The Chickamauga as well as almost all Native Americans of the Southeast Woodlands belonged to the traditionalist ancient religion of the Ceremonial Mound Complex. A religious tradition of the Southeast Woodlands extends back to as early as 1000 B.C on this continent but whose roots of religious identity extends back as early as 2500 BC in meso-America. The traditionalism of the religion was basic but transcendent: No Murder, No Gossip, No Treason, No Witchcraft. All were punishable by Death or removal from the Tribe.
Christian Missionaries came into the Southeast telling stories from their Bible and teaching about their “God on a Cross” hoping to Christianize the Indigenous Americans of the Southeast Woodlands as the French Jesuits had Christianized the Great Lakes Region Indigenous. They came with the mindset to Christianize and Civilize the “merciless savages.” These are the same “uncivilized,” “merciless savages,” who spoke French, Spanish, English, numerous Indigenous languages, and sign language, had a democratic form of government, sustained a hunting, gathering, farming culture, while innovating their own specific architecture, pottery, and bead work. Their animal husbandry and sustainable farming and ranching skills are still immolated today. Their ecological preservation is still used as best practices in the 21st Century. Not too bad for “Uncivilized,” “the Merciless Savages. . . "
The ancient traditionalism of the “Ceremonial Mound Complex Religion,” created a belief system shared throughout the Southeast Woodlands. The Christian missionaries ran into the traditionalism of the Chickamauga (Tisca-Mogee) and did not understand what they were encountering. First, the Chickamauga were devout in their beliefs and were not easily swayed to Christianity because of the belief system’s communal understanding of land, hunting, and providing for the group as a whole. The belief structure made it impossible for the Chickamauga to sell or trade lands because the traditional homelands and hunting lands belonged to all of the people of the Tribe and tribes of the Southeast Woodlands for at least ten centuries. They were not easily swayed to Christianity because they saw the hypocrisy, lies, theft, murder, and deceit of Christians in their dealings.
The missionaries’ message of the “God on a Cross” was devastatingly undercut by white people who professed to be followers of the “God on a Cross.” The Chickamauga intrinsically understood that the missionaries came to prepare the way for the white man to make a triumphal entry into the sacred homelands of the Southeast. In teaching about their God on a Cross, the missionaries would have taught important doctrinal beliefs such as the Ten Commandments, Rebellion, and Ancient Boundary Markers. These very doctrines about their God that they claimed to believe was the ultimate force driving the Chickamauga away from Christianity. The Chickamauga concluded that the God on a Cross was not a powerful god because his followers disobeyed their god and he never punished them for their betrayal.
The hypocrisy the Chickamauga saw first-hand by the White Christians turned them away from the “god on a cross.” The actions of these White Christians still have reverberations to this day.
White, European, Christians, and the United States Government and Allied Tribes confess what you have done, repent for what you have done, and make restitution for what you have done and continue to do to the Chickamauga.
(C) This document was produced at the request of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on July 18, 2019, to document the History, Anthropology, Culture, Religion, and Archaeology of The Chickamauga Nation.