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Choosing the Jesus Way: American Indian Pentecostals and the Fight for the Indigenous Principle
Choosing the Jesus Way uncovers the history and religious experiences of the first American Indian converts to Pentecostalism. Focusing on the Assemblies of God denomination, the story begins in 1918, when white missionaries fanned out from the South and Midwest to convert Native Americans in the West and other parts of the country. Drawing on new approaches to the global history of Pentecostalism, Angela Tarango shows how converted indigenous leaders eventually transformed a standard Pentecostal theology of missions in ways that reflected their own religious struggles and advanced their sovereignty within the denomination.
Key to the story is the Pentecostal "indigenous principle," which encourages missionaries to train local leadership in hopes of creating an indigenous church rooted in the culture of the missionized. In Tarango's analysis, the indigenous principle itself was appropriated by the first generation of Native American Pentecostals, who transformed it to critique aspects of the missionary project and to argue for greater religious autonomy. More broadly, Tarango scrutinizes simplistic views of religious imperialism and demonstrates how religious forms and practices are often mutually influenced in the American experience.
Key to the story is the Pentecostal "indigenous principle," which encourages missionaries to train local leadership in hopes of creating an indigenous church rooted in the culture of the missionized. In Tarango's analysis, the indigenous principle itself was appropriated by the first generation of Native American Pentecostals, who transformed it to critique aspects of the missionary project and to argue for greater religious autonomy. More broadly, Tarango scrutinizes simplistic views of religious imperialism and demonstrates how religious forms and practices are often mutually influenced in the American experience.
234 pages, Paperback
First published April 21, 2014
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January 15, 2026
3.5/5.
For a great many number of Protestants (especially of the bookish variety), the lure of the Magisterial Reformation is strong. They may have grown up in pleasant, non-denominational churches singing Paul Baloche, Matt Redman, and Hillsong with a pastor who quoted Max Lucado more than Martin Luther, but they eventually find themselves learning about TULIP or wandering down the Canterbury Trail. In fact, I recall one local pastor whose "testimony" about becoming Anglican included his realization that many of the scholars he most respected - C.S. Lewis, N.T. Wright, Alister McGrath - were members of the Church of England.
In evangelical intellectual circles, pentecostalism doesn't have such a prestigious pedigree (though there have been impressive pentecostal scholars such as the late Gordon Fee and Amos Yong). Those who cling to the Book of Common Prayer and its exquisite, structured liturgy, often have a hard time comprehending the spontaneous outpouring of the Spirit that features so prominently in pentecostal worship. But one thing that pentecostalism has excelled its fellow Protestants at is in its practice of the "indigenous principle." The indigenous principle encourages missionaries to train, disciple, and equip native believers so that they can exercise leadership among their people and so that the indigenous church retains its own unique culture, customs, and heritage. It aims for a decolonized expression of biblical Christianity. Much of this is due to pentecostalism's insistence that the charisms of the Holy Spirit serve as the authorization and validation of a believer's ministry rather than the formal educational requirements so commonly required among Anglicans, Presbyterians, and other Protestants; many traditional Protestant denominations would send missionaries abroad but due to their demands for educational attainment, these denominations were painstakingly slow in raising up indigenous leaders and handing church governance and authority over to them)
There is plenty of good evidence that pentecostalism's championing of the indigenous principle is one of the pillars of the movement's astonishing growth (particularly in Latin America), but pentecostals haven't always practiced the indigenous principle well. That is one of the central concerns of Angela Tarango's book Choosing the Jesus Way: American Indian Pentecostals and the Fight for the Indigenous Principle. Tarango (a self-identified progressive Roman Catholic of mixed Mexican and Native American ancestry), claims that despite their ideals, white pentecostals were often guilty of paternalism, ethnocentrism, and, at their worst, racism.
