"Once There Were Two Brothers . . .": Religious Tension in

One Algonquin Community

GORDON POLSON and

ROGER SPIELMANN

Amo Ososwan School, Winneway, Quebec

Introduction

The beliefs and practices of the two Christian denominations in the commu­nity of Winneway in relation to one specific incident are the general topics of this paper.1 More specifically, we want to focus on how the two denom­inations interact with each other, how their differing practices and beliefs are viewed by the larger community and cultural methods for managing community conflict. Most of the data for this paper come from personal observation, informal interviews and taped interviews. In this paper we try to provide a kind of insider's view of the Christian experience in the

two denominations in relation to a specific incident in the community of Winneway and a better understanding of the relationships and influences

in the area of religious preference. There are approximately 370 Algonquins living in the community of

Winneway. The people were originally located at Old Long Point on the shore of the Ottawa River. In the 1920s the people moved to Sand Point and in the late 1940s the community relocated to its present site at Winneway. The native language is Algonquin, although English is understood by almost

everyone in the community.

Differences in Beliefs and Practices

The anthropologist Sol Tax (1956) claimed that North American Indians

*We wish to thank Lisa P. Valentine for her insightful comments on an ear­lier version of this paper. W e benefitted greatly from her encouragement and suggestions.

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304 P O L S O N and SPIELMANN

demonstrate great flexibility through highly diffuse systems of leadership while James G.E. Smith (1979) contends that the native peoples of the

northern woodlands have demonstrated their strength in the face of cul­

tural change with the stress on egalitarianism, decision-making by author­

ity, individual autonomy and limitation on the exercise of power. Thus

our first question was: how are these cultural features expressed in the two Christian demoninations in the community of Winneway? For example, who speaks for cultural authenticity? And how do the people of Winneway

define themselves in relation to religious preference?

Generally speaking, the differences between the belief systems in the

two Christian denominations at Winneway were originally determined by the outside religious leaders and the denominations which they represented. In both denominations the religious leadership is imported and non-native. By "imported" we only mean to imply that the leadership comes from

outside the community and was, in the beginning, discontinuous with a

distinctly Algonquin world view. The early and recent missionaries in the

Catholic Church have been assigned to the community by a non-native denominational hierarchy with little, if any, input from the native com­munity. In contrast, Andrew Graham (1969:170), writing of the period between 1767 and 1791 , claims that, "[Native] Leadership was based on

personal qualities, for example, a person who is an expert hunter, one who

knows the communcations between lakes and rivers ... is a conjurer and has family of his own; such a m a n will not fail of being followed by [other] Indians."

The Pentecostal group, a fairly recent movement in the community

in contrast to the Catholic Church, began about ten years ago and, un­

til quite recently, was administered exclusively by non-native missionaries. According to a former member of the group, the Pentecostal missionar­ies consider the group of followers at Winneway to be a satellite group

of the larger, non-native Pentecostal church from which the missionaries hail. From personal conversations with some of the people involved in the

Pentecostal denomination, the important teachings of the Pentecostal mis­sionaries are; (1) the "born again" experience of "accepting Jesus into your heart", (2) living a life free of sin (sinless perfection), and (3) obeying the

chain-of-command teaching relating to doctrine and life-style supplied by the non-native sponsoring church.

Since life on the reserve has generally been subject to planned and directed culture change, we wondered what appeals to those who have de­cided to become involved in the Pentecostal denomination as opposed to

those who remain involved in the Catholic denomination? One important aspect which we heard from some members of the movement is what we referred to early on in our notes as the "quick fix". In the Pentecostal

"ONCE T H E R E W E R E T W O B R O T H E R S . . .» 305

experience at Winneway there are explicit maxims to which the member must adhere in order to remain an active member in the fellowship. These are included under the rubric of "repentence" and include; not drinking alcoholic beverages, not "sinning" (sinless perfection), and not engaging in "worldly" activities. In our observation and from our conversations with

participants in the Pentecostal denomination, the terms "sin" and "wordly" refer to such things as; (1) drinking parties, (2) watching TV, (3) listening to rock music, (4) dancing, (5) bingo, and (6) anything which is elsewhere prohibited by the sponsoring church.

W e had the opportunity to interview people from both denominations and from some non-participants about the attraction that the Pentecostal fellowship holds for some people. The following comments come from one non-participant resident of Winneway:

There has been one main reason, it seems, that has turned people onto the Pentecostal thing; that is, to stop drinking. They used this [movement] for their needs. No drinking, no smoking, no presents for kids at Christmas, no Halloween or any "devilish" practices. People were saying, for example, "[that man] is a sinner because he drinks". At the same time, it was not unusual for some of the Pentecostals to drink outside of the community on the sly.

and,

The Catholics have a longer track record and seem to be more sensitive to other world views and religions and they tend more to look for common ground with the native people. On the other hand, look at the successes that the Pentecostal denomination has had in helping people to quit drinking, something the Catholic denomination has not had great success with.

