Wednesday, April 13, 2011
A Secret Hidden by Our Government: Sitting Bull was Catholic

The Eponymous Flower has a fantastic post on the topic of Sitting Bull and the Dakota people who were Catholics. 

Sitting Bull was a fascinating and successful War leader of the Dakota people who gave the US Army one of its few decisive defeats in the Indian Wars, by crushing General Custer and his cavalry squadrons at the Battle of Little Big Horn.   There is a famous picture, which was cropped, to conceal the crucifix he wore.

The U.S. government has refused to recognize the fact that the Lakota were disposed toward Catholicism, and initially refused chief Red Clouds petitions to bring in the "Black Gowns" since the government had only authorized Episcopalians to proselytize to the Natives.

3 comment(s):

del_button April 14, 2011 at 2:23 AM
Steve Smith said...

It's true that Episopalians were authorized to proselytize to the Natives, but the Grant administration also authorized the Quakers to proselytize to them as well.

del_button April 14, 2011 at 5:39 AM
Mary Kochan -- Catholic Lane said...

No, the photo was not cropped. He made money getting his picture taken and autographing it and sometimes it was with a crucifix and sometimes not. There isn't just "one famous photo." And he was barred from formally entering the Church -- explanation here: http://catholiclane.com/was-chief-sitting-bull-a-catholic/

del_button April 23, 2011 at 12:32 AM
Dave R said...

Matthew, beautiful blog. Bill W. a cofounder of AA wanted to convert to catholicism but Dr. Bob and some others thought it controversal. he had Fr. Ed Dowling as a spiritual guide.

Pax,
Dave

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