It can be argued that pentecostalism had precedents in the past, but most trace its origins (at least in North America) to the Asuza Street revival beginning in 1906. As such, it is a younger expression of Christianity and Tarango's research is largely based on archival sources pertaining to the earliest generation of pentecostal Native Americans, specifically, those in the Assemblies of God (AG). At times she admits she can't be certain about the claims she makes because a written record doesn't exist, but she makes reasonable, calculated assumptions (for instance, the pioneering Navajo evangelist Charlie Lee [1924 - 2003] never explicitly stated he read indigenous activist Vine Deloria Jr. but he had advised missionaries to "be aware of current Indian thinkers" around the time of the Red Power Movement's heyday (through reading Tarango's book I also learned that Deloria Jr. ultimately abandoned Christianity because his efforts as an Episcopal minister to found a Native American Church was turfed by the Episcopal Church's bureaucracy).
Pentecostalism and Native American identity did often collide. Many white missionaries were suspicious of indigenous practices like using peyote and they condemned traditional religion. In order to dissuade Native Americans from participating in what they frowned upon like the powwows, white missionaries would schedule camp meetings at the same time; this forced the pentecostal Native Americans to choose between their religion and their culture and had real repercussions as powwows were often where business dealings were carried out. It was often difficult to clearly define what aspects of traditional Native American culture could be incorporated into pentecostalism, such as smudging or the use of indigenous drums (pp. 91-92). Many times, according to Tarango, white pentecostals were only practicing the indigenous principle "halfway" (pp. 76-77). But when we discuss the indigenous principle, so often it is white missionaries travelling to a foreign land like Brazil or Malawi; it is natural for, say, a pentecostal Swedish missionary in rural Brazil to feel out of his or her element so far from their own homeland. It would likely be easier to defer to indigenous siblings in Christ because white missionaries were aliens. I wonder if white missionaries' "halfway" posture towards pentecostal Native Americans was because white missionaries felt more confident in administering denominational affairs in their American homeland compared to being far from home on a foreign mission field (I don't say this in their defence, but rather to suggest a possible explanation?
Yet at times, pentecostal Native Americans courageously challenged the AG's expectations. A group of pentecostal Apache women "won forty ribbons at the Apache Indian Tribal Fair for their sewing, cooked foods, etc., and our Assemblies of God booth won first prize. This gave them an opportunity to witness and pass out over four thousand tracts in the two days" (p. 75). As Tarango explains, rather than turning away from their heritage, these pentecostal Apache women actively participated in their culture by performing traditional lay work which was regarded with great admiration from their fellow Apache and this also gave them the opportunity to evangelize to their neighbours.
The story of Native American pentecostalism is also interesting because women play a significant role, most notably the remarkably entrepreneurial and persistent Alta Washburn (1906 - 1990), who worked tirelessly to found the All Tribes Indian Bible School in 1957 (now known as Nelson American Indian College [AIC] and located in Phoenix, Arizona). Women have enjoyed more freedom in charismatic Christianity than in more traditional streams of Protestantism but pentecostal women did face many common barriers; Tarango believes that Washburn was able to exercise an unusual amount of influence because the constituency of her work were Native Americans, a historically underserved group by the Assemblies of God; Washburn may have faced greater scrutiny in her efforts had she been ministering to a white constituency (pp. 10-11). Pentecostal Native Americans could have attended other pentecostal Bible schools but the All Tribes Indian Bible School gave them a dedicated educational institute where they could live into their indigenous identity alongside their faith and study and fellowship with pentecostal Native Americans from other tribes (Tarango wryly notes that "Many alumni affectionately referred to the school as 'American Indian Bridal College'," p. 195). One of the notable episodes in AIC's early history was a furor over the food. The school had a shoe-string budget so the standard meals were "pinto beans, tortillas or fry bread, and chilies. The Pimas and Papagos who made up the initial classes typically ate this food" (p. 131). But as more students from around the arrived from different tribal backgrounds (e.g. Mohawk and Navajo), they expressed displeasure with the standard meals and clamoured for their own cuisine such as fish and mutton.
