Dakota cross-bearer: the life and world of a Native American bishop

Abstract

Cross-Bearer is the story of a remarkable man, Harold S. Jones, a Dakota Indian who rose through the ranks of the Episcopal Church to become the first Native American bishop of a Christian church. Born in 1909 and raised on the Santee Reservation in Nebraska, Jones lost his parents at an early age and was adopted by his grandparents, who brought him up as a Christian. Each year his family attended the Niobrara Convocation, a large gathering of Episcopalians drawn from all of the Siouan communities. Jones attended Seabury-Western Seminary in Illinois. After graduating he was assigned to a variety of Native American missions across the northern plains, including those at Wounded Knee, Oglala, and the Cheyenne River Reservation as well as the Navajoland mission in the southwest. Despite encountering discrimination from within the Episcopal Church throughout his career, in 1971 he was elected suffragan bishop of the diocese of South Dakota. Jones's biography sheds light on the importance of Christianity for the Dakotas and other Native American peoples during the twentieth century. His story yields interesting insights into the history of twentieth-century missionary activity among Native Americans and illuminates instances of conflict and discrimination within the Episcopal Church, the processes of clerical training and testing, and the demands of constant relocation. Mary E. Cochran is the wife of an Episcopal bishop, who worked on the Standing Rock Reservation and who later was named bishop of Alaska. She and her husband live in Tacoma, Washington. Raymond A. Bucko, S.J., is an associate professor of anthropology at Le Moyne College and the author of The Lakota Ritual of the Sweat Lodge: History and Contemporary Practice (Nebraska 1998). Martin Brokenleg, a member of the Lakota community, is a professor of Native American studies at Augustana College and an Episcopal priest. He is the coauthor of Yanktonai Sioux Water Colors: Cultural Remembrances of John Saul.