The Broken Covenant Christianity, Violence, and the Betrayal of Native Peoples For generations, Christianity was wielded as a weapon against Indigenous peoples—justifying land theft, cultural erasure, and brutal policies of forced assimilation. From the Doctrine of Discovery to the horrors of Indian boarding schools, the faith that promised salvation became a tool of conquest. In The Broken Covenant, Matthew B. Scraper, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and former United Methodist minister, unpacks the deep and lasting damage Christianity inflicted upon Native communities. Drawing from historical records, personal experience, and Indigenous resistance movements, he exposes the ways Christianity justified violence and betrayed the very people it claimed to redeem. This book is not just an indictment of the past—it is a call for truth, justice, and the reclamation of Indigenous spiritual sovereignty. With unflinching honesty, Scraper traces the legacy of Christian missionization and its ongoing effects on Native identity, while also uplifting the voices of those who have resisted and survived. For those who have wrestled with faith, history, and identity, The Broken Covenant is a vital read—a necessary reckoning with the past and a vision for an Indigenous future free from the chains of colonial religion.