The culinary clash helps to highlight that so often in discussions about Native Americans, they are all conflated into one body whereas in the USA there are 574 federally recognized tribes. Rodger Cree, the last living member of the first generation of pentecostal Native Americans, noted to Tarango that "pan-American Indianism" tended to flatten out indigenous distinctives and base their Native identity more on what they see in movies. "According to Cree, each tribe had its own distinct identity and its own traditionally held religious beliefs. These no longer existed in their original form; the modern versions were simply "deceptions" (p. 90). Indeed, Cree claims that in the public imagination, most of what we take to be Native American culture is far more tied to the Plains Indians than other groups like the Coast Salish. White pentecostals have often been complicit in pushing such an inaccurate portrayal; a white AG pastor named C.E. Pershing urged John McPherson to wear a Plains headdress and Native American attire rather than a white man's suit (even though McPherson was Cherokee), even lending him the money to purchase it, because it would be useful for his ministry (p. 103). McPherson bought such a suit and regularly wore it on public occasions. But:
Tarango's book helps to complicate the oft-held assumption by white liberals that Christianity is inherently a handmaiden of (even lingering) colonialism. She showcases how indigenous figures like the artist-turned-evangelist Charlie Lee, John McPherson, and Andrew and John Maracle were compelled by their faith and active in ministering to their indigenous communities. It was their restorationist, pentecostal faith that brought healings both physical and emotional; ailments were miraculously cured and the tender love of Jesus melted the indigeous believer's hatred of the white man who had so historically exploited and disadvantaged their people (p. 101). Interestingly, Tarango claims that pentecostal Native Americans fared better than African American pentecostals because the AG approached the two groups differently: "Indians, because of their perceived 'heathenness,' became objects of missionary work, whereas African Americans, who already had deep ties to Protestant Christianity and who were members of the Pentecostal movement from the outset, where relegated to their own separate denomination" (the Church of God in Christ, p. 163).
At times the book is as dry as the Mesa Valley where Charlie Lee planted his church (his congregation in Shiprock, in 1976, became the first Native American church on a federally recognized reservation to make the transition from being a supported mission to a fully indigenous, self-supporting, General Council-affiliated church) and I think Tarango tends to toss around the charge of "paternalism" too often. For instance, she accuses some white missionaries of being paternalistic and not trusting more recent indigenous pentecostal converts with leadership and while I do think many other Protestants were too slow in handing over power to indigenous believers, there is also a place for careful discernment and time for tutelage; a wizened elder will likely be more measured than a brash novice. It is not Tarango's fault in the slightest, but it is also notable that she frequently cites Andrea Smith who has since been exposed as a "pretendian". Still, this is a valuable contribution to scholarship that weds the worlds of pentecostalism and Native Americans together.
For a great many number of Protestants (especially of the bookish variety), the lure of the Magisterial Reformation is strong. They may have grown up in pleasant, non-denominational churches singing Paul Baloche, Matt Redman, and Hillsong with a pastor who quoted Max Lucado more than Martin Luther, but they eventually find themselves learning about TULIP or wandering down the Canterbury Trail. In fact, I recall one local pastor whose "testimony" about becoming Anglican included his realization that many of the scholars he most respected - C.S. Lewis, N.T. Wright, Alister McGrath - were members of the Church of England.
In evangelical intellectual circles, pentecostalism doesn't have such a prestigious pedigree (though there have been impressive pentecostal scholars such as the late Gordon Fee and Amos Yong). Those who cling to the Book of Common Prayer and its exquisite, structured liturgy, often have a hard time comprehending the spontaneous outpouring of the Spirit that features so prominently in pentecostal worship. But one thing that pentecostalism has excelled its fellow Protestants at is in its practice of the "indigenous principle." The indigenous principle encourages missionaries to train, disciple, and equip native believers so that they can exercise leadership among their people and so that the indigenous church retains its own unique culture, customs, and heritage. It aims for a decolonized expression of biblical Christianity. Much of this is due to pentecostalism's insistence that the charisms of the Holy Spirit serve as the authorization and validation of a believer's ministry rather than the formal educational requirements so commonly required among Anglicans, Presbyterians, and other Protestants; many traditional Protestant denominations would send missionaries abroad but due to their demands for educational attainment, these denominations were painstakingly slow in raising up indigenous leaders and handing church governance and authority over to them)
There is plenty of good evidence that pentecostalism's championing of the indigenous principle is one of the pillars of the movement's astonishing growth (particularly in Latin America), but pentecostals haven't always practiced the indigenous principle well. That is one of the central concerns of Angela Tarango's book Choosing the Jesus Way: American Indian Pentecostals and the Fight for the Indigenous Principle. Tarango (a self-identified progressive Roman Catholic of mixed Mexican and Native American ancestry), claims that despite their ideals, white pentecostals were often guilty of paternalism, ethnocentrism, and, at their worst, racism.
