"GOD'S DEARLY BELOVED PEOPLE"
ELIZABETH TOLLIVER

Ya'at'eh shi'Diné é shi’ei Elizabeth Tolliver, yinishyé Kinyaa’áanii Nishli Ma'ii Deeshgiizhnii bashishchiin.

Hello my dear Indigenous sisters. I’m Sister Elizabeth Tolliver.  I am Diné kiya'aanii, one of the first original clans of the Diné people. When my clan was created, the Kinyaa’áanii were gifted a sacred white shell cane or a staff that represents our clan's responsibility as leaders and teachers. It’s my hope this talk leads you toward Christ and teaches that Indigenous people are dearly beloved people of God.

For the past three years I have been living in a 22-foot RV with my five kids and husband. We like to call our home “the sardine can.” I'm what some would call “rezzed out” but I’ve earn that title “rezzed out,” because rez life is not for the weak. I have been humbled living the rez life. I feel like John the Baptist way out here in the wilderness, undistracted by the outside world and focused on the mission to prepare the way for the Lord. I feel like Nephi, having seen many afflictions in my days, still highly favored of the Lord. I feel also like Samuel the Lamanite, bravely proclaiming in a world obsessed with money to not set your heart on riches but to remember the Lord your God in all that He has blessed you with.

Recently, I've witnessed these scriptures fulfilled: Matthew 7:8, “For everyone that asketh receiveth;” and Matthew 6:30, “Shall he not… clothe you, O ye of little faith?”

I woke up one morning and I wasn't sure God existed. I don't know what was wrong with me. I've left Church before – not because I didn't believe God was real; I just wanted to party.  Yet in all of my sin I have never doubted the existence of God. I guess my faith was being tested. I asked God, “If you are real, talk to me – show me, PLEASE!”

This is how God answered: I was going through my “bubba-son’s” clothes he outgrew. In my head, I was thinking of people I could ask for hand-me-downs. That same day we rolled up to our local recycling center, and there on the donations table was perfectly good – some still even new – outfits in my “bubba-son’s” size.

The next day my husband, a carver, was carving a rattle and had this thought: “Man, this would be a lot faster if I had a bandsaw.” Guess who got a bandsaw for “free.99”? Someone had donated one! Wow, this felt too good to be true! And this wasn’t the universe responding to my positive, good vibes. No, this was God. This was God telling me He loves us and I'm not horrible for questioning His existence. I'm actually blessed for wanting to believe that He's real. God was showing me His hand in my life.

It's okay to trust God that He will provide everything that I need and to trust Him that He withholds everything I don't need – everything that would make me feel entitled, snobby, prideful, vain; materialistic things that would corrupt me and break this tender relationship and trust we have. I testify that God will clothe you and if you ask, you can receive.

But what’s wrong with being materialistic? I found that answer in Mormon 8:39: “Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet you suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not?”

Also in 1 Timothy 6:5-12: “Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth” – or destitute of Christ – “supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself… for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Having food and raiment let us be therewith content,” or let us be with this happy.  “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith….”

I'd like to rephrase that last verse into terms that hold deeper understanding.  What does “love of money” actually mean and what does that look like? Well, let's define love. Love is an intense feeling of deep affection, a great interest in something; to like or enjoy very much. Now let's define root. Root is the point at which something begins its course or existence.

Now let's rephrase the verse: “When you have an intense feeling of deep affection towards money; when you have a great interest in money; when you like or enjoy money very much – this is the point at which evil begins its course or existence.”

Let's define covet. Covet is to yearn to possess or have. Let’s define erred. Erred is to fail or do wrong. Now to rephrase the rest if that verse: “Some yearn to possess or have money; they have failed or do wrong from the faith.”

If you feel convicted and the need to justify the love of money being a good thing, I get it.

We might think money is the best way to help someone because money is fast and easy. You don't need to take time to love someone if you can just dish out some cash. A goal in our religion is to become Zion, and Zion is defined as people of “one heart and one mind” that live in righteousness, “and there was no poor among them.” 

