The Intersection of Karuk Storytelling and Education

official mechanism, but by Christian spirit and Christian knowledge.” Christianization of
colonized groups seems to be a dominant factor in the American mythos, as expressed in
the concept of Manifest Destiny. In 1823, Massachusetts Congressman Francis Baylies
justified American expansion thus:
Sir, our natural boundary is the Pacific ocean. The swelling tide of our
population must and will roll on until that mighty ocean interposes its
waters, and limits our territorial empire…To diffuse the arts of life, the
light of science, and the blessings of the Gospel over a wilderness, is no
violation of the laws of God; it is no invasion of the rights of man to
occupy a territory over which the savage roams, but which he never
cultivates…The stream of bounty which perpetually flows from the throne
of the Almighty ought not be obstructed in its course. (Quoted in
Robertson 72)
In fact, if one needs to root this policy even further in Scripture, one need look no further
than the Book of Joshua. With the “captain of the Lord’s host” (5:15) on their side, the
Israelites wipe out the populations of Jericho (6:24), Ai (8:19-22), and God even holds
the sun still so that “it came to pass, when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an
end of slaying them with a very great slaughter, till they [the Amorites] were
consumed…” (10:20) All this was acceptable because the people of Canaan didn’t
worship the God of Moses, as the Israelites did. The same logic is applicable to the
Americans’ treatment of the Indians. The difference is that, in the assimilation period
from roughly the end of the Civil War to the 1930s, Christian charity also factored in. As
Jesus tells Paul,
But rise, and stand upon they feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this
purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which
thou has seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;
delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I now
send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from the darkness to light,
and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness
of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in
me. (Acts 26:16-18)
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