Last updated 11/22/2025
Part of the Christian Kyriarchy Project
1. Indigenous cultures are frequently treated as harboring demons or otherwise depraved and needing to be Christianized.
Uncritical examples
AMERICAN INDIAN BURIAL GROUNDS AND BATTLEGROUNDS | Demon Buster
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Crazy Wolf | Chick Publications (2009)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Spellbound? by Jack T. Chick (1978)
This is a tract about how all rock music is supposedly demonic and connects it to African tribal music.
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Bryan Fischer: Native Americans Morally Disqualified Themselves From the Land | Rightly Concerned (February 2011)
Archived on Wayback Machine and Warren Throckmorton's blog
DREAM CATCHER | Demon Buster
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
Stereotype of the Month Entry (3/12/02) | Blue Corn Comics
Bryan Fischer prefers European depravity to the native kind | Warren Throckmorton (February 2011)
[audio with transcript] RELIGION & ADOPTION: ICWA with Dr. Courtney Lewis | Keeping It 101: A Killjoy's Introduction to Religion Podcast (November 2024)
The Christian converts who are setting fire to sacred Aboriginal objects by Erin Parke | ABC News (September 2019)
Pentecostal Christians Are Burning Australia's Sacred Aboriginal Objects by Michael Stone | Progressive Secular Humanist (September 2019)
Preserved on Wayback Machine and Archive.today
2. Christinization was a motivating factor for places like the USA and Canada removing indigenous children from their families and sending them to residental schools. Not only were these children expected to cut all ties with their ancestral cultures, the school environments were dangerous, leading to many kids dying.
Uncritical examples/apologia
The Meaning of the Native Graves by Declan Leary | The American Conservative (July 2021, tries to reframe mass deaths of indigenous children as not that bad and having nothing to do with Christianity)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
A Win for Religious Liberty? Child Removal, Religious Conversion, and the 2023 Supreme Court Decision Upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act in Brackeen v. Haaland by Ana Eveleigh | Columbia Political Review (February 2024)
Indigenous Peoples and Boarding Schools: A Comparative Study prepared by Andrea Smith for the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (May 2009, details the effects of boarding schools on indigenous cultures and brings up many motivated by Christianization)
More Graves Found At New Site, Canadian Indigenous Group Says | National Public Radio (July 2021)
3. Many Christians have a negative and bigoted view of LGBT+ people. This and their longstanding support of colonialism has erased culture-specific genders.
Uncritical examples
None yet
Commentary
Navajo Nation's LGBTQ Pride Event Celebrates A Return To The Culture's History by Cayla Nimmo | National Public Radio (July 2019)
[video] What Does “Two-Spirit” Mean? | InQueery | them. (December 2018)
More about anti-indigenous racism in Christian spaces
[video] From Church to Memorial in Passamaquoddy | PBS (October 2023)
Myth: Palestinian Christians Are Leaving Due To Palestinian Muslims And The PA | Decolonize Palestine
Stereotype of the Month Entry (7/26/01) | Blue Corn Comics
This discusses a gospel tract that depicts Native Americans as alcoholics in a rather racist way.
Stereotype of the Month Entry (8/21/01) | Blue Corn Comics
This discusses a church hand-out that depicts Native Americans as violent raiders.
Cultural Christianity, Christian Appropriation, and Derailment | Writing With Color (February 2020)
Pastor apologizes, retracts article about transgender Native lobbyist, fabricated incident by Darrell Erhrlick | Daily Montanan (May 2022)
All Aboard the Orphan Train! by Megan Goodwin and Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst | The Revealer (February 2025)
Pope's 'penitential pilgrimage' to Canada marks rethink of Catholic Church's legacy on First Nations people by Nicole Winfield | PBS News (July 2022)
Vatican will return dozens of artifacts to Indigenous groups in Canada as gesture of reconciliation by Nicole Winfield | ICT (October 2025)
Rick Santorum Breezes Past the Genocidal Foundation of White Christian Nationalism by Sophie Bjork-James | Religion Dispatches (April 2021)
Further reading
Does Border Wall Construction Threaten Native American Burial Sites? by Dan Evon | Snopes (February 2020)