>> NARRATOR: Nicholas Black Elk lived a life
of holiness during the 19th and 20th centuries.
He was a Lakota Sioux holy man and lay convert
in South Dakota and he became widely known
through the books Black Elk Speaks and Nicholas
Black Elk: Medicine Man, Mystic, Missionary.
Baptized "Nicholas," after the saint whose
generous giving resonated with Lakota traditions,
he committed his life to better knowing the
Great Spirit and teaching Jesus’ way of
peace, love, and harmony towards all creation.
In so doing he seamlessly lived Christian
and Native ways without contradiction and
led over 400 Dakota-Lakota people to baptism
in Jesus Christ.
>> NARRATOR: So why canonize Nicholas Black
Elk and why now?
By baptism, all Christians are called to become
saints, and since its first days, the church
has canonized outstanding Christians it identifies
as intercessors of prayer and models of virtue.
But north of Mexico, such efforts were delayed
until 1884 when the United States bishops
felt sufficiently organized.
Then they nominated three 17th century candidates
from New York State – Mohawk-Algonquin convert
Kateri Tekakwitha and Jesuit Father Isaac
Jogues, both on the left, and other Jesuit
companions added later.
As martyrs, the causes of the Jesuits concluded
first and they were canonized in 1930.
Kateri’s cause then followed and ended with
her canonization in 2012.
Meanwhile, more North Americans followed,
such as Saint Katharine Drexel, a wealthy
benefactor who fought racism by funding Catholic
schools for African and Native American children
and Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, a 16th century
Aztec convert in Mexico who at the request
of Mary, the Mother of God, had a shrine built
in her honor.
Since then, candidates have been nominated
with regularity, such as Apalachee convert
Antonio Cuipa and 81 companions, all 17th
century converts and missionaries in Florida
martyred by Anglo-led slave seekers and Father
Augustus Tolton, a pioneering priest born
who fought life-long racism and founded Chicago’s
first African American parish.
Now, inspired by St. Kateri’s lead, many
faithful believe that Nicholas Black Elk should
be nominated too.
>> NARRATOR: According to his daughter Lucy
Looks Twice, Heḣakasapa, or Black Elk, was
born into Big Road’s band in 1866 on the
Little Powder River in Wyoming.
In his family, he was the fourth generation
named Black Elk after his father and grandfather
who were prominent medicine men.
While growing up, he played boyhood games,
hunted with his father, and listened to the
wisdom stories told by his elders, and in
so doing, he learned courage, bravery, and
spiritual awareness in all things.
>> NARRATOR: As a boy, Black Elk achieved
devotion and deep belief in divine power,
and by age six, his elders agreed that he
had received a great vision from Wakan Tanka,
the Great Spirit.
In it, he prayed atop Hinhan Kaga or Harney
Peak, which at 7,242 feet of elevation, is
the Black Hills’ highest point and the highest
one in the United States east of the Rocky
Mountains.
He recalled, "I was standing on the highest
mountain of them all, and round about beneath
me was the whole hoop of the world.
And while I stood there I saw more than I
can tell and I understood more than I saw;
for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes
of all things in the spirit, and the shape
of all shapes as they must live together like
one being.”
Four years later, on June 25-26, 1876, on
the Little Bighorn River in Montana, the Lakota
and their allies courageously faced the U.S.
Army’s 7th Cavalry Regiment and achieved
victory in a great battle.
And although traumatized, young Black Elk
supported his people to the extent possible.
Fearing retaliation, several bands, including
Big Road’s, fled into exile in western Canada
where they endured starvation as the buffalo
herds declined.
Meanwhile, because of his vision, some medicine
men helped Black Elk to become a healer like
his father and grandfather.
Then after four years in Canada, Big Road’s
Band began its return to South Dakota, and
along the way, Black Elk led a horsetail dance
to announce the start of his healing practice.
>> NARRATOR: Big Road’s Band settled at
Pine Ridge, one of the agencies of the Great
Sioux Indian Reservation, where Lakota life
was changing rapidly.
Black Elk remained strong in his devotion
and respect to the Great Spirit, and he continually
sought to learn more about his ways.
In early 1885, he dictated a dire but hopeful
letter to Iapi Oaye or Word Carrier, a Protestant
Dakota language newspaper.
In it he exclaimed, “…my relatives, those
of you who read the book [the Bible]… it
is necessary to have the people follow the
laws closely.
