TRAIL OF HEALING DAY 3: Convoy Tours Sites Of Native American Suffering

31 January 2011

By PATRICK BUTLER
ResonateNews.com

ALTO, Texas — Traveling through Texas with the Trail of Healing on Sunday was a lesson in dealing with current social problems in the Lone Star State, through historical roots of injustice. Walking the actual El Camino Royal — The Royal Road — at Mission Tejas State Park near Alto, was an exercise in research, faith — and facing harsh facts.

    From tracing the steps of Damian Massanet — a priest who helped establish The Royal Road in 1691, to Davy Crockett — who walked the trail with his Tennessee Volunteers in 1836 — a convoy of 25 people prayed at historical Texas sights to help set right the wrongs of generations past.

It was not just European history recounted for correction, the group learned.

Mark Wauahdooah, of the Native America Photo By Patrick Butler
Members of the Trail of Healing prayer team pause to pray and put a stone marker on the historic El Camino Real at Mission Tejas State Park near Alto, Texas, on Sunday. Mission Tejas is the site of what is thought to be the first mission site in Texas. About 25 volunteers from Texas are taking part in the six-day pray ride that started in Natchitoches, La., on Friday and is scheduled to end in Roma, Texas, on Wednesday. n Comanche Nation of Oklahoma, asked Caddo tribal member Janet Smith Butler for forgiveness for the oppression of the Caddos by the Comanches, at the site of the ancient Caddoan mounds on the El Camino Real, near Alto, Texas. The Caddo native homeland was most of Texas prior to being driven out during the 19th century Trail of Tears.

“We also ask for forgiveness for the introduction of Peyote religion into the Caddo culture,” said Wauahdooah.

“Social issues have been coming into the area (state of Texas) thousands of years ago,” said the Rev. Dr. Tom Schlueter, pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Dallas. “We are talking about ancient trails here. In 1691, the El Camino Real was officially laid out by the Spanish, but we forget the Caddoan mounds were established in 850 and they are right on the Royal Road.

Good things came over El Camino Real, Schlueter said, including “People, relationships, food, communication, citizens, commerce and progress,” he said. “But also bad things — human trafficking, drugs, greed, killing. …it has also been a of transportation of evil for generations.”

Through prayer, the group believes Texas — and the surrounding communities — will be changed for the better.

“Every aspect of society — governments, communities — everything, is affected by prayer,” said Schlueter, who led the group down a footpath at the Mission Tejas State Park. The group paused and prayed for about 30 minutes at a spot on the trail for healing, restoration and humility.

“This is the real historic road, the path where Crockett tread, the Spanish, Native Americans,” he said. “We are dealing with old, ancient stuff here.”

The Trail of Healing was at the Bethel Assembly of God in Bryan, Texas, on Sunday night, led in worship by the International House of Prayer chapter at Texas A&M University. Bethel elder Stuart Quartemont asked Wauahdooah and Butler for forgiveness for the treatment of native peoples by ancestors of settlers.

A public meeting outdoors at the campus of Texas A&M University is planned on Monday morning. The destination for the Trail of Healing is Roma, Texas, near the Mexican border.

NEXT STOP: San Marcos, Texas

EDITOR'S NOTE: ResonateNews.com Editor Patrick Butler is on the road with the Trail of Healing — a prayer-based convoy composed of people from Louisiana and Texas ministry organizations. The group is traveling El Camino Real de los Tejas in hopes of leaving in there wake peace and restoration from historical transgressions. The trail has six key stops and ends in Roma, Texas, on Wednesday.