A Widening Horizon Catholic Sisterhoods On The Northern Plains, 1874-1910

Catholic sisterhoods have been part of American life since the colonial period, first as operators of charitable institutions to aid the needy and then, in the nineteenth century, as teachers of both immigrant children in the East and Indian children at mission schools on reservations in the West. Conventional historical studies have either slighted or ignored their contributions to the settlement of the northern plains, and recent articles on Catholic missions in history journals do little better. In both secular and church histories, Catholic sisters are traditionally pictured as silent representatives of female purity or as extensions of the church hierarchy on the frontier. A more recent stereotype attributes radical feminist motives of separation from male society to female religious orders.1 The experience of the Catholic sisterhoods on the northern plains is far more diverse than the stereotypes would suggest. Among the more than fifteen groups who attempted to bring religion and education to reservation missions and farming communities in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, four religious orders stand out for their successful adaptation to the frontier environment: the Grey Nuns from Montreal in Canada, the Sisters of the Presentac tion from Ireland, the Benedictine Sisters from Switzerland, and the Sisters of St. Francis from Germany. Other sisterhoods were unable to found lasting institutions and retreated to the more populous regions from whence they came. By contrast, the four groups treated in this study succeeded where others failed. Through their resourcefulness and their flexibility in responding to unforeseen circumstances, they not only established and maintained schools but also started hospitals and brought much-needed health care to the people of the region. The challenges facing these sisterhoods in the often hostile physical environment of the western frontier required traits and abilities that are often missing from stereotypes of religious orders of women. The image of the sister leading a cloistered, confined existence, cut off from the evils of the outside world, does not fit the women of the four orders who made the most lasting contributions to the social development of the northern plains. These sisterhoods all came from outside of the United States. None of them had any experience with the people or the environment of the plains. For three of the groups, English was a new language to be learned, in addition to the various dialects spoken by the Indian tribes. One group was accustomed to very cloistered living, and none had previous experience in nursing. U.S. government Indian policy during those years was inconsistent. Despite these obstacles, however, these four orders became well known for their schools and hospitals within the thirtysix- year period from 1874 to 1910. Of recent foreign origin, the four sisterhoods comprised a part of the late-nineteenth-century influx of immigrants to the West. All four groups began their tenure in Dakota Territory as missionaries to the Indians; the Presentation Sisters and the Benedictine Sisters added nonIndian parish schools to their apostolate, while the Grey Nuns and the Sisters of St. Francis confined their activities to the Sioux of the Fort Totten, Standing Rock, Rosebud, and Pine Ridge reservations. These same two orders retained ties with their motherhouses-in Montreal for the Grey Nuns and in Buffalo, New York, for the Franciscans-while the Presentation Sisters established motherhouses in Fargo, North Dakota, and Aberdeen, South Dakota, and the Benedictines founded a motherhouse in Yankton, South Dakota. Three of the four groups-the Presentation Sisters, the Benedictines, and the Franciscans-arrived through the auspices of Martin Marty, OSB, the first bishop of Dakota Territory. The Grey Nuns started their school because the Devils Lake Reservation had been assigned to the Catholic church as part of President Grant\u27s peace policy, and the Indian agent invited them because he was familiar with their order since his cousin was a member.