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Religion

Film shows tribe's path from killing to caring

By GAIL HOLLENBECK
Published January 21, 2006

It's a story that has endured for 50 years. Of five missionaries speared to death by a primitive tribe in Ecuador. Of a sister and wife who returned to minister to the Waodoni tribe that had killed their loved ones. Of a warrior who became like a father to the son of the man he had killed. Of mission work that continues, with the former killers now serving God by helping others to "walk God's trail."

The story has been told in several books and a film documentary. Now, at the 50th anniversary of the men's death, it is being told again, in a motion picture. End of the Spear was released Friday in theaters throughout the country. It is billed as "a true story of adventure, tragedy and a new beginning."

It stars Louie Leonardo, Chad Allen, Jack Guzman, Christina Souza and Chase Ellison.

The real story began in two settings.

In the early '50s, five young men who attended Wheaton College in Illinois gave their lives to God and decided to be missionaries to Ecuador. With their new wives, they each set up a jungle post, keeping in touch by radio. They ministered to the peaceful tribes nearby.

Meanwhile, deep in the rain forest at the headwaters of the Amazon River, a primitive tribe, the Waodoni, struggled for survival in a culture that taught its children to kill or be killed. Vendettas were such a part of their daily lives that, anthropologists report, about 60 percent of adult Waodoni deaths were homicides.

Steve Saint, 55, is the son of one of the five slain missionaries. In Beyond the Gates of Splendor, a documentary released last fall, Saint tells the story.

In the documentary, several Waodoni tell of growing up among such violence. All had relatives who had been speared to death or killed with a machete. Mincaye, the man who killed Steve Saint's father, Nate Saint, tells of seeing his sister killed by an anaconda.

Other tribes feared the Waodoni and called them "Aucas," naked savages.

Nate Saint was the group's pilot with a small plane. As he flew over the jungles one day, he saw what he knew had to be an Auca village. In the next weeks, he and another of the missionaries would fly over several times, each time dropping gifts for the tribe. Eventually all five landed near the village and made contact with three Aucas.

Just as they thought they were forming friendships, warriors attacked and killed them with spears and machetes and threw their bodies into the river.

Though the missionaries were armed, they had long before agreed that they would never kill an Auca, because they believed their position in heaven was secured and the Aucas' was not.

Nate Saint's sister and one of the widows and her daughter moved into the village, sharing a message of love and peace. Mincaye and several other tribe members became Christians.

End of the Spear tells the story from the viewpoint of Mincayani, a composite character based mostly on the life of Mincaye.

Steve Saint was an adviser for the film.

"It is very, very close to the real story," he said, noting that only those intimately familiar with the story would notice some details that were changed.

[Last modified January 21, 2006, 01:33:17]