History of the Catholic Indian Mission
For 130 years, Catholic religious men and women have served on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation– well before North Dakota was a state and the formation of the Diocese of Bismarck. The Benedictine monks from Conception Abbey in Conception, Missouri, arrived in Dakota Territory on October 17, 1884, one year after the Standing Rock Reservation was founded and ministered to the Native Americans and the white people on the reservation for the next 111 years.
In 1876, Abbot Martin Marty, OSB, from St. Meinrad’s Abbey in Indiana, arrived on the Standing Rock Reservation. Under his guidance and direction as abbot and later as bishop, the Catholic Missions sprang up. Fort Yates came into existence in 1879; Cannonball in 1882, and Porcupine in 1890. White parishes were also established at Selfridge and Solen.
Fort Yates and Kenel (in South Dakota) were the two sites where the missionaries, together with the governmental agencies, first established formal educational centers.
Fr. Chrysostom Foffa, OSB, and Brother Giles Laugel, OSB, cleared an old agency building at Fort Yates, where shortly after Easter, 1877, they opened the first school. Four Benedictine Sisters from Ferdinand, Indiana, arrived in 1878 to help in the school. The school was opened as a governmental school under the auspices of the Catholic Church.
Bishop Marty considered the care of the Sioux Indians his dearest work. He was constantly seeking new laborers in this vineyard. In 1880, he had only 13 priests in the entire Dakota Territory. Four of these were ministering on the Standing Rock Reservation.
With the arrival of Father Bernard Strassmaier, OSB, and Fr. Francis Gerschwyler, OSB, Standing Rock saw the beginning of the longest tenure any two priests would serve there in the next one hundred plus years.
Father Bernard arrived in 1886 shortly after his ordination to the priesthood. In 1890, he was made pastor of Fort Yates. This would be his only pastoral assignment, for he served on Standing Rock for the next 50 years!
The Native people loved Father Bernard. This admiration was especially evident at the time of his golden jubilee of ordination in 1936 when they presented him with a new car, an extraordinary gift during the Great Depression years. Father Bernard died on the reservation in 1940. The Indian sermon was preached by Father Francis.
Father Francis came to Standing Rock in 1890 and was ordained a priest in what is now the Diocese of Bismarck. Like Father Bernard, Father Francis’ assignment in Sioux County was the only one this priest would ever have. He believed that to reach the heart of the Indian people, he had to speak their language fluently. He moved in with an Indian family and became so fluent in the Sioux language that many people believed it was his native tongue. Failing health resulted in his leaving the reservation in 1940. He returned to Conception Abbey where he died in 1946 at the age of 86.
Establishment of a Catholic Mission Day School
Foreseeing already in 1910 that eventually the teaching of religion would no longer be permitted in government schools, and that the sisters would be withdrawn from the schools, Father Bernard undertook the responsibility of establishing a Catholic Mission Day School. He, together with Father Othmar Buerkler, OSB, and the Benedictine Sisters from Yankton, S.D., converted an old meeting hall into a one-room school.
The fall of 1924 saw 60 students enrolled. The first graduation class reflected the standards of excellence of the school. Three of the graduates received a hundred percent on their State Board exams, and the fourth student forgot a decimal point and missed the hundred mark.
An addition to the school was constructed in 1926. This building served as the Catholic Indian Mission School until the cornerstone of the present school was laid in 1964.
Transition Period
With the retirement and death of Fathers Bernard, Francis, Martin and Bruno, the early period in the history of the Catholic Indian Mission came to a close. Their retirement years and the time following their deaths have been referred to as the “transition period” on Standing Rock. This period was filled with many changes and also many accomplishments.
In 1936, Father Luke Becker, OSB, was sent as an assistant to Father Bernard. Among his accomplishments was the construction of St. Teresa’s Hall as a parish center. With the completion of the present school, this building was converted into a used clothing center for the needy of the area.
Father Alfred Meyer, OSB, arrived at Fort Yates in 1938. Following Father Bernard’s death in 1940, he was appointed pastor, a post he held for 20 years, laboring for Christ among the Indians and white people at Fort Yates and the neighboring missions.
Many renovations and replacements took place during Father Alfred’s tenure as pastor. A new convent for the sisters was built in 1957, and in 1961 the old log cabin that had been used for many years as a rectory was replaced. In 1964, the cornerstone for the present school was laid, and on February 8, 1965, classes were held in the new building for the first time. The school was renamed St. Bernard Mission School in honor of Father Bernard Strassmaier.
In 1973, plans were drawn up for a new church. On July 29, 1973, a Mass of Thanksgiving was celebrated for the last time in the old church, which had served the people at Fort Yates for 96 years.