I image Zion like an Amish community, a people who live in this world but are not of the world. They make their own clothes, they don't have college degrees, they don’t run corporate businesses, who come together to build big, beautiful, sturdy houses so there's no homeless among them. They feed themselves with the food that they grow and animals that they raise. Their time and talents are not dedicated to self-gain; it’s dedicated to community. The Amish give us a great example. No, we don't actually need money to help people. Dedicated time and talent is the kind of charity Jesus Christ wants of us.  It’s sacrifice that brings true humility. The Amish also know that God truly provides. God wants to show us how much He really cares for us, but how can He when we try to replace His hand in our lives with our own hand.

I have a newfound respect for God, and I'm willing to do anything necessary to protect my relationship with Him now. The word of God tells me I can't serve Him and serve mammon. So I say, “Who the heck is Mammon; I never knew that guy.” The word of God tells me to give all that I have to the poor and follow Him.  I say, better get used to having nothing because charity is the love that comes from bearing another's burdens. Maybe sometimes we lack charity because we think people deserve to suffer.

John 9:1-3 – “As Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”

Do we have the same mindset as the disciples?  Are we disgusted by the least of men? Who are the least of men? Christ said that whatever we do unto the least of men we do unto Him, and that’s in Matthew 25:40.  Are the least of men liars, thieves, drug addicts, dirty beggars?

Elder Jeffery R. Holland made this great point at General Conference back in October 2014, stating, “Are we not all beggars?” Jesus Christ healed the blind man. Maybe we need to ask Christ to be healed of our blindness, too.

Now that we understand that charity is not money but dedicated time and love, I would like to emphasize that our Indigenous people knew it, knew charity. Not only did we know it , we were defined by it. Outsiders looked at Indigenous people and called us “poor indens” because we had no material wealth.  We didn’t know material wealth.  We did not serve mammon. We never knew that guy.

Doctrine & Covenants 49:24 – “Before the great day of the Lord shall come… the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose.” Let’s picture our rosebud. It's small. It's closed up. It’s as if something is keeping it bound.

John 8:31-32 – I replaced some words to make it personal: “Then said Jesus to those (Lamanites) which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

What is going to break this invisible bond on our rosebud? The truth. The truth about who we truly are as Indigenous people.  We were never “poor indens.” We know Mother Earth. She is filled with food to eat from abundantly. Our ancestors had everything they needed and more. We were strong and we were healthy. It was outsiders that came to us poor, with nothing, hungry, sick, and weak, and we helped the outsiders. We gave them everything we had, including our identity, our language, our beloved children, our innocent and virtuous women. And in return, we were forced to believe lies about who we are, and we were taught to molest our people.

I started running away from home at four years old because my family was molesting me, and nobody cared to stop it. Like many of my Indigenous sisters, I learned to suffer in silence.

Not all Indigenous women are gone at the hands of outsiders. My Indigenous sisters, we need to heal. Healing starts when we start living our truth. We need to stop living the lie of “poor indens” and start living the truth as God’s dearly beloved people.

What does Indigenous mean? It’s defined as strong connection to the land and living naturally in the environment.  Synonyms for Indigenous are original and earliest. The Canadians call their Indigenous people First Nations. The Diné actually means “the people,” as in the first people. The Israelites call themselves the people, as in the chosen people of God. We have an ancient connection to them. Indigenous -- we are chosen of God, the first people.

In Genesis 1:28 God spoke to the first people. He said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Indigenous families – we are large families.  “Replenish the earth.” Replenish means to restore back to former condition. Our whole Indigenous culture is based on replenishing the Earth.

“Subdue the earth.” Subdue means to overcome. Our Indigenous dwellings withstood storms; our canoes – they overcome ocean waves. Our sense of time kept us ahead of bad weather. We defeated illnesses with plants and trees. Our Indigenous people -- we knew how to subdue the Earth. “Have dominion over everything that moves on the earth.” Another word for dominion is leadership.  We as Indigenous people see creatures as our relatives, and we are their caretakers. Outsiders understand this scripture to mean power. Do we have the power to tell the geese what direction to fly? Do we have the power to tell beavers where they can build dams?

