Kateri's Crows

I shudder in my attempt to identify with Kateri Tekakwitha, in The Reason for Crows. Diane Glancy found Kateri, a Mohawk Indian girl, on a panel of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC and has written a first person narrative of her story, including narrative from the point of view of the priests she meets.

Kateri’s mother was stolen by the Mohawks from her original tribe. Kateri’s father was the Mohawk chief. Kateri should have been the daughter of Helen of Troy by my calculations of how people groups do tribal fighting and spoiling and regeneration. Except, in upstate New York during the year 1656 things seem more disastrous on the individual level without the overarching epic story.

The epic story has invading traders, priests, and disease conquering the smaller groups of already warring peoples. But is there love! Yes, we see that there is. Is it sacrificial? To the utmost, as only sacrifice and hardship are available to she-who-walks-searching-in-front-of-her, to her who hears Ezekiel and sees spirits and follows Christ, to her who has joined the epic story of God.