Note that both comments mention the activity of "drinking" and how

the Pentecostal movement has helped people to stop drinking. In talking informally with some of the Pentecostals at Winneway, we found that the drinking issue seems to be at the heart of what it means to be identified as a

"Christian". According to those involved in the movement, one who drinks cannot be considered a true Christian and all who surrender to Jesus and

obey the teachings of the sponsoring church will inevitably stop drinking. This in-group viewpoint is grounded in the concepts of repentence and self-denial where, for example, new converts are expected to quit drinking "cold turkey". Looking back, many active members talk about how they were

dissatisfied with their pre-Pentecostal life-styles and were considered to be outcasts in the community. Their involvement in the Pentecostal movement at Winneway pays for their acceptance into a recognizable community in-group, the currency of which is universal in the sense that being involved in the local Pentecostal group provides for universal acceptence in the world­

wide Pentecostal family.

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Ethno-Christianity and the Algonquin Cosmos

Before attempting to describe the relationship between the two Christian denominations and the larger community, we want to take a brief look at the Algonquin cosmos into which these two religious systems stake their

ground. The Algonquin people have some distinct notions of just what

constitutes religion, spirituality and a spiritual person which would seem to be important for us to explore. These notions have, we take it, been coloured over the years by missionary activity in the two communities, yet

we would claim that there remains a distinct Algonquin way of understand­

ing the supernatural world. As we have been told more than once by active

members of the Catholic Church, "I believe what the Church teaches, but I

still have m y own beliefs, too." Certainly such sentiment suggests what we might call a kind of ethno-Christianity, or a distinctly native, in-group view

of understanding the Christian message, perhaps even a kind of religious

dualism. More than a few respondents, when asked about the essential

characteristics of their native identity, replied most often using terms that

refer to characteristics such as honesty, hospitality, sharing, humour, tol­erance, and respect for creation and the Creator. This observation can be

supported by the ethnographic literature on the Ojibwa, as represented in

the paper by Richard Rhodes (1988) where he argues for a quite signifi­

cant influence of cultural values such as cooperation, harmony, patience,

self-control and humour, among others, on interpersonal relationships. W e

would claim as much for Algonquin interpersonal relations stemming from

our research into the social-organization of interactional structures (Spiel-mann and Chief 1986).

The Algonquin world-view places great esteem on respecting all things, both animate and inanimate. Algonquin people not only consider them­selves as individuals who ought to both display and accept the character­istics mentioned above, but they consider themselves to be representatives of their families and nation as well. If we think of a concept such as respect in terms of a hierarchy, then, certainly the group or nation or community is

considered to be more important than the individual. Could it be that such a hierarchy of importance can be seen to be in conflict with the respective religious structures?

It seems that, although Algonquins may and do express their individ­uality, the preference is to limit one's individuality when their behaviour would in any way reflect badly on their family or their community. There are, of course, exceptions, but it does seem to be a cultural preference (cf. Spielmann and Chief 1986; Valentine 1990; Rhodes 1988). Within the Algonquin cosmos the important and respected cultural activities include: hunting and bush skills, story-telling skills, shared labour, being at one with

the Creator and one's fellow person and the sharing of possessions and ex-

"ONCE T H E R E W E R E T W O B R O T H E R S . . ." 307

periences. While these culturally-based activities are certainly changing

with the younger generation, the basic values exhibited in these activities still seem to be very much a part of the Algonquin value system.

How, then, are these Algonquin values reconstructed in a hierarchical church setting, such as we see in both religious movements in the villages of

Pikogan and Winneway? Certainly both of the religious movements influ­ence community values in more than just the religious arena. For example,

in the area of community leadership, while the concept of "rank" is certainly understood by the people of Winneway, how does the concept of "leader­

ship" in the two Christian denominations interact with the community

norm and the hierarchy of importance in relation to group and individual? For one thing, it seems that individuality and individual efforts in the Pen­

tecostal denomination, for example, regularly usurp the cultural preference

for putting family and community above individual interests. Informal in­

terviews with people involved in the Pentecostal group at Winneway show

that the emphasis on attaining personal salvation and individual sanctity

has resulted in more than a few instances of confrontation on religious issues with those not involved in the Pentecostal movement. Further, the leaders

and visibly active followers in the Pentecostal movement, in particular, are accorded different social status in the Pentecostal in-group than occasional attendees or backsliders.

