by Peter Heide
November is Native American history month, and, as we approach Thanksgiving Day, we drag out the old stories of the Pilgrims and the two Natives, Samoset and Squanto. We recall that the Indians were the ones who taught the Pilgrims agricultural practices in the “New World.” We revisit documents like the Mayflower Compact and rhapsodize over the Puritan Work Ethic. It’s on the news. It’s in our schools. It even creeps into our worship spaces: The Great Thanksgiving banquet. Yet, as we acknowledge the part Native Americans played, the focus is on “How the White settlers survived the elements and made this Great America possible.”
The story told tends to forget that this new nation was already an old nation of nations for the Native Americans who lived here. We gloss over the diseases brought by the Europeans that then ravaged the native population, who had no immunity. We remain ignorant of many of the atrocities inflicted on Native Americans. We even forget that Native American people had a major presence in the Eastern states before they were pushed West. Many of these Eastern native nations played a significant role in European warfare as France and England fought over control of what is now the United States and Canada, and later when the colonists fought the English.
When I started looking for a Native American person who was of significance and blind, I discovered Kateri Tekakwitha (pronounced gaderi geda’gwidah). Tekakwitha means “she who bumps into things.” She was born into the Mohawk tribe in 1656. Her parents and siblings died in the smallpox epidemic of 1660, which was when she lost most of her eyesight; hence her name Tekakwitha. Smallpox left her face so badly scarred that she covered her face to hide the unsightliness.
In reaction to the violence of her time, Tekakwitha turned from the pain and suffering experienced among the Mohawks to a more hopeful faith life as a Christian after she met three members of the Society of Jesus when she was 11. Even among the Christians she advocated against flagellation and other forms of mortification of the flesh as a means of penance. When Tekakwitha was baptized, she was renamed Catherine, Kateri in Mohawk.
As a child, Kateri had witnessed a brutal rape of a captive girl, and, in part because of this, she made a vow of chastity. She worked among the sick and the poor and found peace among a group of women whom she met during her life.
Her work and devotion were so obvious to others that they named her “The Lily of the Mohawks.” She died on Maundy Thursday 1680; when she died, it is reported that her face changed from being terribly scarred to a beautiful, clear complexion. (The lily is a symbol of purity.)
She was beatified in 1980 by Pope John Paul II. After a young Native American boy prayed to her in 1981 and experienced remission of a flesh-eating bacterial infection that had temporarily made him blind. She was granted sainthood in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI, the first Native American woman of North America to be canonized by the Catholic Church. Today churches and community centers are named after her. She is not the only blind Native American of note, but she set the bar high for those who came after her.
As we honor November’s Native American history month, let us consider the major contributions Native Americans have made in our lives and remember St. Kateri Tekakwitha stood against the violence of her time and made a place of peace and healing for others.
An historical fiction account of her life can be found on BARD, “Lily of the Mohawks,” by Jack Casey, DB22440, read by Madelyn Buzzard, time 12:56. This book contains graphic violence, but it is consistent with enemy treatment of the time.
My Country
My country ‘tis of thee,
This too we sing.
Sweet land of liberty!
Land where our fathers died,
Victims of Pilgrims’ pride.
Yes, we still sing!
— DeAnna Quietwater Noriega