"Operation Auca" was an attempt by five Evangelical Christian missionaries from the United States to make contact with the Huaorani people of the jungles of Ecuador. The Huaorani, also known as the Aucas (the Quechua word for "savage"), were an isolated tribe known for their violence, both against their own people and outsiders who entered their territory. With the intention of evangelizing the Huaorani for the first time, the missionaries began making regular flights over Huaorani settlements in September 1955, dropping gifts. After several months of exchanging gifts, on January 2, 1956, the missionaries established a camp at "Palm Beach", a sandbar along the Curaray River, a few miles from Huaorani settlements. Their efforts culminated on January 8, 1956, when all five—Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, , , and —were attacked and speared by a group of Huaorani warriors. The news of their deaths was broadcast around the world, and Life magazine covered the event with a photo essay.

The deaths of the men galvanized the missionary effort in the United States, leading hundreds to commit their lives to foreign missionary service and sparking an outpouring of funding for evangelization efforts around the world. Their work is still frequently remembered in evangelical publications, and in 2006, was the subject of a film production, End of the Spear. Several years after the death of the men, the wife of Jim Elliot, Elisabeth, and the sister of Nate Saint, Rachel, returned to Ecuador as missionaries with the Summer Institute of Linguistics (now SIL International) to live among the Huaorani, eventually leading to the conversion of many, including some of the killers of the men. Missionary efforts among the people have continued ever since, now primarily directed by , Nate Saint's son. As a result, many of the Huaorani have become Christians and the tribe has been exposed to increased influence from the outside. This has caused Huaorani culture to begin to disappear, but anthropologists argue over the ultimate effect—some negatively view the missionary work as "cultural imperialism", while others contend that the influence has been beneficial for the tribe.

Background

The Huaorani

The Huaorani around the time of Operation Auca were a small tribe occupying the jungle of Eastern Ecuador between the Napo and Curaray rivers, an area of approximately 20,000 km². They numbered approximately 600 people, and were split into three groups, all mutually hostile—the Geketaidi, the Baïidi, and the Wepeidi. They lived on the gathering and cultivation of plant foods like manioc and plantains, as well as fishing and hunting with spear and blowgun. Family units consisted of a man and his wife or wives, their unmarried sons, their married daughters and sons-in-law, and their grandchildren. All of these would reside in a longhouse, which was separated by several miles from another longhouse in which close relatives lived. Marriage was typically cross-cousin, and decided by the parents of the young people.<ref>Boster, 473-75</ref>

For years before the first peaceful contact, which occurred in 1958, the Huaorani fiercely defended their territory. Viewing all outsiders as cannabilistic predators, they killed rubber tappers around the turn of the 20th century and Shell Oil Company employees during the 1940s, in addition to any lowland Quechua or other outsiders who encroached on their land.<ref>Rival, 37-38</ref> Furthermore, they were prone to internal violence, often engaging in vengeance-motived killing of other Huaorani. Raids were carried out in extreme anger, with a group of men attacking their victims' longhouse by night and fleeing. However, as their numbers decreased and the tribes fragmented, they began to realize the need for ending the violence. They used gifts and exchange of spouses to attempt to build truces, but the cycle of violence continued.<ref>Boster, 473, 475, 480</ref>

The missionaries

Jim Elliot first heard of the Huaorani in 1950 from a former missionary to Ecuador. He quickly came to the conclusion that God was calling him to Ecuador and to the Huaorani in particular. He began corresponding with his friend Pete Fleming about his desire to minister in Ecuador, and in 1952, the two men set sail for Ecuador.<ref>Elliot, 19-21</ref> For six months they lived in Quito with the goal of learning Spanish. They then moved to Shandia, a Quechua mission station deep in the Ecuadorian jungle. There they worked under the supervision of a missionary, Wilfred Tidmarsh, and began exposing themselves to the culture and studying the Quechua language.<ref>Elliot, 28-29, 31-34</ref>

Another team member was Ed McCully, a man Jim Elliot had met and befriended while both attended Wheaton College. Following graduation, he married Marilou Hobolth and enrolled in a one year basic medical treatment program at the School of Missionary Medicine in Los Angeles. On December 10, 1952, Ed moved to Quito with his family, planning to soon join Jim and Pete in Shandia. In 1953, however, the station in Shandia was wiped out by a flood, delaying their move until September of that year.

