Cappa Magna with Indian Headdress

Yes, and not an April Fools joke either.  Recently we posted on the peace pipe smoking liturgy.  This Native American outreach in Illinois in the 1950s appears to take on a little more traditional of form.

From a reader:

ON OCTOBER 14, 1951, about 6,500 people gathered at the foot of Starved Rock, to commemorate Jesuit missionary Fr. Marquette, near Utica where he offered the first Mass in Illinois in 1675. Also present was the 23-member Menominee Indian brass band of northern Wisconsin.

Solemn Pontifical Field Mass was celebrated by all the Bishops of Illinois and numerous monsignori, and sung by the 100-voice Palestrina Cathedral Choir and supported by 500-voice choir from the diocesan Catholic high schools.

Among the attending dignitaries was also Cardinal Stritch of Chicago, US Senator Everett Dirksen, Congressman Noah Mason, Francois Briere, French Consul-General of Chicago, and Adlai Stevenson, Governor of Illinois.

Following the field Mass, Payetanimah, a brave of the Menominee tribe in Wisconsin, made Archbishop Joseph H. Schlarman of Peoria an honorary Indian chief. He presented him with an Indian headdress and Indian title Weeskiew Pimmaniwew, which means “good manager and bountiful dispenser of goods”.

Source: The Museums of the Diocese of Peoria

1 comment:

Terry Nelson said...

Wasn't this a scene in a Ma and Pa Kettle movie?