ST. MARY'S MISSION RECORDS Historical Note/Scope and Content Note
Baptismal records of St. Mary's Mission for Potawatomi Indians, St. Mary's, Kansas.
Microfilmed in 1986 by Marquette University from records borrowed from Immaculate Conception Church, St. Mary's, Kansas.
Historical Note
From the late 1830s-1841, the Mission Band Potawatomi moved from Michigan and Indiana to a reservation in Kansas. Together with the Council Bluffs Band, they moved in 1847 to a new reservation in eastern Kansas on the Kaw River. After changing their name from Mission Band to Citizen Band, they moved again in1867 to a reservation in Oklahoma.
The Council Bluffs Band remained in Kansas on the Potawatomi Reservation and became known as the Prairie Band. Previously they resided in Illinois and Wisconsin and had settled temporarily in Iowa. Some Prairie Band members later returned to Wisconsin.
In Kansas, the Jesuit (Missouri Province, St. Louis) missions to the Potawatomi began in 1839. They opened a school for boys in 1840 and the following year, the Sisters of the Society of the Sacred Heart (St. Louis) opened a school for girls. Both schools closed in 1848 and were followed by St. Mary's Mission and school, which opened later that year at St. Mary's, Kansas with staff from these religious orders.
By the 1870s and to ca. 1900, St. Mary's no longer served significant numbers of Potawatomi except through its station at Silver Lake.
Scope and Content
Baptismal records of St. Mary's Mission for Potawatomi Indians, St. Mary's, Kansas.
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Native America Collections: Checklist to Marquette special collections about native peoples of the Western Hemisphere.
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Black and Indian Mission Office: Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions
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U.S. Catholic Conference of Catholic Bishops: Cultural Diversity in the Church
