn participated in a traditional dance called the Sunrise Dance. According to the Arizona Museum of Natural History, the Sunrise Dance is a four-day coming-of-age ceremony for teenage girls important in Apache culture.
“A blanket is spread out in front of the girl who holds a curved staff with which she keeps beat with the music and dances in place by shifting her weight from one foot to the other throughout the entirety of the ceremony, with an average of 130 dances of 700 to 1,200 beats per dance,” the museum explains.
The Sunrise Dance is central to White Mountain Apache culture, and is a spiritual and emotional event for the girl, her family, and the Apache community.
Here's what it looks like:
Dancing With The Devil?
The Monday after Caitlyn took part in a friend's Sunrise Dance, however, Caitlyn and her parents were asked to attend a meeting with the school principal and a local preacher. They characterized the Sunrise Dance as some sort of Satanic or pagan ritual.
That idea wasn’t new. According to Caitlyn, her teachers at the private Christian school she attended often characterized Native traditions as Satanism. She recalls that in fifth grade, she was given an F on an art project where she drew the White Mountain Apache crest, her teacher failing her for “pagan worship.”
Caitlyn was let off with a strict warning, but two other girls who took part in the dance were reportedly expelled. Caitlyn was warned not to participate in another dance, and did not have her own Sunrise Dance.
https://x.com/LakotaMan1/status/1805307299118072273
Pattern of Oppression
In early 2023, a group of nine Apache women gathered to discuss the pattern of expulsions and the school’s stance against Indigenous practices.
The school, founded by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), allegedly has a long history of opposing Native traditions, aligning with many other Christian churches on the reservation that label such practices as demonic.
Maria, another affected mother, described how her children were also penalized for her participation in a Sunrise Dance.
Despite sending her children to East Fork for a better education, she found the school's anti-Indigenous stance damaging. She says that her own daughter came home from school one day and asked her, “Mom, did you know that when you go to Sunrise Dances, you are worshiping false idols?”
Maria asked her daughter who told her that.
“My teacher. She said watching the Crown Dancers is worshiping Satan,” she responded.
A Rock and a Hard Place
Local Apache parents and leaders find themselves in a bind when it comes to the WELS schools on the reservation. Despite teaching their own children what they characterize as anti-Indigenous indoctrination, parents say the private Christian schools are almost always better funded and provide a better education for their kids. It’s a difficult situation.
“We can take that land back if we want to, but nobody has brought it up because there is a school there,” says White Mountain Apache tribal council member Annette Tenijieth. “Even though they are twisting the children’s minds, it is still a better school than others. We need to stand strong.”
Many of the Apache say they’re being treated like second-class citizens on their own land, with Christian teachers instructing their children that ancient tribal traditions are some sort of devil worship.
This conflict also has painful historical roots – in the 19th and 20th centuries, thousands of Native American children were forced to attend church-run schools intended to assimilate them into Western culture. Disturbing allegations from that period continue to plague the Catholic Church even today.
And this isn't the only battle the tribe is fighting. Apache leaders are currently in a legal battle to protect a sacred religious site from being sold to an Australian mining company – a fight which many expect will be taken up by the Supreme Court.
Praying to Multiple Gods
Complicating matters further: many Apaches have been baptized into Christianity and practice both indigenous faith traditions and Catholic ones, for example.
“I don’t mind practicing both because the Catholic and the Apache god are identical in a way," explains one tribal member.
Dr. Greg Johnson, professor of religious studies at UCSB, explains this phenomenon: "Time and again, Native peoples have said, ‘You know what, we will re-engineer your Christianity to better suit our purposes. So even if you tell us it’s exclusive, even if you discipline us in a way, cut our hair, dress us, make us feel a certain way, we’re not done being Apache and we will make your Christianity do things you didn’t expect.’”
Added another tribal member: “God hears our prayers. Who are we praying to? We are praying to the same God as they’re praying to. White people cannot judge us, you know? Only God can judge us.”
