Eugene Buechel

Eugene Buechel , born as Eugen Büchel (born October 20, 1874 in Schleida (now Schleid ), Thuringia ; † October 27, 1954 in O'Neill , Nebraska , USA ), was a Jesuit , missionary , linguist and ethnologist among the Lakota - Sioux in South Dakota .

Life

Eugen Büchel was the tenth and last child of his parents, although four of the couple's earlier children had died when he was born. While he was attending elementary school (1881 to 1886), his father (1881, a farmer) and his mother (1882) died. He was then sent to the Episcopal Konvikt (boys' seminary) in Fulda (1886 to 1896), and then he studied for three semesters in the Episcopal Seminary (1896 to 1897). On October 12, 1897, he entered the novitiate of the German Province of the Jesuit Order in Blijenbeek ( Netherlands ). After this two-year trial period and further humanistic studies in Exaeten (Netherlands), he was sent to America in July 1900 to continue his studies. Like many other Catholic religious orders, the Jesuit order had been expelled from the German Empire in the Kulturkampf and had its administrative seat in the Netherlands. The German Jesuit Province had several branches in the USA , mainly among German immigrants.

From August 1900 to May 1902 Eugen Büchel studied philosophy at the Sacred Heart College in Prairie du Chien ( Wisconsin ). In May 1902 his superiors sent him to the St. Francis Mission in the Rosebud Reservation of the Sicangu- (Brulé-) Lakotas in South Dakota. This mission and the Holy Rosary Mission among the Oglala Lakotas in the neighboring Pine Ridge Reservation were founded in 1886 and 1888 by Jesuits of the German province; Together with German Franciscans, they ran mission schools and churches there. 1902-1904 Büchel worked as prefect as well as religion and music teacher, and learned the language of the Lakota . In September 1904 he began studying theology at Saint Louis University in Missouri , where he was ordained a priest on June 28, 1906 . A final year of training followed in Brooklyn ( Ohio ). Then, in August 1907, Büchel returned to the Lakotas, first as a teacher in the school of the Holy Rosary Mission in Pine Ridge Reservation and from 1908 as superior of this mission. He held this office for eight years.

On December 11, 1909, Father Superior Büchel buried the Oglala chief Red Cloud in the cemetery of Holy Rosary . Red Cloud had advocated the establishment of a Catholic school for the Oglalas over thirty years earlier. On September 25, 1914, Büchel received American citizenship as Eugene Buechel.

In October 1916 Buechel moved to St. Francis, again for six years as superior. From 1926 to 1929 he was sent back to the Holy Rosary Congregation as a missionary. There he worked closely with Indian catechists (lay helpers), especially with Nicholas Black Elk ("Black Deer", later known as the author of "I call my people", "The holy pipe"). Black Elk was considered an exemplary and most successful catechist for the Jesuit missionaries. In 1929 Buechel was transferred back to St. Francis, where he stayed until his death. After a stroke, he died at St. Anthony's Hospital in O'Neill ( Nebraska ) on 27 October 1954th

Services

After Büchel had already recorded the stories of the Lakotas during his first stay in St. Francis (1902 to 1904), he began collecting objects from their material culture around 1910, thus laying the foundation for today's Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum . In 1921 he exhibited his ethnographic collection for the first time in the Jesuit residential and administrative building. In addition, Wanbli Sapa ("Black Eagle"; Eng. "Black Eagle") , as the Lakotas called Buechel, created a collection of plant names and their use by the Sicangus. He began to photograph the residents and life on the reservations, and to collect and catalog words for a dictionary of the Lakota language - a work he continued until the end of his life.

In 1924 Buechel's first major book was published in Lakota, based on the German "Biblical History" (a selection of stories from the Bible). In 1927, the Jesuit missionaries brought out a prayer and hymn book in Lakota with significant involvement from Buechel ( "Sursum Corda" ). In 1939 Buechel published his main work, the grammar of the Teton-Sioux . He was now a recognized linguist who was in professional exchange with other specialists such as Franz Boas and Ella C. Deloria.

