Insight Essay: Star of the Mohawk: Kateri Tekakwitha

Historical Insights

by Daria Sockey

Star of the Mohawk: Kateri Tekakwitha (by Francis MacDonald)

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Of the three subjects in our “Women of Faith and Courage” set of biographies, St. Kateri Tekakwitha is probably the best known. Her 2012 canonization was widely noted, and rightly so, since she is the first Native North American to be so honored by the Church. Judging by the number of little Tekakwithas seen running around at All Saints’ Day costume parties, it is clear that her story has already captured many hearts and imaginations. Star of the Mohawk fills in greater detail for growing readers, leading them beyond a simple cheer for cultural diversity to an appreciation of Kateri’s startling and courageous non-conformity in the embrace of heroic faith.

But first—a study unit built around this book would have to include two important pieces of background. First, the Council of the Five Nations. The Iroquois were skilled military strategists, and had strong fortifications, because they had a long military history—not fighting white settlers, but rather with other Indian tribes. They had also learned long before to minimize war through diplomacy and political alliance. In 1550 the Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Oneida tribes formed a pact to live peaceably and to support one another against their common enemy, the Algonquin and Huron tribes. Their council meetings were known for grand oratory, respectful hearings given to all tribal representatives, and shrewd decision-making that belied the European description of the Indians as “savages”. (On the other hand, the Iroquois custom of merciless and prolonged torture of enemy captives lent some credence to that term.)

The second important background piece in our story is the fur trade. Europeans craved the abundant New World furs, especially beaver. The Indians recognized that European technology—from guns to steel blades to iron pots to fine cloth and glass beads—could enhance their lives in many ways. What began as a mutually beneficial arrangement devolved quickly as competing groups of Europeans (French, Dutch, and English) formed trade agreements with different tribes. Soon the tribes were warring with one another and with the Europeans in order to control trapping grounds and achieve dominance in the fur trade. The French Jesuit missionaries, whose sole motive was to spread the Gospel to the Indians, were caught in the middle of all this. The changing winds of trade-driven wars and treaties were largely responsible for both the martyrdoms of St. Isaac Jogues and companions in 1646, and the peace in 1667 that eventually made it possible for Kateri to finally meet the Blackrobes and receive Baptism.

Now, back to Kateri. What shape did her heroic non-conformism take?

  • Refusing—from earliest childhood—participation in approved social activities that she finds repugnant. (C’mon, Tekakwitha! Everyone else is gonna torture the prisoners!)
  • Defying parental and peer pressure to marry.
  • Converting to a new religion in the face of family opposition.
  • Shrugging off derision and threats to her health and safety.
  • Leaving (in secret) the only home she ever knew to live in a strange, new place.
  • Insisting on a countercultural lifestyle (consecrated virginity) even over the objections of fellow believers and even the (at first) low expectations of her spiritual director.

If we had taken these facts of Kateri’s life in isolation, we might have built in our imaginations the picture of a bold rebel. A natural leader who scorns public opinion and instead draws others to her own banner. But we know the backstory. This was a shy, vision-impaired and normally docile young woman who found the courage to reject tribal tradition and even the joy of married love when something more beautiful beckoned. How did she get to this place of moral strength?

The answer involves grace, nature, and grace working through nature. Her mother might have taught her those elements of Christianity that a pre-schooler could grasp. But it would take more than fading memories of her mother (who died when Tekakwitha was four) to preserve in her any kind of longing for baptism. It would help that Tekakwitha was a natural contemplative, preferring silence to noise and solitude to crowds. Her aversion to celebrations of war and the torture of captives was also a bridge to eventual faith. In this regard Tekakwitha was an enigma to her village. Was this aversion to violence a personality trait that peer pressure could not overcome? Or was it a singular grace from heaven? Either way, her soul was fertile ground for the seed of the gospel.

Just the same, it took more than a well-disposed personality for Tekakwitha (or any Native American) to embrace the gospel. There was a considerable obstacle, one that was probably responsible for the relatively poor success rate of the Jesuits’ early missionary efforts: the actions of the white men who came to North America. These Europeans who brought the gospel also brought violence to the tribal way of life. Their ever-expanding numbers (while the Indians were dwindled due to smallpox—another European import) were portents of a future where domination of their lands by these strangers would be complete. It is no surprise that many of the Iroquois saw all this and found it impossible to accept the claims of the Black Robes for this new God. Chapter 4 has a fictionalized account of Tekakwitha watching the destruction of her village by French soldiers and the butchering of an Iroquois girl by the French-allied Hurons. Although these precise events are not verified, the scene represents the huge barrier that prevented most of the Iroquois from seeing the French as messengers of a God of love and peace. To most Indians they remained a strange people who, along with material benefits, brought destruction to the Native way of life. Kateri was able to sort through these contradictions and break through cultural barriers to receive the supreme good that her heart had already recognized. She perceived that the great Lord Raweniio made us all brothers and sisters, and that the Europeans, for all their flaws, were the bearers of this one gift—eternal life in Christ.

This gift of holy intuition was shared by Kateri with the other early converts to Christianity. But she went beyond them. In fact, it might be said that she went beyond even the Blackrobes in this ability to look beyond all barriers—to look at nothing but the Face of Christ. Her old conviction that marriage was not for her now had a positive direction—to live as if married to her beloved Savior. Initially, her spiritual advisor withheld approval. Some commentators suggest a lingering racial prejudice (that made him view his charges as “children” incapable of the spiritual maturity required for a perpetual vow) was responsible for this attitude. Maybe it was simply the prudence and caution with which most spiritual directors react to the extreme enthusiasms of recent converts. In any event, Kateri continued in her gentle opposition, just as she had gently opposed family, peers, and custom so often in the past. And once more, she prevailed.

The Catholic Church often designates its saints as “patrons,” e.g. specific role models and heavenly intercessors for groups or causes. St. Kateri quite obviously is a patron of Native North Americans. Because of her people’s close relationship to the land in its wild state, she is also a patron of ecologists. But it seems that her courage in continually refusing to follow the crowd makes her a special friend of teenagers (who must deal with peer pressure), especially those who consider themselves shy or quiet. She teaches them that courage need not be loud or flashy. It may simply be quiet, patient, enduring, and steely strong.

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