
Dirt, Water, and the Search for Healing: The Contested Histories of Indigenous-Catholic Holy Sites
Tue, January 7th, 2025
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
- This event has passed.

Dr. Melissa Coles, a post-doctoral research associate at the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, will be giving a talk titled Dirt, Water, and the Search for Healing: The Contested Histories of Indigenous-Catholic Holy Sites in the North American West, 1810-2022.
Melissa’s research focuses on two Indigenous-Catholic pilgrimage sites: el Santuario de Chimayó, a church in New Mexico that is renowned for healing dirt, and Lac Ste. Anne, a shrine in Alberta that is famous for healing water. For generations, Indigenous communities prayed at these holy sites. Then, European settlers helped establish Catholic traditions at each place, and today, both shrines are Indigenous-Catholic pilgrimage sites.
This event is co-sponsored by the History Department, Anthropology & Sociology Department, the Religion Department, Williams Catholic, and the Catholic Chaplaincy.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Bridget Power at bep3@williams.edu