What attracts Native Americans to Catholicism?

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Hi folks? Do you have some experience on what attracts Native Americans to Catholicism? Thanks.
 
i guess that what is left of them (no insult intended) don’t want to be pagans anymore

i had (he died) a friend who was arapaho-apache; he converted to christianity
…

i don’t think it was catholicism that he ultimately bought into…
 
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I don’t know about all the tribes, but I do know a good number were already monotheistic and it wasn’t that difficult for the missionaries to introduce and explain the faith when those they were ministering to were already somewhat similarly religiously oriented. There is even a theory that St. Brendan the Navigator actually landed in New England and influenced the Cherokee belief system with Christian elements in the early sixth century. There is some circumstantial evidence which may support this. Other tribes were drawn to conversion through the testimony and examples of the Martyrs.
 
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Interestingly, in my home town (well the town I grew up in until I was 12 years old - I don’t really see it as a “home” anymore of any sort), most white folk were Protestant (including my family). After converting to Catholicism, I remember visiting one year and attending Mass and immediately noticed that at least half, possibly more, of the congregation was First Nations folk. I remember my Grandma describing Catholics as “Indians who worship Mary”…lol.
 
Same reasons why the Romans, Vikings, Africans and Jews were attracted to it.

People saw a better way of living.
 
I was at a jewelry store the other day having a rosary repaired by a Native American employee. When he had finished he asked me to explain to him what the rosary is used for. We have several Native Americans in our parish as we are close to the Navajo and Hopi Indian reservation.
 
Just as an aside, did you know the canonization process has opened for the famed Lakota, Nicholas Black Elk? It is a fascinating story.
 
RTR said:
Do you have some experience on what attracts Native Americans to Catholicism?
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What makes you think they are? Most of them here in the Southwest were “converted” under pain of death or torture. Many were imprisoned, enslaved, forced into scrap land and otherwise coerced.

If there are an currently that are attracted, I would speculate that the Native peoples have always had embodied faith, and meaningful rituals. Catholicsm would be recognized as an enacted faith.

 
The first thing I wanted to say was “the Spanish”, but in truth just like all else who are Catholic, the fullness of Truth is what we as humans crave.

Really the Native Americans are so varied if you’re looking for a way to evangelize, more details may be needed, and of course humans are still individuals.
 
Very interesting, thanks. I meant to say what might I do to attract a
worshipping Native American (Chippewa I think) to Catholicism.
 
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RTR said:
I meant to say what might I do to attract a

worshipping Native American (Chippewa I think) to Catholicism.
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I don’t know that it would be different than with anyone else. Be the best witness to Jesus you can, show interest in his religion and spirituality, and share some of your own. Invite to Mass. The Easter Vigil is an awesome experience, though very long, and summarizes the whole of our life as Catholics. If a person had the stamina, it could be a source of discussion for the rest of the year!
 
Boy, that’s a loaded question!

In the past, in my neck of the woods, the “Black Robes” didn’t quite make it an attraction. I’d have to say it was more ‘fear’. The complete destruction of cultures, languages, ways of life, and Native belief system were the norm.

As one small example of the legacy this left behind, it wasn’t until the 1960’s that a group of Mi’kmaq from a particular village went against the local church’s prohibition on practicing traditional dances (at least in public) and just started doing them again for the first time in well over 150 years.

Now-a-days, I imagine it’s the same thing that would attract anyone else.
 
I believe the Black Robes were Jesuits. It is possible that at the time of the evangelization of North American in the 17th and 18th centuries that the priests had been heavily influenced by the Jansenist heresy. (This and others led to the suppression of the Jesuits in the mid to late 18th century). Interesting reading.
 
Same as what attracts anyone,
The zeal, fervor, and peace they encounter in Christians they have met.
 
Something different brings different people into Catholicism. For Native Americans, it may be their attraction to ceremony. We certainly have a lot more of that than protestants- confession, Eucharist, last rites and all. They may be attracted to sacramentals, too.
 
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