This is a print by the artist and military officer Seth Eastman, who was stationed in Minnesota before statehood. It shows several dwellings of the Dakota people.
This is a print by the artist and military officer Seth Eastman, who was stationed in Minnesota before statehood. It shows a view of the Minnesota River Valley.
This is a print by the artist and military officer Seth Eastman, who was stationed in Minnesota before statehood. It shows a Dakota campsite along a body of water.
This is a print by the artist and military officer Seth Eastman, who was stationed in Minnesota before statehood. The print shows Native Americans tapping trees and making sugar.
Dakota language (Santee dialect) primary reader for children, in a variety of type styles with woodcuts. University of St. Thomas, Archibishop Ireland Memorial Library call number: PM1024.R6 D6
Contributing Institution:
University of St. Thomas - Archbishop Ireland Memorial Library
This is a print by the artist and military officer Seth Eastman, who was stationed in Minnesota before statehood. Two Native American men on snowshoes are shown hunting buffalo.
This is a print by the artist and military officer Seth Eastman, who was stationed in Minnesota before statehood. A Native American is shown as he is catching fish by using a bow and arrow.
This is a print by the artist and military officer Seth Eastman, who was stationed in Minnesota before statehood. The print shows a medicine dance performed by members of the Winnebago tribe.
This is a print by the artist and military officer Seth Eastman, who was stationed in Minnesota before statehood. The print shows a Native American activity in which a number of men are involved.
This is a print by the artist and military officer Seth Eastman, who was stationed in Minnesota before statehood. The print shows Native Americans moving with their belongings to a new location.
This is a print by the artist and military officer Seth Eastman, who was stationed in Minnesota before statehood. The print shows a mounted Native American man about to kill a buffalo with an arrow.
Catholic catechism, liturgy, prayers, and hymns. Text in Ojibwa with some titles in French or Latin. 215 pages. University of St. Thomas, Archibishop Ireland Memorial Library call number: PM854 .B25 1859
Contributing Institution:
University of St. Thomas - Archbishop Ireland Memorial Library
Lieutenant Thomas van Etten wrote to his schoolmate, William H. Seward of Chester, New Jersey, in this 1862 letter from Fort Ridgely, near the western end of Nicollet County. He wrote about his military duties and experiences and about people he knew in New Jersey. Lt. van Etten participated in the Battle of Birch Coulee and described the battle in the letter. William H. Seward was a son of President Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward, Sr.
This is a photograph of John Otherday, whose Dakota name was Ampatutokacha. Called Good Sounding Voice when he was young, he was born in the vicinity of Swan Lake in Nicollet County about 1819.
This is a photograph of Po-Go-Nay-Ke-Shick, also known as Hole in the Day, an Ojibway Native American. The photograph was taken in the studio of St. Paul photographer Joel E. Whitney. The photograph was purchased in 1862 by a woman from Indiana.
Lieutenant Thomas van Etten wrote to his schoolmate, William H. Seward of Chester, New Jersey, in this 1863 letter from St. Peter, Minnesota. Van Etten was stationed at Fort Ridgely, near the western end of Nicollet County, and was serving as the fort's quartermaster. He wrote about his military duties and experiences and about people he knew in New Jersey. William H. Seward was a son of President Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward, Sr.
A classroom instruction tool, this 24 page wall scroll uses images, alphabet letters, words and phrases in the Dakota language to teach math functions and reading. This item was designed to hang on the classroom wall.
