Posts By This Author
Strengthening Bones and Watering Gardens
Gen X and the Future of the Church
Our faith has to be alive and light fires within our confused and fragile hearts or it is as meaningless as yesterday’s E-mail.
Soaring With Eagles and Hawks
The Red Road was believed to be the path through this world leading to the Higher Power.
—Bill Miller
It has been said that one of the greatest injustices done to Native Americans today is the attempt to keep them living in the past. White America is alternately fascinated by historical Native American culture and ignorant of, or apathetic toward, contemporary Native American struggles. We’ll stand in line to see Kevin Costner in Dances With Wolves (with a white man playing soldiers and Indians), but few will ever walk down the reservation road Bill Miller invites us to in his most recent release, The Red Road.
This is a story about a journey. It’s about trails and paths. At times it’s about drifting aimlessly; more often it’s about soaring with eagles and hawks. Through it all, Miller, who was raised on the Stockbridge-Munsee Indian reservation in central Wisconsin, never fails to praise God, to honor his Mohican heritage, or, with quiet forcefulness, to hold white America accountable for its actions.
Miller opens his first recording on a major label with "Dreams of Wounded Knee," a stirring requiem that masterfully blends guitar and flute to call forth mourning and wailing. This is followed by "Praises," a spiritual that transcends time and place through a combination of Menominee chants and English lyrics. Joined by the Smokey Town Singers, a group of Pow Wow performers based on the Menominee Indian Reservation in Shawano, Wisconsin, "Praises" opens and closes with "Ma-Nee-Ta-haem" (We feel good in our hearts)/"Wa-Wa-Non" (We thank you)/"Mau-Ne-Ka-Ko-Saw-te-wa" (We have everything) /"Mah-Maw-Koh-Ne-No" (Our father up above), while Miller praises the Creator for all of creation: rivers, mountains, eagles, his children, and his people.
On Behalf of Bosnian Children
We're sorry. This page is temporarily unavailable.
Activists jailed for "Contemptuous" Prayer
We're sorry. This page is temporarily unavailable.
Briefly Noted
Harper's magazine reported in January that the Miller Brewing Company spends $150,000 each year to endow its Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund
A "Step Forward" In El Salvador
The forthcoming elections in El Salvador promise to be the freest in the country’s history, according to observers, and a step toward the construction of democracy—despite a campaign of
An Officer and a Pastor
Like many U.S. Christians, Garland Robertson had moral concerns about the Persian Gulf war. And like many others, Robertson expressed his concerns in a letter to the local newspaper.
Racketeers for Life?
What’s the difference between a political protest and organized crime?