PETERSBURG, Va. – Two years ago in a ceremony that made history, Carol Joy
Walkingstick Gallagher became the first American Indian woman bishop with
the Episcopal Church.

An enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, Gallagher’s ceremony
included prayers in the Cherokee language and made use of American Indian
ceremonial rituals. The event drew hundreds of people, both Indian and
non-Indian, to St. Paul’s College, a school established in Lawrenceville,
Va. in the late 1800s to educate free blacks.

Now serving as bishop for the Episcopal Church’s Southern Virginia Diocese
in Petersburg, Va., Gallagher said she serves as the overseer, visiting
different congregations each Sunday and having service with them.

“Usually, I celebrate and preside over the communion each Sunday,”
Gallagher said. “It’s part and parcel to who I am.”

Raised a Christian by her Cherokee mother, Betty Walkingstick Theobald of
Tahlequah, Okla., Gallagher said her mother grew up during a time when the
Cherokee were taught not to practice any of the traditional Cherokee
cultural rituals. Her mother, who later moved to New York, made friends
within the Onondaga community, keeping in touch with Indian people and
culture, she said.

But now with more acceptance of American Indian culture, Gallagher said she
tries to incorporate the Cherokee traditions in some of her services.

“Singing in traditional languages is one thing I do,” said Gallagher, who
recently completed her doctorate in urban affairs and public policy from
the University of Delaware.

Although Gallagher isn’t fluent in the Cherokee language, she grew up
hearing it spoken. Her grandfather, who was a native speaker, lived with
her family off and on when she was a child.

“He taught us some things, but none of us are fluent,” said Gallagher, who
hopes to complete a language immersion study course to learn the Cherokee
language. “But we’ve all studied it.”

Inside her office, Gallagher keeps photos of her three daughters, Christian
symbols such as crosses and angels along with Indian items. She even has a
painting from her aunt, Kay Walkingstick, a well-known Cherokee artist
whose work is exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Gallagher grew up a Presbyterian – her father having been a Presbyterian
minister and ordained 52 years ago. But she and her husband, Mark
Gallagher, a Roman Catholic, decided to join the Episcopal Church a few
years after their first daughter was born.

In 1990, Gallagher became a priest, and she became the rector of St. Anne’s
Episcopal Church in Middletown, Del. in 1996. In 2001, the Rev. Gary Rowe,
a priest, and the Rev. Wayne Wright, a bishop, both of Delaware, put
Gallagher’s name on a nominating list for bishop suffragen with the Diocese
of Southern Virginia.

“I didn’t know if I wanted to be bishop or not,” Gallagher said.

The process of becoming a bishop is a lengthy one – after being placed on
the nominating list, a committee of 16 people reviewed resumes and began
interviewing those from the list, she said. Three months after her
interview in June 2001, the committee narrowed the list down to five
people, and Gallagher was on that list.

In August 2001, she was elected bishop.

“Being the first American Indian woman bishop is quirky enough that people
are fascinated,” Gallagher said. “It’s not been a negative issue, but more
of a fascination for people.”

Shortly before her consecration, Gallagher received a call from Wilma
Mankiller, former Cherokee Nation principal chief, and was asked to help
with a ceremony of healing and reconciliation after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist strikes.

“It was a wonderful service,” Gallagher said.

Mankiller, in a statement to Indian County Today, described Gallagher as a
strong spiritual leader “primarily because of her personal characteristics
and her Cherokee heritage.”

“Bishop Gallagher is a person of enormous faith; her father was a minister
and her mother, like most Cherokee people, is a deeply spiritual woman,”
Mankiller wrote. “Rather than viewing spirituality or religion in a
dogmatic or segmented way, Bishop Gallagher tries to incorporate Native
culture into her religious teachings.”

Gallagher brings her “identity and worldview as a Cherokee woman” to the
church leadership, Mankiller said.

“Informed by her mother’s teachings, she will bring a strong sense of
community to leadership,” Mankiller said. “One of the most enduring
cultural attributes of the tradition-oriented Cherokee people is a
commitment to maintaining community and close reciprocal relationships with
extended family and friends. Bishop Gallagher brings to leadership an
understanding that spirituality is not predicated on a certain set of
compartmentalized rituals. She understands that everything in life is
sacred and therefore has a spiritual element.”

Mankiller also said that Gallagher brings a “much-needed” woman’s
perspective to her leadership role in the church.

As the only American Indian woman bishop, Gallagher describes her
experiences and her background as interesting to many people within the
Episcopal Church.

“There are times when it’s hard to explain to people what it’s like to be a
Native person in a hierarchical church,” she said. “I don’t always see
things the way other people do. That’s a positive thing. It can be
isolating, too. I don’t have an Indian community around me who readily
understands the difference in function or perception.”

As an American Indian with the church, Gallagher said she does a lot of
interpretation in helping people to understand American Indian issues and
needs.

“I also wasn’t raised on a reservation, so I don’t try to interpret for
anyone but my family,” she said. “But I spend a lot of time acting as a
bridge between cultures.”