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Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Entertainment. Discussion »

Irene Bigeagle, 82, a tribal citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians who has lived in Chicago since 1958, is currently in Rome for the canonization liturgy that will elevate Kateri Tekakwitha to sainthood with the Roman Catholic Church.

Kateri, Pointing the Way to Her People

Bigeagle grew upper Michigan near Petoskey. Several of her relatives attended the Holy Childhood Indian School in Harbor Springs, Michigan. Somehow she was able to walk away after attending the school after only a couple days.

“I told them I was not going to put up with these conditions,”

Irene Bigeagle – Little Traverse
Bay Bands of Odawa Indians

Bigeagle with huge laughter told the Native News Network Tuesday as she and others sat down to discuss their trip to the Vatican.

She was quick to point out that she had given the Kateri Center of Chicago a photo of Kateri she took of an original that hung in Holy Childhood School. Bigeagle was most proud of the title of the photograph:

"Kateri, Pointing the Way to Her People."

Bigeagle who calls her trip to Rome as a dream come true said she never thought she would see Kateri become a saint during her lifetime.

posted October 20, 2012 10:10 am edt