Against Christian Civilization

Ohiyesa also became a Christian. In his autobiography, The Soul of an Indian, he writes movingly of the horrors that so many so-called Christians imposed on his people, and of how, nonetheless, the path and teachings of Jesus spoke to him as true. In his autobiography, he tells of how he traveled around to meet many of his own people as a Christian missionary, telling the stories of Jesus and explaining the values of the faith. At one such meeting, an old man, after a long silence, stood up and replied to him. “I have come to the conclusion,” said the old man, “that this Jesus was an Indian. He was opposed to material acquisition and to great possessions. He was inclined to peace. He was as unpractical as any Indian and set no price on his labor of love. These are not the principles upon which the white man has founded his civilization.”