The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-08-02

lows by Father Hughes, assistant
director of the Bureau of Catholic
Indian Missions.
Elbowoods, N. D., July Is, 1913.
Out in this elbow of the woods,
which takes it's name of Elbowoods
among the Indians from the sharply
bending course of the Missouri River
through the cotton-woods, out on the
sun-kissed, wind-swept, summer
blessed, winter-cursed North Dakota
prairie, Catholic Indians from six
tribes, once inveterate enemies, are
met in the peace and the common
faith and the humble pride of their
Catholicity. With the mission church,
convent and priests house as the cen
ter, the Indians are camped upon the
plain. Two hundred tents, white as
the sun in the distance, pointed tee
pees, which are so picturesque against
the sunset sky, and squatty modern
tents, which bring out the contrast of
the old teepee-two hundred of them,
counting five persons to each tent,
are here
They have come to be the guests
of the Mandans, Gros Ventres and
Arickarees, who are attached to this
mission There are Sioux from Fort
Yates and Cannon Ball, Standing
Rock Reservation, on the South Da-
kota border. and their cousins from
Devils Lake and Wolf Hill, Fort Tot
ten Reservation, North Dakota. There
MinnnCnfo
from Turtle Mountain near the Cana
dian border in North Dakota, and AS
siniboines from far-off Montana.
They are met but for a single pur-
pose, which is the theme of every
speech and the motive of every action
They are Catholics-just Catholics
happy in their new-found faith and
Jealous for it's spread among the pagan
Indians of the plains and of the noun
tains. They are intensely Catholic
The men, in particular impress the
white man by their devotion in prayer
to God and in service to others, to be
and to make good Catholics.
The Sioux is natural orator. His
thoughts are elevated. His speech is
filled with figures drawn from nature.
Gas the BEES" says Ignatius Court,
'gather in the clover when it is in
flower and then scatter to the four
winds, going to many hives, so will
we leave this place of sweet con-
course, the Catholic Indian Congress;
but not until we have gathered, each
one, something holy, which we will
carry to our own reservation, home
and life
The Indian who expressed so poet
ically the object of the Indian Cath
Ollie Congress bears the double dis
tinction of being the only Indian
knight of Columbus in the state,
and of being the assistant editor of
the Catholic newspaper in Sioux and
English published by Father Jerome
Hunt, o. S. B., at Fort Totten, North
Dakota.
At the Congress are old warriors who
in years past were kept from the war
path only by being held in chains, like
John Grass, and young men of mag
nificent physique, on whom the John
Grasses are glad to lay the robe of
craftsmanship, like Jerome Cottonwood
of Cannon Ball. Faithful old converts
like Good Bear, the eros Ventre, and
neophytes like James Garfield, the
Montana Assiniboine, stand up in the
meeting of the st. Joseph Society for
men, and declare the faith which rules
their lives and which impelled them
to come to this meeting. John Grass,
patriarch that he is, with face which
is touched with the grace of God,
speaks as a Bishop might speak. He
tells his people to remember well the
words which were spoken to them the
day before by Bishop Wehrle, when
he confirmed forty Indians of all ages
from nine to ninety. "The Bishop has
told u.s." said the chief, "that in con-
firmation he imprints the sign of the
cross upon our souls. Be not ashamed,
then, to declare yourselves Catholics
by the sign of the cross. Be not like
some white men who attend Mass
only when at home and neglect it
when away"
Jerome Cottonwood suggests a
luOuSuI WhlCA 10 NOAy OAA51hcA' 1AO
says: God belongs not less but
rather more to the Indian than to the
white man, because not Indians but
white men crucified the Son of Cod
Good Bear, the Indian apostle of the
faith at Elbowoods, tells of his first
visit to Standing Rock, in the Sioux
country, sixteen years ago, when he
religion to the Sioux He told how
he came back and told his people that
they, too, should have a black robe.
And then how he, Good Bear, and
Wounded Face went to Bishop Shan
ley and asked for priest. The Bishop
sent Father Francis Craft, in 1890.
James Garfield, speaking for the
Assiniboines of Montana, tells stir
ring story of their struggle for the
faith. He recounts his own recent
conversion, the wild ways of the pagan
religion or none, and the happy but
heroic change to Christian life. He
speaks with sorrow of his old mode
of life and the pride of it. He tells
of the humility and the true worth
of the soul which he finds in the
teaching of the Catholic religion. He
relates with just pride his care of the
chapel and of the identifying of the
grounds about it. But they need a
priest who can talk either Indian or