The Paths of Kateri's Kin

Kateri Tekakwitha, the renowned Mohawk convert of the late 17th century, symbolizes for thousands of American Indian Catholics today their own two-part cultural identity. Indeed, many feel a profound spiritual kinship with her as they travel the paths of Native American Catholicism.

However, this book tells not just her story nor just that of her Mohawk people. The Paths of Kateri's Kin offers the first comprehensive study of the interweaving of Catholic and North American Indian ways from the French missionary days of the early 1600s through the complex tapestry of Indian Catholic spirituality alive today. These chapters take you down the many and various trails North American Indians have followed in expressing their Catholic identity and spirituality.

This book examines the fascinating dynamic between Catholic and Indian traditions in many tribal settings across North America and across nearly five centuries, always emphasizing the spiritual lives and practices of contemporary Native American Catholics. The Paths of Kateri's Kin reveals an exciting range of religious adaptation―from those who enter mainstream parish life to those who syncretize native and Catholic forms of spirituality.

While the first volume in this series, On the Padres' Trail, explores the heritage of Spanish Catholicism among the Indians of the Caribbean, Mexico, and the American Southwest, this second volume surveys the traditions begun in New France. From the eastern shores of Nova Scotia and Maine through the Great Lakes heartland, the entire Mississippi valley and finally the Pacific Northwest, French Catholics came and imposed their faith and institutions.

For those pursuing religious studies, Native American studies, or American Catholic studies, this definitive work provides the most inclusive approach to date toward this significant, interdisciplinary area.

Christopher Vecsey is Harry Emerson Fosdick Professor of the Humanities and Native American Studies and Religion at Colgate University. He is the author of On the Padres' Trail (University of Notre Dame Press, 1997), The Paths of Kateri's Kin (University of Notre Dame Press, 1998), and Where the Two Roads Meet (University of Notre Dame Press, 1999) in the American Indian Catholics series.