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From 1819 until the 1960s, federal policies aimed to assimilate Indigenous peoples into white American culture. Laws and policies regarding boarding schools were one of the central means toward this goal of assimilation. The federal government compelled attendance, and students were prohibited from speaking their Native languages or practicing their Indigenous cultures. This history fuels ongoing cycles of trauma in many Tribal communities.

Many of the boarding schools were run by Catholic religious orders, including the Jesuits. The experiences of individual alumni are diverse; some have expressed gratitude for their education, but many have asserted that the schools were a place where they were robbed of their Native identity. In general, prior to the 1960s, it is clear that the boarding schools and their curricula were part of a larger goal to eradicate Indigenous cultures in favor of white American culture.

The Jesuits have sorrowfully acknowledged the Society’s participation in these assimilation policies which separated families and suppressed Native cultures, contrary to core tenets of our Catholic faith. We are examining this part of our history and making available the records we hold so others may do so as well. Openness, transparency and knowledge of our history are essential elements for reckoning with the sins of our past and moving forward together toward healing.

Today the Jesuits sponsor one school for Native students in the U.S. that historically served as a boarding school: Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. In the 1960s, Red Cloud began shifting away from the assimilationist approach and toward “a lasting bond between groups of two separate cultures who wanted to enhance the best parts of both worlds.” The school has not had boarders since 1980. For many years now the school has strongly promoted the Lakota language and culture. Red Cloud has begun a local Truth & Healing process to address the injustices in its history. While it is challenging to face dark passages in our own past, we are grateful that this important issue is gaining more attention.

The history of each of the missions listed below is unique and complex. Many of these missions included both boys’ and girls’ schools. Many of the schools were administered in partnership with, or entirely by, women’s religious congregations. In many cases the schools ran intermittently, depending on such factors as government funding, level of support from local Indigenous peoples and direction from the Jesuit leadership. The dates below represent the time during which the Jesuits were present and there was at least one school in operation at the mission in question.

