Donald E. Pelotte SSS (April 13, 1945 – January 7, 2010) was an American prelate of Abenaki descent in the Roman Catholic Church.
His doctoral dissertation was entitled: John Courtney Murray, Theologian in Conflict: Roman Catholicism and the American Experience.
On February 24, 1986, Pope John Paul II named Pelotte as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Gallup; he was consecrated on May 6, 1986 by Archbishop Robert Fortune Sanchez.
[8] From 1986 to 2008, Pelotte also served as the episcopal moderator of the Tekakwitha Conference, an association of Native American and First Nation Catholics.
This was in response to a dissident group within the conference that accused the Catholic Church of ignoring Native American rituals.
[12] On January 3, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Thomas J. Olmsted, the bishop of Phoenix, as apostolic administrator sede plena of the Diocese of Gallup, and granted Pelotte a one-year leave of absence to continue his recovery.