It can be argued that pentecostalism had precedents in the past, but most trace its origins (at least in North America) to the Asuza Street revival beginning in 1906. As such, it is a younger expression of Christianity and Tarango's research is largely based on archival sources pertaining to the earliest generation of pentecostal Native Americans, specifically, those in the Assemblies of God (AG). At times she admits she can't be certain about the claims she makes because a written record doesn't exist, but she makes reasonable, calculated assumptions (for instance, the pioneering Navajo evangelist Charlie Lee [1924 - 2003] never explicitly stated he read indigenous activist Vine Deloria Jr. but he had advised missionaries to "be aware of current Indian thinkers" around the time of the Red Power Movement's heyday (through reading Tarango's book I also learned that Deloria Jr. ultimately abandoned Christianity because his efforts as an Episcopal minister to found a Native American Church was turfed by the Episcopal Church's bureaucracy).
Pentecostalism and Native American identity did often collide. Many white missionaries were suspicious of indigenous practices like using peyote and they condemned traditional religion. In order to dissuade Native Americans from participating in what they frowned upon like the powwows, white missionaries would schedule camp meetings at the same time; this forced the pentecostal Native Americans to choose between their religion and their culture and had real repercussions as powwows were often where business dealings were carried out. It was often difficult to clearly define what aspects of traditional Native American culture could be incorporated into pentecostalism, such as smudging or the use of indigenous drums (pp. 91-92). Many times, according to Tarango, white pentecostals were only practicing the indigenous principle "halfway" (pp. 76-77). But when we discuss the indigenous principle, so often it is white missionaries travelling to a foreign land like Brazil or Malawi; it is natural for, say, a pentecostal Swedish missionary in rural Brazil to feel out of his or her element so far from their own homeland. It would likely be easier to defer to indigenous siblings in Christ because white missionaries were aliens. I wonder if white missionaries' "halfway" posture towards pentecostal Native Americans was because white missionaries felt more confident in administering denominational affairs in their American homeland compared to being far from home on a foreign mission field (I don't say this in their defence, but rather to suggest a possible explanation?
Yet at times, pentecostal Native Americans courageously challenged the AG's expectations. A group of pentecostal Apache women "won forty ribbons at the Apache Indian Tribal Fair for their sewing, cooked foods, etc., and our Assemblies of God booth won first prize. This gave them an opportunity to witness and pass out over four thousand tracts in the two days" (p. 75). As Tarango explains, rather than turning away from their heritage, these pentecostal Apache women actively participated in their culture by performing traditional lay work which was regarded with great admiration from their fellow Apache and this also gave them the opportunity to evangelize to their neighbours.
The story of Native American pentecostalism is also interesting because women play a significant role, most notably the remarkably entrepreneurial and persistent Alta Washburn (1906 - 1990), who worked tirelessly to found the All Tribes Indian Bible School in 1957 (now known as Nelson American Indian College [AIC] and located in Phoenix, Arizona). Women have enjoyed more freedom in charismatic Christianity than in more traditional streams of Protestantism but pentecostal women did face many common barriers; Tarango believes that Washburn was able to exercise an unusual amount of influence because the constituency of her work were Native Americans, a historically underserved group by the Assemblies of God; Washburn may have faced greater scrutiny in her efforts had she been ministering to a white constituency (pp. 10-11). Pentecostal Native Americans could have attended other pentecostal Bible schools but the All Tribes Indian Bible School gave them a dedicated educational institute where they could live into their indigenous identity alongside their faith and study and fellowship with pentecostal Native Americans from other tribes (Tarango wryly notes that "Many alumni affectionately referred to the school as 'American Indian Bridal College'," p. 195). One of the notable episodes in AIC's early history was a furor over the food. The school had a shoe-string budget so the standard meals were "pinto beans, tortillas or fry bread, and chilies. The Pimas and Papagos who made up the initial classes typically ate this food" (p. 131). But as more students from around the arrived from different tribal backgrounds (e.g. Mohawk and Navajo), they expressed displeasure with the standard meals and clamoured for their own cuisine such as fish and mutton.
