St. Christopher's Newsletter dated November 1952

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SAINT CHRISTOPHER'S NEWSLETTER Published by Saint Christopher's Mission to the Navajo Bluff, Utah November I952 I SILVERSMITH'S GRANDSON is a medicine man of rare repute. Grand­children by a former wife, children by two current wives, attend our school. He visited, a solitary "P.T.A." Asked for paper, crayons. Drew the picture above. -"After you sacrifice in church, you sqy Navajo prayer, 'Before me, beauty; behind me, beauty,' and so on. This" ... pointing to the central circle, green, "This is where the priests' prayers and the Navajo medicine man's prayers meet. They go around, sunwise. Then they go out, and do good everywhere.'" We have thought about it a lot. It is not for us to criticise those mission­aries who, in good, faith, and thinking they do the Lord service~ would de­s~ roy all the beauty ait<i- truth there is in Navajo religion. But, we are con­vinced more and more that the Navajo will be brought to Christ only by help­ing him to see that all sincere prayer is in intention addressed to the True Goq; by building up, and not destroy­ing, the faith he already has. So we go one . . . building, not destroying. We must, of course, say that a Christian may have but one wife, that infectious diseases must not be spread, that we must love our enemies as well as our friends; we cannot delude ourselves or our Navajos by saying that natural religion is as good as that revealed by our Heavenly Father; but, as the paganism of Europe and Asia enriched Christian culture without destroying the content of reve­laiion, so may Navajo culture lay at the feet of our Lord a valued heritage. FATHER BOTELHO carries on, he­roically at San Juan Bautista, at Montezuma Creek. His school enroll­ment is excellent, and progress fine; most are boarders as families live too far away; it makes for rapid advance- - ment, though, of course, it is expen­sive! Who wants to give a "scholar­ship"? Jack Clemenson and Gabriel Gonzales are helping him for a while; otherwise he has everything to do, from cooking to teaching. THE NEW SCHOOL BUILDING was put into use for the first time on Feb. 25. What a joy to have room to flap one's wings, shelves to stack things on, adequate blackboards, even heat in place of toasting one· side and freezing the other. Attendance has been the best ever, right up to Summer vacation, and has been good this year. We now use two rooms: Brother Joseph takes the older children, grades 2 to 5, and Helen the beginners. IN THE WESTERN part of our field, the work is chiefly evangelical; one trip each month to Navajo Mountain area, and one to Monument Valley and Oljeto. The last trip to and from Nava­jo Mountain covered over 800 miles, because the unprecedented floods washed out the roads and the return trip had to be made via Flagstaff and Gallup, but it enabled us to make some valuable contacts and visit parishioners in three government hospitals. The people of Navajo Mountain are said to be the most primitive on the Reser­vation; visiting hogans by jeep on the nearby messa it is not unusual to find children who had never seen a white man before. It is always a joy to bring the Gospel message of God's love to such people, to teach them simple prayers, rudiments of the Faith, and gather them for eucharistic worship even though they cannot of course, par­ticipate fully. There are shadows as well as lights in this kind of work; one family thought nearly ready for Bap­tism seems to be breaking up, greatly needs your prayers. Another very re-, mote family, where we frequently have congregations of 20 or even more, pre­sents the problem of a man with two wives . .. a very good old Navajo cus­tom, but it is a question if the head of the family will have "what it takes" to make a decision so that Baptism will be possible. PUSHING NAVAJO children into a new pattern, even in the rare cases where we feel it justified, is no simple task. "Inscrutable" is a word that has been worn to shreds in connection with the Oriental and if there were further proof needed of the Oriental origin of the Navajo we would have it right here. More than thirty of our area children are at the new Inter-mountain Indian School in Brigham City. It was simple getting them here, or at other locations, for buses to pick them up. But, came the day for Chemawa School. No bus. Only two boys to go. One was working on the railroad, 200 miles away. The other herding sheep across the River. We had to get them to Shiprock. Night before, we got the "cross-the-river" lad, fed and "slept" him; his suitcase was packed, he was wearing his "other suit." The railroad worker turned up smiling at 6 a.m., but the other disappeared. Inquiry re­vealed he had gone across the River? Why? Nobody would say. We had a long day ahead of us, were eager to get going. Jack Light said: "Give me twenty minutes: I'll bring him in." Jack was 011 Varsity track team, only a year ago. In twenty minutes he was back; wet with muddy San Juan River to the waist, with sweat from there up­ward, shoes lost, sandburs all over. "He's coming," he panted, "Suit case; can't run so fast." Sure enough, the boy followed. We never knew what it was really all about!! HOSPITAL BUILDING goes on apace. Walls were up by midsummer, but the log rafters sat atop Elk Ridge, 60 miles from home, until Don Massy came from Flint with his truck; three trips brought them down, and soon they were in place. Roof is being nailed on as we write. As money comes in slowly we shall continue to work, and in the meantime our one cell infirmary serves. At least one baby at the point of death was saved; a trip to any hospital would have killed her. Many minor ailments, and a few serious ones, have been cared for, and we have great hopes for the future. A nurse is packing to join us, a labora­tory- technician, Mary Gail Evans, is with us, Dr. Preston Burnham and other doctors from Salt Lake fly in once a month via CA.P. and an Indian Service nurse visits once a month. Trips far afield are still necessary: a crippled child is in Shriners' Hospital, Salt Lake; 8 Navajos are in the State San at Ogden, and many have been taken to government hospitals elsewhere. THE FIRST BAPTISM at St. Mary's, Oljeto, was held this summer, and the lady's name was Mary. She is so old thai neither she nor anyone else knows how old. But she likes the long-coat priests' ways, believes the Gospel he brings, and when Bishop Watson made his visit to St. Christopher's he also was given the "baptism of red dust"­til ken to St. Mary's where he confirmed the lady. He drove the jeep back to the mission, and nobody recognized him-face and garments chocolate colored! Mary received first Holy Com­munion a few weeks later, the 1st Friday of August. GIMME GIMME DEPARTMENT Somebody's attic has a Latin Dic­tionary, (big one, not pocket size) Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Distionary, not being used. A 'high chair' for infants at table. Metal cups, wash basins, buckets. Maybe even table­ware; we need spoons especially, tea and 'desert' size. Paper plates, cups, towels. Hospital and labora­tory equipment. Please write for needs. WE HASTEN to say that this is the first Newsletter since that of Mid­winter. Sorry, but we've been too busy doing things to make time to tell you about them. Especially sorry, but at the same time gratified, to get worried letters from many who feared they had been dropped from the mailing list. And, while we are in this apolo­getic mood, Fr. Liebler wants to assure many whose letters he has not been able to acknowledge that he is doing his best to catch up, and he begs their patient indulgence. This issue, gift of Russell Brown. Printed at the Church Lantern Pre •• 6426 Pacific Ave .. Tacoma, Wash.