In Wisconsin, a Catholic order is reckoning with its role in Native American residential schools. Thousands of Native American children attended the schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. Many suffered through abuse, and were forced to give up cultural practices while they were there.
In recognition of that history, the La Crosse-based Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration recently transferred land to the Lac Du Flambeau tribe in Northern Wisconsin. It’s the first known land transfer of its kind.
The land was home to the Marywood Franciscan Spirituality Center, on Trout Lake in Arbor Vitae. The sisters had owned the land since 1966, but recently decided that it may need more upkeep than what they are able to provide.
“In the last several years we've become very aware that we were no longer going to be the best stewards of the property," says Sister Sue Ernster, the president of the organization. "We didn't have the capacity to continue on as we were with the space, and we knew that we wanted it to go to a like-minded organization.”
At the same time, the sisters were working through a difficult past. They ran St. Mary’s Indian Boarding School located on the Bad River Reservation.
The sisters operated the school for 86 years, from 1883 until 1969. The school has since been destroyed and is now St. Mary's parish on the reservation.
The school was filled with children from many of Wisconsin’s tribal nations, including Lac Du Flambeau. The sisters had conversations with tribal members to unpack the history.
“You know, we were doing what we thought was best at the time, and when we really started to grapple with that and listen to the pain that we were part of, it's very humbling," says Ernster. "It offered us the opportunity — and me specifically — to ask the question, 'How do we really grow into who we say we are?'”
The sisters collaborated with Land Justice Futures, a group that works with religious landowners to use their land for repair and healing.
Part of that answer for the Franciscan sisters was to give back land that they no longer needed, and sell the Trout Lake land back to the Lac Du Flambeau tribe for $30,000. That was the original price the sisters paid for the land in 1966.
Araia Breedlove is the public relations director for the LDF tribe, whose reservation is near Trout Lake.
“Trout Lake was a very significant spot for us in terms of spearing and ceremonies, and our ancestors are buried around that lake," says Breedlove. "And there's multi-million-dollar condominiums and homes and stuff like that [on the Lake]. To finally get a spot back where we belong is monumental.”
Breedlove says the way the sisters took the initiative to confront and try to repair the wounds they’ve created offers an example of how to build a better future.
“It really shows a path forward for us," says Breedlove. "You hear a lot about land acknowledgement, land acknowledgement, but putting the actions into your words is how you know that they were truly, really mean to do the reparations in terms of the boarding school era.”
The tribe is still deciding how it will use the Marywood property, but Breedlove says the two most likely options are to create housing for the tribe's workforce or a community cultural center to further cultural knowledge and connection.
Brittany Koteles with Land Justice Futures says this event has created a model for future land transfers aimed at repairing past wrongs.
“We are already hearing back from other communities in our network saying, 'This is awesome. We're studying this. Who's next?'” says Koteles.
The land transfer has created a new relationship between the tribe and the Franciscan sisters. Both Ernster and Breedlove hope to see future collaborations between tribal nations and Catholic orders.
