“The Europeans may have brought Christianity here and sought to impose it, but it’s not their religion,” says Dale Miles of the American Indian Church in San Carlos, Arizona. “It didn’t originate with them or in Europe. Its truth is independent of the people who carried it here and how they behaved.” In this and other photo essays photographer Julia Dean, accompanied by writer Jay Adler, documents the range and state of Native American life in the country today, a story that remains the most neglected and underreported in the United States.
The American Indian Church
by A. Jay Adler
The San Carlos Apache Reservation, one of the poorest locations in the United States, was established in 1871 literally as a concentration camp. Its purpose was to “concentrate” the Apache presence in a single location, causing various distinct and separate Apache bands to be removed from their home grounds in order for the U.S. Cavalry to more easily control and end “hostile” activity.
The first missionaries to arrive at the reservation were Lutheran. There they found conditions of cultural dislocation and crippling poverty as early as 1892. Various Protestant, including Evangelical, churches are currently active, as well as a Mormon church and a Catholic church. Religious affiliation and belief is the cause of much division on the reservation, where many Protestants, including Apaches, demonize traditional belief and practice. And “traditionals” (or “trads,” in the parlance of the young) — those who participate in traditional Native American religions — resent what they view as the oppressor’s religion.
The American Indian Church is an evangelical congregation that meets in an uninhabited location some distance from the reservation’s main town of San Carlos. Its pastor is San Carlos Apache David Miles.
About Julia: Julia Dean is a photographer, educator, and the founder of the Julia Dean Photo Workshops. During her career, she has traveled to more than forty countries while freelancing for numerous relief groups and magazines. She is also the author/photographer of the award-winning children’s book, A Year on Monhegan Island. Julia received a Bachelor of Science degree in photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a Master of Arts degree in journalism at the University of Nebraska. She began her career as an apprentice to pioneering photographer Berenice Abbott. Later, Julia was a photo editor for the Associated Press in New York. She has taught for twenty-six years at such places as the University of Nebraska, Los Angeles Valley College, Los Angeles Southwest College, Santa Monica College, the Santa Fe Workshops, the Maine Photographic Workshops and Oxford University (England). She founded and teaches at the Julia Dean Photo Workshops. More of her work can be see at www.sadredearth.com and www.juliadean.com.
