Volume 30, Nr. 1, February 2000              Richardton, ND 58652

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
III: Indian Cultural Center

(Editor's note: This is the final installment of the article begun in the February, 1999, AMN.)

After 1979 and the "Expressions of Concerns" noted above, the Conference took on fresh energy. In 1987 in Phoenix, Pope John Paul II came for an afternoon. Fifteen thousand Indian people crowded into the University halls. A Mescalaro Apache medicine man, Sidney Baca, with sweet grass and the eagle feather, had a special blessing for the Pope. Folks who have no contact with reservation life were furious. They claimed that the Pope had been duped. If he had his choice, it was said, he would never let a near-pagan pretend to pray over him. The Pope's response is on record.

"I have greatly looked forward to this visit with you, the original peoples of this vast country. I thank you for inviting me to be with you and for sharing with me some aspects of your rich and ancient culture. . . . As your representative spoke I traced in my heart the history of your tribes and nations. . . . Here your forebears worshiped the Creator and thanked him for his gifts. In contact with the forces of nature they learned the value of prayer, of silence and fasting, of patience and courage in the face of pain and disappointment. . . . Unfortunately [in coming to your land] not all members of our Church lived up to their Christian responsibilities. But let us not dwell excessively on mistakes and wrongs, even as we commit ourselves to overcoming their present effects. . . . I encourage you, as Native people . . . . to preserve and keep alive your cultures, your languages, the values and customs which have served you well in the past and which provide a solid foundation for the future. These things benefit not only yourselves but the entire human family."

Surely the conference had come of age when the Universal Father came to sit with and talk and listen to the gathered adult Church of a New World. Two years later in 1989 the conference had reached its diamond jubilee. Once more the site was Fargo, North Dakota. The keynote speaker of the conference was Francis Cardinal Arinze, the head of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue at the Vatican. Cardinal Arinze, a native of Africa, cheered the spirits of North American natives by his reflection on his own traditional native roots. He opened his address:

"One of the major objectives of the Tekakwitha Conference is attention to the religious and spiritual traditions and values of the Native American cultures. I wish to propose to you some reflections on the following points:

1. Importance of the cultural roots of a people.
2. Bringing the Gospel to a people in their culture.
3. Traditional religions and the importance of pastoral attention to them.
4. Dialogue in the Church and study of local circumstances.
5. Some key doctrinal points.
6. Looking towards the future.

"The Creator has walked with you and your ancestors along the centuries. You are richly gifted in your traditions, history, customs, sacred ways and cultures. . . . Your collective historical consciousness merits respect and credibility. Pope Paul VI emphasizes that culture and the Good News of Jesus Christ must meet: 'Fidelity both to the message whose servants we are, and to the people to whom we must transmit it living and intact, is the central axis of evangelization' (Evangeli Nuntiandi, n. 4).

"If in any particular area of the world there has not been adequate attention paid to the people's culture in the work of evangelization, this is not due to lack of proper official directives from the Church, but due to failure to follow these instructions."

The anniversary crowd heard in those words the plea of Bea Swanson ten years earlier, "Bishops and priests and sisters, listen to us." At the close of the Fargo Conference the first non-clergyman was chosen to be administrator/ director of the conference, Fred Buckles, an Assiniboin. Under Mr. Buckles and other directors following him the conference has enlarged its scope and touches all Indian nations in the country. In conclusion and in Dakota we salute you: "Mitakuye Owasin." We are all relatives.

Stanislaus Maudlin, OSB
Blue Cloud Abbey
Marvin, SD

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