An extended review of a 2025 book by H. Daniel Zacharias and T. Christopher Hoklotubbe
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IVP Academic, 2025. 288 pages. $37 (ebook $36, audio $16).
T. Christopher Hoklotubbe and H. Daniel Zacharias have given us a gift in outlining a distinctively Native approach to reading Scripture in North America. Reading the Bible on Turtle Island is unique among the ever-growing corpus of books by Indigenous Christian scholars in Nth America – which includes luminaries such as Richard Twiss, Ray Aldred and Cheryl Bear – in zeroing in on biblical interpretation.
Hoklotubbe and Zacharias believe that the Bible and Indigenous teachings and rituals belong together. They argue that while many Indigenous practices and teachings may have raised eyebrows in churches in the past, in fact these traditions draw attention to biblical themes that have lain dormant in the dominant Christian culture. So, the authors articulate a way of reading the Bible that does not set Indigenous traditions against Scripture, but rather allows one to illuminate the other, disclosing the truth and wisdom in the other that may otherwise lie undetected. The authors write with a high view of Scripture, and their skill as expert exegetes makes the book informative and exciting to read.
As many readers know, in referring to North America as Turtle Island the authors follow the practice of many Indigenous people groups whose creation stories refer to North America is sitting on the back of a turtle. Place plays a big role in the book: how do Indigenous Peoples read the Bible here?
A key dynamic in the authors’ interpretive lens is God’s presence in North America over the millennia. God has not been absent from this place, as if God could only act in the lands in which the Bible was written. They write, “A core assumption of Turtle Island hermeneutics is that Creator, who made a covenant with the Israelite patriarchs and matriarchs, had not ignored the Indigenous peoples of North America until the European colonizers arrived. Rather, Creator has always been present on Turtle Island and made a mark on the stories, ceremonies, lands, worldviews, and lifeways of its Indigenous peoples” (p. 3).
The authors wrote this book out of their own lived experiences in reading the Bible as Indigenous Christians. Their stories of how their own understanding has deepened over the years often hilarious! T. Christopher Hoklotubbe, describes himself as “mixed indigenous and settler,” “a proud member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.” He works as the director of graduate studies of NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community and assistant professor of classics at Cornell College in Iowa. H. Daniel Zacharias descends from Cree, Anishnaabe and Métis ancestry on his maternal side and Austrian on his paternal side. Zacharias is originally from Winnipeg (Treaty One territory). He works as associate dean and professor of New Testament studies at Acadia Divinity College in Nova Scotia.
These authors wrote Reading the Bible on Turtle Island for multiple audiences. One audience is settlers, like me. For settlers, Indigenous biblical interpretation can highlight biblical themes that that have been too often ignored in the broader church. For example, the authors discuss Indigenous experiences of dreams and visions. They remind us of the number of times the apostle Paul receives specific guidance for his journey, not through Old Testament but through dreams and visions.
Another audience is Indigenous Christian groups who adopt more conservative Christian teaching. For these groups, uncritical adoption of traditional Western Christianity may incline them to thrown out their Indigenous traditions. In response the authors urge: Scripture and Indigenous traditions belong together.
A third audience is Indigenous thinkers who have abandoned Christianity in defiant preference for Indigenous traditions. To these kinspeople the authors argue that biblical Christianity does not have the colonial, otherworldly that is all too often reflected in the white church. Rather, Scripture has a justice-oriented, liberative trajectory, and its wisdom is ever grounded in the more-than-human-creation. As such, it resonates loudly with Indigenous values. Notwithstanding the strong message of the book, the author’s tone is deeply respectful toward those who may disagree with them, and especially toward Indigenous thinkers and elders.
It is common in discussions of biblical interpretation to speak of a circle of interpretation. Circles of interpretation seek to explain the multifaceted nature of reading Scripture, which tends to be cyclical rather than linear. One such model might be cycling through four experiences: Scripture reading, community, worship and praxis (then returning to Scripture). In a similar vein, Hoklotubbe and Zacharias offer what they call “a medicine wheel of Turtle Island hermeneutics.” In reading Scripture, they offer, we move through: Scripture reading, cultural traditions, creation, our hearts and minds (then returning to Scripture). Creation itself teaches us, the authors argue. They point to the wisdom literature of the Old Testament creation teachers those with wisdom (Proverbs 6:6-11; Job 12:7-10), and they point to Jesus’ teaching, “Consider the ravens . . .” (Luke 12:24) (p. 16-19).
Reading the Bible on Turtle Island is an invaluable contribution to the study and practice of reading the Bible. I highly recommend it.
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