Life on earth is very near [the end] I believe…”
And with 176 Lakota people – primarily grass
dancers and mission schoolboys – Black Elk
signed a letter supporting Pope Leo XIII to
declare the Mohawk virgin, Kateri Tekakawitha,
a saint in heaven.
Based at Standing Rock Agency, it was one
of 27 such letters signed by Native North
Americans after the U.S. bishops had nominated
her in December of 1885, and Lakota people
responded resoundingly with a disproportionate
share of the 906 total signatures.
Quite likely, Father Francis Craft, shown
in clerical dress and dance regalia, encouraged
this strong response.
He was a Kateri devotee who immersed himself
in Lakota culture while serving as an itinerant
pastor reaching out to the Lakota people.
>> NARRATOR: Eager for adventure, Black Elk
joined “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West
show the next year where he visited Chicago,
New York, and Montreal.
The following year, they visited England,
and in London, because of his exceptional
dancing ability, he was selected as one of
the few to dance for Queen Victoria’s private
show honoring her 50th anniversary as queen.
On the right, a photographer there took his
picture in regalia with Elk.
To the north in Manchester, Black Elk and
others road streetcars.
But the show moved on without them, which
forced him to sharpen his English-speaking
skills.
Then alone, he visited Germany and lived with
a family in Paris, which further expanded
his view of the world.
He experienced more hospitality and saw Christian
faith in action, and although he grew up believing
all Crow Indians were horse thieves and untrustworthy,
he learned to judge everyone fairly and honestly
as individuals, rather than as members of
ethnic or racial groups, which in Iapi Oaye
he recorded, “… of the white man’s many
customs, only his faith… [their] beliefs
about God’s will, and how they acted…
I wanted to understand.
I traveled to one city after another and there
were many customs around God’s will.”
>> NARRATOR: By 1889, Black Elk was homesick
in Paris, and he met Buffalo Bill who arranged
his return home to Pine Ridge.
There he continued his spiritual quest by
participating in the Messiah Movement or Ghost
Dance, a religious revival with Lakota and
Christian beliefs.
After dancing vigorously, he had another vision.
“I saw the holy tree full of leaves and
blooming . . . Against the tree there was
a man standing with arms held wide in front
of him.
I looked hard at him, and I could not tell
what people he came from…
His hair was long and hanging loose, and on
the left side of his head he wore an eagle
feather… his body… became very beautiful
with all colors of light…
He spoke like singing: ‘My life is such
that all earthly things belong to me.
Your father, The Great Sprit, has said this.
You too must say this.’
Then he went out like a light in a wind…”
and he noted the “…holes in the palms
of his hands.”
But the U.S. Cavalry ended it tragically at
Wounded Knee Creek on December 29, 1890.
Just before it began, Father Craft attempted
to persuade ghost dancers to turn back, for
which Black Elk complemented him as “…a
very good man, and not like the other Wasichus.”
Both were wounded and over 200 people were
killed.
>> NARRATOR: Two years later, Black Elk married
Katherine War Bonnet of the Pine Ridge Agency
community of Oglala, where they raised their
family.
Apparently she was Catholic, because their
three children – all sons including Ben
– were so baptized.
Katherine died in 1903, and Black Elk continued
his healing practice, in spite of conflicted
thoughts with severe ulcers and suffering
and feelings of being drawn by the Great Spirit
in a new direction.
The next year, a Lakota family summoned him
and Jesuit Father Joseph Lindebner to minister
to their dying son.
On meeting the priest, Black Elk deferred
to him and his Christian prayer without protest
and he accepted his invitation to study the
Catholic faith at the nearby Holy Rosary Mission.
After two weeks of intense study, Father Lindebner
baptized him “Nicholas” on December 6th,
the feast day of Saint Nicholas.
Therefor he took to heart the legacy of his
new patron saint – Saint Nicholas –known
for his humility and charity, especially towards
children and the poor, which resonated strongly
with his commitment to healing others.
No longer did he sign his name as just Heḣakasapa
or Black Elk; instead, now he signed it Nicholas
or Nick Black Elk.
Furthermore, medical treatments soon cured
his ulcers permanently.
>> NARRATOR: Soon, Nick Black Elk married
again, and his second wife, Anna Brings White,
was Catholic too.
She bore daughter Lucy the next year and two
sons after that.
Anna died in 1942, and thereafter, Black Elk
lived with his adult children and their families.