The team's pilot, Nate Saint, had served in the military during World War II, receiving flight training as a member of the Army Air Corps.<ref>Hitt, 65</ref> After being discharged in 1946, he too studied at Wheaton College, but quit after a year and joined the Missionary Aviation Fellowship in 1948. He and his wife Marj traveled to Ecuador by the end of the year, and they settled at MAF headquarters in Shell Mera. Nate began transporting supplies and equipment shortly after their arrival to missionaries spread throughout the jungle. This work ultimately led to his meeting the other four missionaries who he joined in Operation Auca.<ref>Hitt, 94, 136-45, 265</ref>

Also on the team was Roger Youderian, a 32-year-old missionary who had been working in Ecuador since 1953. Under the mission board Gospel Missionary Union, he and his wife Barbara and daughter Beth settled in Macuma, a mission station in the southern jungle of Ecuador. There, he and his wife ministered to the Shuar people, learning their language and transcribing it. Roger spent much time in their houses building relationships and evangelizing.<ref>Elliot, 73-79</ref> After working with them for about a year, Roger and his family began working with a tribe related to the Shuar, the Achuar people. He worked with Nate Saint to provide important medical supplies, but after a period of attempting to build relationships with them, he failed to see any positive effect and, growing depressed, considered returning to the United States. However, during this time Nate Saint approached him about joining their team to meet the Huaorani, and he assented.<ref>Elliot, 81, 92-94, 151-54</ref>

At Palm Beach

After several months of exchanging gifts through the air, on December 23, 1955, Jim, Nate, Ed and their wives met in Arajuno to discuss the next steps. At this point, Pete had still not decided to participate in the operation, and Roger was still working in the jungle farther south. The three couples decided that the men would land on January 3, 1956, and would build a camp. They agreed to take weapons, but decided that they would only be used to fire into the air to scare the Huaorani if they attacked. They built a sort of tree house that could be assembled upon arrival, and collected gifts, first-aid equipment, and language notes.<ref>Elliot, 173-74</ref>

By January 2, Pete had decided to go with the other men, and the five met in Arajuno to prepare to leave the following day. After minor mechanical trouble with the plane, Nate and Ed took off at 8:02am on January 3 and successfully landed on the sandy beach along the Curaray river. Nate then flew Jim and Roger to the camp, and then made several more flights, carrying equipment. After the last flight, he flew over a Huaorani settlement, telling them to visit their camp. He then returned to Arajuno, and the next day, he and Pete flew out to Palm Beach.<ref>Elliot, 177-83</ref>

First visit

On January 6, after several days of waiting and shouting basic Huaorani phrases into the jungle, the men got their first Huaorani visitors. A young man and two women emerged on the opposite river bank around 11:15am, and soon joined the missionaries at their encampment.<ref>Elliot, 189</ref> The younger of the two women had come against the wishes of her family, and the man, named Nankiwi and romantically interested in her, followed. The older woman (about thirty years old) acted as a self-appointed chaperone.<ref name=Saint25>Saint, 25</ref> The men gave them several gifts, including a model airplane, and the visitors soon relaxed and began conversing freely, apparently not realizing that the men's language skills were weak. The Huaorani man, who the missionaries nicknamed "George", showed interest in the missionary's airplane, so Nate took off with him aboard. They first completed a circuit around the camp, but "George" appeared eager for a second trip, so they flew toward Terminal City. Upon reaching a familiar clearing, "George" recognized his neighbors, and leaning out of the plane, wildly waved and shouted to them. Later that afternoon, the younger woman became restless, and though the missionaries offered their visitors sleeping quarters, Nankiwi and the young woman left the beach with little explanation. The older woman apparently had more interest in conversing with the missionaries, and remained there most of the night.<ref>Elliot, 190-92</ref>

