Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The Indian who was shot “groaned on the ground and did not survive
more than a few minutes. . . . As we could not take the corpse with us, I
contented myself with measuring it. The little Aché boy looked at us with
his astonished eyes, without a shout, without a tear, without a gesture
of emotion in front of the dead; he obeyed our signs without saying a
word.”
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All this can be reduced to a single question: what does it mean if being
civilized and being Christian is the same as hunting Indians and being
an Indian the same as being hunted?
Sequelae
Missionary work progressed more slowly among Ayoreo-speaking groups
on the Paraguayan side of the border, not least because the Menno-
nites largely halted their attempts to contact the so-called Moros after
the spearing death of Kornelius Isaac in 1959. Bobby's father was one
of the first New Tribes missionaries to establish a settlement in the mid-
1960s near Cerro León with various bands of Guidaigosode. He promptly
put them to work building roads and trapping big cats for their hides.
From the beginning, the New Tribes missions of the northern Chaco
served as bases for armed expeditions to hunt down and exterminate
or capture the Totobiegosode bands remaining in the forest, or “the Pig
People” as they were referred to by the missionaries.
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These raids were
commonplace.
Bobby's father and the other missionaries involved in the 1987 con-
tact were unrepentant about their actions in reports sent to fellow believ-
ers. The frustrating outcome of the contact with Aasi and the others was
quickly subsumed into the call for more Indian hunts. Missionaries Rob-
ert and Cheryl Ketcham described the contact to their prayer partners in a
letter titled “God Plants Five More Seeds.” The physical deaths of Indians
were seeds planted for the spiritual salvation of everyone else. The letter
concluded with the following call:
There is yet another group of Totobiegosode in the bush; they are a break off of the
group just contacted with 7 men plus women and children in that group. This last
group was last seen by the group just contacted about 3 years ago. They are still friends
with this group and we hope that some day soon this last group of Totobiegosode
people will be found and brought out of the bush so they can hear the good news also!
It may take more seeds, but we are reminded that some plant or are planted, others
water, but god gives the increase!!!
