How I would like to meet my sister, St. Kateri Tekakwitha — the first Indigenous woman to be canonized. How I would like to sit in the presence of her genius, to listen to her stories, to ask her what she would say to our Church today.

For many people, the life of St. Kateri serves as a beautiful story of hope and courage, or the merging of two cultures — Native American and Roman Catholic. (Her name alone signifies this reality: Kateri being the Iroquois pronunciation of her baptismal name, which means Catherine; Tekakwitha being her Iroquois name, meaning “one who bumps into things.”) For others, it is a difficult story to accept, due to the reality that many European colonists sought to conquer land and, in turn, Native Americans — as well as the fact that some missionaries failed the Body of Christ by forcing Indigenious people to convert to Christianity. To justly tell the story of St. Kateri, we cannot entirely ignore the latter.

It is true, from the writings of the Jesuit missionaries, that we can gather that the Jesuits truly tried to understand and respect the culture of Native Americans (though they were originally unwelcomed), even if in retrospect we can acknowledge ways in which they could have done better. It appears that Kateri was loved and welcomed by the Jesuit missionaries, that Catholicism was not forced upon her, that she was encouraged to retain aspects of her heritage, and that she became a leader for her people. It is also true that we do not have any firsthand accounts from Kateri herself. Our task, then, is to hold all of these realities in tension.

This is the latest installment of the series, “The genius of my sister.” Read other articles in the series to learn more about Catholic women throughout history and how they can inspire us today.