Posted in
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has just re-released (in HD video) its 2008 documentary on efforts of Native nations and the denomination’s National Indian Lutheran Board to secure sovereignty, justice, and civil rights for American Indians. Much of this collaboration and struggle took place in Wisconsin, involving—among others—the Lutheran Church of the Wilderness on the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Reservation in Bowler. Rev. Joel Schlatenhaufer (d. 2019), pastor of that congregation at the time, and later a founding member of ESTHER and its first president, is interviewed.
The history the video recounts is very interesting, and it would be useful for all of our members to know about the things that the video talks about.
—David Haas, ESTHER Board member
The documentary explains how Lutherans were first convinced by the American Indian Movement during the 1970s and 1980s to respond to these issues, how Lutherans came to stand in solidarity with the Movement and Indigenous people in the United States, and about the creation and work of the National Indian Lutheran Board.
