| Summary: | they sent someone to meet him on his return and as many as ten miles they would run to bear him home and keep him company. In the same way, they bid him Godspeed when he left for a journey. If they met him going to attend the dying and carrying with him the holy Sacrament, they fell on their knees and remained in an attitude of prayer until he passed by. Socially they felt him as much their superior as we do our president. Sunday was kept sacred, shooting was not allowed. Before the hunt special services were held when all would say their beads, the rosary, praying for a successful hunt and a safe return. An elder, Gregoire Monette, told an interpreter about the treatment of the priest and the respect for Sunday. The Visitor was grateful for this knowledge. The Turtle Mountain history has been entwined with early missionaries, holy men as the Chippewa called them. Some of the priests may have just passed through the area, others took up residence but all in some way left a mark upon the people. Some years before 1882 a Benedictine priest, Fr. Claude paid occasional visits to the Turtle Mountains. The Catholic Indians had erected a small log chapel even though there was no resident priest. ♦ ./ Father John Malo In 1879, Father John Malo is said to have come to the Turtle Mountains. He paid numerous visits to the area and lived with the people in their cabins. On June 3, 1882, he took up residence on the American side of the international line. He opened his baptismal register at the present historic site of St. Claude. The first church settlement was named St. Claude. Father Malo lived in a log cabin hooked on to the church and taught school there. Two years later, in 1884, the village was moved southeast a couple of miles, to the present site of St. John. A new church was built and named, St. John. Father Malo was born in Montreal. After his ordination and a year of ministry in Canada, he was called to the Indian Missions in Oregon. In 1875, he assisted in starting the Catholic Indian Bureau and gained government help for the Catholic Indian schools. Sometime later, in 1879, he assisted Abbot Martin Marty among the Sioux Dakotas until other missionaries relieved Father Malo of this task. In St. John, the poor missionary lived in a tipi while the happy Indians finished a log chapel. It was christened St. John the Baptist, after the name of its first residing missionary, Father John Malo. Father Malo traveled to Belcourt and ministered to the Chippewa and the Metis who had settled there. At this time, before 1884, there was a Sister Gertrude who worked with Father Malo but no record can be established as to where she came from or which community of Sisters she belonged to. It is thought that she may have been a Sister of Charity, since there were religious from this order traveling from Canada into the United States along the Red River area, teaching and catechizing. Sisters of Mercy In 1884, the Sisters of Mercy from Yankton, South Dakota (and now located in Omaha, Nebraska), sent two sisters at the request of Father Malo to live and teach in Belcourt. Sister Genevieve Sheridan, a cousin of Civil War General Philip Sheridan, and Sister Mary Angela McCarthy became co-foundresses of a convent in Belcourt. Later Sister Apolonia and Sister Mary Joseph Smee, a postulant from Ireland, taught in the school. Sister Genevieve Sheridan Sister Genevieve Sheridan had an impressive personality and was a very capable individual, quite dedicated to the Turtle Mountain Indians. She was a confidante of Chief Little Shell who at one time asked her to accompany his delegation to Washington, D.C. when the Indians were endeavoring to present their grievances to the United States Government. Sister Mary Angela McCarthy In the summer of 1884, St. Mary's Indian Industrial School was built by the good Christian In- 30 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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