Mennonite Weekly Review

CLINTON, Okla. — He was an Air Force pilot who gave up his commission and became a Mennonite pastor. His tribe was victim to injustice and massacre, yet he was called to be a peace chief.

He’s even on a Mennonite Church USA “peace heroes” Tshirt with Caesar Chavez and Sojourner Truth.

Lawrence Hart, pastor of Koinonia Mennonite Church at Clinton, is indeed a rare person.

And so it was a rare honor for eight youth and four adults from Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas to listen to and interact with Hart during a service and learning tour June 14-17.

The event, sponsored by a Western District Conference Schowalter Foundation grant, was called “Walk a Mile” to indicate a desire to step into the shoes of native brothers and sisters.

“We wanted youth to have an immersion in Cheyenne Christian culture, to introduce them to some inspiring members of our Mennonite family,” said Doug Krehbiel, Kansas-based youth minister for Western District and South Central conferences of Mennonite Church USA.

“Lawrence Hart has been involved in some impressive things,” said Hugo Saucedo, Krehbiel’s Texas-based counterpart.

Hart is one of the founding forces behind “Return to the Earth,” a repatriation project to return native remains from museums back to the earth for burial.

Walk a Mile youth heard Hart speak about the “Return to the Earth” project and then spent an afternoon doing service work in the building where the remains will be collected prior to burial.

The building is one of several at the Cheyenne Cultural Center that Hart directs on the outskirts of Clinton. Hart was a member of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Review Committee appointed by then Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbit.

The Walk a Mile group visited Black Kettle National Park in Cheyenne. The park staff treated Hart like a revered elder. He was instrumental in helping create the park and making it a place of remembrance and healing.

Group members ended their time in a circle overlooking the site of the Black Kettle Massacre while Hart sang a prayer of blessing in the Cheyenne language.