Ethnohistory 2008 55(3):439-464; DOI:10.1215/00141801-2008-004
Duke University Press
Making Common Cause: Yanktonais and Catholic Missionaries on the Northern Plains
Robert Galler
St. Cloud State University
On 28 January 1886, Crow Creek leaders sent a petition with over one hundred signatures to the Office of Indian Affairs affirming their interest in a Catholic mission school. Within the year, the first buildings were in place for an educational institution that served as a Catholic school for nearly one hundred years and currently exists as a tribal school. The question is how and why did this institution come into existence? This essay argues that late nineteenth-century Lower Yanktonai leaders followed tribal tradition in establishing alliances to promote the best interests of their people. Rather than being mere recipients of a mission placed unilaterally on their land by zealous missionaries, Lower Yanktonais found common cause with Catholic leaders to establish a local mission school to educate their children.

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Copyright 2008 by American Society for Ethnohistory