James Ronda’s article focuses on the connection between the First Nations and Missionaries. While using several resources to highlight his points, the article, “We are well as we are”: an Indian Critique of 17th-century Christians Missions indispensable content examines how the missionaries are identified as living a sinless life. They were 1 “dedicated, self-sacrificing people who truly believed in their task, historians have tended to see them as they saw themselves: as humble servants, saving souls from savagery, and damnation.” (p. 66). These stories of heaven and hell, and living the “sinless life”, told by the missionaries, were not accepted by the First Nations people, and were deemed distrustful. While the aboriginals were able to resist missionary impulses, the missionaries were also blamed for the outbreak of afflictions and natural disasters (ie. droughts) that grew prevalent among the native’s populations. This article focuses religion and American culture, as well as the racial tension between the European missionaries and the aboriginal people.
1 Ronda, James P. “‘We Are Well As We Are’: An Indian Critique of Seventeenth-Century Christian Missions.” ‘We Are Well As We Are’: An Indian Critique of Seventeenth-Century Christian Missions 34, no. 1 (January 1, 1977): 66-82. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1922626?&seq=16#page_scan_tab_contents.