Contributing Institution:
Synod of Lakes and Prairies, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Two men standing in a fishing boat holding fish, the man on the right may be Ojibwe, end of birch bark canoe, hundreds of fish in foreground on the beach, may be Duluth or Grand Marais, may be fish drying stands in background, may be in a cove
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
A selection from the Book of Common Prayer and liturgies of the Protestant Episcopal Church. In English and Dakota language (Santee dialect) on opposite pages with pages numbered in duplicate. University of St. Thomas, Archibishop Ireland Memorial Library call number: BV175 .S46
Contributing Institution:
University of St. Thomas - Archbishop Ireland Memorial Library
St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). The various American Indian bands living in Canada and the Northwest Territory fought among themselves and the white settlers as Indian hunting grounds continued to be lost. The Dakotas finally settled farther west and the Ojibwe made land treaties with the U.S. government which reserved land around specific lakes in northern Minnesota for them. However, in 1867, the U.S. government ordered the Ojibwe to give up their scattered settlements and gather in one large reservation at White Earth. The reservation was then divided into agencies with government officials placed in charge. The bishop of the Northwest Territory sent Father Ignatius Tomazin to serve the Catholics at White Earth. Father Tomazin was a missionary from Yugoslavia who had worked among the Ojibwe for some years in the Crow Wing area and was known for his zeal in protecting their rights. While he was courageous in protesting the evils of discrimination practiced by the government agents, he perhaps lacked patience and diplomacy in his confrontations. As a result, Father Tomazin was forced off the reservation and transferred to Red Lake. In 1878, Abbot Rupert Seidenbusch, OSB, who had been appointed bishop of the newly-formed Northern Vicariate, asked St. John's Abbey to provide a priest and St. Benedict's Convent to provide teachers for White Earth. Fathers Aloysius Hermanutz and Joseph Buh from St. John's and Sisters Philomena Ketten and Lioba Brau from St. Benedict's were sent to meet the challenges of White Earth. Six days after they arrived, the sisters opened a day school for 15 pupils (12 girls and 3 boys), which increased to a total of 40 during the following week. (*The American Indian band in northern Minnesota prefer the name Anishinabe -- "Anishinaabeg" meaning "First People" -- while the French settlers called them Ojibwe, which is the more familiar name used in these records; and the government referred to them as Chippewa.) The sketch of the mission shown here is mounted on a card with the name, L. Bergman, Louisville, Kentucky, stamped on the back (SBMA, McDonald, pages 227-232), Pamphlet: "St. Benedict's Mission History, White Earth, MN, 1878-1978, as told by Benno Watrin, OSB (Printed by St. John' Abbey), 1978]
This is an elementary geography textbook in the Dakota language. It focuses on North America but includes sections on Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and a geography of ""bible lands.""
Contributing Institution:
Synod of Lakes and Prairies, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). Survival was the sisters' prime challenge during those first years of exposure to cold and scarcity of food in White Earth. But even so, they took two orphan girls (the younger one only four years old) into their home. The care of orphans was to become an important work for them at St. Benedict's Mission as White Earth developed. Sisters Philomena and Lioba, unlike in temperaments, proved to be well-suited to work together among the Ojibwe. Sister Philomena, young and vivacious, had volunteered for missionary work; Sister Lioba, deliberate and more conservative, was fearful of venturing that far into the northern region. They learned to rely on each other's strengths and persevered through 50 years of mission work at the White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). Records indicate that, when a fire destroyed the school just a few weeks after their arrival, Sister Lioba felt justified in going back home, but Sister Philomena suggested fixing up the barn to serve as the school, which they did at a cost of $35.00. [SBMA, McDonald, pp. 232-237]
This short tract in the Dakota language describes the American Bible Society, founded in 1816. The Santee Normal Training School instructed Dakota children in the Dakota language. These children came from families who were removed from Minnesota to Nebraska after the U.S.-Dakota War in 1863. Reverend A.L. Riggs founded the school in 1870 as an academy to train Native teachers. The school developed a printing press in 1871 and produced many materials in the Dakota language.
Contributing Institution:
Synod of Lakes and Prairies, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). The Ojibwe accepted their missionaries, "blackrobes," as they called them. Sister Philomene Ketten, always in the midst of action, is standing among the women near the center tree in this photograph. [SBMA]
