Dakota Cross-Bearer

Book excerpt: Dakota Cross-Bearer is the story of Harold S. Jones, a Dakota Indian born in 1909 and raised on the Santee Reservation in Nebraska, who rose through the ranks of the Episcopal Church to become the first Native bishop of a Christian church. Jones's biography sheds light on the importance of Christianity for the Dakotas and other Native peoples during the twentieth century. His story yields insights into the history of twentieth-century missionary activity among Native communities and illuminates instances of conflict and discrimination within the Episcopal Church, the processes of clerical training and testing, and the demands of constant relocation. Mary E. Cochran is the wife of an Episcopal bishop who worked on the Standing Rock Reservation and who later was named bishop of Alaska. She and her husband live in Tacoma, Washington. Raymond A. Bucko, S.J., a Catholic priest, is the director of the Native American Studies Program and an associate professor of anthropology at Creighton University. He is the author of The Lakota Ritual of the Sweat Lodge: History and Contemporary Practice (Nebraska 1998). Martin Brokenleg, an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota, is a professor of Native American studies at Augustana College and an Episcopal priest. He is a coauthor of Reclaiming Youth at Risk: Our Hope for the Future.