Tribes: Revelation on People Groups from Inside American Prison

By Zach White

"And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it for in its peace you will have peace."

(Jeremiah 29:7)

Zach White expounds on his unique insights on people groups that he's gained after over a decade of consecutive incarceration. He speaks on navigating some of the chall

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Mar 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781637698877

Zach White

Zach has been locked up in the Arizona State Prison system since 2008. His residence prior to his incarceration was in Apache Junction, Arizona. Before his arrest, he played guitar in a secular heavy metal band and struggled with drug and alcohol dependency. He's been clean and sober since age twenty-four after receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior while in the Pinal County Jail, awaiting being sentenced to prison. Zach's been active with church since his salvation in 2007 and in ministry since 2010. He also currently works as certified peer support in the prison where he's serving time.Check out his website: www.prisontribes.com.

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Chapter One:

A Tribe Is

The true character of the loveliness that speaks for God is always unnoticed by the one possessing that quality.

(Oswald Chambers)

According to Webster’s New World Dictionary Third College Edition, a tribe is (1) esp. among preliterate peoples, a group of persons, families, or clans believed to be descended from a common ancestor and forming a close community under a leader or a chief; (2) a group of this kind having recognized ancestry, specifically, (a) any of the three divisions of the ancient Romans, traditionally of Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan origin, (b) any of the later political and territorial divisions of the ancient Romans, (c) any of the phylae of ancient Greece, (d) any of the twelve divisions of the ancient Israelites; (3) any group of people having the same occupation, habits, ideas, etc., often in a somewhat derogatory sense (the tribe of drama critics); (4) a taxonomic category that is a subdivision of a subfamily of plants or animals and consists of several closely related genera; (5) a natural group of plants or animals classified together without regard for their taxonomic relations; (6) in stock breeding, the animals descended from the same female through the female line; (7) (colloq.) a family, especially a large one.

The actual college definition is obviously lengthy and broad. I included the whole thing to show just how broad the term tribe is and can be. The third definition is the one I feel is most applicable to the essence I felt when hit by the Holy Spirit when Brian mentioned it, any group of people having the same occupation, habits, ideas, etc.

There are few, if any, places that come to mind that have such a large amount of people that form into groups sharing the same intense habits, ideas, etc., besides prison. Prison is nothing but groups of respective tribes living and operating in all their tribal etiquette, for all of their tribal causes, for all tribal existence.

I believe that it would be negligent to reserve the tribal perspective for only prisoners or Native people groups. Every prisoner before prison came from somewhere where his habits, ideas, etc., were developed and shared. And every person at one point came from a Native people group.

In a way, prison is a concentrated version of its societies’ habits, ideas, etc. In many cases, the men behind these fences and razor wire simply had the courage to live their tribe’s ideas and habits out loud and to the fullest. I’m not saying that these ideas and habits are moral, tolerable, or appropriate but what is undeniable is the intestinal fortitude that was required to do most of the stuff that men are in prison for. Most people are not in prison for being cowards.

In traditional tribal culture, those who display the highest levels of courage are almost always venerated and hold positions of influence. This can be said of any culture, either in the past or present. A lot of our modern-day world leaders served in the military. Most of the Native American tribes I’m familiar with all have stories of great warriors who were placed in positions of leadership in their history.

Believe it or not, many of our country’s prisoners were created and destined by God Himself to be leaders amongst their tribes. Our tribes. The creation is in a fallen state (see Genesis 3), the heart above all things is desperately wicked and deceitful (see Jeremiah 17:9), and the current human condition is fractured and destitute in desperate need of a Savior (see Colossians 1:19-21). No matter what realm people are living extreme in, criminal or not, I know God wants us to live extreme for Him in the realm of His