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The Native American Girls' School in Avoca: Reaching Through Time, History, Faith and Culture in Southwestern Minnesota
By LISA KREMER, OFS
I was blessed to grow up in the little village of Avoca in southwestern Minnesota. It was a place where everyone knew everyone, and we all knew something about our past. When I was very young, my aunt, who loved to make up stories for us, would take us for walks along Lime Lake in Avoca on the “Indian Path.” There was a path there to follow, but I don’t know if it was a yarn that my aunt wove to entertain us, or if there was truth in that identity of the path. I suspect the former, but now realize that in the process of the story my aunt was teaching us that it was the land of the Sioux long before our people (mainly the German, Irish and Scandinavians) arrived in Avoca. Before many whites came to the region, the Sioux were driven out to the reservations, making way for a great influx of pioneer settlers. My great-grandparents who came in the late 1880s were among them.
However, the connection to Native Americans didn’t end with the expulsion of the Indigenous people because in the 1880s there was a school for Native American girls established in Avoca by Bishop Ireland, who had a special fondness for the village of Avoca. Bishop Ireland founded and named the town; Avoca is Irish for “the meeting of the waters.” It seems that he had a place in his heart for the Avocas, both in Ireland and in Minnesota.
Bishop Ireland originally established the school for the children of local settlers. He requested that the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, who’s Motherhouse was (and still is) located in Pennsylvania, come to start the school. Prairie life was extreme and difficult, but the sisters who came were determined and served joyfully. Starting a school for the local children proved to be more of a challenge than the Bishop had anticipated. Few children lived in close enough proximity to the school to make it feasible for them to attend and most of what tuition was paid came in eggs, produce and maybe an occasional chicken, making it very difficult for the school to remain financially solvent. Then the Bishop came up with another plan. At the time, the US government was paying $85 a year per child for the education of Native children. Bishop Ireland contracted with the government to have 50 Indian girls at the school, and a well-known priest of the Dakotas, Fr. Francis Craft, began sending young women to study at Avoca. Fr. Craft had a specific motive; it was his desire to begin a Religious Order for Indian women on the reservations of South Dakota, and those potential postulates needed to be educated. Later, young women from the Chippewa tribes joined the Sioux girls.
We know that there were incredible mistreatment of the Native children who were sent to boarding schools during this time period and well into the next century. The popular idea at that time was to completely enculturate and the phrase that is often quoted for this idea was “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” (attributed to Henry Pratt). It was a horrible sin in history that this was inflicted on the children and families of the Native peoples of North America. However, it does seem that Avoca may have been a little different. The Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus believed in teaching with positive reinforcement rather than punishment, which went against the popular educational paradigms of the time. It is reported that they developed loving relationships with their students. We learn this from the meticulous journals written by the Sisters at the school, which are still kept at their motherhouse in Pennsylvania.
In 2018, when local historians began researching the school and gave a presentation locally about St. Rose Academy, the Slayton Catholic Daughters discovered that six native girls died of disease while at the school, and were buried in the Catholic Cemetery in Avoca. There were no grave markers for them, so the Catholic Daughters took up the project of raising money for a memorial stone, and when it was installed at the graves, there was a memorial service that included local people, SHCJ Sisters from Pennsylvania and some Native Americans.
This sparked more interest in the history of the school. Because it was the only Church-run Native American Boarding School within the boundaries of our Diocese, there was concern that there might be a need for healing and reconciliation and more research is being done with the encouragement of the Diocesan Curia. The Diocesan Social Concerns committee also became interested, and decided that the school in Avoca would be a good topic for our Fall Social Concerns Day for 2023.
One thing that promises to make this a very special day is that families of the girls who are buried in Avoca and others who attended the school are being located and will be invited to that day. There is a subcommittee of us who are doing the local planning for the event. We will have a presentation by Janet Timmerman and Anita Gaul who have done extensive research on the school and plan to publish their findings. Sisters from the SHCJ will be visiting and, in addition, we will include Lakota prayer and other traditions, Mass together, and lunch will be traditional Sioux food.
Please plan to join us when we bring our cultures together and pray with our brothers and sisters on Oct. 7 at St. Ann Church in Slayton. Contact Isaac Landsteiner at ilandsteiner@ccsomn.org 507848-8303 for more information or to register for this event. Space is limited, so advanced registration is required.”
Lisa Kremer is the Parish Social Ministry Coordinator of the Worthington Deanery for Catholic Charities of Southern Minnesota.
