By Eugene Iron Shell Jr.

The Jesuits have had a long and cordial relationship with the Lakota people. As far back as the 1880s, Chief Spotted Tail of the Sicangu (Burnt Thigh) Lakota Nation, and Chief Red Cloud of the Oglala Lakota Nation in Pine Ridge, ventured from their home in South Dakota to Washington, D.C., where they made numerous requests for the Catholic priests “that wear black dresses” to educate the Lakota children.

President Rutherford B. Hayes finally approved the request, and St. Francis Mission was formed in 1886 on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Holy Rosary Mission was founded two years later on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and today the institutions remain apostolates of the Midwest USA Province of the Society of Jesus.

This year, on May 31, the Diocese of Rapid City, S.D., celebrates the 50th anniversary of the diocese’s first permanent diaconate ordination. Here, we reflect and pay tribute to the first five permanent deacons, and the Jesuit priests entrusted with their formation.

In the early days, men were formed to be Lakota catechists at Pine Ridge and Rosebud. Most notable was Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk. The men were selected for their good character, intelligence and zeal, and entrusted to perform baptisms, visit the sick, lead prayers, bury the dead and teach the Gospel, which is what current-day deacons are ordained to do.

Upon the re-emergence of the Church’s permanent diaconate in the late 1960s, Jesuit Fathers Harry Eglsaer and Paul Manhart approached Bishop Harold Dimmerling, the fifth bishop of Rapid City, and sought his permission to begin a program to train deacons for the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations. Bishop Dimmerling agreed, and the program was born in 1972.

From the beginning, the Jesuits wanted to build this new concept in the spirit of the early Lakota catechists like Black Elk. Father Chris Keeler, SJ, assisted with teaching the candidates, and Fr. Richard Jones, SJ, provided their spiritual direction. All of the candidates were married, and their wives participated in the same classes they did.

Jesuit Fathers John Hatcher and Patrick McCorkell were ordained in 1974 and spent a year studying theology at Regis College in Toronto. They had both worked at St. Francis Mission during formation in the summer of 1972. In 1975, they were assigned to St. Francis and appointed co-directors of the diaconate program, which the bishop had recently formally approved for the diocese.

“We had high hopes back then,” Fr. McCorkell says. “I think what stands out is that the Lakota people now have local clergy and have the capability to uniquely build up the Church.”

Today, Fr. Hatcher is the priest-in-residence at St. Issac Jogues Parish in Rapid City, and Fr. McCorkell is a retreat speaker at Demontreville Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Elmo, Minn.

Their greatest contribution in those early days was the development of a formal curriculum, which they had started in Toronto.Father Eglsaer would let them know what lessons were needed, and they would mail them to St. Francis. The lessons were published as “Builders of the New Earth: The Formation of Permanent Deacons” edited by Fr. Tibor Horvath, SJ, of the Regis College theology department. Lakota men ordained at Holy Rosary Mission to the permanent diaconate were Steven Red Elk (1975), Reno Richards (1975), Lester Plank (1975) and Victor Young Bull Bear (1978). Deacon Ben Black Bear Jr. (1976), who had to apply for a dispensation from the Holy See because he was only 30, was ordained at St. Francis. One thing all five of them understood was their Lakota identity.

“For a few years in the 1990s, I had the privilege of spending a few weeks each summer with Deacon Victor,” says Fr. Gary Wright, SJ. “I wanted to learn more about Lakota spirituality. It seemed to me that one of his greatest gifts was his ability to put the Gospel and faith into a way that spoke to the heart of his people. He was a witness to others that Jesus is the way because of his public role as a Catholic deacon, but he could put it into terms that his Lakota people could readily understand because of his embrace of Lakota spirituality. To say that he tried to integrate both ways would be misleading. It went deeper than that. He integrated the Catholic faith and Lakota spirituality into one single way of life in his own person.”

By the late 1970s, the program had expanded to include the entire Rapid City Diocese. The Jesuits built the Sioux Spiritual Center, which would serve as a base for the formation program. They formed candidates there until 2017, when the facility was turned over to the diocese, which operates it today. The work of the Society of Jesus continues to bear fruit in the parish communities in western South Dakota. According to Deacon Greg Sass, current director of the permanent diaconate for Rapid City, approximately 60 deacons have been ordained since 1975. Father Peter Klink, SJ, a witness to early Lakota diaconate ministry, sums it up well.

“This program exhibited the very fact that our God is a good and gracious God,” he says.“He has created all things and all peoples in his generous love. The Lakota deacons help us to understand a more inculturated, richer and more deeply blessed Church.”

Reprinted from “Midwest Jesuits” magazine, Spring 2025 edition.