An undated photo from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis archives shows a Catholic missionary with Native American youth. COURTESY ARCHDIOCESAN ARCHIVES
A system of what’s been called Indian boarding schools operated in the United States for 100 years, starting in the 1860s. Approximately 360 schools were largely funded by the U.S. government, and many were operated by religious organizations, including the Catholic Church, said Allison Spies, archives manager for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
The schools’ purpose was facilitating removal of American Indian nations from land desired by the United States and reducing resistance through forced assimilation of children, Spies said.
“It’s hard to fathom from our point of view in 2022, but at the time these schools got started, there were still cash rewards offered for white settlers to kill American Indians in Minnesota,” she said.
Spies made her remarks to Maria Wiering, editor-in-chief of The Catholic Spirit, who interviewed Spies for an episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show debuting at 9 p.m. April 22 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. Spies said up front that the narrative of the history belongs to American Indian communities, and “the broader story” needs to be told by Native voices. But she shares her knowledge from her work as an archivist and out of a desire to spread awareness, Spies said.
The schools made international news last summer when groups researching sites at former boarding schools in Canada discovered what appeared to be hundreds of children’s graves on school grounds. Pope Francis recently met with Indigenous leaders from Canada to apologize for the Church’s role in running Indian boarding schools, using “very poignant words,” Spies said.
The national Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, based in Minneapolis, indicates that at least 360 boarding schools operated in the United States, Spies said, and 15 or 16 in Minnesota, but she said “there were more than that.” About half were operated by Catholic religious orders, including the Sisters of St. Benedict, “who have already been doing really commendable work on reckoning with this history,” Spies said. She said there is no official comprehensive list of Indian boarding schools in the United States.
The Catholic Industrial School in Clontarf, Minnesota, was part of the archdiocese at the time and served as an Indian boarding school. It began in St. Paul in 1874 primarily as a school for immigrant boys and later moved to Clontarf in western Minnesota. It was called an industrial school because its emphasis was on manual labor including farm work, Spies said.
The Catholic Church in Minnesota was the first in the nation, in 1975, to issue a statement acknowledging the injustices against American Indian nations, Spies said, “and we have the opportunity to lead positive efforts in that area again.”
Spies is working with the Minnesota Catholic Conference to coordinate efforts of Minnesota bishops to help tribes discover more about the history that is available of schools in the state run by Catholic religious organizations.
Oral histories and testimony of American Indian survivors and their descendants are the most vital records of this history, Spies said, but government and Church records are also important. “They can help answer questions about the identities and fates of individual students,” she said. “And that’s what we’re trying to facilitate by making the records accessible to their communities and descendants so they can decide how this information is treated and who has access.”
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced a federal Indian boarding school initiative in June 2021, a comprehensive review of federal boarding school policies. Information from the review’s initial phase is expected to be released any day, Spies said.
To hear the full interview, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which also airs at 1 p.m. April 23 and 2 p.m. April 24.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes two interviews with religious brothers discussing consecrated life and what it’s like to serve as a brother among fathers. One show features Dominican Brother Joe Trout, a friar from Oak Park, Illinois, and Jesuit Brother Ken Homan, a doctoral student at Georgetown University. A second episode features Brother Larry Schatz, a member of the De La Salle Brothers, and Brother Logan Murray, a member of the Brotherhood of Hope.
Listen to all of the interviews after they have aired at:
Recent Comments