>> NARRATOR: Meanwhile, the Jesuits recognized
Nick Black Elk’s enthusiasm and excellent
memory for Scripture and church teachings
in Lakota.
So they appointed him as a catechist or teacher
of Christian faith where he campaigned for
Christ in many camps and communities.
At first, he served from Our Lady of the Sioux
Church at Oglala above, and by 1907, he served
most years from St. Agnes at Manderson.
In 1911, he attended a statewide Catholic
Sioux Congress at Holy Rosary where he and
fellow catechists wore three-piece suits donated
to the mission.
But instead of wearing shoes, Black Elk wore
fully beaded [14:20] moccasins.
By then, he had ended his healing practice,
because he saw it as contradicting prayer
to the Great Spirit as the Triune God of the
Creator Father, his son Jesus Christ, and
the Holy Spirit.
Likewise, he repudiated the aspects of violence
in his great vision.
Soon, other Lakota people who knew him as
a healer followed him to Jesus.
>> NARRATOR: Nonetheless, Nicholas Black Elk
continued his overall involvement in traditional
Lakota ways.
Now in his 40s, he still danced actively as
shown in this 1908 lineup at a rodeo in Interior,
South Dakota, just north of the reservation.
While most dancers wore popular chief’s
regalia, again Black Elk stood apart and wore
the traditional warrior’s regalia with the
porcupine hair roach headdress and eagle feather
crow belt.
>> NARRATOR: As a catechist, Nicholas Black
Elk frequently taught the Bible with the Two
Roads, a colorful teaching scroll invented
generations before.
Here he’s teaching children with it at their
Pine Ridge Reservation home during the 1920s.
>> NARRATOR: Read from bottom to top, the
Two Roads presents a Biblical timeline along
the center from the Jewish Old Testament in
black to Jesus’ New Testament in red and
supplemented with pictures of the world’s
Creation in seven days, the Garden of Eden,
Jesus’ life, and the Church’s founding
to eternal judgement.
The sides support the center with two parallel
roads of contrasting conduct.
The left presents a golden good way of righteousness
with pictures of Noah’s Ark and the flood,
the seven sacraments, the seven virtues of
the Church, and the Communion of saints leading
to a celestial Heaven; and the right presents
a black bad way of difficulties with pictures
of Cain’s sin leading from Eden to the Tower
of Babel, the Protestant Reformers, and the
Devil to a fiery Hell.
>> NARRATOR: Glasses were difficult to acquire.
So only those with poor eyesight and a desire
to read and write made the effort.
Nicholas Black Elk was so motivated, as shown
in St. Elizabeth’s Church, also in Oglala,
in 1936 at age 70.
Since he was past school age when schools
were first established at Pine Ridge, he made
the extra effort and taught himself to read
and write newspapers, the Bible, and other
books in Lakota and English.
>> NARRATOR: Like other catechists, Nicholas
Black Elk wrote pastoral letters about Christian
living.
They appeared in Šinasapa Wocekiye Taeyanpaha
or The Catholic Voice, a Lakota language newspaper
distributed across the Northern Plains while
the government forbade children to speak their
language in school.
From 1907 to 1916, he wrote more than a dozen
letters, and like St. Paul, he called people
to Jesus by relating personal experiences
to the Bible.
In this 1914 letter, he used the sinking of
the steamship Titanic as a metaphor in addressing
the problem of greed in the world.
It had sunk two years earlier and was similar
the ones he used in transatlantic crossings.
“Men of the United States constructed a
very large and fast boat.
We made many millions of dollars, so that
in a few nights, one crossed the ocean…
They said never would the boat sink...
Yes, those rich men believed it.
They did not know what they would come up
against.
So, one day they struck against something,
so the boat they made sank from blindness,
a difficulty that came over them, and their
fright was great.
Yes my Relatives, take a look.
There was an accident due to a great honor.
The trouble with the world’s honor is that
the trouble is up above.
In worldly honor we twitch.
You pay your debts up above when you are up
against something.
[Yet] You do not see when you are struck by
something large…
There is a grave sin here.
Then you will say: “Lord, Lord!”
… That is very troublesome, my Relatives.
Desire to be close to our Savior.
Desire to stay in our ship.”
>> NARRATOR: Because of his teaching abilities,
the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, in
Washington, D.C., funded Nicholas Black Elk
to preach on several reservations.
