Lakotas, Black Robes, and Holy Women: German Reports from the Indian Missions in South Dakota, 1886–1900 (review)

Karl Kries's book Lakotas, Black Robes and Holy Women: German Reports from the Indian Missions in South Dakota, 1886–1900 is an excellent summary of the early history of the Lakota Missions and an essential resource for scholars who are trying to understand the perspectives of the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations. The first section of his book is a summary of the history of the missions from the 1860s to 1900. Here Kries describes the background of the Jesuits and Franciscan sisters, who were Germans fleeing the Kulturkampf and who came to a new land faced with the challenge of adapting to American and Lakota culture. At the time the missionaries arrived, the Lakotas had recently been confined to reservations and lost their traditional semi-nomadic hunting lifestyle. The Lakotas, at this point, also had to conform to American culture, and, strangely enough, it would be Germans who would help them do this. Kries begins his book with an accurate and concise account of the events and government policies that led to the establishment of the Lakota reservations and the mission schools. He also provides short but detailed biographies of the missionaries. Drawing on the firsthand accounts of the missionaries, he gives an excellent summary of the events surrounding the famous massacre at Wounded Knee Creek, where the U.S. cavalry massacred a group of Ghost Dancers. He continues his analysis of the missionaries' policies by focusing on their establishment of St. Mary's and St. Joseph's societies (sodalities for the women and men), and the Catholic Sioux Congresses that helped unify and inspire the various bands of the Lakota and Dakota Sioux. Finally, he examines the success of the mission and the different attitudes of the missionaries toward the Lakota culture and religion. In this section, Kries demonstrates his clear understanding of the complexity of the individuals involved in mission work and the Lakota Catholics.

The second section of Kries's book is a collection of documents, translated from German, from the Jesuits and Franciscan sisters. What is unique about Kries's collection is that many of the documents he includes are written by the Franciscan sisters. While many scholars who have examined these missions focused on the Jesuits' perspective, Kries's inclusion of the Franciscan material lends a great deal of depth to his portrayal of the Lakota missions. Specifically, the Franciscan sisters provided detailed descriptions of the day-to-day life in the mission schools and their impressions of the virtues and vices of the Lakota students. In summary, Kries's book is an excellent, well-composed, and carefully researched resource for anyone who is interested in the Lakota Sioux missions.