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Catherine Tekakwitha Summary

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The era of New France marked a transition in which the Native Americans were not acquainted with, the contact with the Europeans. The civilization of the French was much different than the previous settlers. Rather than the French enslaving the Native Americans, they resided alongside them and even cultivated their language. This is deemed as striking because they did not expect or force cultural conversion from the Native Americans. Allan Greer captures these themes in his book, Mohawk Saint, in regards of the Mohawk Saint named Catherine Tekakwitha. Through Greer’s work, he is able to convince the relations between colonist and the Native Americans were not always as forceful as depicted; Catherine Tekakwitha is an exemplification to this theory. Catherine was the daughter of a Algonquin woman and an Iroquois father. …show more content…

Greer makes it apparent that the lives of the French and Natives were interwoven and it unloads the cultures of both and how they interlaced with one another. The dual biography gives insight to the live of a Native and the lives of the French. Catherine’s biography exemplifies the struggles the Natives went through. “Death is a prominent theme in the history of the Jesuit mission to the Indians of New France,” this is why the Jesuits believed it was necessary from them to save the savages from their sins (6). Greer displays this through the examples of the priest baptizing the ill in secret in order for them to be saved. Not only did the French and Natives have an effect on life inside the church, but outside as well and Greer paints the picture effectively through the dual biography between Catherine and Claude. They both come from different cultures and Greer offers a better understanding through the history of both of their lives before meeting and then when they meet a few years before the death of

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