The culinary clash helps to highlight that so often in discussions about Native Americans, they are all conflated into one body whereas in the USA there are 574 federally recognized tribes. Rodger Cree, the last living member of the first generation of pentecostal Native Americans, noted to Tarango that "pan-American Indianism" tended to flatten out indigenous distinctives and base their Native identity more on what they see in movies. "According to Cree, each tribe had its own distinct identity and its own traditionally held religious beliefs. These no longer existed in their original form; the modern versions were simply "deceptions" (p. 90). Indeed, Cree claims that in the public imagination, most of what we take to be Native American culture is far more tied to the Plains Indians than other groups like the Coast Salish. White pentecostals have often been complicit in pushing such an inaccurate portrayal; a white AG pastor named C.E. Pershing urged John McPherson to wear a Plains headdress and Native American attire rather than a white man's suit (even though McPherson was Cherokee), even lending him the money to purchase it, because it would be useful for his ministry (p. 103). McPherson bought such a suit and regularly wore it on public occasions. But:
The suit not only played into typical white stereotypes of Indians but also trivialized the traditional and tribal ties of Brother McPherson. He was a Cherokee wearing a generic Hollywood rendition of a Plains Indian warrior suit. Most ordinary Indians retained some traditional dress that was not as garish as the Indian suit and proved more functional - velvet skirts for Navajo women, elaborate hairstyles for Hopi women, and traditional jewelry that graced the bodies of both men and women from any number of tribes. As a rule, Indians did not wear traditional dress every day. They tended to dress like working-class Americans - especially the men, whose standard uniform was that of the day laborer: jeans, t-shirt, flannel overshirt, and heavy boots. Ordinary Indian dress would not draw the white American public, however, and Brother McPherson understood that he would garner more attention if he wore Indian costume rather than the standard three-piece suit of a Pentecostal evangelist (pp. 104-05).
Tarango's book helps to complicate the oft-held assumption by white liberals that Christianity is inherently a handmaiden of (even lingering) colonialism. She showcases how indigenous figures like the artist-turned-evangelist Charlie Lee, John McPherson, and Andrew and John Maracle were compelled by their faith and active in ministering to their indigenous communities. It was their restorationist, pentecostal faith that brought healings both physical and emotional; ailments were miraculously cured and the tender love of Jesus melted the indigeous believer's hatred of the white man who had so historically exploited and disadvantaged their people (p. 101). Interestingly, Tarango claims that pentecostal Native Americans fared better than African American pentecostals because the AG approached the two groups differently: "Indians, because of their perceived 'heathenness,' became objects of missionary work, whereas African Americans, who already had deep ties to Protestant Christianity and who were members of the Pentecostal movement from the outset, where relegated to their own separate denomination" (the Church of God in Christ, p. 163).
At times the book is as dry as the Mesa Valley where Charlie Lee planted his church (his congregation in Shiprock, in 1976, became the first Native American church on a federally recognized reservation to make the transition from being a supported mission to a fully indigenous, self-supporting, General Council-affiliated church) and I think Tarango tends to toss around the charge of "paternalism" too often. For instance, she accuses some white missionaries of being paternalistic and not trusting more recent indigenous pentecostal converts with leadership and while I do think many other Protestants were too slow in handing over power to indigenous believers, there is also a place for careful discernment and time for tutelage; a wizened elder will likely be more measured than a brash novice. It is not Tarango's fault in the slightest, but it is also notable that she frequently cites Andrea Smith who has since been exposed as a "pretendian". Still, this is a valuable contribution to scholarship that weds the worlds of pentecostalism and Native Americans together.
October 12, 2025
Tarango tells an amazing story of American Indians and the Pentecostal movement in America. And it's a previously untold story. Her work is a valuable part of the catalogue of historical works that tell the tale of American Christianity.
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