Kateri Tekakwitha, the renowned Mohawk convert of the late 17th century, symbolizes for thousands of American Indian Catholics today their own two-part cultural identity. Indeed, many feel a profound spiritual kinship with her as they travel the paths of Native American Catholicism.
However, this book tells not just her story nor just that of her Mohawk people. The Paths of Kateri's Kin offers the first comprehensive study of the interweaving of Catholic and North American Indian ways from the French missionary days of the early 1600s through the complex tapestry of Indian Catholic spirituality alive today. These chapters take you down the many and various trails North American Indians have followed in expressing their Catholic identity and spirituality.
This book examines the fascinating dynamic between Catholic and Indian traditions in many tribal settings across North America and across nearly five centuries, always emphasizing the spiritual lives and practices of contemporary Native American Catholics. The Paths of Kateri's Kin reveals an exciting range of religious adaptation—from those who enter mainstream parish life to those who syncretize native and Catholic forms of spirituality.
While the first volume in this series, On the Padres' Trail, explores the heritage of Spanish Catholicism among the Indians of the Caribbean, Mexico, and the American Southwest, this second volume surveys the traditions begun in New France. From the eastern shores of Nova Scotia and Maine through the Great Lakes heartland, the entire Mississippi valley and finally the Pacific Northwest, French Catholics came and imposed their faith and institutions.
For those pursuing religious studies, Native American studies, or American Catholic studies, this definitive work provides the most inclusive approach to date toward this significant, interdisciplinary area.
About the Author :
Christopher Vecsey is Harry Emerson Fosdick Professor of the Humanities and Native American Studies and Religion at Colgate University. He is the author of On the Padres' Trail (University of Notre Dame Press, 1996) and Where the Two Roads Meet (University of Notre Dame Press, 1999), volumes 1 and 3 in the American Indian Catholics series.
Review :
"[A]n outstanding contribution to scholarship that will set new standards in the field for quite some time to come." —The Catholic Historical Review
"[I]t is high time for a fresh consideration of how native American communities wove Catholicism into the fabric of their lives. Rich in story and lean in interpretive overlay, the book will nourish efforts to rethink the history of missions, the study of native religions, and the breadth of American Catholicism." —Religious Studies Review
"For historians of the West and of White/Indian relations, this book and its companion volume ought to be integrated into everyone's 'must-read' bibliography. For historians of American religious history, especially Catholicism, Vecsey's work makes any number of important contributions, not the least of which is his assessment of the impact of Vatican II on Catholic Indians. While some may have wished him to take a harder edge in his interpretation of the vast body of material compacted into these four hundred well-written pages, this reviewer believes that his dispassionate tone and balanced judgements are just what this subject needs at the moment." —Western Historical Quarterly
"Scholarship on Native American Christianity has suffered, on the one hand, from its very dismissal by scholars of native religions as a sign of acculturation and, on the other, from its appraisal by historians of missions as a derivative of missionary intentions. Until recently, that is. Christopher Vecsey's Paths of Kateri's Kin complements both fields with an enriched appreciation of the varieties and texture of Native American Christianity." —The Journal of Religion
"This entire series is a must for both scholars and "ordinary readers" alike, written as it is in such accessible prose. Theologians, hopefully, and especially theologians arising from the ranks of indigenous peoples, will certainly feel the challenge of creating a fresh hermeneutical method for interpreting the data Vecsey records and for developing and inculturated theology and Church." —Theological Studies
"The Paths of Kateri's Kin is the second in Vecsey's ambitious three-volume work devoted to the history of Catholicism among Native Americans. It provides a highly accessible and comprehensive survey of Native American/French contact from the early explorations of Cartier (1535) and Champlain (1603) to recent expressions of 20th-century Native American spirituality. Vecsey critically examines French mission activity over a vast geographical area ranging from Nova Scotia, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi valley to the Pacific Northwest. He brings into play a variety of sources (both primary and secondary) that shed light on the dynamic encounter of missionaries and native peoples and on general processes of religious adaptation and syncretism in the New World. A major contribution of this study is Vecsey's keen recognition that American Indians who came into contact with the French already possessed complex religious traditions of their own, which they never fully abandoned. Engagingly written, this study fills a major void in knowledge of Native Americans." —Choice
"In the second volume of his trilogy on Catholicism among American Indians, Vecsey studies the missions begun by the French Jesuits in eastern Canada, the spread of the missions across North America to the Pacific Northwest, and the current state of Catholicism among the tribes in this vast swath. The figure of the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha serves Vecsey as a centripetal figure for the four centuries of Catholicism that has grown from these missions. Vecsey proceeds across the continent, studying historical and modern tribes in each region, giving proportionately more attention to larger and still Catholic tribes. For those interested in any aspect of this topic, from early relations between Europeans and Native Americans, to modern social conditions among Amerindians, this volume offers remarkable treasures.... One great value of this volume is Vecsey's command of both primary and secondary historical accounts, and his own critically sympathetic observations. Besides using written sources, Vecsey incorporates first-hand observations and interviews, all of which he handles with skill....As both a scholarly narrative of North American Catholic history and as a resource for understanding Native American concerns, this book is reccommended for all academic libraries as well as school or parish libraries serving American Indians." —*Catholic Library Association's Catholic Library World *
"Vecsey's reliance of Indians' views of their Catholic faith, practices, history, and identity make The Paths of Kateri's Kin a significant contribution to our understanding of the lives of contemporary America Indians. It is a pity that this type of scholarship is still rare. Vecsey lets Indian voices come through directly and succinctly, allowing us to assess their stories for ourselves." —The Journal of American History
"...this is a work that needs to be read and taken seriously–by Indians, non-Indians, scholars, and students alike. It tackles a very big, complex, and confusing topic. My hat is off to Chris Vescey for bringing many terrible important issues to bear, plus topics to be discussed and debated in the future." –Church History: Studies in Christanity and Culture
"A comprehensive account of contact between Catholic missions and Native North Americans from the 17th century. Vecsey is to be applauded for this ambitious undertaking." —Studies in Religion