Denominational Attitudes Towards Each Other

At some point in our research we wondered: What does each denomination have to say about the other? Based on our conversations and observations,

our tentative assessment is that, generally speaking, there seems to be more tolerance from the Catholics toward the Pentecostals than vice-versa. More than once we heard questions from Catholic Algonquins along the lines of,

"How are they [the Pentecostals] different from us?" and, "Don't we be­lieve the same thing?" The active Catholic Algonquins at Winneway seem perplexed at this new religion which seemed to be so similar to their reli­

gion. One community elder, an active Catholic in his seventies, expressed this attitude about the two Christian groups by saying, "We all work for the same Company." He went on to say that faith is the key ingredient to having a relationship with the Creator and that the Creator is not con­cerned so much with denominational membership as He is with a personal expression of faith. Among those 50 and over, especially, we have observed that the new religion (Pentecostalism) has not seemed to seriously disrupt personal relationships. There seem to be ongoing relationships between elders involved in different denominations as seen at community functions

and who goes with w h o m to the bush. W e suspect that community and

308 P O L S O N and SPIELMANN

interpersonal histories, along with a shared language, have much to do with

this kind of tolerance. O n the flip side of the coin, while the same attitude of tolerance, a

"live-and-let-live" preference, so to speak, seems to exist among the mem­

bers of the older generation in the Pentecostal demonination, the younger

generation, especially those fluent in English, seem to be more hostile in their response to Catholicism and those actively involved in the Catholic

tradition. As one non-particpant said of the situation with the two Chris­

tian denominations in the community: "The Pentecostals figure if you're a

Catholic you're not a Christian and vice-versa. It's such a vicious circle.

W e don't have to put those kind of labels on who's right and who's wrong."

Whose Body Is It, Anyway?

When one of the elders in the community died a few years ago in 1985, the

question of where he should be buried and by w h o m became a community issue. Since many members of his immediate family had converted to Pente­costalism, the family began to debate whether or not he should be buried in the community graveyard, which was informally considered to be a Catholic

graveyard, or buried somewhere else. The first decision was: where would

the body lie in state prior to the funeral? The Pentecostals were, after all, adamant against having a Catholic funeral. The local Catholic priest

agreed with the family that it would be best for the body to lie in state at the community hall rather than in the church but also said that the body would have to buried outside the confines of the graveyard. The immediate family still wanted him to be buried in the community graveyard. Accusa­tions began to fly back and forth between members of both denominations

about who has the right to decide w h o m is to be buried where. Eventu­ally the body was buried outside of the graveyard, although one person noted that the body will soon be within the confines of the graveyard since expansion plans were already under way.

The situation basically divided the community into denominational lines which transcended familial relationships. A phrase borrowed from Jesus which is, unfortunately, badly translated in most English versions, "Unless you hate . . . your brothers and sisters, you cannot be m y dis­ciple," seemed to be, in the minds of many of the Pentecostal converts, a perfect description of the situation. One felt obligated to stand up to the "non-Christian" [i.e. Catholic] members of the nuclear and extended

family in order to follow the teaching of Jesus. After all, the Pentecostals called themselves "the Christians" as opposed to "the Catholics" and were required to formally renounce their Catholic baptism in order to enjoy full status in the local congregation. This terminology caught on in the larger

"ONCE THERE W E R E T W O BROTHERS . . ." 309

community to the point that even the Catholics referred to the Pentecostals

as "the Christians." Interestingly, the distinction in the native language is

not as discriminatory — the Pentecostal (or any Protestant) denomina­

tion is known as caganac aiamiewin, 'the English-speakers religion' while

Catholicism is known as tcibaiatigo aiamiewin 'the religion of the cross'.

This distinction m a y help to explain why the expression of feelings from the elder (50 and over) Pentecostal converts toward the Catholics was not as

hostile as the younger converts' feelings. This claim is supported by the fact that we have had the experience of seeing Pentecostal and Catholic elders still relating to each other in quite friendly and non-threatening terms,

which is not as evident among the younger Penecostal converts. In fact, the elder Pentecostals seem to be more in the position of detached observers

of the younger converts' expressions of hostility toward the Catholics, which has its origin in the teachings of the non-native Pentecostal missionaries.

Needless to say, those not actively involved in either denomination had a field day with this incident. As one respondent from this group said, "White people are always trying to control each other. That's why there are so many religions." As Harvard historian James Clifford (1988) notes, Native American religions are generally more tolerant, pragamatic and in­clusive than Christianity, which tends to be quite exclusive. Clifford cites historical accounts of conversion among Native American Indians as a com­plex reality of cultural change, resistance and translation rather than a process of "giving up old ways" or "choosing a new path." This is not to say that both Pentecostal and Catholic converts in Winneway do not embrace Christianity in good faith and find a source of spiritual strength. But it does raise caution about the "either-or" logic of conversion as seen by outsiders whose accounts dominate the written record. W e would claim that the conversion to Christianity in Winneway does not necessarily im­ply a loss of what we refer to as Native spirituality, a claim which we are

currently researching.

