St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). One of the boarding school dormitories in the upper floors of the newly-built St. Benedict's Mission School. Unlike the crowded conditions of the early convent school at White Earth, the new school built in 1890 allowed ample space for sleeping quarters (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). Students pose with their handiwork in the work room of the newly-built school at St. Benedict's Mission. Domestic arts were considered important. So before and after school hours, the girls were taught to card wool and spin yarn with which they knitted their own stockings. They were taught plain and fancy sewing and took turns in assisting the sisters in the kitchen, laundry and dairy. Under Sister Philomena Ketten's supervision, the boys worked in the garden and helped on the farm with picking potatoes and raking hay. [SBMA, McDonald, p. 241]
St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). The newly-built school was completed in 1892. The school day at St. Benedict's School in White Earth was similar to that of any other American school with hours from 9:00 until 4:00 in teaching the basic learning skills. This daily rigid pattern was not a part of the American Indian culture and tested the endurance of both the students and teachers, but music and singing and manual work offered relief. [SBMA, McDonald, p. 241]
St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). Sister Lioba Braun, at the organ, leads the sisters at St. Benedict's Mission in song. Sister Lioba, one of the first sisters to help establish St. Benedict's Mission at White Earth, brought her gift of music and singing and soon had a choir that was able to sing at the religious services. The sister to the immediate right of Sister Lioba is identified as Sister Meinrad Burrell and the sister to Sister Meinrad's right as Sister Basilia Cosgrove. [SBMA]
St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). The complex of buildings comprising St. Benedict's Mission in White Earth as viewed from the lake in the early 1890s. By 1895, the mission had reached the peak of its development because that year the federal government reversed its policy of giving aid for education on the reservations and set 1899 as the final date after which no more public money would be given. [SBMA]
This image was published in "Minnesota History," 49/3 Fall 1984, page 92. Original in the Archives of the Sisters of Mercy Provincialate in Omaha, Nebraska. Record Group 75. Exhibit WCSA 2000-2001.
Bible history, criticism, interpretation, and stories in the Dakota Indian language, illustrated with engravings. University of St. Thomas, Archibishop Ireland Memorial Library call number: PM1024 .H8
Contributing Institution:
University of St. Thomas - Archbishop Ireland Memorial Library
Portrait of Old Shoto. Photograph taken with a magazine by ars olclone camera. Contemporary handwriting on back. He is one of Chief Shakopee's braves, he was baptized by Father J. J. Girrimondi of St. Mary's church in 1894; he died in 1899. He is standing in front of a teepee with an open door.
Portait of Shoto in front of tepee. The book, "The Shakopee Story" says that Shoto was one of Chief Shakopee's braves. He was baptized by Father J. J. Girrimondi of St. Mary's Church in 1894. He died in 1899.
Catholic prayers, instructions, and hymns in the Dakota language, with music. Includes 26 hymns, most of which include the melody notated in treble clef. Illustrated with engravings. University of St. Thomas, Archibishop Ireland Memorial Library call number: PM1024 .H75 1899
Contributing Institution:
University of St. Thomas - Archbishop Ireland Memorial Library
Red Lake, Leech Lake and White Earth Chiefs, taken in Washington, D.C. (Darwin S. Hall presented photo to White Earth Agency office, Arthur P. Foster presented to Becker County Historical Society.)
Chief Bemidji, whose real name was " Shay-Now-Ish -Kung," received his new name from Lake Bemidji which was called Bay-me-ji-ga, or "lake with cross waters." He was born near Inger, Minnesota, in 1833 or 1834 and lived in the Leech Lake and Cass Lake area. In 1860, he married a Leech Lake Pillager Indian woman and they had eight children, three boys of whom died at early ages. Four daughters and one son grew up and lived to older ages. In 1882, Chief Bemidji's wife died. Saddened by her death, he loaded all his possessions and children in his birch bark canoe and paddled up the Mississippi River to settle on the south shore of Lake Bemidji. He was the first permanent settler of Bemidji (from p. 107,"The Bemidji Area Looking Back" 2004).
Drypoint etching of a head portrait of a Navajo Indian signed "Cadwallader Lincoln Washburn." Washburn was a renowned deaf artist who was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and graduated from the Minnesota Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind and the National Deaf-Mute College (soon to be renamed Gallaudet College). He donated this art work to the Charles Thompson Memorial Hall, a deaf club in St. Paul, Minnesota, in honor of its opening in 1916.
Drypoint etching of a head portrait of a Hopi Indian signed "Cadwallader Lincoln Washburn." Washburn was a renowned deaf artist who was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and graduated from the Minnesota Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind and the National Deaf-Mute College (soon to be renamed Gallaudet College). He donated this art work to the Charles Thompson Memorial Hall, a deaf club in St. Paul, Minnesota, in honor of its opening in 1916.
