Wheaton College, an evangelical Christian college in Illinois, will reword a plaque that refers to Indigenous people as “savage Indians,” Religion News Service reported. The plaque honors a group of missionaries, including several Wheaton alumni, who were killed in 1956 while proselytizing to the Waorani people in Ecuador. The plaque, which hangs in the college chapel, was
Wheaton College this fall will dedicate a new memorial plaque in honor of missionaries who were killed 65 years ago while trying to spread Christianity to Indigenous peoples in the Amazonian region of Ecuador.
At Wheaton College, a memorial’s been rewritten.
The story begins with missionaries Jim Elliot and Ed McCully.
You may have heard their names in 1956, they were slain by Auca Indians in the Ecuadorian jungle.
Seven years prior, Ed and Jim graduated from Wheaton.
In 1957, the class of ’49 entrusted a plaque.
It memorialized, “For generations, all strangers were killed by these savage Indians. After many days of patient preparation and devout prayer, the missionaries made the first friendly contact known to history with the Aucas.”
The young men had indeed broken through. For several months, they maintained friendly contact and exchanged gifts with the tribe.
Wheaton College has unveiled the new wording for a plaque honoring alumni Jim Elliot and other missionaries killed in Ecuador in 1956, which will replace an earlier plaque that had language considered derogatory towards indigenous people.