For Buechel's 50th anniversary of the order (1947) the Jesuit brother Joseph Schwart (born in Austria as Josef Schwärzler) built his own building as a museum for Buechel's ethnological collection. At his death it comprised 661 objects, each of which he provided with a name (mostly in Lakota), description and catalog number. This grew to around 2,200 items in the following decades. He could no longer complete his dictionary himself. It appeared in print long after his death, as did other works based on his collections.

Buechel's work is recognized and used as one of the most important sources today by everyone who cultivates or wants to learn the Lakota language. Many Lakotas will remember him as a person who respected their personal dignity and valued their culture. Today he is increasingly perceived by the Jesuits as a pastor who, with this attitude, was far ahead of the Lakotas compared to his time.

Works

• Wowapi wakan wicowoyake yuptecelapi kin. Bible history in the language of the Teton Sioux Indians. Benziger, New York, 1924.
• Sursum Corda. Lakota Wocekiye na Olowan Wowapi. Sioux Indian Prayer and Hymn Book. Central Bureau of the Catholic Central Association of America, St. Louis, Missouri, 1927.
• A Grammar of Lakota: The Language of the Teton Sioux Indians. John S. Swift, St. Louis, Missouri, 1939.
• Lakota-English Dictionary. ed. by Paul Manhart, SJ, 1st ed .: Pine Ridge (SD): Holy Rosary Mission, 1970, 2nd ed .: University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, Nebraska, 2002.
• Eugene Buechel, SJ: Rosebud and Pine Ridge Photographs, 1922-1942. Grossmont College Development Foundation, El Cajon, California, 1974.
• John A. Anderson, Eugene Buechel, SJ, Don Doll, SJ: Crying for a Vision. A Rosebud Sioux Trilogy 1886-1976. Morgan & Morgan, Dobbs Ferry, New York, 1976.
• Lakota Tales and Texts. Red Cloud Indian School, Pine Ridge, South Dakota, 1978.
• Lakota Tales and Texts In Translation. 2 vols., Transl. by Paul Manhart, SJ Tipi Press, Chamberlain , South Dakota, 1998.
• DJ Rogers: Lakota Names and Traditional Uses of Native Plants by Sicangu (Brulé) People in the Rosebud Area, South Dakota: A Study Based on Father Eugene Buechel's Collection of Plants of Rosebud Around 1920. Rosebud Educational Society, St. Francis, South Dakota , 1980.

literature

• Jon Peter Rolie: The man from the Rhön who went to the Indians. Wanbli Sapa - Black Eagle. Life and work of an unknown missionary. Translated into German by Norbert Hauschild, edited by Josef Büchel. Erfurt 2001.
• Karl Markus Kreis (Ed.): A German missionary among the Sioux Indians. The linguist, ethnologist and collector Eugen Büchel / Eugene Buechel (1874-1954). Materials on life and work. Fachhochschule Dortmund 2004 (results from research and development 19).
• Raymond A. Bucko: Buechel, Eugene (1874–1954), in: H. James Birx (ed.): Encyclopedia of Anthropology , vol. 1. Sage Publ., Thousand Oaks, CA, 2005, pp. 428-29.
• Karl Markus Kreis (Ed.): Schools and churches for the Sioux Indians. German documents from the Catholic missions in South Dakota, 1884-1932 . Projektverlag, Bochum 2007.
• Raymond A. Bucko and Kay Koppedrayer: Father Buchel's Collection of Lakota Materials. In: Material Culture , 39: 2 (2007) pp. 17-42.
• Karl Markus Kreis: From the Rhön to the prairie. The missionary Eugen Büchel SJ from Geisa-Schleid, in: Yearbook for Central German Church and Order History , Verlag FW Cordier, Heiligenstadt, 4th year (2008), pp. 151–178.

Web links

• Web site of the Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum in St. Francis, South Dakota
• Ms. Eugene Buechel, SJ - A Visual Biography ( Memento from January 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive )