Indian Shaker Church

▪ American religious sect

      Christianized prophet cult among Northwest American Indians; it is not connected with the Shaker communities developed from the teachings of Ann Lee. In 1881 near Olympia, Wash., John Slocum, a Squaxon logger and a baptized Roman Catholic, reported that he had visited heaven while in a coma and was commissioned to preach a new way of life. The following year his wife, Mary, experienced a shaking paroxysm, which was interpreted as the Spirit of God curing John of a further illness. The Shaker Church they founded effected reforms and replaced traditional Indian curing methods with spiritual healing through shaking and dancing rituals.

      Christian elements of the Indian Shaker Church include belief in the Trinity and Sunday worship in plain churches furnished with a prayer table, handbells, and many crosses; Christian sacraments and festivals are not observed. Direct revelations replace the Bible, but a secession group cooperating with white evangelicals accepted the Bible and the preaching of sermons. Earlier persecutions ceased after the church was incorporated in Oregon (1907), Washington (1910), and California (1932). A loose organization in the late 20th century united more than 20 congregations with some 2,000 adherents.

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