Starting in 1908, he did so in Wyoming, Nebraska,
and South Dakota with his close friend and
partner, Jesuit Father Henry Westropp on the
left.
Here he’s teaching on the Rosebud Reservation.
>> NARRATOR: From 1913 to 1916, Nicholas Black
Elk and Father Westropp served on the Yankton
Reservation in South Dakota, which ended when
he attended a statewide Catholic Sioux Congress
there with these catechists and clergy.
>> NARRATOR: Later that summer, Nicholas Black
Elk attended a Catholic Sioux Congress on
the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana.
Shown next to him is Ojibwa Father Philip
Gordon, a gifted speaker from Wisconsin and
chaplain at Haskell Institute in Kansas.
>> NARRATOR: During World War I, Nicholas
Black Elk lost his friend, Father Westropp,
because mission needs in India prompted him
to go there.
Then, Black Elk teamed up with other Jesuits
and catechists from his base at St. Agnes
in Manderson, as shown here in 1947 after
a meeting with fellow elders in the church
hall now named Black Elk Hall in his honor.
With them is Father Eugene Buechel, one of
the last fluent Lakota-speaking Jesuits who
seamlessly presented Christianity in Lakota.
Now, monolingual American-born Jesuits prevailed,
who were less immersed in Lakota language
and culture and more insistent on following
the church’s Roman-centric rules.
In 1933, a horse-drawn wagon accident disabled
Black Elk and forced him to use a cane.
>> NARRATOR: In May 1931, author John Neihardt
interviewed Nicholas Black Elk for what he
called his life story – Black Elk Speaks:
Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the
Oglala Sioux, as told to John G. Neihardt.
Familiar with such works, Black Elk welcomed
the project and told his entire life story
with the expectation it would inspire others
to follow Jesus as the son of the Great Spirit.
In so doing, he gave the month of his spiritual
rebirth on St. Nick’s Day or the “Moon
of Popping Trees” as his actual birth month;
he used the red and black road metaphors from
the Two Roads; and he concluded his story
by taking Neihardt to the top of Harney Peak
and praying his Thanksgiving Prayer, now understood
in the light of Jesus Christ.
But they had different agendas.
To encapsulate his story for non-Lakota readers,
Neihardt decluttered it and focused on his
great vision, added a solemn and reverent
tone, and ended it tragically at Wounded Knee
when he was just 24.
That enabled Neihardt to keep its message
simple and avoid the complexities of his ongoing
spiritual quest.
This disappointed Black Elk and undermined
his credibility as a loyal Catholic and it
confused the public and many of his admirers.
>> NARRATOR: Medicine man Frank Fools Crow,
Black Elk’s nephew, felt that Neihardt failed
to capture his uncle’s humor and personality.
Nicholas Black Elk was a consummate joker
with a whimsical perspective and love of animals.
Here he’s riding “Baloney,” one of his
favorite horses, who like all the others,
had an English name beginning with “B.”
>> NARRATOR: Meanwhile in the Black Hills,
sculptor Gutzon Borglum and crew were carving
Mount Rushmore, which generated substantial
tourism.
Soon, Rapid City businessman Alex Duhamel
organized a summertime Lakota pageant nearby,
which used brief depictions of traditional
religious ceremonies and lifeways presented
twice daily.
He invited Nicholas Black Elk to narrate and
demonstrate key events, for which Black Elk’s
Speaks provided a basis to teach Lakota heritage.
To do so, he selected, reenacted, and described
seven religious ceremonies as seven rites
parallel to the Catholic Church’s seven
sacraments, which Joseph Epes Brown edited
as The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk’s Account
of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux.
>> NARRATOR: The Duhamel pageant continued
for more than a decade.
In it, Nicholas Black Elk wore Chief’s regalia
too, and on the left, he posed with grandson
George Looks Twice, his daughter Lucy’s
son.
Besides the reenactments, Black Elk increasingly
practiced traditional worship, which some
Jesuits angrily branded as “heathen.”
This dismayed him as proof of their ignorance,
because he believed he was following the Great
Spirit’s will.
Meanwhile, some fellow catechists passed,
traditional ceremonies regained traction,
and some of friends and family drifted away
from Church.
Nonetheless, Black Elk’s dual commitment
remained strong and he encouraged others to
do likewise.
>> NARRATOR: Before passing, Nicholas Black
Elk shared some of his life’s little-known
details.
