Corn and Canticles: Praising God’s Creation as an Indigenous Catholic
Approximately 20% of indigenous Americans are Catholic, but to be both indigenous and Catholic is to straddle a very uncomfortable line in the history of the Church in North America. As we have seen this year, with the discovery of more than 1,300 unmarked graves located on the grounds of former Catholic-run residential schools in Canada, there exists great mistrust between Native people and the Catholic Church that dates back centuries.
I am Kanienʼkehá:ka (Mohawk), one of the six tribes that form the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy that stretches primarily between the Northeastern United States and Canada. My tribal community is located in southern Ontario, but my family grew up off-reserve in neighboring New York State. As a teenager, I had the privilege of attending Mass at a church located on a nearby reservation, the first of its kind in the state. The church featured Native-inspired stained glass windows and light fixtures, and a statue of (then) Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (known as the “Lily of the Mohawks”) next to the lectern. The congregation would regularly pray for her canonization (and those prayers were granted in October 2012). This allowed me to see firsthand the many ways that traditional Mohawk culture can be celebrated within the Catholic Faith.
A natural thread connects the Church and the indigenous values of caring for and appreciating God’s creation of the world. Laudato Si, Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on care for the environment, brought these issues to the forefront of public thought and has sparked an international conversation on the increasing need to tend to our common home. The Haudenosaunee deeply value ecological preservation, and view it as, “the duty of preparing for the seventh generation.” The nations of the Haudenosaunee believe that we borrow the earth from our children’s children and it is our duty to protect it and the culture for future generations. St. Francis of Assisi and St. Kateri Tekakwitha, two great saints in my life as both a Kanien’kehá:ka woman and a Secular Franciscan, are both patron saints of ecology (and I think they would be friends had they known each other.)
Mary Williams, @creatingtolove.
I have had many occasions to appreciate the beauty of God’s creation alongside my heritage, such as enjoying strawberry shortcake in May with my children to honor both the Strawberry Festival and our Blessed Mother, and slow-cooking traditional corn soup to celebrate summer feasts and festivals in mid-August. I taught myself to bead after being inspired by the plethora of natural materials I encountered on a trip near the Lakota Nation in South Dakota, and later used those skills to begin making rosaries.
One of my favorite celebrations of creation is praying the Liturgy of the Hours. God provides us with natural moments to pause and offer Him thanks throughout our day, visually triggering us through the movement of the sun and moon in the sky. He invites us to pray at dawn, midday, evening, and night in order to sanctify our days and find order in nature’s rhythms. The Liturgy of the Hours cycles through the Psalms, scripture, and other assorted selections from the Church’s rich Tradition, and a frequent prayer is the Canticle of Daniel. It joyfully and exuberantly gives thanks and praise to God, and praying it in the mornings is like drinking a warm cup of Heaven. (You simply must listen to Paul Rose sing it in his Sing the Hours podcast. Skip forward to timestamp 4:15. You’re welcome in advance for the reverent earworm.) I encourage you to meditate on this canticle and listen for God’s voice in all things: in the sun and the moon, the heat and the frost, in the mountains and streams, and in the birds and water creatures. The list goes on because our God is a loving and merciful Father, who loves to share His works with us.
Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord.
Praise and exalt him above all forever.
Daniel 3:57
Meet Shauna’h Fuegen
Shauna’h Fuegen is a cradle Catholic, Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk), wife, and working mother of three young boys. She guides Catholic women through making time and space for God, even in the busiest of seasons. You can find her at Fiat Sanctum writing about prayer routines, everyday holiness, and life as a Secular Franciscan. Follow along with Shauna’h on Instagram @fiatsanctum.