FIRST MENNONITE MEDIA RELEASE__On June 22, starting at 11:00 a.m. at 101 S. Jackson St in Bluffton, the public is invited to a “Frybread Feast,” a meal made up of foods representing several indigenous cultures. Our main dish is the iconic Frybread Taco.

The church is hoping for generous donations to support the work of the organization Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery.

Mennonites are celebrating a milestone–500 years of Anabaptism, the theological framework of their faith. The Doctrine of Discovery is a papal bull from the 1400s that was used to justify the theft of Indigenous Lands and the ongoing genocide of Indigenous Peoples across the world.

It is not a thing of the past, but is built into the current laws and policies of the U.S. legal system and continues to perpetuate the oppression of Indigenous Peoples. “Anabaptists have benefited from and been complicit in the project of settler colonialism,” writes Bluffton University professor Gerald Mast. “As we celebrate our Anabaptist heritage, it is important to acknowledge the complexity of the Anabaptist story.”

The Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, founded in the Anabaptist tradition, calls on the Christian church to address the ongoing harms of colonization and follow Indigenous leadership in the work of Repair–creating new restorative ways of relating with each other and the Land we live on.

The June 22 fundraising event is a meal made up of foods representing several cultures. Frybread is popular among all the indigenous people and is said to have been invented by the Dine, better known as the Navajo. The history of frybread is a sad one, because it is linked to the forced relocation of indigenous people from their homelands.  In the mid 1800’s, the American government used force to move Native people onto reservations on poor lands. Separated from their usual means of survival, the people were starving. The government sent commodity goods to the people, but these goods were limited rations.  The resourceful indigenous women used the lard, flour, sugar and salt and made frybread which became a staple in their restrictive environments.  Also on the menu is Cherry wild rice, topped with maple syrup. This is a dish popular in the Great Lakes region. A side dish is the Iroquoian succotash, made with corn beans and squash.  Raspberry soup will also be served, called “wojapi” by the plains tribes.