From Conquest to Communion: An Orthodox Reflection on Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Every October, America pauses to remember an event that changed the course of human history: the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the shores of the New World in 1492. For centuries this day was marked with parades and pride, celebrated as a triumph of discovery and exploration. For many Italian-Americans, it remains a day of ethnic pride and cultural recognition. Yet for others, especially the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, it is a day of deep sorrow and mourning, a reminder of displacement, destruction, and cultural erasure.

Today, as more communities move to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Orthodox Christians have a responsibility to approach this change not through the lens of politics, but through the lens of repentance, truth, and love.

History Beyond the Myth
Long before Columbus ever set foot on San Salvador, others had already reached the American continent.

Leif Erikson and the Norse explorers sailed across the North Atlantic nearly five centuries earlier, establishing settlements in what is now Newfoundland. Even before them, the great waves of humanity had already spread and flourished here, the diverse nations of the Americas—whose civilizations, cultures, and spiritual traditions had long thrived.

Some scholars even note that Amerigo Vespucci’s voyages gave the continent its name, not Columbus’s. Thus, to call this “discovery” is historically inaccurate, it was a contact between worlds, not the finding of an empty one.

But the encounter that followed Columbus’s landing unleashed forces that would devastate the Indigenous peoples: disease, slavery, forced conversions, cultural destruction, and displacement. The “Age of Exploration” became, for the First Nations of this hemisphere, an age of suffering and loss. Entire tribes were wiped out; languages and traditions were suppressed; the Cross, so often raised by missionaries, was at times wielded alongside the sword.

Faith Misused: Conversion by Force
It is undeniable that many who came in the name of Christ brought faith, education, and charity. Yet we must also acknowledge that others brought domination, not discipleship. They confused the Kingdom of God with earthly empires, and sought to “Christianize” through coercion rather than compassion.

Forced baptisms, suppression of native rituals, and the establishment of missions that too often became instruments of control stand as dark chapters in the Christian story in the Americas. These were not acts of the true Church, but of those who had lost sight of the Gospel’s heart: love freely given and freely received.

Orthodoxy reminds us that Christ never forces Himself upon anyone. The Church grows by kenosis, by self-emptying love, not by conquest. As St. Tikhon of Moscow once said, “The faith of Christ cannot be planted by the sword, but only by the example of holiness.”

The Orthodox Witness: Integration, Not Erasure
The Orthodox approach to mission has always been incarnational. When the apostles and saints went to new lands, they sought not to destroy culture, but to transfigure it, to let Christ dwell within it. The Orthodox Church has long understood that every people, every tribe, and every tongue bears the divine image and possesses unique gifts that can be sanctified, not erased.

When the Gospel reached Alaska in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Orthodox missionaries, St. Herman of Alaska, St. Innocent (Veniaminov), and St. Jacob Netsvetov, modeled this spirit of loving integration. They stood with the native peoples, not over them.

While Russian traders and the Russian-American Company exploited the Aleut and Alutiiq peoples for profit, these saints defended them with courage and compassion. St. Herman, living among the Kodiak natives, denounced the cruelty of the fur traders, saying, “Every soul is precious before God.” He taught the faith not by violence or wealth, but by humility, by sharing their poverty, and by protecting them from harm.

The Alaskan Orthodox Church today remains a living testament to this spirit of love. Indigenous languages are still used in the Divine Liturgy, and native traditions are honored as expressions of the faith that took root there not through conquest, but through communion.

Pride vs. Repentance
It is understandable that Columbus Day holds deep significance for many Italian-Americans, who see it as a celebration of their heritage and a recognition long denied to immigrant families who once faced prejudice in America. Their desire for dignity is legitimate and should not be dismissed.

Yet, as Orthodox Christians, we must discern the difference between cultural pride and spiritual humility. We cannot allow cultural pride to overshadow historical truth or moral conscience. The Gospel compels us to look beyond human pride, to see the wounds of history and to seek reconciliation.

Just as the Church teaches that every soul must repent for its sins, so too must nations and peoples repent for the sins of their history. Repentance does not erase heritage, it purifies it. Only by acknowledging the suffering that followed Columbus’s arrival can we hope to build a future marked by justice and healing.

A Day of Remembrance and Repentance
To support Indigenous Peoples’ Day is not to reject one culture in favor of another, it is to affirm the sanctity of all God’s children. It is to recognize that the peoples who lived upon these lands for millennia were not “pagans to be conquered,” but human beings bearing the imago Dei.

Setting aside this day as one of remembrance allows us to pray for the souls of all who perished, for the healing of those still wounded, and for the forgiveness of all who participated, directly or indirectly, in the great injustices of the past.

Orthodoxy calls us to remembrance (anamnesis), not as a political act, but as a spiritual one. In remembering the victims of conquest and colonization, we remember Christ Himself, who said: “Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to Me.” (Matthew 25:40)

May God Forgive Us
Let this day be one of mourning and mercy, reflection and reconciliation. Let it remind us that the true Christian mission is not domination but love, not assimilation but sanctification, not the erasure of culture but its renewal in Christ.

We must pray not only for the Indigenous peoples who suffered, but for all those who caused their suffering, for God alone can heal both victim and oppressor.

May God forgive us our indifference.
May He forgive those who shed innocent blood.
And may He grant eternal rest to the souls of the First Nations, whose prayers still rise like incense from the sacred lands of this continent.

“The glory of God is man fully alive.”
— St. Irenaeus of Lyons

On this Indigenous Peoples’ Day, may we seek that glory not in conquest, but in communion, recognizing Christ in every face, and the image of God in every people.