Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

Today the 17the century Mohawk Kateri Tekakwitha is canonized  in the Roman Catholic Church. She is the first  Native American woman saint.  Kateri was the daughter of a Mohawk father and Algonquian Christian mother, and lived at Ossernenon, a hilltop village at what is now Auriesville, NY.   Ossernenon was also the site of the martyrdom of  St. Isaac Jogues 10 years before Kateri's birth.  When the chief forbade Christian prayer, Kateri lined up stones in the form of a rosary in the woods.  At the age of 20, she was baptized, and then fled to the mission village Kahnawake near Montreal.

This chapel stands at the site of Ossernenon, overlooking the Mohawk Valley. Kateri has a strong  following, especially among Catholic Native Americans. The photo below was taken at San Xavier del Bac mission church at the Tohono O'Odham reservation south of Tucson.

  This statue of Kateri  stands at a monastery in Maine.  There are always small stones left at the feet of this statue.