His daughter Lucy Looks Twice, on the left,
then concluded that 1866, and not 1863, was
his correct birth year; she knew he held his
rosary constantly while praying, whether praying
with it or with his pipe; and she knew his
Thanksgiving Prayer differed markedly from
Neihardt’s version, which she retold and
prayed:
I am talking to you, Grandfather Great Spirit,
on this day.
Pitifully, I sit here.
I am speaking for my relatives, my children,
my grandchildren,
And all my relatives—wherever they might
be.
Hear me, Grandfather Great Spirit.
With your help, our needs are taken care of.
You have helped us in the time of want during
the past.
And on this day we wish to thank you.
Hear me, O Great Spirit.
This day is a day of thanksgiving.
The nations of living things the world over—and
we the two-leggeds,
Along with the children and the smaller ones
with them—come to you today to express thanks.
In the future make us see a red day of good.
In the past you have preserved us from evil
on this red road.
Keep us on this road, and do not let us see
anything wrong.
I, my children, and my grandchildren shall
walk—led like children by your hand.
You have helped us in all things.
And Grandfather, Great Spirit, through your
power alone we have survived.
Grandfather, Great Spirit, you have come and
put us down—gathered together on Mother
Earth.
And while we continue in this world you provide
food for all living creatures.
So we give you thanks on this day.
Grandfather take pity on me.
One day, we shall go and arrive at the end
of the road.
In that future, we shall be without any sin
at all.
And so it will be in the same manner for all
my grandchildren and relatives
Who will follow us as well.
We give you thanks, Grandfather, Great Spirit.
I am sending this prayer to you.
>> NARRATOR: When near death in 1950, Nicholas
Black Elk humbly predicted, “I have a feeling
that when I die, some sign will be seen.
Maybe God will show something… which will
tell of his mercy.”
On August 17th, he received the church’s
last rites for the fourth time and died that
day.
At his wake, the skies above Manderson danced
vigorously with an extraordinary display of
aurora borealis seen around the world.
On the left, his friend John Lone Goose reflected,
“God [was] sending lights to shine on that
beautiful man” and Jesuit Brother William
Siehr exclaimed, “The sky was just one bright
illumination, I never saw something so magnificent…
everything was constantly moving… in every
direction… from the east and south, north
and west… they’d all converge up to the
top where they’d meet—rising up into the
sky, and it was a tremendous sight.”
351 years earlier, Shakespeare penned about
great leaders in Julius Caesar, “When beggars
die there are no comets seen; The heavens
themselves blaze forth the death of princes.”
>> NARRATOR: Two decades later, the movement
for Native American studies acclaimed Black
Elk Speaks and the Second Vatican Council
recognized the world’s cultures as indispensable
to the church’s global mission.
This convergence led the church and all people
of faith and goodwill to seek inspiration
from the legacy of Nicholas Black Elk.
From left to right, his son Ben Black Elk,
who had attended Red Cloud, the former Holy
Rosary Mission School, endorsed its efforts
to integrate Lakota language and culture into
its curriculum; medicine man Frank Fools Crow
prayed with his pipe while blessing the altar
at St. Isaac Jogues Church in Rapid City;
Jesuit Father Paul Steinmetz prayed with his
pipe at mass and celebrated mass on the Sun
Dance grounds at Fools Crow’s request; and
Standing Rock Lakota Franciscan Sister Marie
Therese Archambault developed the retreat
guide, A Retreat with Black Elk – Living
in the Sacred Hoop.
Meanwhile, through extension discussion, Jesuits
and medicine men compared Lakota and Christian
traditions in lengthy discussions that culminated
in The Pipe and Christ: A Christian-Sioux
Dialogue; the Catholic Church Extension Society
honored Black Elk and the Rapid City diocese’s
early Lakota catechists with its Lumen Christi
Award for outstanding evangelization; and
the diocese conducted an intense 10-year follow
up with Lakota parish representations and
community elders that culminated in Recommendations
for the Inculturation of Lakota Catholicism.
>> NARRATOR: Knowing that Black Elk Speaks
was not the story her father envisioned, Lucy
Looks Twice used a chance encounter at Red
Cloud School to recruit Father Steltenkamp
to write that full story.
At his 1976 priesthood ordination, she honored
him at his priesthood ordination by by placing
the Stoll on his shoulders, which symbolized
his new priestly commitment.
