Missionary 'help' hurt native tribe

By NELLA PARKS

I am writing to provide another perspective on the work of Protestant missionaries in the Ecuadorian jungle, which were featured Jan. 28. The article, "A tale of death, redemption," was the story of the murder of Nate Saint and four other missionaries 50 years ago in the Amazonian jungle by the Waorani tribe. In response to this, Rachel Saint (Nate Saint's sister) and some of the missionaries' wives moved to the jungle and have spent their lives working to convert the Waorani people. This incident and the subsequent missionary work by the Saint family is the topic of the new movie, "End of the Spear," which was highlighted in the Gazette-Times' religion section.

After spending the past four months in Ecuador, I have a much different perspective on missionary work in the country and the entire Saint saga. The article described the murder as a "story of courage" and the missionaries as "willing to give up their lives to express their love for the Waoranis … a primitive and violent tribe on the brink of extinction."

I agree with Ecuadorian anthropologists who say only now are the Waoronis in danger of extermination, due to the assault on their culture waged in large part by "heroic" missionaries. In Ecuador, the Waoranis have been pushed into the deepest parts of the jungle due to the missionary presence. They believe isolation is the only way to conserve their way of life, so they have refused all contact with the outside world.

The tribe's ancient identity is threatened by the attempts to destroy their culture through evangelism and "development" projects. In Ecuador, many people believe that the missionaries are actually paid and supported by the foreign oil companies, which are clearing rainforest to extract petroleum. The missionaries aid the oil companies by evangelizing and settling the Waoranis into reservation-like church towns where they no longer cause problems through nomadic roaming and attacks against the illegal drilling.

By all accounts, the missionaries have created a corridor for the outside world to enter the jungle. While the missionaries claim the "warring ways" of the Waoranis led to their tiny population upon contact in the 1950s, anthropologists believe that the tribes of the Amazon are some of the oldest groups of people in the Americas. They have survived millenia living in their traditional ways, which include cycles of war that cause extreme fluctuations in population. It is also believed that the jungle environment simply cannot sustain large populations of people due to poor agricultural soils.

The idea that evangelical ways are the only way, and that Christianity can and should be pushed upon native peoples in order to "improve" them is arrogant and destructive, not loving.

While the movie chronicling the missionaries is called "End of the Spear" because of the danger they faced by missionaries to "bring" Christianity to the Amazon, I believe it is the Waoranis who are in real danger. Their land and health is being destroyed by the oil companies. Their culture is being destroyed by the missionaries, and they are running out of places to hide. They should be treated with enough respect and autonomy to choose their own future without a western, evangelical one being forced on them.

I suggest that "End of the Spear" shows one side of the missionaries' story, but to hear the other side, watch the documentary "Trinkets and Beads." It chronicles the fight the Waoranis are making against the oil companies and the missionaries to save their culture and lives.

Nella Parks is a Corvallis resident.