After seeing Nankiwi in the plane, a small group of Huaorani decided to make the trip to Palm Beach, and left the following morning, January 7. On the way, they encountered Nankiwi and the girl, returning unescorted. The girl's brother, Nampa, was furious at this, and to diffuse the situation and divert attention from himself, Nankiwi claimed that the foreigners had attacked them on the beach, and in their haste to flee, they had been separated from their chaperone. Gikita, a senior member of the group whose experience with outsiders had taught him that they could not be trusted, recommended that they kill the foreigners. The return of the older woman and her account of the friendliness of the missionaries was not enough to dissuade them, and they soon continued toward the beach.<ref name=Saint25 />

The attack

For the missionaries, January 7 was an uneventful day of waiting—they expected a larger group of Huaorani to arrive sometime that afternoon, if only to get airplane rides. Nate and Pete made several trips over Huaorani settlements, and while the natives seemed abnormally fearful at first, their spirits seemed to improve by the last fly-over. The following morning, Nate made another pass, and noted a group of Huaorani men traveling toward Palm Beach. He excitedly relayed this information to his wife over the radio at 12:30pm, promising to make contact again at 4:30pm.<ref>Elliot, 193-94</ref>

The Huaorani arrived at Palm Beach around 3:00pm, and in order to divide the foreigners before attacking them, they sent three women to the other side of the river. One, Dawa, remained hidden, but the other two showed themselves. Two of the missionaries waded into the water to greet them, but were attacked from behind by Nampa. Having committed not to use their firearms in self-defense but only to scare the Huaorani, the first to be speared drew his pistol and began firing, but was grabbed from behind by one of the women, causing one of his shots to graze his attacker. Another of his shots mildly injured Dawa, still hiding in the jungle.<ref name=Saint26-27>Saint, 26-27</ref> Anthropologist Laura Rival suggests that it is commonly believed among Huaorani that this missionary was Nate Saint, and that Nampa died of the wound a month later. However, Dawa relates that Nampa recovered from the wound but died a year later while hunting.<ref>Rival, 158; Dawa cited in Saint, 26</ref> The other missionary in the river, before being speared, desperately reiterated friendly overtures and asked the Huaorani why they were killing them. Meanwhile, the other Huaorani warriors, led by Gikita, attacked the three missionaries still on the beach, killing all three before they had a chance to report the attack over the radio. They then threw the men's bodies and their belongings in the river, and ripped the fabric from their airplane. Afterward, several of the Huaorani reported hearing strange music and seeing moving lights in the sky, an experience that they described as supernatural. They then returned to their village and, in expectation of the typical retribution of foreigners, they burned it to the ground and fled into the jungle.<ref name=Saint26-27 />

Searching for the missionaries

Not receiving word from Nate at 4:30pm immediately caused Marj Saint to worry, but she avoided reacting hastily, not telling anyone about the lack of communication until that evening. The next morning, January 9, Johnny Keenan flew to the camp site, and at 9:30am reported via radio to the wives that the plane was stripped of its fabric and that the men were not there. The Commander in Chief of the Caribbean Command, Lieutenant General William K. Harrison, was contacted, and Quito-based radio station HCJB released a news bulletin saying that five men were missing in Hauorani territory. Soon, aircraft from the United States Air Rescue Service in Panama were flying over the jungle, and a ground search party consisting of other missionaries and military personnel was organized. The first two of the bodies were found on January 11, and on Thursday, Ed McCully's body was identified by a group of Quechua indians. They took his watch as evidence of the finding but did not move his body from its location on the bank of the Curaray. It later washed away, and two more bodies were found on January 12. The searchers hoped that one of the unidentified bodies was Ed, thinking that perhaps one of the men had escaped. However, on January 13, all four of the bodies found were positively identified and Ed's body was not among them, confirming that all five were dead. In the midst of a tropical storm, they were buried in a common grave at Palm Beach on January 14 by members of the ground search party.<ref>Elliot, 195-202, 235-38</ref><ref>New York Times articles</ref>