Thereafter, he spent years in painstaking
research, collecting and analyzing oral testimony,
personal papers, and published research, which
culminated in two books, Black Elk: Holy Man
of the Oglala and Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine
Man, Missionary, Mystic.
>> NARRATOR: Many wish to see the Black Hills’
tallest peak renamed after this holy man,
and while politicians argue the merits of
the change, the power that counts didn’t
wait.
He made his proclamation on those starry nights
in August 1950.
30 years later, the U.S. Congress designated
nearby Black Hills land as the Black Elk Wilderness
within the National Wilderness Preservation
System.
>> NARRATOR: So too, many wish to see the
Catholic Church proclaim Nicholas Black Elk
as one of God’s canonized saints.
In 2014 and 2015, over 1,200 people of goodwill
– Native and non-Native from across the
United States – signed a petition presented
to Rapid City Bishop Robert Gruss.
Among them was Black Elk’s grandson, George
Looks Twice, shown with Marquette University
archivist Mark Thiel at St. Kateri’s canonization
in Rome.
Three years earlier when unknown to each other,
they gathered for her ceremony at St. Peter’s
Basilica and Looks Twice sat next to Thiel
and told him his hope that someday his grandfather
would be canonized too.
Since then, other Native Catholics repeated
the wish and requested the petition drive,
which several volunteers circulated at faith-based
Native American events.
Among them was the Tekakwitha Conference,
an annual gathering of Native North American
Catholics, which the Rapid City diocese will
host in 2017.
Clearly, Black Elk serves as a model of holiness
for many people of faith and canonized saints
comprise an ever growing flowering bouquet,
to which Holy Mother Church continually adds
more saints.
While all causes are arduous, the sainthood
pathway and pace under Pope Francis is the
best ever, and his advocacy for indigenous
people and the earth resonates well with Black
Elk who served Jesus and the Great Spirit
while advocating for peace, love, and harmony
among all of creation.
>> NARRATOR: But as yet, the cause for Nicholas
Black Elk has not begun.
Before it does, Bishop Gruss as petitioner,
must formerly apply or petition the Congregation
for the Causes of Saints in Rome.
Because this is an extensive process, he will
need reasonable assurances that the cause
will succeed.
First, a diocesan tribunal must carefully
gather and study all relevant writings and
testimony of his holiness in accordance with
Vatican protocol.
When he approves the tribunal’s results,
he will submit it with the petition application
for review by the Congregation and the Holy
Father, the pope.
If they approve, the Holy Father will declare
him Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk.
This will officially open his cause at the
first of a four-step process of Servant of
God, Venerable, Blessed, and Saint.
Next, Bishop Gruss will seek an endorsement
from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops;
postulators will be appointed as official
liaisons between Rome and the diocese; and
the diocesan postulator will commission the
writing and compilation of a positio, or special
biography with support documents focused on
his holiness, which the Congregation and the
Holy Father will review.
If through the positio, the Pope recognizes
his virtues, he will declare him Venerable
Nicholas Black Elk.
Most who reach this step will be declared
saint eventually, but only God knows for sure.
Now, intercessory prayers are encouraged,
prayer cards may be issued, and resulting
alleged favors and miracles will be recorded.
Congregation protocols are always strict and
causes vary greatly in length for many reasons.
If the Holy Father authenticates a miracle
occurring through his intercession, he will
declare him Blessed Nicholas Black; a feast
day will be designated; and it will permit
churches to be named in his honor with some
restrictions.
After the Holy Father authenticates a second
miracle, he will be canonized Saint Nicholas
Black Elk and the church will lift the previous
restrictions.
While causes have taken hundreds of years,
many today are completed in just ten years.
Nonetheless, there are always significant
expenses, for which the petitioner must take
responsibility.
>> NARRATOR: In the canonization process,
God is in charge because the signs that validate
authenticated miracles come from intercessory
prayers to candidates.
While the Catholic Church teaches that Jesus
alone holds all power and all prayers must
be answered by him, history shows that he
chooses to not act alone.
Rather, he collaborates with his vast multitude,
the Communion of Saints.
In causes, miracles must be attributed exclusively
to only one candidate, which the Congregation
for the Causes of Saints and the Holy Father,
the pope evaluate.
The church regards miracles as phenomena not
explicable by natural and scientific laws,
which may be physical or medical.
Depicted here is a physical miracle received
by Saint Juan Diego of Mexico.
