Somewhere, I bet even Custer is cheering about this.
Hunk Hondo | 06.30.06 - 4:16 pm | #

I don't think Custer bore the Sioux any personal malice. But yes, I agree. I thought for a while that Ms. Fire Thunder would acccomplish what blankets infected with smallpox could not.
Joel | Homepage | 06.30.06 - 4:30 pm | #

And also God Bless that Governor!
Suzanne | 06.30.06 - 4:37 pm | #

Somebody, Mark Stricherz maybe, suggested that when a certain locale becomes the place of last resort for abortions, the locals really start recognizing what such a reputation says about them and they move to extirpate the practice themselves. This happened in 19th century NYC, and perhaps foreshadows what could happen when Roe is overturned.
Kevin Jones | Homepage | 06.30.06 - 5:43 pm | #

I read recently that, to the extent there are any Catholics in South Dakota, they tend to be among the Lakota.
Seamus | 06.30.06 - 5:48 pm | #

I read the same thing Seamus did, at Jody Bottum's blog at First Things.

It is a lot of nonsense. The Sioux in South Dakota may be Catholics (until I read the Bottum piece, I didn't know that they were), but there are a lot of non-Sioux Catholics in South Dakota, and have been for a long time, going back to German and Irish immigrants in the 19th century. Perhaps the most famous example is Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy, born and bred in South Dakota.
Tom Piatak | Homepage | 06.30.06 - 6:35 pm | #

You'd think that being pro-life would be a no-brainer for any group of people (Native American, organic granola-types, nature-loving, whatever) that claims to respect nature. You'd think, anyway...

I've never quite understand why my Birkenstocked, Whole-Food shopping California neighbors aren't all vocal natural family planning proponents, too, for the very same reason.
Margaret | 06.30.06 - 6:49 pm | #

Seamus:

There are a good number of Catholics in South Dakota. I just taught a C & G there at the cathedral in Rapid City to 100 lay leaders, deacons, and a few priests and they were a very good group. Like many small high plains dioceses, they are spread out hundreds of miles and travel long distances to events but they are used to that.

Our host was a real cowboy married to a real Lakota Sioux lady. He's been a rancher all his life and taught his bishop how to ride a horse so that he could participate in the annual buffalo round-up in Custer park.

This ain't your Boston grandmother's lace-Irish Catholicism but it is genuine.
Sherry Weddell | 06.30.06 - 10:34 pm | #

It is truly heartening to read of something like this. We should remember the Lakota in our prayers and thank God for the courage and moral character they have shown all of us.
John Kasaian | 07.01.06 - 12:59 am | #

It is a lot of nonsense. The Sioux in South Dakota may be Catholics (until I read the Bottum piece, I didn't know that they were), but there are a lot of non-Sioux Catholics in South Dakota, and have been for a long time, going back to German and Irish immigrants in the 19th century...

...This ain't your Boston grandmother's lace-Irish Catholicism but it is genuine.

Why would it be a lot of nonsense? Only people of European decent can be true Catholics?
Pansy Moss | Homepage | 07.01.06 - 3:26 am | #

Archbishop Chaput's first see was in the Dakotas although he's not a native of the area. Jody Bottum grew up in Helena.
Sandra Miesel | Homepage | 07.01.06 - 10:14 am | #

"Why would it be a lot of nonsense? Only people of European decent can be true Catholics?"

I think what was asserted as nonsense was the notion that all the Catholics in SD are Sioux.
JonathanR. | 07.01.06 - 12:36 pm | #

Archbishop Chaput is not Sioux, but is indeed Native American, Potawatomi, I believe. He is a native of Kansas--Concordia, near my home town. BTW, Kansas also boasts Bishop Thomas Olmstead as a native son. Yea, Kansas!
margaret59 | 07.01.06 - 12:50 pm | #

One thing: I am advised that "Lakota" is the proper name for the nation widely known by an English corruption of a French corruption of someone else's epithet as "Sioux". Thus "Lakota Sioux" is like saying "Romany Gypsies" or "Neni Samoyeds" or "Deutche Germans".
Will | Homepage | 07.01.06 - 2:08 pm | #

....I've never quite understand why my Birkenstocked, Whole-Food shopping California neighbors aren't all vocal natural family planning proponents, too, for the very same reason.
.....

Because it's all about ME and controlling MY WORLD. I want the very best for ME.
Martin | 07.01.06 - 2:08 pm | #

Yes, Archbishop Chaput is half Potawatomi and from Kansas. His Indian heritage is what impressed the Powers that Be who made him a bishop and assigned him to a region with many Indians.
Sandra Miesel | Homepage | 07.01.06 - 6:21 pm | #