BAY MILLS - Of all the different places Father John Hascall's travels have taken him, one particular place could epitomize all he has tried to accomplish in his lifetime - a reservation in Kendal Lake, Saskatchewan. Hascall said that when he arrived on the reserve he noticed that the Anishnaabe living there were ashamed to practice their culture. There were men as old as 90 who hadn't been in a sweat lodge since their youth, the practice pushed out of their lives by the missionaries that had visited them decades earlier.
So Hascall inspired them with the news that it was okay to be an Anishnaabe Christian and invited some of the elders there to help him build a sweat lodge. After the construction of the lodge was complete, Hascall asked the villagers, "Who wants to go into the lodge with me?" Hascall said the tribal elders' eyes beamed, as they could not wait to get into the lodge. After one round, Hascall said the elders wanted the young people to enter the lodge, as it would mark the first time any of them had been to a sweat. Eager to partake in such a sacred and integral part of who they were as Native peoples, the younger people went into the lodge for three consecutive rounds, he remembered. After the sweat was over, Hascall performed a pipe ceremony for those in attendance. Hascall said it is opportunities such as these that make his work worthwhile.
"The people there were yearning," Hascall said. "They had been shamed for many years and you could see it in their eyes. They wanted their identity back and I helped them find it - I'm proud to say those lodges are still going on today."
Hascall continued his travels to reservations across North America on his mission to help the Natives understand it was okay to be an Anishnaabe Christian. On "Indian Island," New Brunswick, the people named him "Lone Eagle" because he flew by himself, and stood alone with the people, praying with them and taking care of them. The Natives there had so much respect for him and his work that they named an alcohol rehabilitation center after him - Lone Eagle Rehabilitation Center.
Hascall said the Blackfeet gave him the name, "Man of Good Heart" for his work with their people, and the Crow tribe of Pryor, Montana, the name, "He Prays all the Time." Hascall said he received his Crow name because every couple of months he would fast for four days and four nights on a large rock face known as Castle Mountain to the locals. On one of his fasts, the people began to think he hadn't survived because he was late in returning. When he came down from the mountain a large crowd of people were awaiting his arrival. It was after this fast that Hascall received his Crow name, but he said it had cost him dearly - the "little people" stole his beloved drumstick while he was on his fast! While Hascall said he loves all the different names he has received over the years, he said he would rather give a name than receive one. His greatest thrill - giving Anishnaabe names to over 80 members of the Nawa tribe in the Southwestern United States.
"That was a lot of work, giving out all those names," Hascall recalled. "Sometimes, you have to fast a long time to get someone a name. But I believe giving someone a name is giving them an identity. It's an honor being a part of that."
While he has had many positive memories of his nearly 40 years of priesthood, Hascall said there are also those he would like to forget. He served as the president of the International Tekakwitha Conference, a conference of Catholic Indian people, but resigned in protest after being made a "token Indian." At the Most Holy Name of Jesus Church on the Baraga Indian Reservation, Hascall gave sanctuary to 100 people after their former chairman Fred Dakota kicked them out of the tribe. Hascall said for two years Dakota's henchmen threatened them, shooting assault rifles over their heads, cutting their phone lines and cutting off their power.
Although he's a little older now and travels much less than he used to, Hascall is still the champion for Native Americans within the church. He was recently named the co-coordinator of the Indigenous Religious Clergy of the Americas (North and South), which was founded to incorporate all the Native clergy and to give their people more of a voice in the church. While one could argue that Hascall made a conscious effort to spend the majority of his life working for his fellow Natives, whether reintroducing them to their culture, or making sure they have a voice in the church, Hascall would be the first to disagree. He said he is merely living the life God had planned for him.
"I could never have planned my life to happen the way that it did," Hascall said. "This was God's plan for me. Everything just fell into place. I love my life, my priesthood, and my medicine."