St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). St. Benedict's mission at White Earth thrived; more and more orphans were crowded into the convent quarters and the day school's enrollment increased. With the help of St. John's Abbey, a new church and a convent school were built in 1881-1882. The convent school, called St. Benedict's Girls Orphan School, was built for 30 orphans; classrooms were built in the ground floor of the new church. Though unaware and unprepared for the cultural sensitivity that would have been desirable in undertaking such a venture as the Indian missions, the sisters shared what they best understood -- education and friendship -- with the Ojibwe who were relegated to reservations in the mid 1800s. There, as in the German and Polish settlements which they served, they staffed schools and taught the basic learning skills, music, domestic arts, and religion. Hindsight reveals the injustice of the American government and of the early settlers in land settlements and in the expectation that American Indians must learn to live, talk, believe and look like the whites who took over the country. For example, the sisters were required to use only the English language in school. However, homey exceptions to that occurred in the life on the mission as the sisters lived, worked and played with the Ojibwe children and learned from them the native language, traditions and life values that in turn enriched the sisters. [SBMA]
St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). After the missionaries had settled in White Earth and had begun to build a new church and school, the Ojibwe of Buffalo River (Callaway), eight miles away, asked Father Aloysius Hermanutz to send them teachers for their children. Rather than refuse, Father Aloysius promised he would do so if they built a school. He believed that they would be unable to provide a building. However, when they did offer a place for the school, Sister Philomena saved Father Aloysius' embarrassment by offering to ride daily to Buffalo River to teach if Father would lend her his pony. After some mishaps in riding strange horses when Father Aloysius needed his, Sister Philomena begged for a pony of her own which she received. She was also able to convince the bishop to provide her with a saddle. [SBMA, McDonald, pp. 237-238]
St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). The traditional festive attire was an important part of all Indian celebrations at the White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe) (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
St. Benedict's Industrial School was established in 1884 when St. Benedict's Convent contracted with the U.S. government, through the Catholic Indian Bureau, for support of 30 girls from the White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). Since St. Benedict's Convent had sent sisters to teach at the White Earth mission in 1878, recruitment contacts could easily be made. However, the parents were reluctant to have their daughters leave home and the children did not take to the rigors and formalities of institutional life and education. As a result of the resistance of the Ojibwe, most of the students who came from the reservation were of not fully native but of mixed white and Indian blood. Thus, the sisters inadvertently became a part of the suppressive system which disregarded the spirit and culture of the American Indians. "The federal government, aided by church-sponsored missionaries, marched steadily toward its goal of assimilation for Indians. The drive was particularly strong between the 1880s and the 1930s. Their aim was detribalization, individualization and 'Americanization' of the American Indian." (Berg, p. 159) In the boarding schools, students, taken from their homes, were given a new wardrobe, new language and a whole new way of life. It is not surprising that before the turn of the century the government rescinded the contract system. But it has taken almost another century and the experience of assimilating peoples of different cultures for the American people to begin to appreciate the enrichment that multicultural living can offer. (SBMA, McDonald, pages 120-122 and Sister Carol Berg, OSB, "Agents of Cultural Change: the Benedictines in White Earth," Minnesota History, winter 1982, page 159).
Five young Ojibwe women in western dresses each holding a wooden stick used to play Double Ball. Double Ball is a woman's game that resembles Lacrosse. The women are identified as wives of John Druilard. Two frame buildings and Lake Superior are visble in the background.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Informal portait of the Ross Indian Village in 1887. Individuals in the photograph include Chief Cobenas (center with feathered headdress) with two of his wives, Billy McGillis and a young girl. McGillis' wife is in the bonnet. Nineteen local Indians, including men, women, children and babies posed for this photograph. Two tipis and an oxcart are also visible in the photograph.
The Catholic School for Girls in Avoca was started in 1883 by the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus and included fifty Native American girls who were sent there by Bishop Ireland. The school closed in 1902, but reopened as St. Bernard Hall for boys in 1905.
The largest of nine American Indian burial mounds in the vicinity of Shady Lane and Lake Avenue along the shore of White Bear Lake prior to its demolition in April of 1889.
St. Mary's Mission, Red Lake Indian Reservation (Red Lake Nation). Sisters and students pose on the porch of the convent/school. In 1889, with a donation received from the Drexel sisters, a convent/boarding school was built. Upstairs were sleeping quarters for the sisters and girls; downstairs contained the kitchen, recreation room, and refectory for serving meals. At the time there were five sisters, 35 boarding students of ages six to eighteen, and 25 day students. It proved to be so successful that it had to be enlarged within two years. A house was purchased to be the dormitory for boys and the temporary church (built in 1891) served as the dormitory for boys after a new church was completed in 1893. [SBMA; Lindblad, pp. 41-43]
Studio portrait of local Chippewa band members, including: Jim Cobenas, Tigoble, Red Lake, Joe Cobenas (holding a ceremonial pipe), and Charles Cobenas (holding a ceremonial pipe).
