wisdom and elders in faith

Father Michael Carson, assistant director of the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, gives a talk on the topic of missing and murdered Indigenous women July 20 at the Tekakwitha Conference in Bloomington. Behind him are two others who gave talks on

BY DAVE HRBACEK

CATHOLIC

English, Archbishop Hebda spoke of the elders including grandparents, and he gathered for the way they enrich the things about faith and life.

but note that today, throughout weekend, the Holy Father has asked grandparents and elders,” the Pope Francis instituting World Grandparents and the Elderly, adding, “I taught me so much about elders family.” roughly 50% of the more than boarding schools the U.S. government 1819 and 1969 “may have involvement from a religious organization, including funding, personnel.” Funding also may “Tribal trust accounts, including cessions of Indian territories to the DOI report states. assimilation practices at Native included renaming children names; cutting children’s hair; use of Native languages, religions practices; and organizing children into military drills. Manual labor boarding school curricula and rules enforced through punishment, the The report indicated that “based Indian Boarding School Initiative initial analysis, approximately 19 boarding schools accounted for over Indian, Alaska Native and Native deaths.” continuing work on an online National Indian Boarding School to help Native Americans search relatives who attended Native According to NABS, the NIBSDA make records more accessible to descendants. ctah archivistsacwr org of Catholic-run Native boarding schools States — including such schools was made available in May by a historians, Catholics and tribal eight Minnesota schools that the Catholic Church. They total Native boarding schools in

“My suspicion, brothers and sisters, is that many of you can speak not only about your parents but about a grandparent or a great-grandparent who introduced you to the faith and who helped you persevere even in difficult times; who taught you about what’s important in life,” the archbishop said. “And not just your grandparents by blood, but those elders who have been so much a part of Catholic Indian communities throughout this country and who have passed on not only the wisdom of the elders but have passed on our faith.”

After Mass, Michelle Hakala-Beeksma, an enrolled member of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in northeastern Minnesota and co-chair of the conference, gave blankets of appreciation that were placed on the shoulders of several organizers and supporters of the Tekakwitha Conference, including Archbishop Hebda. The blankets are an Ojibwe way to honor people by “wrapping them in your love and prayers,” Hakala-Beeksma said.

Minnesota, according to the DOI. The majority of those affected in Minnesota were from the Dakota and Ojibwe tribal nations, according to the list.

Allison Spies, archives program manager for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Archives and Records Management, said she began encountering records of the Native experience when she was a genealogy research volunteer for the archdiocese. Through professional networks, Spies worked with other archivists, historians, Catholics and tribal members to consider how to grant more streamlined public access to record information.

Spies held a workshop during the Tekakwitha Conference that provided an overview of the list published in May. In addition to explaining events leading up to the list’s creation, Spies talked about how the database can be used to locate records. She also provided information about Catholic archives and their placement in efforts to address the Native boarding school legacy.

She considered her workshop to be a complement to the talk Torres gave and told The Catholic Spirit that Catholic archives are a key component in taking steps toward truth and healing through greater transparency and access.

Torres told The Catholic Spirit after his talk that current local efforts — including the collection of Native boarding school records as well as avenues through which boarding school survivors’ experiences can be heard and shared — must continue.

“It’s policy, it’s education, it’s dialogue with our neighbors,” Torres said about what’s needed to address the Native boarding school legacy.

“We collectively can continue to put pressure on leadership if we talk about this … if we continue to be persistent in how we organize our language around what we want to see.”

if someone offers women living in poverty a better life, the offer becomes more of a temptation to get involved in trafficking,” he said.

Another reason is more isolated communities, making it more difficult “for people to talk to each other,” Father Carson said. “If somebody goes missing in one community, it’s very hard for the other communities to know about that,” he said.

Felicitas Brugo Onetti, whose background is in social work, also addressed the conference. As the anti-trafficking education and outreach coordinator for Migration and Refugee Services with the USCCB, she provided an overview on human trafficking, a crime that uses force, fraud or coercion. Reports indicate that 40% of victims in Native communities are exploited through familial trafficking by “someone they know and someone in their immediate circle.” Tactics focus primarily on manipulation and coercion, she said.

“When we talk specifically about the Native community, the historical trauma and the loss of culture is a really prevalent issue here,” she said. “Perpetrators know exactly how to target that and exactly how to … promote these empty promises and different ways in which they can … coerce you into being victimized.”

Shawn Phillips, director and pastoral minister of Gichitwaa Kateri in Minneapolis and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Indian Ministry, said during the conference’s opening announcements that several attendees had a small blue tag on their name tag that identified them as “trauma-informed listeners.” If any attendees had a trauma-related story in their life they’d like to discuss, they could look for the listeners, most of whom have served in religious life or as counselors or social workers, he said.

“One of the ways we can bring forth healing in our lives is by telling the story,” Phillips said. Phillips said he used to work with Jewish people who told him “the one thing that they wish would never happen is that their story would be silenced.” “So, the story needs to be told and the harm needs to be dealt with,” Phillips said. “And the only way we can deal with that harm is if we share it.”

The conference opened at 9:15 a.m. with a grand entry in a ballroom at the hotel. One person carrying a St. Kateri relic was followed by clergy, religious and military veterans, both non-Native and Native American. One man processed with a large eagle staff from Gitchitwaa Kateri. Feathers affixed to the staff represent deceased parish members, as a way to remember them.

Other groups were introduced largely by state as they processed to the front of the conference room, with Donald Blackhawk, 28, who attends Gichitwaa Kateri, drumming from the front of the room.

Holding colorful banners recognizing their home states, with some including the years a given state had hosted the annual conference, each group processed to the front of the room and turned left or right to hang their banners, which filled the length of the room to create a colorful record of those in attendance.

Bishop Chad Zielinski of New Ulm concelebrated a late afternoon Mass, followed by dinner and a healing and reconciliation service.

During the conference, it also was announced that the national Tekakwitha Conference was moving its headquarters, with at least one paid staff member, from Alexandria, Louisiana, to the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Being in an area with a significant Native American population and easy access to a major airport factored in the decision, officials said.

In the midafternoon, participants were invited to select from several workshop sessions that included experiencing healing stories, making Native language hymns, exploring Ojibwe cultural connections and learning to play the Native American flute. School Sister of Notre Dame Kathleen Storms and two others from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Care for Creation team helped some participants assemble a rosary-like Kateri Tekakwitha Chaplet — by stringing seven colored beads for each of seven sections that symbolize the days of creation, Sister Kathleen said. The colored beads represent what’s being honored, she said, such as blue for the sky. A medal in the chaplet honors St. Kateri Tekakwitha, patroness of the environment. Prayers said as part of the chaplet include the Hail Mary and Our Father, and participants prayed them silently and reflectively as they created their chaplets, Sister Kathleen said.