41 comments
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Daniel Gray
Nope. Since the Res is a separate governmental agency consistant with its own laws, there is no school or governmental agency that can come along and try and deny their recognized religion. Notice I said RECOGNIZED religion. Now if the BIA recognizes the Native American Dance as a part of the Apache religion, then there is nothing the school can do about it and the school can be legally required to either recognize the dance or remove themselves from the Res.
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Najah P Tamargo
Najah Tamargo-USA The Indigenous Peoples of this country have had their spiritual beliefs since BEFORE Christ was born. They have experienced genocidal treatment since first contact. All these "religous" groups are still trying to "kill the Indian to save the man". A TRUE Christian would love and accept everyone. So they are technically NOT Christians! They should be sued for their heidious actions and treatment of these Indigenous children!!!
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Russel A. Kester
Najah, your statement that a true Christian would not behave this way smacks a little of the Scotsman's fallacy. Your statement that they are technically not Christians is wrong. They might well be true Christians but still imperfect souls and why we are all called to repentance. So, yes, a Christian is called to love everyone but failure to do so does not mean they are not true Christians. It does mean they are still human and imperfect. Also, the school administrators may very well love the students and still enforce their beliefs. They are not mutually exclusive. Your last sentence that the school should be sued has great passion, but the proposed remedy is wrong. Private schools may choose their own standards or criteria for who may or may not attend. And religious schools have a right to teach their respective religious doctrines. That is does not make them guilty of "hideous actions and treatment." It does mean they are being true to their mission and beliefs which parents know when enrolling their child.
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Marcella J Schieffelin
Whatever happened to acceptance and learning? A “devil worship” dance is clearly subjective and biased. Native American tribes have their own cultural arts. Instead of shaming and punishing, the Christian teachers/school are missing out on a wonderful opportunity to embrace another culture and need to be held accountable for the harm caused.
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Keith Lawrence Dimond
Punishing people is an admission that you can't show or convince them of what you want them to believe--or not believe.
If you take away the bogus sanctification of it (it's a church, a true authority, so...), it stinks of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. This itself is more how the Demonic operates than how the bright side of the Divine does.
That said, the school has its patterns, and they are known. It's sad to think that this is the 'better school available' on the Res.
I wonder aloud and ask because I don't know: how is it that the Sovereign nation that is the Apache has not specified that operating on the Res means non-interference with native rituals and lifestyle? It's one thing to teach something else; quite another to hatefully cram that something else down peoples' throats!
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Lori-Ann Neeb
That is what I don't understand.
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Cynthia Mandello
If they want to see a REAL satanic worship they should have attended the 2021 CPAC convention where attendees were literally bowing down to a golden statue of former President Trump erected in the lobby. No one present thought anything about it.
Never again.
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Marcella J Schieffelin
Great point.
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Clay Serenbetz
I have visions of "Footloose", the movie upon hearing this news. This appears to reek of racism. Do they stop dancing, in general, or just Native Americans' dancing. Fear of Satanism is a religious concept and, if so, the government sould not intervene.
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Danny D. Maynard
Disco lives!
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Mountainsage
Couldn’t say it any better, Keith. It’s not just about making others believe what they want them to, it’s also about controlling their behavior. In so doing, they justify and gratify their own beliefs and behaviors. The Apache Nation will need to consider all of this just as many Americans have switched to home schooling for the same reasons.
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Pamela Vonbacho Ploof
Guess what. It's all the sale God My Iroquois ancestors prayed to the Creator or Great Spirit.. Native Americans were visited by Christ between Good Friday and Easter.. People who demean another's culture only prove what little their own faith means to them. As ministers. We all should be appalled at this and do whatever we can to get good quality teachers to that school.
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Danny D. Maynard
Now, just who told you that Jesus was an international traveler? Did they have SciFi transporter technology up there? Maybe they are aliens from another planet.
