SISTER MARY EWENS, O.P., RESEARCH COLLECTION
Scope and Content

Notes, manuscripts, facsimile records, and interview recordings regarding several predominantly Native American communities of religious sisters in Alaska (Yupic Eskimo) and North and South Dakota (Dakota-Lakota, Ojibwa) from the 19-20th centuries. The  interview recordings are restricted for 25 years (September 2044)..

Gift of Sister Mary Ewens, O.P., 1996. Processed by Mark G. Thiel, 2019-2020.

Biographical Note

Sister Mary Ewens, O.P. (year-), of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, graduated from Dominican University (formerly, Rosary College), Chicago, and the University of Minnesota, Ph.D., American Studies, 1971. She professed the Dominican Congregation of  the Most Holy Rosary, Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, year, and taught at Dominican University, the Pontifical University of St. Thomas of Aquinas (Rome), 1996-1999; and Marquette University, 2000-2004. She also served as President of Edgewood College, Madison, Wisconsin, 1984-1987; Associate Director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame, 1998-1990; Executive Director of  the  Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters (Los Angeles), 1990-1996; Dean of the Rosary Graduate School of Art (Florence, Italy), year-year; Director of the Jubilee Community Centre (Rome), 2004-2010; and Director of the Sinsinawa Dominican Research Center (Milwaukee), 2011-. In 1998, the Conference on the History of Women Religious honored her with their Distinguished Historian Award to acknowledge her scholarship and founding role in the Conference.

Selected published works include

Books, videos

The Role of the Nun in Nineteenth Century America, 1984

Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters [videorecording], 1995

The Role of  the Nun in Nineteenth Century America: Variations on the International Theme, 2014

Articles

"The Role of  the Nun in Nineteenth-century America," in series, The American Catholic Tradition, Jay Dolan, editor, 1978

"The Leadership of Nuns in Immigrant Catholicism," in Women and Religion in America, Vol. I The Nineteenth Century. A Documentary History, Rosemary Ruether and Rosemary Keller, 1981

"Catholic Sisterhoods in North Dakota," in Day In, Day Out: Women's Lives in North Dakota, Elizabeth Hampton, editor, 1988

"The Native Order: A Brief and Strange History," in Scattered Steeples, The Fargo Diocese: A Written Celebration of Its Centennial, Jerome D. Lamb, editor, 1988

"Lessons from the Quinn Consultation," in The Future of Religious Life, Dolores Steinberg, 1990

"Kateri's Dream and Its Fulfillment," in Native Footsteps Along the Path of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Christopher Vecsey and Mark Thiel, editors, 2012

"Icy Crossings and Dwellings: John Fox, S.J., and the Sisters of Our Lady of the Snows," in Crossings and Dwellings: Restored Jesuits, Women Religious, American Experience, Kyle Roberts and Stephen Schloesser, editors, 2017

Scope and Content

Reformatted records: These and other records are or can be made available in digital formats via email. Reformatting fees may apply. Ask an Archivist for details.

MEOP Series 1 Research Files: Notes, manuscripts, and copies of materials from other collections at Marquette and elsewhere, which pertain to the following religious communities and founders:

American Sisters (Dakota-Lakota) with Josephine Crowfeather (Mother Catherine Sacred White Buffalo) and Rev. Francis M. Craft in North-South Dakota, and Cuba, ca. 1880s-1900.

Little Sisters of  the Dakotas (Dakota, Ojibwa) in North Dakota, dates unknown

Oblate Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (Dakota, Ojibwa) with Rev. Sylvester Eisenman, O.S.B., in South Dakota, 1930s-1970s, undated

Sisters of Our Lady of the Snows (Yupic) in Alaska, ca. 1930-1940s. Includes facsimile copies from the Jesuit Oregon Province records.

Archival sources:

Catholic Church. Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Archives (St. Paul, Minnesota); includes Catholic Historical Society of St. Paul Collection

Catholic Church. Diocese of Fargo (Fargo, North Dakota)

Catholic Church. Diocese of Sioux Falls (Sioux Falls, South Dakota); includes Sister Claudia Duratschek, O.S.B., Collection

Benedictines. Assumption Abbey (Richardson, North Dakota)

Benedictines. St. Meinrad Archabbey (St. Meinrad, Indiana)

Benedictine Sisters. Sacred Heart Monastery (Yankton, South Dakota)

Marquette University. Special Collections & Archives; Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions Records

New-York Historical Society (New York, New York)

Society of the Holy Childhood Jesus (Rosemont, Pennsylvania?)

Soeurs grises de Quebec (Montreal, Quebec)

University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, Indiana)

Ursulines (Great Falls, Montana)

MEOP Series 2 Interview Recordings: Regarding the American Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady  of the Snow, undated (1970s-1980s). Some restrictions apply.

Restrictions: The interview recordings are restricted for 25 years (September 2044). For more information, please consult with archives staff.

MEOP Series 3 Photography:

Separations

Transferred within Raynor Memorial Libraries: Books and videos donated by Sister Mary Ewens were transferred to appropriate book collections within Special Collections and/or Raynor Memorial Libraries. For a list of titles, see the Biographical Note above.

Discarded: The articles collected and/or authored by Sister Mary Ewens have been discarded. For a select list, see the Biographical Note above. These items are readily available elsewhere and have not been retained by the Marquette University Special Collections & Archives. For related retained materials, see the Scope and Content Note above under Series 1 Research Files.

Related Collections

Several Marquette special collections contain additional materials about Native American communities of religious sisters. Most notable are the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions Records, the Holy Rosary Mission - Red Cloud Indian School Records, the St. Paul Mission Collection, and the Eisenman Family Papers. See Search the Collections (non-digitized) and Digitized Collections.

For materials elsewhere (not at Marquette), see Marquette's Guide to Catholic Records about Native Americans in the United States.

Questions: Ask an Archivist.