In 1531, he received four visions from Mary,
the Mother of God as Our Lady of Guadalupe.
In Aztec royal dress and language, she requested
the building of a church in her honor on a
hill where an Aztec temple had stood.
As a sign to the bishop, she requested he
gather roses in his cloak from the site, even
though they were out-of-season.
Nonetheless, he found roses blooming, and
while presenting them to the bishop, they
discovered her image imprinted on his cloak.
Today, the image remains permanently and inexplicably
vibrant and well-preserved.
And it’s displayed in the churches on that
holy hill and throughout the country it’s
the premiere Catholic symbol.
In 2002, Juan Diego’s canonization reaffirmed
the dignity of Catholic and Inter-American
Native traditions and the rights of native
people.
>> NARRATOR: In 2006 at Seattle Children’s
Hospital, the Lummi boy Jake Finkbonner received
a medical miracle at age six.
Like St. Kateri, he had a life-threatening
infectious disease affecting his face, but
his was strep-A. To fight it, hospital staff
performed daily surgeries without success.
Then just before his surgery one day, Mohawk
Sister and Tekakwitha Conference Director
Kateri Mitchell and his parents prayed to
St. Kateri for the disease to stop while next
to him with her bone relic pressed to his
body.
Moments later, hospital personnel whisked
him away and removed the bandages and found
him disease free.
That year the Tekakwitha Conference held its
gathering in Washington State where at the
Lummi Nation longhouse, Jake, his family,
and pastor stood next to Archbishop Brunet
who announced that the Congregation for the
Causes of Saints was evaluating Jake’s cure
as a possible miracle through St. Kateri’s
intercession.
He explained that the congregation – comprised
of cardinals and bishops – was scrutinizing
Jake’s medical records and the testimony
of Sr. Kateri and his parents, doctors, nurses,
and other witnesses plus opinions from hired
experts in history, medicine, and theology.
Through several steps, they and the Holy Father
had to confirm that it was a miracle clearly
attributable to just one intercessor with
God, and only after all other possible explanations
have proven inadequate.
Six years later in 2012, while the Mohawk
Nation planned to host that year’s conference
in New York State, the Vatican announced that
Pope Benedict XVI had authenticated Jake’s
cure as a miracle through Kateri’s intercession
and that she would be canonized that fall
in Rome.
As a guest of honor, Jake attended both events.
In the center at the conference, he handed
St. Kateri’s relic to a representative of
the next year’s event while Sister Kateri
looked on and on the right at her canonization
mass, he received communion from Pope Benedict.
>> NARRATOR: Throughout his life, Nicholas
Black Elk sought to know more about the Great
Spirit and to serve him better.
In so doing, he learned to follow Jesus Christ
and seamlessly live Christian and Native ways
without contradiction; he spread widely a
message of peace, love, and harmony for all
creation and he led over 400 Dakota-Lakota
people to baptism and he served as godfather
to 113 of them.
Although he lived during troubled times, he
always respected the Sacred, the relatedness
of all beings, and care of the earth.
Today, his life resonates with thousands of
the faithful, and through continued prayer
by his many dedicated followers, we hope and
believe that his canonization will come to
pass in the Lord’s time and according to
the Lord’s plan.
>> NARRATOR: Many materials are available
on the life and holiness of Nicholas Black
Elk.
However, for a balanced introduction, these
works are recommended: A Retreat with Black
Elk – Living in the Sacred Hoop by Marie
Therese Archambault; the letters of Nicholas
Black Elk, 1907-1934, in The Crossing of Two
Roads: Being Catholic and Native in the United
States, edited by Marie Therese Archambault,
Mark G. Thiel, and Christopher Vecsey; Black
Elk: Colonialism and Lakota Catholicism by
Damian Costello; Recommendations for the Inculturation
of Lakota Catholicism by the Lakota Inculturation
Task Force of the Diocese of Rapid City; Black
Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy
Man of the Oglala Sioux / as told through
John G. Neihardt (Flaming Rainbow) and annotated
by Raymond J. DeMallie; and Black Elk: Holy
Man of the Oglala by Michael F. Steltenkamp.
>> NARRATOR: To download the illustrated script
from this PowerPoint, go to the Marquette
Archives homepage, click on the Native America
icon, scroll way down that page, and click
on the Black Elk title.
For questions and further research, contact
the author by email or phone at mark.thiel@marquette.edu
and 414-288-5904.
