Was talking to a friend last night, she told us her grandfather recently died. He was a member of the Blackfeet tribe in Canada and was also a member of the Bahá’í faith. This struck me as an unusual combination, but she said there is a large group of Bahá’ís in his tribe. Wikipeida says “…more than 18% of Canadian Bahá’ís come from First Nations and Inuit backgrounds…” Unfortunately, the article doesn’t break out US statistics, so I don’t know if there is a similar percentage of Bahá’ís in US tribes.
Because I’m no Malcom Gladwell, I thought I’d call on the collective wisdom of the SDMB.
Questions:
How did a faith founded in Persia in the 1800s gain such a strong following among tribes in Canada? Was there a mission devoted to find members among the tribes, or did someone/a small group convert and spread the faith organically?
Is there something about the culture of Canadian tribes that made their members amenable to this particular faith?
Is there a similar percentage of Bahá’ís in US tribes?
I can only answer part of the question and my answer is anecdotal. As a sociologist, a Native American and an activist I can respond that I am not aware of any great representation in Native American populations. Is should think that I would be aware if existed.
The only thing I can think of is that Canadian First Nations people suffered terribly at the hands of the mainstream Christian churches, in residential schools that removed Native children from their parents and attempted to stamp out their culture, and where they suffered sexual and physical abuse. So perhaps antipathy to the majority religions in Canada led to increased influence for other religions such as the Bahá’í Faith.
My WAG would be that immigration within the British Empire might have something to do with it. Baha’i is also very prominent in India (cite), and the British shipped thousands of Indian (Asian Indian, that is, of course) indentured servants to other colonies or dominions for cheap labor (cite that this happened). Maybe some members of First Nations came into contact with immigrated followers of Baha’i.
Wiki, however, seems to assert that the importation of Baha’i to Canada goes back to one single family named Magee.
Baha’i is not a large religious movement in Canada. Current estimates put it at 30,000 (cite)
First Nations comprise roughly 1.2 Million Canadians (cite)
So even in a best case scenario, the Baha’i faith could only account for 2.5% of First Nation’s religious makeup.
Now, that’s not to say you can’t have clustered regions where the proportion is higher but you can not say as a general rule that the Baha’i faith is particularly strong throughout Canadian First Nations.