Beyond Westward Borders

The Indigenous People-Gifts Beyond Geographic Locations

People Gifts – Part 5

As we’ve been studying the people groups that God has made, I must again remind us to look beyond the groupings we’ve made. In fact, we saved the “westward” people group to last for a couple reasons. One, this group is hard to accept because we have not made it very clear that the people who make up this group are all connected. I’ll get to that more shortly. Two, this group has been given names that are misleading and people from the other groupings often go by these names as well. Allow me to give a few examples. Who is American? Who are Indians? Are people from India considered Indians? Why are people in South and Central America referred to as Latino and Hispanic?

Before we get into the details. Allow me to say that I’m guilty of placing these names or descriptors on people from these areas as well. That’s common. That’s what it means to fall prey to what’s normal. Normal is very rarely a good thing. Normal as it relates to the westward people group is insulting and disrespectful. However, in this installment I hope to shed some light on this people group that will help turn that all around.

This westward group of people, which means those who migrated westward from the point of human origin, is made of people who inhabit the North, Central, and South Americas. For this discussion, I would like to shed a bad light on how the term American has been used. That term has been applied to people who are of mainly European descent or the “northward” people group. If we remove this subset of people from the term American plus people who’ve migrated to the Americas in the more recent history, what group of people would you have here? Americas or true Americans. So that there is no confusion, I call this group the “westward” people group. These are the people who inhabit the Americas.

Keep in mind that I’d rather not speak of geography as much, but more about the people who exist in the areas. As I’ve done in the past sections, I apologize upfront for any language that might offend anyone in any of God’s people-groups. Our intent is not to disrespect, offend, or insult anyone. Racism has done enough of that for us. Our goal is and has been to give a new perspective to the people we see in the world around us. In fact, I hate what racism has done to us as the human race, as well as what misused people-gifts have created to add to the prejudices we often bump into.

With that said, I did some real soul searching to aid this discussion about this last and final group of people. As I alluded to earlier, if you remove the people who are not native to the Americas what group of people would you have left? Native Alaskans, Native Americans, Mexicans, Hawaiians, Latinos, and Hispanics. It was in answering this question that gave me the image of the “westward” people group. There was one common term that emerged each time I studied the origins respectively as well as the locations. That word was “indigenous.” For this group it was the only time that this term emerged as I dug deeper and deeper.

Blended Westward Borders
Keep in mind that the westward group borders the northward people-group, which due to blending would result in Indigenous-Europeans. Then at the south border, blending would yield Indigenous-Africans. While I know just like in the previous sections, this is unheard of, I get it. Normal thinking places indigenous people in a back of mind state. We want to bring “indigenous” people to the forefront because like any other group, their gifts and unique abilities have changed, advanced, and created the world in which we live. Besides, indigenous people are God’s people by design.

Allow me to take this word “indigenous” a bit further.  As I mentioned, when you look at the native people of north, central, and south Americas, there is a singular group of people that emerges. We all know and can identify this group but rarely give them the status we give other groups of people. I need to go back to a few of those inappropriate terms we use: Native American, Hispanic, Latino, and Mexican. I asked myself if I were Mexican and entered my DNA into one of those genealogy sites, what would come back? That question led me to ask a more pertinent one. Where do Mexicans come from? The obvious conclusion is Mexico. In researching, I discovered that those native to Mexico were here long before any English-speaking (northward) influences arrived. That’s when the term “indigenous” became a theme to those living in the Americas. Listen to this, and I in no way am about to give an in-depth history lesson, but the indigenous classification included, but is not limited to, native “north” Americans, Hawaiians, Mesoamericans (Mexico & Central American), and the Maya, Inca, and Aztec peoples. The Aztec people are what we know of as northern Mexicans.

With all that said, the conclusion is this. Hispanics, Mexicans, Latinos, native Americans, and Hawaiians are a part of a greater group of people. I call them the “westward” people group.  With that out of the way, let me share with you a few of their extraordinary attributes to tie this altogether.

Extremely Sophisticated
The westward people-group are known (indirectly) to be a very sophisticated group of people. They developed writing skills, and a calendar system (i.e. the Mayan calendar). They are experts in astronomy as well as mathematics. They too are known for creating advanced civilizations, which happen to appear in the Americas.

