Magdalena Hergert Becker

Magdalena Hergert Becker (4 August 1878, Ebenfeld, Kansas to 7 July 1938, Indiahoma, Oklahoma) was a pioneer Mennonite[1] missionary. She served as Field Matron at Post Oak Missionary in Oklahoma for 28 years.[2] The matron position was one created by the US government to assist with assimilation efforts.[3] Becker was considered a success[4] in the matron program as some Native Americans did identify as Christian.

Becker witnessed filming of the 1920 silent film Daughter of Dawn, with a native cast of Kiowa and Comanche. She complained in her weekly report to the Bureau of Indian Affairs: "Went to a camp close to headquarters where their [sic] are about 300 Kiowas and Comanches gathered dancing and having pictures taken to be used in the movies.... I talked to the manager to have the camp broken up and dances stopped. These dances and large gatherings week after week are ruining our Indian boys and girls as they have been going on for about three months at different places. No work done during these days." A Comanche scholar wrote that her "amusing attempt to claim jurisdiction over "our" Natives' labor and assembly joins centuries of colonizing tactics against the Indigenous."[5]

Becker was married to Abraham “A.J.” Becker, a Mennonite missionary. They had 7 children with 1 dying in infancy.[6]

References
  1. "Publications: Profiles: Magdalena Hergert Becker". mbhistory.org. Retrieved 2020-06-20.
  2. Reimer, Luetta. "Magdalena Hergert Becker (1878–1938)". Mennonite Brethren Historical Commission. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  3. Wishart, David J. "Field Matron". Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  4. Kroeker, Marvin E. (1997). Comanches and Mennonites on the Oklahoma plains. Centers for Mennonite Brethren Studies. ISBN 0-921788-42-8.
  5. Tahmahkera, Dustin (2018-10-04). "Hakaru Maruumatu Kwitaka? Seeking Representational Jurisdiction in Comanchería Cinema". Native American and Indigenous Studies. 5 (1): 100–135. ISSN 2332-127X.
  6. Deckert, Lois; Richard D. Thiessen (March 2008). "Becker, Magdalena Hergert (1878-1938)". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
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