Drypoint etching of a head portrait of an American Indian signed "Cadwallader Lincoln Washburn." Washburn was a renowned deaf artist who was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and graduated from the Minnesota Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind and the National Deaf-Mute College (soon to be renamed Gallaudet College). He donated this art work to the Charles Thompson Memorial Hall, a deaf club in St. Paul, Minnesota, in honor of its opening in 1916.
Drypoint etching of a head portrait of an American Indian signed "Cadwallader Lincoln Washburn." Washburn was a renowned deaf artist who was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and graduated from the Minnesota Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind and the National Deaf-Mute College (soon to be renamed Gallaudet College). He donated this art work to the Charles Thompson Memorial Hall, a deaf club in St. Paul, Minnesota, in honor of its opening in 1916.
Winter scene of three homestead women and a Native American holding a small child in the woods. A horse and cart, teepee, frozen slaughter pig and other bundles are visible in the surroundings.
Mrs. Jessie C. Yeats' Chippewa Indian (Ojibwe) collection that was given to the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, museum by Johnn K. West from Detroit, Minnesota (became Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, in 1926).
St. Mary's Mission, Red Lake Indian Reservation (Red Lake Band of Chippewa). "Traditionally the governmental structure of the Ojibwe was based on adherence to an hereditary clan chieftainship among the people, and the right to participate in clan decisions was an inherited right" (Lindblad, page 78). They did what they could to keep friendly relations with government agencies, traders, lumbermen and missionaries, while preserving their status of the reservation as a "closed reservation." The people of the Red Lake Indian Reservation themselves insisted on this status to protect their autonomy and food source. It took years for the American people to realize the injustices that were inflicted upon the Americans Indians. The Ojibwe's efforts at revitalizing their culture attest to their dignity and resilience as a people (SBMA Lindlbad, page 78).
This document is a sermon in Dakota preaching against the traditional use of tobacco and giving warnings about the end times. 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.)
Formal portrait of Julia and Mabel Rouillard on the occasion of Mabel's confirmation. Julia's husband Thomas was the lay minister at the Church of Messiah.
St. Mary's Mission, Red Lake Indian Reservation (Red Lake Nation). In 1904, fire destroyed the temporary church that had been converted to a boys' dormitory. A year later, the sisters' and girls' first house was also destroyed by fire (see photo). The wood-burning stoves were a constant hazard for the early pioneers. In one of his letters, Father Thomas Borgerding, OSB, describes the agony of not being able to save the building because of the intense wind. Father Thomas wrote to Katherine Drexel requesting funds and she responded with an $800 donation. Using 30,000 feet of lumber stored at the mission, a new building was built by 1905 which housed the boys' residence on the upper level and the sisters and girls on the lower level. By 1906, construction was begun for the sisters and girls' residence and was completed after many summers. [SBMA Lindblad, p. 54-58]
The formal portrait of William Hoffman of Prairie Island. Hoffman was a member of the Mdewakanton band of Dakota. His Dakota name was Ta Shunke Maza which translates to Iron Horse.
Hymns only edition of the larger work Katholik wocekiye wowapi. 26 hymns in the Dakota language, most of which include the melody notated in treble clef. 48 pages. University of St. Thomas, Archibishop Ireland Memorial Library call number: PM1024 .C38 1906
Contributing Institution:
University of St. Thomas - Archbishop Ireland Memorial Library
This pamphlet was used to educate Dakota people about Tuberculosis. 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.)
This pamphlet is an outline of the life of Jesus Christ in Dakota. This is the second edition of this text. It includes a preface in English and nine hand-drawn maps relating to the life of Jesus Christ. 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. Mary's Mission, Red Lake Indian Reservation (Red Lake Nation). This panoramic view of St. Mary's Mission shows the outlay of buildings and the extent of the farm and gardens around 1909. Records reveal the great amount of produce that supported the mission. For example, one summer 1,800 bushels of potatoes and 600 bushels of corn were harvested. The horses, cattle, and chickens were all important in the survival of life on the mission. Red Lake mission prospered despite the early trials of hunger, cold and destructive fires. The sisters maintained an enrollment of 80-100 pupils in the boarding school during the next 50 years. [SBMA, Lindblad, p. 72]
View of the Chippewa (Ojibwe) camp at White Earth on June 14, 1910. White Earth is located within the White Earth Indian Reservation (Gaa-waabaabiganikaag) and is home to the White Earth Nation, also known as the Anishinaabe.