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Prophecy, Sorcery, and Reincarnation
commercial and economic success, and they were not shy about dis-
playing the fortunes they had made. I felt that their brand of Christi-
anity was inspired by selfish motives that made their church an exclu-
sive social club. If I wanted to learn more about them, I had to aspire
to be like them. John Branson, who belonged to no faith community
in particular, seemed to embody the Gospel message of simplicity, pov-
erty, and inclusivity. If I wanted to learn more about John Branson, I
simply had to be with him.
My experiences in Port Alsworth spilled over into my understand-
ing of missionary activities in North America and inspired me, I think,
to avoid working with members the Anglican Church in Iqaluit. I re-
garded the work of missionaries in the Americas with a newly ac-
quired suspicion of modernization and assimilation, particularly in
the way those acting in the name of Christianity trivialized and even
mocked indigenous belief systems and practices. I assumed that reli-
gious transformation in the Arctic was linked to rather sinister mo-
tives on the part of missionaries to disempower and even disenchant
a world of spirits and supernatural forces.
After my trip to West Africa, however, I grew more interested in
studying a growing body of scholarship that problematizes this sim-
ple view of contact history in North America, offering a much more
complex narrative than the more simple stereotypes of bad mission-
aries and victimized Natives. Detailed descriptions and discussions of
religious pluralism and syncretism in the Arctic can be found in the
works of Fienup-Riordan et al. 2000 , Goulet 1982 ; Laugrand 2002 ;
Laugrand, Oosten, and Trudel; 2002 , Tungilik and Uyarasuk 1999 ;
and E. Turner 1994 b, to name just a few. I learned that many indig-
enous peoples accepted Christianity as another doctrine that neither
diminished nor conflicted with their own beliefs; rather, they allowed
the systems of thought to coexist or even complement one another.
Goulet’s ( 1982 ) description of Dene Tha Catholics in northern Alberta
provides a compelling example: in addition to attending Roman Cath-
olic mass, praying the rosary, and so on, they believe in the reincarna-
tion of humans, in the incarnation of spirit helpers in the form of an-
imals, and in the power of prophet dances and visions.