Fierce / Warriors
The people in this group were known to be fierce and unforgiving. They were extreme warriors which led to (while I hate to say it) more advancements in war strategies. 

Experts in Nature
The “westward” people-group are not only experts in astronomy and mathematics, but experts in nature. This group are masters when it comes to living off the land and the use of all sorts of natural remedies, from dyes to medicines, and beyond. Without this group many of the natural benefits found organically would not be known to the rest of the world.

Blended Westward Borders
This final section, westward, is no different than the rest. It has bordering sections: southward and northward. These bordering sections impact the westward section in two ways. One, it creates a diverse group of people who are not only westward migrants, but a mixture of westward north and westward south. Secondly, it blends two sets of people-groups together with their gifts, talents, skills and abilities. Because of the blending of two people-groups at its borders, we have to consider what happens at those borders that have gone unsaid. That brings me to the question I’ve asked of each of the other groups. What does it look like at the borders of each section?

Have you ever heard of “Indigenous-Europeans” (northward border) or “Indigenous-African” (southward border)? You might be thinking of these terms in their reverse, people indigenous to Europe or people indigenous to Africa, but this is not how I mean it. I must state the obvious, most people have not heard anything quite like this. When speaking of the westward people-group, there is a dominant westward descent that at its borders have been blended by the descent of its bordering people-groups. Therefore, in the westward people-group you have a noticeably diverse group which blends with Europeans on its north boundaries and African on its south boundaries.

• Indigenous-Europeans
  There is a European population who have some degree of “indigenous” descent. These Indigenous-Europeans, known as Sami, but not limited to this, exist in an area often referred to as Scandinavia. While I’m unsure if Scandinavia is an actual place, I do know that it is a sub-region of Northern Europe. The only reason I mention this is due to the fact that when speaking of “indigenous” people the information made available is very convoluted. It will lead you around in circles if you allow it. This is what made me take notice. That circle tells us a lot. The most important thing that it tells of is that there is a definitive connection. In this Scandinavian region, the inhabitants are mostly indigenous and partially European in nature, so to speak.

• Indigenous-African
  When we speak of westward, we are speaking of those who are native to the Americas (South, Central and North America). In places like the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Brazin, you will find this blending of the people-groups. Many who live in these areas are the product of the westward and southward borders meeting. When studying these groups, one must look beyond the period of European (northward) colonization around the 1500s. This study is quite difficult, so take it with a grain of salt, if you decide to study it on your own. There is one thing that stands out for sure amongst the theories, assumptions, guesses and lack of information as well, and that’s the connection of the native (indigenous) central and south Americans to the “southward” borders, sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, I’ve discovered that there is a widespread disagreement on who is even considered “black” in South America ^[1], which I may have mentioned previously. The point still remains that this array of human-beings exist and are found on earth.

If I can be totally honest with you, studying the “westward” people-group was harder than I anticipated and took more time than planned. However, I was reminded of an important point to the why behind our writing. You see, racism isn’t like a disease one can catch. It’s more like a set of beliefs one can be taught. The problem with things that we’re taught, like the Bible, is that the people who’re teaching us for the most part haven’t studied it well enough. How often has someone tried to tell you something about your faith and that person is one who has not even read the Bible in entirety? Or how about that person who quotes you a scripture that’s not even found in the book? The same can be said when we think about racism or how we’ve grouped people. We’ve been taught something about people that’s not true. To be even more honest, let me share a few words spoken to my spirit. We are so quick to believe another person’s commentary, but what about God’s commentary? What does God have to say about the people He created and has set in places on earth as He desires? The Bible says it like this. “From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.” ^[2] While we are consulting science and history, when will we add God’s perspective? In looking into the “westward” group, this idea of “indigenous” people has shielded us from the forth people-group that God emerged out of that central place where He sent man-kind out from.

Question: now that we have all four groups defined, which of the four do you most associate with?

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[1] Unknown. “Afro-South Americans.” Advameg, Inc. Accessed May 3, 2023https://www.everyculture.com/South-America/Afro-South-Americans.html#ixzz80Z5XFcUv
[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:26 NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed May 17, 2023, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/ACT.17.26.NLT

All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.