On September 7, 1975, the same bells that rang out in thanksgiving for an era passed announced the dedication of the new Church of St. Peter. The church, resembling a tepee, stands on the site of the old church and was set into the bluffs without destroying the natural terrain.
Farewell
In 1995, the monks of Conception Abbey withdrew from the Catholic Indian Mission. Their 111 years of service culminated with a July 2nd Service of Thanksgiving, conducted by Bishop John F. Kinney of the Bismarck Diocese and Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB, of Conception Abbey.
Today…
The Diocese of Bismarck assumed operation of the Standing Rock parishes on July 1, 1995, with Father Casimir Paluck as pastor. He served until 2001. Father Terry Wipf was pastor from Aug. 2001-Oct. 2003. Father William Cosgrove served as pastor from Oct. 2003-Aug. 2009. Fr. Basil Atwell served as pastor from Aug. 2009-June 2016. Fr. John Paul Gardner served as pastor from July 2016-June 2018. Msgr. Chad Gion has been serving as pastor from July 2018 - present.
History of the Saint Bernard Mission School
The true cornerstone of the Catholic Indian Mission is St. Bernard Mission School. It has always been the belief of those on the reservation that the key to future success is education.
During the late 1800s, government schools operated on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, staffed by Benedictine priests from Indiana and Missouri, and Benedictine sisters from Yankton, S.D. These early government schools taught religion and daily Mass was a part of the students’ school life.
In 1912, a movement of separation of church and state was gaining momentum in Congress. A premier ruling was the “anti-garb order,” forbidding any further addition to the civil service of persons wearing a distinctive garb, i.e. Catholic nuns. Executive Order No. 601 from the Secretary of Interior or Valentine order of 1912 stated that all insignia from any denomination must be removed from all Indian schools. This looked like the end of sisters teaching in all Indian schools, but Father W.H. Ketcham, director of the Catholic Bureau of Indian Missions brought the order to the attention of President Taft, who promptly rescinded it. The sisters stayed on until either death or ill health caused them to leave the school.
In 1923, the last sister from Yankton left the Standing Rock Government Indian School after 40 years of service.
Father Bernard, however, saw the need for continuing Catholic education on Standing Rock for both Indian and non-Indian children in order to further education and spirituality in their lives. His first task was to find a building in which to house the school. The Forester House, which had been used for meetings and social gatherings, was obtained and the first all Catholic school opened in 1924 with 60 students. The school was called Standing Rock Catholic Indian Mission Day School and was later changed to St. Bernard Mission School in honor of Father Bernard.
In 1926 enrollment increased to 70 students. The following year an addition was built to the west side of the building. By 1936 enrollment was up to 100 students – 2/3 Indian and 1/3 white.
By the early 1960s, the old frame building that served the school so well from the beginning was beginning to wear out and needed to be replaced. On February 8, 1965, classes were held in the new building for the first time.
In the early sixties, the Mother of God Monastery of Watertown, S.D., was established from the Yankton community. Because this new monastery was closer to Fort Yates, this mission became the responsibility of the new sisters from Mother of God Convent, Watertown. With the opening of the new school, more classrooms became available creating a mixed blessing in the operation of the institution: with more classrooms, more teachers and more money was needed to operate the school. Brother Mark from Conception Abbey was assigned to Fort Yates and began a very successful campaign for the mission.
During the seventies a unique proposal was submitted to the mission for use of the Mission School. A Bureau of Indian Affairs Educational Administrator needing more classroom space for the crowded community school requested that the mission school become part of the local education community and the BIA would take over the operation of the school. A parish committee was established and after several meetings recommended that St. Bernard Mission School stay independent and the recommendation was accepted.
From the sixties to the mid-seventies various sisters from Watertown came to teach and administer at St. Bernard Mission School. Sisters of other religious communities also came to serve at the mission for various amounts of time. The last Benedictine Sister left after the 1988 school year when the Mother of God Monastery could no longer provide sisters to staff the Mission.
The first School Sister of Notre Dame, from Mankato, Minn., arrived at St. Bernard Mission School in 1981. Sister Julie Brandt, SSND, arrived in Fort Yates in 1995 and served as principal of the school until June, 2006. Two School Sisters of Notre Dame from the St. Louis Province, Sister Dannel Wedemeyer, arrived in 1994, and Sister Nicolette Karcher, arrived in 1997 and ministered there until 2014.
Students attend grades K-8 at St. Bernard Mission School. Graduates of St. Bernard go on to excel in junior and senior high school. While the high school graduation rate on the reservation is 62%, 90% of the students who start at St. Bernard’s go on to finish high school.
The students who have attended and graduated from St. Bernard Mission School have influenced not only the local community by their efforts and leadership but also the State of North Dakota and the entire nation. The Mission School is a valued part of the history of the Standing Rock community.