  • Regis Indian Seminary
    • Location: Florissant, Missouri
    • School dates: 1824 – 1831
    • Tribes: Iowa, Sac & Fox, Osage
  • Catholic Osage Mission
    • Location: Osage Agency, Neosho County, Kansas
    • School dates: 1847 – 1870
    • Tribes: Osage primarily, but also a substantial number of Quapaw students. In lower numbers, Miami, Wea, Piankasha, Peoria
  • Mary’s Mission
    • Location: St Mary’s, Kansas
    • School dates: 1848 – 1869
    • Tribes: Potawatomi, Miami, some Osage and Peoria
  • Ignatius Mission
    • Location: Flathead Reservation, St. Ignatius, Montana
    • School dates: 1864 – 1972, transitioned to day school in 1963
    • Tribes: Flathead, Salish, Upper Pend d’Oreilles, Kootenai, Cree, Snake, Piegan, Blackfoot, Coeur d’Alene, Colville, Gros Ventre, Cheyenne, Nez Perce, Kalispel, Spokane, Umatilla, Iroquois, Ojibwe
  • Francis Regis Mission
    • Location: Colville Reservation, Ward, Washington
    • School dates: 1873 – 1921
    • Tribes: Colville, Lakes, Chehalis, Okanogan, Kalispel, Upper and Lower Spokane, Sanpoil
  • Sacred Heart Mission
    • Location: Coeur d’Alene Reservation, De Smet, Idaho
    • School dates: 1878 – 1974
    • Tribes: Coeur d’Alene, Nez Perce, Kalispel, Umatilla, Spokane, Yakama, Cree, Colville, Blackfoot, Flathead, Chewelah, Okanagan, Ojibwe, Kamloop
  • Joseph’s Mission, Yakima
    • Location: North Yakama Agency, Washington
    • School dates: 1883-1896
    • Tribes: Yakama
  • Peter’s Mission
    • Location: Blackfeet Reservation, Fort Shaw, Montana
    • School dates: 1884 – 1918
    • Tribes: Blackfeet, Piegan, Gros Ventres, Assiniboine, Cree, Choteaux, Ojibwe, Iroquois, Flathead, Snake, Cheyenne
  • Joseph Labre Mission
    • Location: Ashland, Montana
    • School Dates: 1884-1898.
    • Tribes: Cheyenne, Crow
    • Religious Associates: Ursuline Sisters, Diocese of Helena, Capuchins, Franciscan Sisters
  • Francis Mission
    • Location: Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota
    • School dates: 1886 – 1975
    • Tribes: Sicangu Lakota
  • Francis Xavier Mission
    • Location: Crow Reservation, St. Xavier, Montana
    • School dates: 1887 – 1921; 1935 – 1965
    • Tribes: Crow, Cree
  • Paul’s Mission
    • Location: Hays, Montana
    • School dates: 1887 – 2015; transitioned to day school in 1935
    • Tribes: Assiniboine and Gros Ventres for the most part, but some Cree, Sioux (undesignated), Fort Peck, Rocky Boy, Crow, Ojibwe
  • Holy Cross Mission
    • Location: Holy Cross, Alaska
    • School dates: 1888 – 1956
  • Red Cloud Indian School [Formerly Holy Rosary Mission]
    • Location: Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota
    • School dates: 1888 – present; transitioned to day school by 1980
    • Tribes: Oglala Lakota
  • Stephen’s Mission
    • Location: Wind River Reservation, Wyoming
    • School dates: 1888 – 1975; transitioned to day school in 1959
    • Tribes: Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho
  • Holy Family Mission
    • Location: Blackfeet Reservation, Browning/Two Medicine Creek, Montana
    • School dates: 1890 – 1940
    • Tribes: Blackfeet, Cree, Piegan, some Ojibwe
  • Andrew’s Mission
    • Location: Umatilla Reservation, Oregon
    • School dates: 1890 – 1961; transitioned to day school in 1937
    • Tribes: Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla
  • Charles Borromeo Mission
    • Location: Crow Reservation, Pryor, Montana
    • School dates: 1892 – 1898; day school from 1925 to 1965
    • Tribes: Crow
  • Mary’s Mission
    • Location: Colville Reservation, Omak, Washington
    • School dates: 1892 – 1973
    • Tribes:  Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation: Chelan, Entiat, Methow, Nespelim, Nez Perce, Okanogan, Paloos, Sanpoil, Senijextee, Wenatchi, Flathead, Noakask, some Yakima, Lakota and Ojibwe students as well. Some students are only listed as coming from Alaska and Oklahoma without any further specification.
  • Joseph’s Mission
    • Location: Slickpoo, Idaho
    • School dates: 1903 – 1958
    • Tribes: Nez Perce, Lapwai
  • Mary’s Mission
    • Location: Akulurak and St. Mary’s, Alaska
    • School dates: 1905 – 1987; in 1951 the school moved from Akulurak to St. Mary’s
  • Our Lady of Lourdes Mission
    • Location: Pilgrim Hot Springs, near Nome, Alaska
    • School Dates: 1923-1941
  • Dillingham Mission
    • Location: Dillingham, Alaska
    • School dates: 1952 – 1966
  • Copper Valley School
    • Location: Glenallen, Alaska
    • School dates: 1956 – 1971

Principal print sources:

  • William N. Bischoff, The Jesuits in Old Oregon, 1840-1940 (Caldwell, Id: The Caxton Printers, 1945).
  • Gilbert J. Garraghan, The Jesuits of the Middle United States (New York: America Press, 1938).
  • Francis Paul Prucha, The Churches and the Indian Schools, 1888-1912 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979).
  • Louis L. Renner, Alaskana Catholica: A History of the Catholic Church in Alaska: A Reference Work in the Format of an Encyclopedia (Portland, Or.: Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, 2005).
  • Wilfred P. Schoenberg, Paths to the Northwest: A Jesuit History of the Oregon Province, Campion Book (Chicago, Ill: Loyola University Press, 1982).

Principal online sources:

The Annual Reports to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, made public by the University of Wisconsin-Madison: https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/History/History-idx?type=browse&scope=HISTORY.COMMREP.