It was a stunning image: Pope Francis briefly wearing a full Indigenous headdress, after he apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s “disastrous” residential school system for Indigenous children.
Russ Diabo, a member of the Kahnawake Mohawk tribe in Canada and an Indigenous advocate and policy analyst, described the scene as “pageantry” and the pope's statements as “facile."
"I am practicing ‘If you can’t say anything positive, don’t say anything at all’ mantra. But I’ll be honest, it’s difficult!,” added Horse Capture, a member of the A’aniiih Nation. Leading U.S.-based Indigenous news outlet ICT made a deliberate decision to not make the war bonnet a focus of their papal visit coverage.
Maka Black Elk, executive director of Truth and Healing at Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, described the scene on Twitter as a"#toosoon moment.” Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and became involved in the Catholic Church after recovering from a severe illness.
Among those coming to Littlechild's defense was Phil Fontaine, a former Assembly of First Nations chief and a residential school survivor.
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