Hum if you don’t know the words: Navigating the complexities of culture, authority, and citizenship in South Dakota’s Episcopal Diocese, 1910-1923

Abstract

This thesis explores the relationships between Episcopal families and ministers in the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota approximately between 1910 and 1923. It presents the assimilationists efforts Episcopal leaders utilized in sermons, education, and politics while also demonstrating the ways in which Indigenous members of the Diocese maintained their language and traditional values within the Episcopal Church. This study explores themes of resistance, survivance, and patriotism while also demonstrating the ways in which this community of Indigenous and Euro-American Episcopal Christians responded to the trials of World War I as a Diocese and the contributions which they made to the war effort.