In the land of the Cheyennes, there is a mountain higher than all the mountains around him. All the Cheyennes know that mountain; even our forefathers knew him. When children, we ran around wheresoever we wanted. We were never afraid to lose our way so long as we could see that mountain, which would show us home again. When grown up, we followed the buffalo and the elk; we cared not where we pursued the running deer, so long as the mountain was in sight; for we knew he was ever a safe guide, and never failed in his duty. When men, we fought the Sioux, the Crows, the white men. We went after the enemy, though the way ran high up, and low down. Our hearts trembled not on account of the road; for as long as we could see the mountain, we felt sure of finding our home again. When far away, our hearts leaped for joy on seeing him, because he told us that our home came nearer.

During the winter, the snow covered all the earth with a mantle of white; we could no longer distinguish him from other mountains except by his height, which told us he was the mountain. Sometimes dark clouds gathered above. They hid his head from our view, and out of them flew fiery darts, boring holes in his sides. The thunder shook him from head to foot; but the storm passed away and the mountain stood forever.

This mountain is the Black Robe. (A Native American expression for a Roman Catholic priest.) His heart is firm as a rock. He changes not. He speaks to us the words of truth. We are always sure of our path, when we look to him for guidance. He is the mountain that leads us to God.

A story told by Old Wolf,
Cheyenne chief from Montana in the 1880's.

You could also interpret the "mountain" to be Our Lord Jesus Christ.

*BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF BLESSED KATERI TEKAKWITHA

Tekakwitha was born in 1656 near the town of Auriesville (then Ossernenon), New York, the daughter of a Mohawk warrior and of a Catholic Algonquin woman. She was baptized by Jesuit missionary Father Jacques de Lambertville on Easter of 1676, at the age of twenty. While in Ossernenon and Caughnawaga, New York, she incurred the hostility of her Mohawk tribe because of her faith. She fled to Kahnawaké, some 200 miles to the north, in Québec. She devoted her life to prayer, penitential practices, and the care of the sick, the young and the aged in Caughnawaga (now Kahnawaké) across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal. The relics of her bones are found in the church of St. Francis-Xavier on this Indian reservation. She was devoted to the Eucharist and to Jesus Crucified, and was called the "Lily of the Mohawks". She died in 1680 and was beatified June 22, 1980 - the first native American to be declared "Blessed." She should also be called the "Flower of the Algonquins" since it was her mother's influence as a Catholic Algonquin woman that shaped the first five years of her life. Her Feast Day is celebrated on July 14.

Her mother and our family's (Léveillée) eight great-grandmother Mite8ameg8k8e were in the same Algonquin tribe of Sachem Pachirini who lived in Trois-Rivières (Three Rivers) in Québec. Pierre Couc, husband of Mite8ameg8k8e m. 1657, our ancestor, was an interpreter for the French with the Algonquins, whose entire tribe had been baptized at Montréal several years earlier. Their daughter Marie Angélique Couc who married François Delpé dit St-Cerny was our direct ancestor.

For more information on Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, please visit our website at www.kateritekakwitha.org/kateri