3rd place — 2024 BIPOC essay contest: Lionel Walraven

FFRF awarded Lionel $2,500.

By Lionel Walraven

I am Native American on my mother’s side. My mother is Yaqui and Diné on her maternal side, while her paternal side is Chicano and Chumash. The Chumash tribe is native to the coast of Southern California. They had a rich culture built on community, storytelling and living in harmony with the earth.

The Catholic Church enslaved my ancestors in missions using their religion as a weapon to exploit and subjugate for generations. Our once-thriving civilization and culture was slowly erased by the hands of a group who saw themselves superior under the power of their god.

In 1769, the Portola Expedition had come through California. This expedition would establish missions along the California and Baja coastline, where they would eventually make contact with the Chumash tribe. Upon making contact, they had titled the Chumash people “Pagans and Heathens.” Upon the missions being established, many natives were converted and put to work. Even to this day, the Catholic Church says most of the natives died from disease; however, history books reveal that natives were being worked for 11-13 hours a day, being fed small portions of non-nutritious food and were consistently beaten, making them susceptible to said disease.

A rebellion was in the works when, in 1824, a young Chumash boy was beaten to near death by a soldier after traveling to visit his family, kickstarting the rebellion. This rebellion specifically occurred in Alta, Calif., within three of the missions. The fight went on for several days, but, in the end, the Chumash lost, their only weapons being common hunting tools while the Spanish had the technological advantage of gunpowder. The survivors scattered; many ran away, some stayed, having “converted.”

At this point, the Chumash lost who they were; their language and culture were nullified by the Catholic Church. This terrible story of massacre and years of abuse affects us to this day.

Indoctrination and dominance were enforced by the Church itself based on biblical texts of xenophobia and racism. There is a severe lack today of Natives tied to their culture in the Americas. My great-grandma Dorothy is an example of how xenophobia has survived for generations. Born in 1901 in the San Buenaventura Mission, she worked for multiple wealthy land-owners under supervision of the Church. She was raised and indoctrinated into Catholicism. Our family has researched and learned the history and cultural practices from books that were written by anthropologists and not by our elders. They were taught that to be native was to be less than human.

Generational trauma is real. Loss of cultural identity is a process we have worked to reclaim. Xenophobia and racism are all too common in the modern world and are often structured around and supported by books within the bible. I have experienced people using hateful slurs and using their god as an excuse to try to elevate themselves above me. Religion creates racial inequality, divides humanity and erases identity.

Lionel, 18, is from Kihei, Hawaii, and will be attending University of Hawaii Maui Campus in Kahului, Hawaii. He writes: “In high school, I maintained a 3.8 GPA and won various awards for outstanding academic achievement, respect and courtesy. I’ve been accepted into the University of Hawaii and plan on pursuing a liberal arts degree. My hobbies include Dungeons & Dragons, coding and art. I love animals.”