Legacy

Christian views

Among evangelical Christians, the five men are considered martyrs and missionary heroes. Numerous books have been written about them, most notably by Elisabeth Elliot, but also by other biographers. Anniversaries of their deaths are often accompanied by stories in major Christian publications,<ref>See Saint and Rainey</ref> and a movie depicting their deaths and the subsequent acceptance of Christianity by the Huaorani, End of the Spear, was largely well-accepted, grossing over $11 million.<ref> Boxofficemojo.com. URL accessed on March 3, 2006.</ref> While Christians have noticed the disintegration of the Huaorani culture, beginning with Nate Saint's own journal entry in 1955,<ref>Elliot, 157</ref> they continue to positively view the efforts of Steve Saint and other missionaries in the area. Specifically, they note the decline in violence among tribe members, numerous conversions to Christianity, and growth of the local church.<ref>Rainey, 18-21</ref>

Anthropologist views

Anthropologists generally have less favorable views of the missionary work begun by Operation Auca, viewing the intervention as the cause for the recent and widely recognized decline of Huaorani culture. Rival considers the work of the SIL to have "pacified" the Huaorani during the 1960s, and argues that missionary intervention caused significant changes in fundamental components of Huaorani society. Prohibitions of polygamy, violence, chanting, and dancing were directly opposite cultural norms, while a relocation of Huaorani and subsequent intermarrying of previously hostile groups eroded cultural identity.<ref>Rival, 157-59</ref> Others are somewhat less negative—Boster suggests that the "pacification" of the Huaorani was a result of "active effort" by the Huaorani themselves, not the result of missionary imposition. He argues that Christianity served as a way for the Huaorani to escape the cycle of violence in their community, since it provided a motivation to abstain from killing.<ref>Boster, 480-82</ref>

References

• Boster, James S., James Yost, Catherine Peeke (2003). "Rage, Revenge, and Religion: Honest Signaling of Aggression and Nonaggression in Waorani Coalitional Violence". Ethos 31 (4): 471–494.
• Brysk, Alison (2004). “From Civil Society to Collective Action” Edward L. Cleary and Timothy J. Steigenga Resurgent Voices in Latin America, 25–42, London: Rutgers University. ISBN 0813534607.
• Colby, Gerard; Charlotte Dennett (1995). Thy Will Be Done, New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060167645.
• Elliot, Elisabeth (1957). Through Gates of Splendor, New York: Harper.
• Hitt, Russell (1959). Jungle Pilot: The Life and Witness of Nate Saint, New York: Harper.
• "5 U.S. Missionaries Are Believed Slain", New York Times, January 12, 1956, p. 3.
• "5 U.S. Missionaries Lost; Jungle Murder Feared", New York Times, January 11, 1956, p. 4.
• "Four Bodies Found in Ecuador", New York Times, January 13, 1956, p. 5.
• Rainey, Clint (2006). "Five-Man Legacy". World magazine (January 28, 2006): 20–27.
• (1996). "Did They Have to Die?". Christianity Today (September 16, 1996): 20–27.
• Stoll, David (1982). Fishers of Men or Founders of Empire?, London: Zed. ISBN 0862321115.
• Stoll, David (1990). Is Latin America Turning Protestant?, Los Angeles: University of California. ISBN 0520064992.

Notes

Further reading

• Ziegler-Otero, Lawrence (2004). Resistance In An Amazonian Community: Huaorani Oganizing Against The Global Economy, New York / Oxford: Berghahn. ISBN 1-57181-448-5. This book gives details about the collusion of the Summer Institute of Linguistics in general and Rachel Saint in particular with US oil companies and the Ecuadorian military.

External links

• Remembering Five Missionary Martyrs (Intervarsity Christian Fellowship)
• Five Missionary Martyrs (Moments Media)
• Piercing memories (Avant Ministries)
• IMDb page for movie based on these events, titled "End of the Spear" (2006)
• Movie based on these and subsequent events, titled "Trinkets and Beads" (1996) (First Run / Icarus Films)