Date
3-2025
Department
History
Abstract
Analysis of the relationship between Native Americans and missionaries shifted from an early broad, sweeping praise of the missionaries, to overwhelming condemnation of their actions in the post Civil Rights political climate. Since the time of European contact, histories often fell into Hagiography; extolling the virtues of the missionaries, and their God-ordained work to save the soul of the perceived heathen Native. In the mind of many, the conversion of the Native was merely a natural result of the superiority of European-descended American culture. However, as a result of the Civil Rights Movement, a pivot away from lauditive analysis took place, and shifted toward seeing the missionaries as destructive forces of genocide. Both frameworks generally ignored a crucial aspect of the equation: Native agency. Indigenous people were written as objects that history simply happened to, rather than as people who participated in it. A push occurred, in recent years, toward recognizing Native Americans as active agents in their own history. They may not have willingly chosen the circumstances which beset them, but they did not sit idly by while missionaries Christianized their people. Instead, they resisted, adapted and assimilated in order to work within the system put upon them. This paper will analyze the threefold Native response as it pertains to the Great Lakes region of North America.
Recommended Citation
Danforth, Noah S., "Resistance, Adaptation, and Assimilation: Native American Responses to Christianization in the Great Lakes Region, 1800-1900" (2025). HS 390 Primary Research Papers. 11.
https://commons.nmu.edu/hs_390_primary_research_papers/11
Included in
Christianity Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, United States History Commons