Native Footsteps: Along the Path of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha ed. by Mark G. Thiel, Christopher Vecsey (review)

The Mexican Indian saint, Juan Diego, was canonized July 31, 2002. Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the so-called “lily of the Mohawks,” was canonized on October 22, 2012 – the first American Indian so honored. While scholars still question whether or not Juan Diego even existed, it is Kateri’s historical and felt-reality that the editors address in Native Footsteps.

The volume’s front matter consists of a foreword and introduction. A first part is then composed of “Documents” that address the history of veneration associated with America’s newest saint. A second part consists of twenty-two “Interviews” conducted in 1994–1995 and three conducted in 2012. These interviews reveal how Indian consultants first learned about Kateri’s life, and what spiritual succor they (and other Native people) acquired from involvement with her cause. Part three offers photographs associated with the first congregation of Indian nuns, devotional gatherings related to Kateri, and Tekakwitha conferences that took place between 1985 and 2012.

The introduction provides historical context for the Documents section, and since only one text is penned by her Jesuit biographer, it is helpful in fleshing out details of Kateri’s life that are not addressed elsewhere. Of particular note are the circumstances of her death and how “her smallpox-scarred face became clear and beautiful.” Given this “miraculous sign,” it is understandable that her ultimate canonization would hinge on the seemingly miraculous occurrence of a healing related to the face (doubly strange in that it was the face of an Indian child – reported in Document 12).

Anthropologist James Preston offers the longest and most academic contribution to the volume. He seeks to discover how substantive the Kateri tradition is within her Mohawk community, and in doing so pretty much describes the status of Christianity itself within Native (and probably non-Native) communities. That is, within them exist strong devotion, ambivalent devotion, marginal devotion, no devotion, and hostility toward [any given] devotion.

The Interviews are drawn mostly from Plains and Southwest Indian laypeople, but include both deacons and priests. Deacon Victor Bull Bear offers reflections that will intrigue readers interested in comparative theology. His thought reveals how challenging it can sometimes be to interpret what someone from another religious tradition is trying to communicate. For example, the word “Tunkasila” is translated in the text as “Grandfather Spirit” (a traditional Lakota reference to the Creator). Bull Bear’s use of the word, however, seems a reference to something else while his overall meaning is likewise elusive: “Maybe her relatives in her society in whatever her tribe was can recognize our Tunkasila too. To be recognized, I don’t really expect that our Tunkasila had never struggled like she struggled today.” By contrast, the English of other contributors is clearer, and their thought less abstract when reporting their religious experience.

Upon Kateri’s passing, people mourned her loss and preserved her memory. Her Jesuit mentors helped sustain this memory and, in doing so, helped establish a religious role model for Indian people throughout North America. Vecsey and Thiel have introduced this tradition to readers who will no doubt finish reading Native Footsteps wanting to learn more about the saintly, Mohawk maiden.