Converting the Rosebud

Harvey Markowitz writes to tell the story of the “origins and early history of Saint Francis Indian Mission” on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation (p. xi). The book certainly accomplishes its goal, but it does a lot more as well. Markowitz situates his story in some of the major happenings of the nineteenth century, and his knowledge of his subjects goes deep. Early chapters focus on the development of federal Indian policy, the participation of Roman Catholics, the government’s efforts to conquer the Lakota and remake them as “Rosebud Sioux,” and the anti-Catholic movements in Germany that led some German Catholics to join mission efforts in the U.S. West. Markowitz then focuses on the religious laborers’ efforts to “civilize and Christianize” students and Sicangu Lakota adults. He demonstrates how the missionaries saw Sicangu spirituality, culture, and psychology, as well as antagonism from Protestant missionaries and federal Indian policy as hindrances. In the final three chapters, Markowitz centers Sicangu responses to Catholic mission efforts, exploring the Lakota cosmos and notions of sacred power, as well as some of their ritual practices prior to the arrival of Catholicism. He probes how Sicangus utilized the political, economic, and social resources of the Catholic mission to provide material support for their increasingly impoverished communities, to maintain their lands, and to keep their children on the reservation. In the final chapter, we see how many Sicangus interpreted the spiritual resources of the Catholic Church “in terms of basic categories of traditional Lakota thought and ritual” (p. 204). One reason for this interpretation was the Catholic use of Lakota terms to articulate Catholic beliefs, especially the term wakan, which incorporates Lakota concepts of sacred power and wonder.

Civilization · Government (linguistics) · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · Spirituality · History · Law · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies