Altkolonier Mennonitengemeinde, Mexico

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Congregations

Old Colony Mennonite (Car): 18 colonies Old Colony Mennonite (Horse): 12 colonies

Membership

Old Colony Mennonite (Car): 16,525 Old Colony Mennonite (Horse): 3,200

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Old Colony Mennonite Church (Car) (Altkolonier Mennonitengemeinde)

This group was part of the 1922 migration of Old Colony Mennonites of Dutch-Russian background from Canada to Mexico. These tradition-minded Mennonites left Canada because they were threatened by new education laws in Manitoba and Saskatchewan that required all children to attend English-language schools. Many Old Colony members eventually left Mexico for British Honduras (now Belize) and Bolivia. Some impoverished members returned to Canada in the last quarter of the 20th century. This is the largest and most progressive branch of Old Colony people in Mexico. They accept rubber tires on tractors, travel by car and truck, and use electricity. They speak Low German and continue many traditional religious practices of their Old Colony heritage. The group has about 16,525 members in 18 colonies. Twelve of the colonies are in Chihuahua, and the rest are in Coahuila, Durango, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas. Other congregations related to this group are in Belize, Canada, and the United States. [1]

Old Colony Mennonite Church (Horse) (Altkolonier Mennonitengemeinde)

Beginning in 1922, some 7,000 Old Colony Mennonites of Dutch-Russian background, who had settled in Canada in the 1870s, migrated to Mexico. They established three colonies: Manitoba and Swift in Chihuahua, and Patos in Durango. These tradition-minded Mennonites left Canada because they were threatened by new education laws in Manitoba and Saskatchewan that required all children to attend Englishlanguage schools. Many Old Colony members eventually left Mexico for British Honduras (now Belize) and Bolivia. Some impoverished members returned to Canada in the last quarter of the 20th century. This is the most traditional subgroup. Members speak Low German, use steel-wheeled tractors, reject electricity, and travel by horse and buggy. The group has 3,200 members living in 12 colonies, seven of which are in the state of Campeche. Other congregations related to this group are in Belize, Canada, and the United States.[2]

Stories

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Origins

The Old Colony Mennonites in Mexico (Altkolonier Mennonitengemeinde) can trace their roots the more conservative branch of the Russian Mennonites in Choritza Colony. In the early 1870s, the czarist government revoked the right of the Russian Mennonites to be exempt from military service. While a delegation was sent to Moscow to restore this privilege, and was successful in doing so, more conservative bishops saw this as a sign that it was time to move. A delegation was sent abroad to secure new land where they could settle, educate their own children, and be exempt from military service. Land and a Privilegium was found in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada. The Privilegium stated, among other things, that the Russian Mennonites would not to subject to military conscription, and that the colonists could run their own schools. This migration to Canada took place in around 1874. The colonists established three major colonies, Manitoba and Swift Current Colonies in Manitoba Province, and Hague-Osler Colony in Saskatchewan.

Immigration to Mexico

In 1892, Canadian law stated that public schools could be founded and supported by the government if a majority of people within a town voted to establish one. Attendance was in no way compulsory. Old Colony Schools were already well established, though an influx of non-Mennonite settlers began to desire public school systems. The Mennonite majority was able to vote these plans down again and again, but the first public school in Old Colony territory was established when a vote was held during the construction of a major mill. Construction workers were allowed vote, and the Mennonite majority was overruled.

Ordinary Canadian citizens began to become frustrated with Mennonites for stopping the creation of public schools. In 1902, the government recommended to local officials that voting districts be drawn so that Mennonite residences would be outside of the district, while their land was inside, allowing them to be taxed, but not vote in elections.

Some Old Colony members saw the improved quality of these new public schools and desired for their children to educated in those schools, rather than in colony schools. Old Colony leadership maintained that only colony schools were permissible, and promptly excommunicated members who sent their kids to public school. Many families were bankrupted after their excommunication over this issue. INSERT QUOTE?

In 1908, after the complaints of at least 12 excommunicated members and the broader community, a Commission of Inquiry was assembled to investigate Old Colony practices. The commission threatened to revoke ministers ability to solemnize marriages if they continued to excommunicate members over public schooling. Old Colony leadership ignored this demand, referring to Deuteronomy 6:7, Romans 16:17-19, 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14, as a biblical basis for their practices. The government ultimately did not enforce this threat, though schools continued to expand into Old Colony territory. One education minister remarked that schools are not in place to make Mennonites, but “intelligent and patriotic” citizens.

The spring of 1917 brought the passage of the School Attendance Act, which became the major reason behind the later migration to Mexico. It stated that all children between the ages of 7 and 14 must attend a public, English speaking school if the child lived within a school district. Initially, many Old Colonists avoided this issue simply because they lived outside of major towns. If they did not, children were often sent to live with relatives who were not within a district.

The Old Colony leadership sent a delegation to Ottawa to ask that the Privilegium they had been granted be respected. Canadian officials responded that the provincial governments were not violating the agreement, as it was an agreement between the Mennonites and the federal government. When the wealthier Manitoba colonists took the law to court, it was declared that the Privilegium was in violation on the constitution and would not be upheld. In the summer of 1918, the Saskatchewan government send contractors to build schools within the colonies, regardless of Old Colony protestation.

Next, the government began fining families in violation of the law. In 1920, in one colony alone, fines amounted to 22,500 dollars. Mennonites were also subject to taxes in support of the schools. In some cases, government officials seized and auction property.

The Old Colonists then came to two conclusions, first that the Canadian provincial governments were committed to enforcing public schools, and second that their Privilegium would not protect them.

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Citations

  1. Donald B. Kraybill, Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), 233-234.
  2. Ibid.