Again, Indigenous means to live in harmony and in balance with Mother Earth. The Diné call this hozho -- walking in beauty. In Matthew 5:5, we are the meek that inherent the Earth.

Meek means to be gentle, and gentle means you don't want to hurt anyone or any creature. It’s through gentle eyes you admire the hard work of ants, bees, and cute little chipmunks and squirrels. You stop to let butterflies float across your path, and you pause not to startle a hummingbird. You’re there to meet Creator at sunrise, to witness the daily blessing of the land. It was never in the hearts of our people to pollute Mother Earth or to live in a way that creates waste, to empty the earth of her resources so we could be rich, or to use our time and talents for self-gain and not towards helping our people. You don't learn to be Indigenous in big cities surrounded by corporate America. There are no colleges that can teach you to be Indigenous. The only way we learn to be Indigenous is living the way of the earth.

Think about this: If all we lived on was the food we grew and gathered and the animals we hunted and raised, how would this change us? More importantly, how would this way of living change our hearts? I strongly believe for our people to blossom, our hearts need to be turned into the hearts of our fathers. We go back to living a life that depends on every tender mercy of God. We stop replacing God’s hand with our own hand.

The truth about our Indigenous ancestors is they knew how to live a way of life that gave all glory to Creator. The time it takes to grow food, the energy from the sun, the water from the rains, the nourishment from the soil – it’s no wonder Indigenous people sing songs and dance praising a blessed crop. The time it takes for a small animal to grow to the time it's ready to give its life so you can have life, so you can be strong – it's no wonder Indigenous people have a great respect for the animals and their generous spirits.

“The Lakota was wise. He knew that man's heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that a lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to a lack of respect for humans, too,” Luther Standing Bear.

“I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of the nation.  We do not want riches, but we do want to train our children right.  Riches would do us no good.  We could not take them with us to the other world.  We do not want riches.  We want peace and love.”  Chief Red Cloud.  

Our traditional foods do not have artificial flavors, only flavors of love. Our foods don't cause cancers or reproductive harm. Our meats aren't lab grown.  They are free-range and pasture-fed. Our way of life is organic, straight from God.

What are we afraid of? We are no longer being forced to live like outsiders. Now it's our choice to. We have the freedom to claim back what our ancestors were forced to give up. Do we realize that Satan put fear into the hearts of the Indigenous people so that we would doubt who we are? Satan tried to do this to Jesus Christ by saying, “If you really are the Son of God…” but Jesus Christ could not be tempted. His heart is filled with faith. He was not afraid to claim His royal blood. He stood firm in His identity as God’s dearly beloved Son. We need to be like Jesus Christ and cast all fear and doubt out of our hearts and our minds. Satan knows that if the Indigenous people stay in this mindset of  “poor indens” we will be too afraid and full of doubt to claim our royal blood, and we won’t stand firm in our identity as God’s dearly beloved people.

Where I live there are so many berry bushes, but before the berries can come, the flowers have to blossom. The same is true in the Southwest for the squash. Before the squash comes, the squash blossoms have to blossom. We the Indigenous people are the beautiful blossoms, and Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, is the fruit to come.

I'd like to end my talk bearing testimony that Heavenly Father truly loved our Indigenous ancestors. He misses the way we humbly walk on the earth and how our hearts stayed full with gratitude, how we knew Him and saw Him in all things.  This is how our ancestors stayed true to the first and greatest commandment, to love God with all our heart, soul and mind.  But we live in a world that crucified God’s dearly beloved Son, so God’s dearly beloved people were crucified also.

But let us rejoice, because it is well with our ancestors. We want to be reunited with them, but first we must forgive men their trespasses. We have to stop bring up the sins of our abusers and show mercy and grace. You can't be marked by an angry beast if your mark heals.

I love my Indigenous people, it's with my whole heart that I tell you these things, and it's in His holy name, Jehovah, Jesus Christ. Amen.