ST. FRANCIS MISSION RECORDS

Medicine Men and Clergy Dialogue

From 1973 through 1978, Reverend William F. Stolzman was a Jesuit ministering to Native Americans on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. In so doing, he organized, chaired, and analyzed an historic theological dialogue between Dakota [Lakota] medicine men and Catholic clergy, which culminated in his 1986 book, The Pipe and Christ: A Christian-Sioux Dialogue. The dialogue comprised of weekly meetings at St. Francis Mission with regular participation by 25 medicine men and associates and 12 clergy. The medicine men spoke in Dakota [Lakota] and the clergy spoke in English with Deacon Ben Black Bear, Jr. (Brulé) providing live translations. Apparently a total of 84 meetings were held with St. Francis Mission staff then producing transcripts to all but the last 10 meetings, which were not transcribed.

The participating medicine men and associates/ spouses included the following 25 regular and three infrequent participants: Moses Big Crow (Brulé), Wallace Black Elk (Oglala), Ben Black Bear, Sr. (Brulé), Iva Black Bear (Brulé), Joseph Black Tomahawk (Brulé), Laura Black Tomahawk (Brulé), Elizabeth Clifford (Oglala), Henry Crow Dog (Brulé), Leonard Crow Dog (Brulé), George Eagle Elk (Brulé), Joseph Eagle Elk (Brulé), John Fire Lame Deer (Brulé), Ellis Head (Brulé), Charles Kills Enemy (Brulé), Charles Little Eagle (Brulé), Fred Little Elk (Brulé), Jane Marshall (Brulé), Frank Picket Pin (Brulé), Norbert Running (Brulé), Arthur Running Horse (Brulé), Lucille Running Horse (Brulé), Rudy Runs Alone (Brulé), Bill Schweigman (Brulé), Robert Stead (Brulé), Marie Two Charge (Brulé), Julie Walking Eagle (Brulé), Shelbert White Bear (Brulé), and Gilbert Yellow Hawk (Brulé).

The original record comprises eight open reel recordings and 233 audio cassettes (St. Francis Mission Records, Series 9), approximately 1,000 pages of transcripts (St. Francis Mission Records, Series 7), and related drafts and presentations (Holy Rosary Mission - Red Cloud Indian School Records, Series 7 and 9, and St. Francis Mission Records, Series 7 and 9). The recordings captured both languages in their entirety whereas the transcripts contain only the English translations with Dakota retained for key terms. (Stolzman provides definitions in The Pipe and Christ.) Each meeting includes up to five recordings with an average of 12 transcript pages per meeting. To reference the documentation, he used sequential numbers from one through 88 to identify the meetings with the exception of meetings 4, 6, 7, and 31 that were not held. Within the meetings, letter suffixes added to identify specific recordings and their sequence of recordings within the meetings. Later, Marquette Archives staff indexed meetings 1 to 78 based on the transcripts.

Related recordings produced and/ or collected by Father Stolzman (St. Francis Mission Records, Series 9) include talks by Medicine Man Leonard Crow Dog and others on the Native American Church and other religious topics plus a vision quest retelling by a non-Indian Fordham University theology student, ca. 1976-1979.  

Meetings by year

Total	Meetings
1973: 4	1-3, 5
1974: 9	8-16
1975: 17	17-30, 32-34
1976: 19	35-53
1977: 18	54-71
1978: 17	72-88

Meetings by topic (1-78 only)

Topics	Meetings
Ceremonies
Making Relatives (Adoption)	28-30, 32-35
Sun Dance	26
Sweat Bath (Inipi or Sweat Lodge)	1-3, 5, 14-19, 35-38, 41, 44, 63
Vision Quest and Making of a Woman	1, 5, 24, 39, 44, 49-50, 58, 63, 67, 74-75, 78
Yuwipi, Lowanpi, and Heyoka	1-2, 9, 22-27, 49, 55-63, 65, 67
Ghosts and Spirits	1-2, 9-10, 14, 19-21, 32, 42-45, 48-53, 59-60, 62
God	38-43
Good and Evil	19, 39, 41-47
Pipe
Background	2-3, 15-16, 26
Handling	6, 10-11, 40-41
Symbolism	11, 13
Religious Identity	1, 19, 22-24, 38, 53-54, 73-75
Religious Relationships	1-2, 8-9, 50, 53, 61, 66, 72, 76

 

Restrictions: Restrictions apply to the sound recordings of the Medicine Men and Clergy Dialogue, i.e. They must be used in the Francis Paul Prucha, S.J., Archives Reading Room, R360, of the Marquette University John P. Raynor, S.J., Library. However, no restrictions apply to the transcripts of the Medicine Men and Clergy Dialogue or the manuscript drafts for The Pipe and Christ. For more information about access to these sound recordings, please consult with the Archivist in charge of this collection.