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Russel A. Kester
This school is not the only option. In addition to the Bureau of Indian Affairs school there are at least two other schools. One is operated by the Catholic Church and the other by the Mormons (LDS) neither of which practices anti--traditional-Apache rhetoric. https://longreads.com/2024/06/28/they-took-part-in-apache-ceremonies-their-schools-expelled-them-for-satanic-activities/
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Rev. Dr. Father JJ
they're all just horrible in their own right. it was stated there are other schools available for them but that (imagine this) the lutheran one was the best one. pretty sad the way the government treats the first nations...well, government but mostly the religion behind the government
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Quinn R Amaro
I speak to those who condemned and expelled the Apaches: All you did was at the bidding of other humans with lost souls. Each of you have forgotten that the Apache people were here on this continent before the white man even knew it existed. Because you have chosen to follow the lies of your white church before the Truth of what Bible tells us, may you each be condemned by Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior that your souls will burn for eternity.
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Russel A. Kester
Quinn, there is no one alive today who condemned and expelled the Apaches so you are speaking to no one.
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Keith Lawrence Dimond
By wanting to trade hits, one only calls in total destruction.
By resorting to identity politics ('your white man religion'), you avoid respectable argumentation.
You are better than this! Instead of sending darkness, shine light!
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Keith Lawrence Dimond
Comment removed by user.
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Rev. Michelle Love
First their land, now their culture. It is possible to be a Christian and still honor your ancestors and their rights of passage. This dance was no more Satanic than the ones parishioners do in a Pentacostal church while catching the Holy Ghost. All this served to do is to force a young woman to deny her true identity.
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Amy Minckler
I remember a few decades ago when I was talking to one woman. We had only met a few days prior and it looked like we would end up being friends. She started talking about religion. I had no issue with that. About mid way through the conversation she assured me quite confidently that all my ancestors were in hell because they did not believe in god despite the fact that it was before any christians ever set foot on this land. I just turned around and walked away.
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Colleen McAllister
If the school is on Reservation or Tribal land, then it must recognize the tribal religion. In this case it is the church that is wrong and the dancing must be allowed. If the dances actually take place off of the church property then they have no right to even voice an opinion.
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Pamela Kay Waters
WTH. They are the 1st Americans. When the white man came to this country, they killed the Buffalo down to very low numbers just to kill so the Native Americans couldn't have them. White people desecrated their sacred parts of land, and then the worst of all, the White Man's Government took them and put them on a reservation, which is more or less a jail or a prisoner camp.. What does a Satan worshipper dance look like anyway. Native Americans' dances are beautiful and tell their stories.
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ServantOfJudgement
Pamela,
Don't forget, even once on a reservation, those were later confiscated once again by the government in many places. This still happens today to US citizens by the government. If a company or government wants your land bad enough, you can kiss it goodbye. I agree about the native American dances, very cool. This particular one was rather dull and for the life of me a can't see why anyone would think it's remotely close to satanic.
For a reference of what dances or music are proper satanism watch Doja Cat's Paint the Town Red video. Others are Madonna, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Lil Nas X, Katy Perry, Megan The Stallion, Cardi B to name a few of many, many, many satanic artists.
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Linda weeks
What kind of medieval BS?! These religious institutions don’t understand, indigenous spirituality to begin with to equated with Satanism is absolutely ridiculous to sanction or expel students for participating in their communities. Belief system is the worst kind of exclusion and the worst kind of ignorance. I hope the parents have a good lawyer, because I would certainly sue that school district, I hope they do.
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Rev. Rory
This story broke my heart. Will this never end?
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Bridget Kielas-Fecyk
Of course religious zealots would do this. If they had THEIR way, they would be allowed to imprison anyone who does not worship THEIR god and theirs alone. The fact is, these people want to turn the USA into a viciously strict religious theocracy. Hence their hard push to force bibles into schools.
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Danny D. Maynard
"Religious praying" is exactly the same as a "magical incantation". They both accomplish nothing useful! Both are just a puff or two of hot air. BTW, and those "Holy Rollers" can really dance!
