00:08God did holy things in the Lakota culture long before the missionaries arrived.
00:22We're here to give thanks to the spirit of Black Elk.
00:29Black Elk was my great great great grandfather.
00:31He found grace and wisdom that was from his own upbringing as well as what the Catholic faith was bringing.
00:43You can't compartmentalize him into being only a Lakota traditionalist or someone who was a Christian catechist.
00:53He was just as comfortable praying with his pipe in the Lakota tradition as he was living the sacramental life
01:01of the church in the Catholic tradition.
01:02In his own way, he was both. He could hold the pipe with one hand and he could hold his
01:08rosary at the same time.
01:23Black Elk was open to being enriched by both because it helped him walk that good road.
01:31He was a man really, really committed to this 24 hour a day kind of ministry.
01:46And from a church that people sit in a circle and he had taught, he told us to have courage
01:55in the heart.
01:56Be kind and be nice.
02:03Nicholas Black Elk was living in heaven long before he died.
02:08At Black Elk's funeral, it was raining and we all walked up to the cemetery.
02:21And just as the ritual began, the sky opened and the sun came out.
02:32And it seemed to only be happening in that place where we were, at the cemetery.
02:37And I was astonished.
02:41Black Elk was trying to get people to see that the faith of the Lakota and the faith that the
02:46church brought can go together.
02:48There was talk for the last 10 years or so of, shouldn't he be a saint?
02:53We don't have a word for saint in Lakota.
02:56We just say,
03:00Someone who can have a deep relationship with the divine.
03:04Nicholas Black Elk should be canonized because he was a beacon of hope for our people.
03:07This canonization is about bringing the holiness of Black Elk, which was very indigenous Catholicism, into the wider church for
03:16the benefit of the whole church.
03:18He's a servant of God, Nicholas Black Elk.
03:21Something that Lakota can give to the church, that's Black Elk.
03:25Whatever it is about it.
03:31You're here.
03:43You
