Black Robe: The Renegade Missionary

A Jesuit missionary living among the American Indians in the 1840's is declared a traitor and an apostate for committing the unpardonable offense of siding with the tribes. Fr. Stephen Morgan is caught between the tribespeople he has come to love and the expanding American nation.

The story begins as Stephen lies gravely wounded, after a Dakota village is attacked by the US cavalry. He's found by White Fawn, who has grown to love and respect the blackrobe, and who tries to prevent his capture by the soldiers who are searching for him. Captain Gatewood hates his new assignment, which has taken him from his wife and family back east.

Because he inadvertently says that he once knew the renegade priest, he is reassigned by the army to Indian country to hunt him down. We follow Stephen through his early years when he meets Andrew Jackson, who is running for the presidency.

He hears the doctrine of manifest destiny, the notion that the American nation was divinely ordained to take the land from the tribes. He witnesses the 'trail of tears'. Stephen's formation as a Jesuit is recounted, during which he witnesses the devastation of the Mandan tribe from smallpox.

It is here that he first meets White Fawn, the chief's granddaughter, as they minister to the victims of the epidemic. Meanwhile Red Thunder, a Lakota chief, recognizes the urgency of preparing for the advancing white men, who have destroyed the eastern tribes and taken away their lands.

Believing it is a question of communication, he sends his twin sons to be educated by the blackrobes in the white man's ways. Lone Eagle and Fire Hawk arrive in St. Louis where they meet the blackrobe Stephen, whom one befriends and the other distrusts. Both braves soon run away from the boarding school and return to their tribe.

When Stephen is ordained, he heads west with the famous missionary, Fr. Peter DeSmet. Their wagon train is attacked by Dakota warriors among whom are Lone Eagle and Fire Hawk. Stephen negotiates to live am