Overview

Catholic Sisters, Narratives of Authority, and the Native American Boarding Schools, 1847-1918 brings to light a largely unknown of history of the Catholic Native American Boarding Schools run by Catholic Sisters. Elisabeth C. Davis examines four schools, from the first one established by Catholic women in the United States in 1847 and ending in1918. Using previously unexplored archival material, Davis examines how Catholic Sisters established authority over their students and the local indigenous communities. In doing so, Davis sheds new light on the role of women during the eras of American expansion, settler imperialism, and the boarding school era.

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9781666952520

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As indicated by its title, this study by Elisabeth C. Davis spotlights the hitherto little-explored history of Catholic Sisters in conducting Native American boarding schools. Rather than attempting a comprehensive survey of the more than seventy boarding schools run by women religious, Davis sensibly focuses on four case-studies from the mid-nineteenth century through the first two decades of the twentieth century: the Sisters of Loretto’s Osage Missions in Kansas; the Sisters of the Holy Child of Jesus work with the Ojibwe nation in Avoca, Minnesota; the Sisters of St. Francis Pawhuska Mission to the Osage in Oklahoma; and the Sisters of St. Joseph school for the Quechan at Fort Yuma, California. A key strength of this work is the author’s voluminous primary research in church and convent archives, federal bureaucratic records, and contemporary newspapers, matched by an impressive command of the published historiography. Not only illuminating a neglected aspect of a timely topic, Davis’s volume invites further scholarly research in the field. -- Joseph Mannard, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Author Information

Elisabeth C. Davis is assistant professor of history at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma.

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