Posted on 04/12/2011 11:24:32 AM PDT by GonzoII
Was Chief Sitting Bull a Catholic convert? Did he convert William “Buffalo Bill” Cody? That was the scuttlebutt around Catholic circles this past week. From stories, to blogging, to Catholic radio shows, to postings from Facebook friends, I heard it multiple times.
As a student of the Old West, having read numerous accounts of Sitting Bull and a resident of the once vast Dakota Territory, I thought it unlikely. But was it possible that Sitting Bull was a full member of the Catholic Church? To begin with, there are no baptismal records from Father Pierre De Smet, the most likely priest to have baptized him. And later, after Sitting Bull surrendered from Canada and then led a life as an autograph-seller, celebrity, and farmer on a shrunken reservation in Dakota Territory, it appears that even a bishop tried unsuccessfully to bring Chief Sitting Bull into the Catholic Church.
Historical records show that many of the Sioux, Chief Sitting Bull among them, admired the “black robes” as they called the Catholic missionary priests. The great Jesuit missionary, Father De Smet, was a friend of Chief Sitting Bull. There are multiple accounts in 1868 of Father De Smet walking, alone, unarmed, into an armed Sioux camp of five thousand. He helped to secure the numerous signatures of chiefs that appear on the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. General Stanley was quoted in 1868 as saying, “Father De Smet alone of the entire white race could penetrate to these cruel savages and return safe and sound.”
Sitting Bull or Tatanka Iyotake, his Lakota name, was born in 1831 near the Grand River in what is now South Dakota today.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholiclane.com ...
Didn't know, did ya?
The Plains Indians had a lot of exposure to Missionaries in the 1880s and 90s, Jesuit, Protestant, and even Mormon, and many, if not most were influenced in some way by those missionaries. But it took them a long time, even a couple of generations in some cases, to fully separate the Gospel from their traditional Indian beliefs, often melting the two into one. This is what happened with the Ghost Dance Religion of the 1890’s which is believed to have been started by a Paiute shaman who said he saw Jesus Christ in a vision, who told him of the evils of the white man, and how the Indians would regain their stature if certain edicts were followed. Knowledge of the vision spread quickly through the Indian camps across the country, and word began to circulate among the people on the reservations that the Messiah had come to liberate them. That eventually led to Wounded Knee.
Actually, a closer look at the pictures reveal that both are wearing the Star of David...
From:The Life of Fr. De Smet, Apostle of the Rockies:
Pg 176 -
How is the phenomenal success of these missions to be explained? Many of the Indians possessed admirable natural virtues; they but needed to know Christianity to embrace it. Even the most degraded had preserved a high ideal of the greatness of the power of God. Blasphemy was unknown among them: not presuming to address the “Great Spirit,” they entreated their manitous to intercede for them. Superstition if you will, but beneath it was a religious sentiment which the missionary had only to enlighten and direct. None held back through false pride or prejudice. Even the Sioux, the proudest of the Western tribes, compared themselves to children bereft of a father’s guiding hand, and to the ignorant animals of the prairie, and with touching humility begged the missionary to “take pity on them.”
Such elevated, upright souls could, moreover, appreciate the chastity of the Catholic priesthood. With rare discernment, the Indian understood that, belonging as he does to all men, a priest cannot give himself to one person, and not for an instant did they hesitate to choose the Black Robe, who had consecrated his life to them, rather than the minister in lay dress, installed in a comfortable home with wife and children, devoted to the interests of his family, giving only the time that remained to distributing Bibles”.
Pg 52 - The Indians, meanwhile, were not overlooked. Dispossessed of their lands and driven west by the whites, they now found refuge and support in the Catholic Church. A considerable number of them, whose fathers had been instructed and baptized by the Jesuits, were well disposed toward Catholicity. Protestant ministers made repeated attempts to gain their confidence, but were always coldly received.” “What had they to do,” asked the Indians, “with married preachers, men who wore no crucifix, and said no rosary? They wanted only the Black Robes to teach them how to serve God. They even went so far as to appeal to the President of the United States, asking that the married ministers might be recalled and Catholic priests sent in their place.”
Pg 117 - I was given the place of honor in the chief’s tent, who, surrounded by forty of his braves, addressed me in the following words: ‘Black Robe, this is the happiest day of our lives, for to-day, for the first time, we see in our midst a man who is near to the Great Spirit. These are the principal warriors of my tribe. I have invited them to the feast I have prepared for you, that they may never forget the great day.””’
It seems strange that with the savages the fact of being a Catholic priest merited a triumphal reception for the lowly missionary, while in other times, and to men proud of their civilization, he would have been the object of suspicion. During the repast the great chief showered attentions on his guest, even to giving him a mouthful of his own food to chew, a refined usage among his tribe.
At night, after the missionary had retired and was about to fall asleep, he saw the chief who had received him with so much honor, enter his tent. Brandishing a knife that gleamed in the light of the torch, he said: “Black Robe, are you afraid?” The missionary, taking the chief’s hand, placed it on his breast and replied: “See if my heart beats more rapidly than usual! Why should I be afraid? You have fed me with your own hands, and I am as safe in your tent as I would be in my father’s house.” Flattered by this reply, the Blackfoot renewed his professions of friendship; he had wished only to test the confidence of his guest.
Pg 86 - Protestant ministers tried to compete with the Catholic priests; but between a salaried official who distributed tracts to inquisitive members of the tribe, and the missionary, devoted body and soul to their interests, the Indians did not hesitate to make a choice.” They refused the most alluring offers from Protestants and came from all directions to ask for a Black Robe to show them the way to heaven.
“After five years’ residence with the Otoes, the Protestant minister has not yet baptized one person, and the greater part of the Protestant missionaries who overrun the Indian Territory make no better showing.” (Letter of Father De Smet to Father Verhaegen, June, 1838.)
***This is what happened with the Ghost Dance Religion of the 1890’s which is believed to have been started by a Paiute shaman who said he saw Jesus Christ in a vision, who told him of the evils of the white man, ****
Wavoka, who was raised by a white Mormon and believed that Jesus would return in 1890 just as Joseph Smith said he would.
His visions were misinterpreted by the Sioux to believe the whites would disappear and the buffalo would come back. they were also told to wear “ghost shirts” to keep bullets away. They didn’t work.
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