Cultural Techniques of Conflict Management

The incident described above provides us with some clues for discovering culture-specific techniques for dealing with community and interpersonal

conflict. Brown and Levinson's (1987) theory of politeness phenomena categorizes cultural preferences by reference to what they term "positive

politeness" and "negative politeness". According to Brown and Levinson

cultural members have "positive face wants" (the desire to be liked or ad­mired) and "negative face wants" (the desire not to be imposed upon).

The concern for situated, everyday interaction provides us with a means

for analyzing culturally-based interactional activities involving politeness,

310 P O L S O N and S P I E L M A N N

deference and tact. Prior to the incident described above the community seemed to be on the verge of being torn apart by the controversy. After the

burial, however, we were able to observe a reconciliation of sorts between the two denominations. As one community member responded when asked

about the effect of the incident on the community:

I think it's a healthy situation now. It gives people a choice [having the two denominations]. It also fosters a greater appreciation of native spiritualism because now there is a comparative element in the community. The core teaching of native religion is not that much different from the teachings of Jesus.

and,

As long as alternatives are offered, even if there's a lot of bullshit that goes along with it, it's healthy for the community. You see a lot more tolerance on both sides now. It's a compromise.

The strategies of seeking agreement and avoiding disagreement as cat­egories of positive politeness are clearly observable in the relationships be­tween many in the community who were at odds with one another dur­ing the dispute over the dead body. One aspect of the strategy "seek

agreement" involves monitoring topics in conversation for those which can be assumed to be agreed-upon or safe. People involved in both denomi­nations seem to be much more likely to interact with each other now in non-threatening terms. This strategy, which is so highly conventionalized in other aspects of Algonquin interaction (cf. Spielmann and Chief 1986), can be seen in use at community gatherings. Prior to the incident with the dead body there was very little participation from the members of one denomination in events sponsored by members of the other denomination

and vice-versa. That situation has changed remarkably. People in both denominations seem to have come to the conclusion that the whole dispute

between old Catholicism and new Pentecostalism had gotten completely blown out of proportion. Fighting over a dead body! W h a t next? One is

now able to observe a thawing of hostile relations at community events by noticing who is interacting with w h o m and what the members of one de­nomination are saying about the members of the other denomination. Our

claim is that community conflict was managed via a return to culturally preferred methods of maintaining community and interpersonal harmony.

Most of the people we have spoken to since the incident now agree that it's good to have alternative choices to choose from in relation to religious

preference. It provides freedom of choice and it's better to make your own choices rather than have choices made for you.

The other observable positive politeness strategy of avoiding disagree­ment can be seen in the comments we elicited where people from both

"ONCE THERE W E R E T W O BROTHERS . . ." 311

denominations spoke of more tolerance and understanding on both sides. Other respondents indicated that one can better appreciate what other peo­

ple believe and that having the two denomination provides the occasion for learning from each other. Another responded by saying that the community is going through a whole learning process right now. Finally, in relation

to the question of autonomy and authority, one respondent suggested that the leadership question in the two Christian denominations is no longer a

question of authority, or even of leaders and followers and that a person can

be seen by others in the community as being religious without worshipping in a building or participating in a formal gathering.

Conclusion

In this brief study we've tried to provide one view of the Christian expe­

rience in the two denominations in one Algonquin community. We have relied mostly on observational and interview-based insights in an attempt

to discover some of the inner workings of the two denominations, their be­

liefs and practices, how they relate to each other, what the bases of their disputes are and how they've compromised for the benefit of community harmony.

One kind of obvious factor emerged during the course of this prelim­inary research and that was community conflict, with a focus on conflict

management including community methods for reinstating and maintaining community harmony. Both denominations are now at the point where they are at least talking to each other and the negative and hostile rhetoric has diminished noticeably. Since community harmony is at stake, there is, as we said, a more tolerant attitude now.

It would be interesting to do further research on the non-participating segment of the community's population, particularly in reference to the rather intriguing statement that we heard more than once; namely, that Christianity is considered by some, at least, to be compatible with what is considered to be "Native spirituality." Further, the familial connec­tion/influence in relation to religious preference would be interesting to explore. Finally, we would suggest that it would be worthwhile to update this brief study in a few years for comparative purposes. Will the two

denominations continue to move closer together? Will other Protestant de­nominations enter the community? If so, where will the lines of fellowship

and cooperation be drawn? Will cultural methods for dealing with com­munity and interpersonal harmony undergo modification and change? The future is open and it will be interesting to see how traditional community

values are changed, reinforced or abandoned.

312 POLSON and SPIELMANN

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