St. Mary's Mission, Red Lake Indian Reservation (Red Lake Nation). The Benedictine monks and sisters were preceded in the Red Lake mission by Fathers Francis Xavier Pierz and Lawrence Lautischar. These two missionaries had founded the mission in the 1850s and Father Lautischar remained there as its first pastor. After his untimely death in a snowstorm, Father Lawrence was succeeded by Father Ignatius Tomazin, the Yugoslav missionary who was removed from White Earth for antagonizing government agents at that reservation in1878. In 1883, his zeal for the rights of the American Indians once again brought the soldiers from Fort Snelling to the reservation to remove him. For the next five years, the Red Lake mission was without a priest. In 1888, when the Drexel sisters* paid a visit to the reservation and heard the Ojibwe's plea for priests and sisters, Katherine begged the abbot of St. John's Abbey to take over the mission. She offered to pay the traveling expenses and to rent temporary buildings for them. The following year in November 1889, two priests, Fathers Simon Lampe and Thomas Borgerding from St. John's Abbey and Sisters Amalia Eich and Evangelista McNulty from St. Benedict's Convent made the arduous trip to Red Lake; the last lap from White Earth to Red Lake was by lumber wagons. St. Mary's Mission in Red Lake began in some empty buildings on the reservation. The sisters converted an abandoned Hudson Bay Company's warehouse into a school. In spite of its poor condition, the school opened with an enrollment of 25 day pupils. Years later when Sister Amalia was asked how they kept warm in that drafty house, she replied that they didn't keep warm; they froze. The next spring they took in 27 boarding pupils in addition to the day students. St. Benedict's sent two more sisters and a candidate to help. The candidate, Jane Horn, who later became Sister Marciana, was a former pupil of the sisters at White Earth. She was a helpful bridge for building understanding between the missionaries and the Ojibwe at Red Lake. (*Katherine Drexel and her two sisters, daughters of a wealthy banker in Philadelphia, engaged in charity for the American Indian and African American missions.) [SBMA McDonald, pp. 246-249 Sister Owen Lindblad, OSB, FULL OF FAIR HOPE: A History of St. Mary's Mission, Red Lake, (Park Press Quality Printing, Inc., Waite Park, MN, 1997), pp. 15-17, 34-39]
This pamphlet includes the constitution and by-laws of the Society of Christian Endeavor in Dakota and English. The Santee Normal Training School instructed Dakota children in the Dakota language. These children came from families who were removed from Minnesota to Nebraska after the U.S.-Dakota War in 1863. Reverend A.L. Riggs founded the school in 1870 as an academy to train Native teachers. The school developed a printing press in 1871 and produced many materials in the Dakota language.
Contributing Institution:
Synod of Lakes and Prairies, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). The school at White Earth was so successful that it was noticed by Katherine Drexel who lived in Philadelphia and had devoted her life to working for American Indians and African Americans. (She later founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for the education of these minorities.) Katherine visited White Earth with her two sisters and was so impressed by the work of the Benedictines there that she made arrangements for the building of a new school that would house 150 orphaned and dependent children. During the summer of 1890, the bricks for this four-story building were made near the mission and in the winter months, the lumber and other materials were gathered. Two years later, February 10, 1892, the school was opened for 100 children with the expectation that government funds were available to educate and cloth them. By 1895, the enrollment had grown to 150; the number of teachers and helpers grew to eighteen over the years. However, when government funding was rescinded by the turn of the century, the school faced the challenge of survival. The Benedictines turned to the charity of the Catholics of the Northwest Territory, of St. John's Abbey and of St. Benedict's Convent, and most of all, to tribal funds that the government had held in trust for them in lieu of the land they had given up. These funds could be requested by the Ojibwe as needed. In this way, St. Benedict's Mission managed to continue the boarding school until 1945. When the tribal funds were no longer available, the school became a parochial day school. [SBMA, McDonald, pp. 241-246]
Monsignor Augustin Ravoux's life and work as a missionary to the Dakota in Minnesota from 1841-1844. Book signed by author and given to Fr. Agatho, O.S.B. at Saint John's.
Contributing Institution:
College of Saint Benedict & Saint John's University
Shoto walking with two walking sticks in Shakopee. Father J. J. Girrimondi of St. Mary's Church baptized 90-year-old Shoto in 1894 and buried him 1899. Shoto was one of Chief Shakopee's braves.
Studio portrait of Old Shoto, believed to have been one of Chief Shakopee's braves. Old Shoto was baptized by Father J. J.Girrimondi of St. Mary's Church in 1894. He died in 1899.
St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). About 85 boarding students and six sisters posed in the inner court of St. St. Benedict's Mission School in the early 1890s. Record keeping for this large a group of children was not simple. While the churches constructed and operated the schools on the reservations, government policy allowed the schools an annual appropriation of a flat rate for tuition, board and clothing annually; the amount varied from $100 to $150 per pupil. This policy required careful quarterly reports to be sent to Washington. All expenditures had to be accounted for - the number of pounds of meat, sacks of flour, bushels of beans and potatoes, barrels of sugar, pounds of rice, and gallons of syrup and soap These accounts show the frugality of the mission school's fare. For example, the 1886 end-of-year record shows $2.00 for candy and $2.50 for a pair of geese. [SBMA, McDonald, pp. 240-241]
This pamphlet, in the Dakota language, includes two pieces. The first is a brief biography of Abraham Lincoln, and the second is a translation of seven of Aesop's Fables into Dakota. The Santee Normal Training School instructed Dakota children in the Dakota language. These children came from families who were removed from Minnesota to Nebraska after the U.S.-Dakota War in 1863. Reverend A.L. Riggs founded the school in 1870 as an academy to train Native teachers. The school developed a printing press in 1871 and produced many materials in the Dakota language.
Contributing Institution:
Synod of Lakes and Prairies, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)