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MANDERSON | The local phase of a sainthood campaign for Nicholas Black Elk concluded Tuesday with a mass that united different races, cultures and traditions, just like the Lakota holy man did in life.

The mass was celebrated in a small country church that houses the St. Agnes Catholic parish, in the village of Manderson on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. English-language recitation, songs and Bible readings were alternated with Lakota songs, drumming and sage-burning. Behind the altar, a sculpture of Christ on the cross was affixed to a wall-painting of a tepee.

Several Catholic officials, including Robert Gruss, the bishop of the Diocese of Rapid City, concluded the mass by signing and sealing documents that will be taken to the Vatican in Rome for further consideration of Black Elk’s case for sainthood.

Afterward, Cleo Gates, a 72-year-old Native American woman who said she is a great-granddaughter of Black Elk, admitted she did not know how to feel when she heard of Black Elk's nomination for sainthood more than a year ago. But she has since come to view it positively.

“It’s OK. It’s the 'wasicu' man’s way of honoring our grandpa," she said, using a Lakota Sioux word for white people.