Indians of North America; Indians of North America—History; Indians of North America—Religion; Religion; Missionaries; St. Christopher's Mission (Bluff, Utah); Health; Children; Newsletters;
Place names
Bluff (Utah); Salt Lake City (Utah); San Juan County (Utah); Utah;
Keyword
Navajo; Navajo Indians; Navajo Indians -- History; Father Liebler; Brother Juniper; Liebler, Harold Baxter 1889-1982; Missionaries; Religion; St. Christopher's Mission; St. Mary's of the Moonlight Chapel;
Tribe
Navajo;
Creator
Liebler, H. Baxter (Harold Baxter), 1889-1982;
Description
This bulletin discusses Confirmation of Navajo children, difficulties the Mission faces in a primarily Mormon state, and wedding festivities;
Publisher
Digitized by: Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library;
Date.original
1945;
Type
Text;
Format
application/pdf;
Source
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives;
Language
eng;
Coverage
Bluff (Utah); Salt Lake City (Utah); San Juan County (Utah);
Rights
Reproduction for publication, exhibition, web display or commercial use is only permissible with the consent of the USU Library Western and Mormon Americana curator, phone (435) 797-2661;
Holding Location
Utah State University, Special Collections and Archives;
._._-
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F the t hirteen neophytes admitted
to Holy B"ptism at
or soon a ft er Easter, all 0. but tvlO were old enough CJ.} fer Confirmation, and had
~ \ of c ourse r e c eived at least
.JA" the intel~ectua l pr eparQtl on expect-
) ~ ed of . confirmands. We l ooKed forward
I .' Ytll to a visita.tlon from the Bishop at
Y, c~pus Christi time , late in Hay.
I~ But an important event on the
'~ West Coast to01c our Rt Heverend
F&ther in God to California at Cor pus
·Christi time. He was sur e he could get to us, however by the
end of June. But June had commencements,and Jul y and August were
filled with appointments - - a mis sionary Bishop often fills in
so that his priests can get 2 l~ttle va cation-- and September nosed
in. You in the East cannot ~onc e ive what it is like to be, a mis sionary
Bishop i n a strong Mor mon sta t e with an area s eventeen
times that of Connecticut, and only t wo pari sh priests in a city
of 150,000 population·--not t o mention the prospect of a 350- mile
journey over mountain passes and vast expanses of des ert. We
kept telling our Navajos that "the g.reat Gift would be t heirs "soonll
--- hut some went off to Colorado, l\lI'ed by the high wages offer ed
to sheep-herders, some to Monticello t o work in t he Vanadium mill,
one to Aneth to help relatives herd sheep . Then carne t o iIle a l etter
from the Archdeacon: "I have the 30th sept . fre e; sh&ll I bring
the Bishop?" Hurriedly I replied "yes" though it would gi ve me
less than two weeks to gc.:.ther my scattered flock. By next mail:
ttThe Bishop has a date for the 30th,but I q&n shift mine; shall We
come the 23rd?" Weak in the knees, I r eplied:tfBy all meansl" and
prayed tha t in some way I could gather them in the five days that
remained.
It was a pray er tha t needed much f ai th behind it,for in addition '
to the difficul ty of gett i ng word to Aneth and Monti c ello ( t he Colorado
couple ha.d come home ) I knew tha t a "squaw danc e lt was t o be
h eld near Mexican Wa t er,Ar izona ,and that mos t of our peopl e were
planni ng to go to i~. The squaw dc.1Uc e,more properly called "war
dance ff is a r eligious ceremony for driving enemies away , but its
orig1nal Significance is being obscured and it i s now regarded
chiefly as a social event--and a very popular t hing among these
people whose homes are so f ar apart and who have So little opportuni
ty for social contacts. A good dea l of per sua sion was going
to be required to change these peoples! pl ans. After supper (the
only time of day one can be pretty sure of finding a whole f&mi ly
a thome, I hopped on a horse and went to see Hashkc.:.an . Ha shkaan
is the patriarch; his word i s final.
I found him 8..sleep,but his son woke him .. "Wl!.o is ther e?"
"The drag-robe!!
"What is going on?"
So I told him as best I could that the chief pries t from S8.lt
Lake City was coming on SundaY, and tha t X didn't want the Nava jos
to go to the dance.
"On what account is he coming?ff
I ' paused to try to phrase my reply as forcefully as possible,
then answered:
•
