Indians: Chants for a New Bishop

Spanish missionaries began proselytizing the Indians of the Southwestern U.S. in the middle of the 16th century, and Native American Catholics today number about 400,000. But not until last week was an Indian admitted to the church's hierarchy. In a colorful ordination Mass, combining standard Catholic liturgy with the chants and dances of the Navajo, Pueblo and Apache tribes, Donald Pelotte, 41, an Abenaki from the far-off Algonquin nation (the Northeastern U.S.) became bishop of the 45,000-member New Mexico and Arizona diocese of Gallup.

Pelotte, who grew up in Maine and holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from New York City's Fordham University, expects to spend a year acquainting himself with the Southwest's unfamiliar conditions. One of them, a near gale-force desert wind, crashed the party, prompting the new bishop to offer some instant counsel to his flock: "The best thing we could do at this point is go back home."