|
|
 by Susan Campbell She and her husband Eric have three children. When Susan isn't writing poetry, she studies genealogy and the Potawatomi language, and works as a BWAKA volunteer She is responsible for their genealogy pages. Although Susan is not directly Cherokee, the comparative histories of our nations are so similar, with The Trail of Tears and The Trai;l of Death, and her poetry almost speaks with a Potawatomi/Cherokee tongue. Therefore with her permission I have included three of her poems in the Cherokee Writers' Page. I have also included her introductions; stories in themselves. Susan's writing is recognized by many as some of the finest Native American writing. .............................................. On July 8, 1841, four members of the Sacred Heart order, led by Mother Phillipine Ducliesne, came to the Potawatomi living at Sugar Creek, Kansas. Many members of the tribe had been baptized into the Catholic Church before emigrating from Indiana, and had urged the Jesuits to found a mission among them. The Jesuits, in turn, recruited the sisters to educate the girls. As the sisters' journey to Sugar Creek neared an end, "two indian messengers arrived to greet them with tidings that all the tribe was assembled to receive the women of the Great Spirit. …Groups of horsemen were stationed along the road to show them the way; and suddenly, at the entrance of a prairie, one hundred and fifty warriors on ponies appeared waving red and white flags above the gay plumes of their head-dresses….The two resident missionaries…were at the front of the cavalcade, and amid the firing of guns and a display of horsemanship as grand a review of troops, the little caravan was led up and halted before the mission church….Fr. Verhaegen presented Mother Duchesne: 'My children, here is a lady who for thirty-five years has been asking God to let her come to you.' " The sisters opened school on July 19th, with fifty young girls in attendance, while living in a wigwam and learning the Potawatomi language themselves. The following winter was severe, corn and sweet potatoes were the only available food. Mothe Duchesne was in her seventies and in poor health when she came to Sugar Creek. The winter left her an invalid. She was recalled from the mission in July 1842. In the year that she spent with the Potawatomi, she won their hearts, they called her, "The Woman Who Prays Always" Born in France in 1769, Mother Duchesne led the first group of Sacred Heart sisters who came to the United States in 1818. She founded her order's first mission in the United States, the sevent of which was at Sugar Creek. She was deeply religious and an excellent administrator, laying a foundation for the later growth of the Sacred Heart Order in the United States. She died in Missouri in 1852 and was canonized (recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church) in 1988. * Rev. Thomas H. Kinsella, History of Our Cradle Land * (Kansas City: Casey Printing Co., 1921)  :
 |