NAIITS/GFES MA Intercultural Studies

Background

George Fox University and George Fox Evangelical Seminary are located in the Portland Metro area and in Newberg, Oregon. As a traditionally Quaker institution, George Fox is concerned about historic injustices and present inequities resulting from the historic displacement of Indigenous peoples of North America. George Fox University recognizes that all invasions of one people by another required violence; that the injustices enacted upon Oregon’s Native North American Host Peoples, as with most of the First Nations of North America, is no exception. George Fox also recognizes that the descendents of these displaced Native North Americans still live among us.

The removal of Native North Americans from their homelands resulted in many tragedies. Among the most significant were: loss of their financial and material capital; destruction of traditional lifestyles; and, suppression of their traditional means of educating successive generations. As a consequence Native North Americans experience the highest rates of homelessness, poverty and unemployment among all ethnic groups. Making matters worse, western education, shunned for its history as a tool of assimilation, over time became more and more inaccessible to Native people. The result has been the financial, material and educational impoverishment of generation after generation. It is no understatement therefore, to say that Native North Americans rank highest among populations of ethnic peoples most underserved by contemporary education.

Because of the continuation of these educational disparities among Native North Americans and their continuing commitment to the Jesus Christ, George Fox University (GFES) and the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies (NAIITS) have pursued a relationship with one another as a means of bringing a corrective – at least in the areas of theological education and development. NAIITS has produced, after years of work and planning by Native leaders experienced in theology and mission, an andragogical methodology that will allow George Fox and NAIITS, together, to uniquely serve Native North Americans, other Indigenous peoples and those from other ethnicities admitted to the program, more effectively.