BRATTLEBORO — The Hebrew scriptures narrate much contestation between Canaanites and Hebrews. After escaping Egypt and entering into what is referred to as the Holy Land, Hebrews encountered Canaanites in the land of “milk and honey” that they wished to occupy (Numbers 13:27-28). The story about the felling of Jericho's walls (Joshua 6:1-27) is a perfect example of such contestation. In the end, the Israelites invaded the Canaanites, defeated them, and occupied their land.
The narratives in the Hebrew scriptures are usually read from the perspective of the Israelites and rarely from the perspective of the Canaanites. So the story of a people in their homeland who were killed and defeated by an invading force is seen as blessing from God rather than a tragedy.
The same can be said for the indigenous inhabitants and colonizers of North America and Vermont.
Indigenous people, the Abenaki, occupied southeastern Vermont before the arrival of white Europeans. Native Americans were over time negotiated, expelled, tricked, or robbed of their land. The Abenaki were also gradually assimilated and/or exterminated by warfare and disease so that today most if not all the land now belongs to white people of European descent.
For those who desire justice for all people, it is important to recognize and tell the truth about biblical history and our own state history as it concerns the Abenaki.
Through the story of Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of Jericho on behalf of Roman invaders, the Christian scriptures teach repentance and restoration for what was unfairly taken (Luke 19:1-10).
Of course, it is unrealistic for North Americans of European descent to restore or fully compensate indigenous inhabitants for land after so many hundreds of years of occupation. Yet at a bare minimum, what few rights and property Native Americans still have should be recognized.
For example, a landmark 5–4 Supreme Court ruling acknowledged that nearly half of the state of Oklahoma is still legally indigenous territory.
At a bare minimum, we can learn about and acknowledge the injustices of the past.
At a bare minimum, white people of European descent should apologize - not because they personally took advantage of an entire race of people, but because they still benefit from and indigenous people are still disadvantaged by the original injustices committed by their ancestors.
Such a position is not necessarily political. Such a position is profoundly scriptural, and thus theological.