Photograph by Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesThe clapboard church, set among rolling hills in western Canada for more than 100 years, has been the spiritual home of the Upper Similkameen Indian Band for over a century.Residents of Chuchuwayha Indian Reserve #2 traveled 40 miles to reach St Annes and hauled lumber back to their community via horseback and wagon.Generations of congregants traveled miles on foot to reach the pews. They passed ponderosa pines and sagebrush.Last Saturday morning, thick smoke filled the air as flames tore through an old wooden structure in British Columbia near Hedley. The church was reduced to ashes by the time the local fire departments arrived.This week, a fire destroyed a Catholic church at Morinville in Alberta. Photo by Diane Burrel/ReutersAccording to the community's fire chief, there was no way to save the wooden structure. Police believe the deliberate setting of the fire that destroyed the church was suspicious. It was the fourth Catholic Church on First Nations territory to be destroyed by fire in a matter of months.Carrie Allison, an elder who helped to maintain the church, stated that the church was very important to her and all of us. It is not healthy for your community or yourself to let your anger turn into rage.Canada is dealing with the discovery of over 1,000 graves unmarked by Indigenous children on the grounds of former residential schools. Many have vented their anger and grief at the Catholic Church, which operated more than half the schools in Canada.Schools were plagued by hunger and disease, and survivors described sexual and physical abuse at the hands of Catholic priests and lay people.Nearly two dozen churches were vandalized or burned in the United States over the past week, eight of them being First Nations.Justin Trudeau joined Indigenous leaders, provincial officials and others in condemning arsonist acts.The prime minister stated on Friday that I cannot help but feel that burning down churches is depriving people in mourning of places they can grieve, heal and mourn.Continue the storyRelated: Canada must disclose the undiscovered truths about residential schools in order to healMany Indigenous people find churches to be a source of conflicting emotions. They are places built by their ancestors, where generations were baptized and buried. However, they also symbolize the destruction of Indigenous culture, fear, and more than a century worth of physical abuse.Between the 19th century and the 1990s, over 150,000 Indigenous children had to attend government-funded schools as part of a campaign to force them to integrate into Canadian society. Over half of these schools were run by the Catholic Church; thousands of children died from neglect, disease and other causes.These innocent souls were raped for colonialism, according to Amelia McComber, an Indigenous theologian and practitioner. That sacrifice has been the center of all the pain and trauma that has reverberated for generations within our communities.Children were forced to convert to Christianity when they entered schools. Many Indigenous Canadians identify themselves as Christians despite being raised in Christian homes for many generations.We are spiritual people. Christ is the only way that our people could pray in the residential schools. McComber said that this was the only way they could worship.One man prays as he sits in front of the graveyard where more than 750 children's remains were buried. It is located on the former Marieval Indian residential school in Cowessess First Nation (Saskatchewan), last month. Photograph by Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty ImagesSome people suggested that First Nations communities cut all ties to a religion they believe was forced upon them.Robert Jago tweeted that First Nations can have a legitimate discussion about removing Catholic churches and establishing their own religion as the official religion. Canada and the [First Nations] are not 100% distinct societies, but religion is one place they are, or should be.However, as churches continue to be vandalized or burned, Indigenous leaders are pleading for buildings that are more than 100 years old to be saved, despite all the anger.It is easy to understand. The church is not my favorite. Clarence Louie, chief of the Osoyoos Indian Band, stated that he doesn't believe in the church after the destruction of his church. I know many residential school survivors who hate the church, but I have not heard anyone suggest that they do so. I speak to many residential school survivors, and while there is much hatred, bitterness, anger, and even some arson, it doesn't mean that you should set fire to anything.Allison, who survived the Kamloops Indian residential schools, says that the fire only made the pain worse.She wrote that she thinks of all the ancestors who helped build St Annes. They were watching over us, and saw all their hard work and the beautiful place they loved burn to the ground. Many of us were hurt, but this isn't how we do things and this isn't our way. It makes me sick and sad. I wish I didn't know you. I am sorry for your loss and wish you well.
