In the second volume of his trilogy on Catholicism among American Indians, Vecsey studies the missions begun by the French Jesuits in eastern Canada, the spread of the missions across North America to the Pacific Northwest, and the current state of Catholicism among the tribes in this vast swath. The figure of the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha serves Vecsey as a centripetal figure for the four centuries of Catholicism that has grown from these missions. Vecsey proceeds across the continent, studying historical and modern tribes in each region, giving proportionately more attention to larger and still Catholic tribes. For those interested in any aspect of this topic, from early relations between Europeans and Native Americans, to modern social conditions among Amerindians, this volume offers remarkable treasures.... One great value of this volume is Vecsey's command of both primary and secondary historical accounts, and his own critically sympathetic observations. Besides using written sources, Vecsey incorporates first-hand observations and interviews, all of which he handles with skill....As both a scholarly narrative of North American Catholic history and as a resource for understanding Native American concerns, this book is reccommended for all academic libraries as well as school or parish libraries serving American Indians. -- Daniel Boice * Catholic Library Association's Catholic Library World *
This entire series is a must for both scholars and ordinary readers alike, written as it is in such accessible prose. Theologians, hopefully, and especially theologians arising from the ranks of indigenous peoples, will certainly feel the challenge of creating a fresh hermeneutical method for interpreting the data Vecsey records and for developing and inculturated theology and Church. * Theological Studies *
Scholarship on Native American Christianity has suffered, on the one hand, from its very dismissal by scholars of native religions as a sign of acculturation and, on the other, from its appraisal by historians of missions as a derivative of missionary intentions. Until recently, that is. Christopher Vecsey's Paths of Kateri's Kin complements both fields with an enriched appreciation of the varieties and texture of Native American Christianity. * he Journal of Religion *
For historians of the West and of White/Indian relations, this book and its companion volume ought to be integrated into everyone's 'must-read' bibliography. For historians of American religious history, especially Catholicism, Vecsey's work makes any number of important contributions, not the least of which is his assessment of the impact of Vatican II on Catholic Indians. While some may have wished him to take a harder edge in his interpretation of the vast body of material compacted into these four hundred well-written pages, this reviewer believes that his dispassionate tone and balanced judgements are just what this subject needs at the moment. * Western Historical Quarterly *
[I]t is high time for a fresh consideration of how native American communities wove Catholicism into the fabric of their lives. Rich in story and lean in interpretive overlay, the book will nourish efforts to rethink the history of missions, the study of native religions, and the breadth of American Catholicism. * Religious Studies Review *
[A]n outstanding contribution to scholarship that will set new standards in the field for quite some time to come. * The Catholic Historical Review *
The Paths of Kateri's Kin is the second in Vecsey's ambitious three-volume work devoted to the history of Catholicism among Native Americans. It provides a highly accessible and comprehensive survey of Native American/French contact from the early explorations of Cartier (1535) and Champlain (1603) to recent expressions of 20th-century Native American spirituality. Vecsey critically examines French mission activity over a vast geographical area ranging from Nova Scotia, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi valley to the Pacific Northwest. He brings into play a variety of sources (both primary and secondary) that shed light on the dynamic encounter of missionaries and native peoples and on general processes of religious adaptation and syncretism in the New World. A major contribution of this study is Vecsey's keen recognition that American Indians who came into contact with the French already possessed complex religious traditions of their own, which they never fully abandoned. Engagingly written, this study fills a major void in knowledge of Native Americans. * Choice *