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Man of God
First no European or desendent of an European can use and judge a person or group based on the Scriptures. As long as they calim that they "White People", who are NOT in the Old Testament and in the New Testament as Romans, nailed Jesus to the cross. Continue with this BIG lie that the Father and the Son have given THEM authority to do so. The Father and the Son has never taught these evil people anything. They like all GENTILES, learned of the teachings from The Father and the Son from deciples. These evil people do not obey the Father at all and never has. Here are 2 COMMANMENTS they have always disobeyed. THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNTO THEE ANY GRAVEN IMAGE, OR ANY LIKENESS OF ANY THING THAT IS IN HEAVEN ABOVE, OR THAT IS IN THE EARTH BENEATH, OR THAT IS IN THE WATER UNDER THE EARTH. THOU SHALT NOT BOW DOWN THEYSELF TO THEM, NOR SERVE THEM: FOR I THE LORD THY GOD AM A JEALOUS GOD....THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THEY NEIGHBOUR. These White People are disobeying The Creator. STOP LYING YOU SATANS.
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Rev_Shaun
Can you please explain? Are you for or against the motion?
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Danny D. Maynard
That's tellin' 'em! ;)
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Graylon Morrison
It is horrible how these old white men is trying to change the culture of so many people, The evilness that is taking place will come back and bite each one of them. You can't erase a group of people from this Earth when they have been chosen as God's people!!!!
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James Mounts
It is about time ALL so-called indigenous tribes were stripped of their political power. The idea that a people could live in The United States but remain a foreign power is preposterous. Distribute the land to tribal members and make it part of county, state, and national domain. Then public schools could be established. After all, why should they be entitled to an excellent Lutheran education. They should be required to suffer through an inadequate public-school education like the rest of us ignorant slobs.
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James Mounts
It is about time ALL so-called indigenous tribes were stripped of their political power. The idea that a people could live in The United States but remain a foreign power is preposterous. Distribute the land to tribal members and make it part of county, state, and national domain. Then public schools could be established. After all, why should they be entitled to an excellent Lutheran education. They should be required to suffer through an inadequate public-school education like the rest of us ignorant slobs.
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John Robert Milner
Balogna
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Lionheart
First off, there is no demonstrable evidence whatsoever that the Christian “Satan” is real. Until it is proved to be real it remains a mythical man made construct.
Second: It’s just an incredibly beautiful colorful indigenous dance, no different than any other indigenous dance of native peoples than can be witnessed around the third world.
🦁❤️
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Ellen B. Wentzel
I find these organized religions to be extremely judgmental. Maybe educational classes in different cultures and those not like themselves might help.
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James Mounts
George Mason University: 2 semesters "Western Religions"; 2 semesters "Religions of the Far East": 2 semesters "Religions of the Near East"
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Robin Anne Hannon
The Native culture and it's ways is not Satanic, but this reaction sure is. People who live in glass houses pretty much. Those who believe this sort of thing are spiritually sick and uninformed to boot. It goes along with the oppression, forced conversions, even death at the hand of Christian institutions. Might I remind you that at one point the motto was, "Kill the Indian but save the man." Under this guise horrible institutions were created where they took the child from their parents and refused to allow them to speak their language or follow their customs. Many children died in these hellholes. As Christians we need to understand the scope of this, the damage mentally, physically, spiritually, and not add to it.
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James Riggle-Johnson
This is sad. Imagine growing up and being told the traditions of your people are evil and you must denounce them if you want to learn. It’s wrong and the reservation should not permit them to continue. There is nothing wrong with learning about Christianity and your tribal traditions. Let the children decide what is true. What is the church afraid of? Do the think their argument of God and the resurrection of Jesus isn’t strong enough so they have to forbid everything else. It shows the weakness of their faith can’t stand up to tradition.
I'm just curious as to how the teachers at this school are so well versed as to how a "Satanism Dance" is performed. Is there a referance book somewhere that explains the proper/improper way to do the dance? Perhaps a diagram that shows the foot placement on the floor while dancing. Then there's the music. You have to have the correct music, or the "Santanism" hocus-pocus won't work. IMO LOL, LOL
personally I do not believe there is a Satan or hell. it was one of the church creations to try to control the people through fear and manipulation. the closest anyone comes to a "hell" is what some humans create. i would say a few have snuck onto the rez and teach at that school. i do not understand why the reservation government does not crack down and keep cultural studies a priority all its people and any outsiders with open minds and hearts wishing to learn it as well. if those schools do not meet cultural standards, then they should change the curriculum and let teachers comply or leave.