indians

The Miracle of St. Michael's

A Mission School Thrives on the Navajo Reservation, Thanks to a Rich Young Woman of Philadelphia's High Society A SMALL STATUE OF A WOMAN IN A BLACK ROBE stands at St. Michael's Mission near Window Rock, capital of the Navajo Nation. The statue stands in tribute to a woman, born into Philadelphia high society, who used her fortune to found what has become the oldest still-operating school on the sprawling Navajo reservation. The sand-swept land of the Navajos couldn't have been further from the mind of Katharine Mary Drexel in early 1885, as the 26-year-old Philadelphia socialite sat with her sisters, Elizabeth and Louise, in their posh Walnut Street home. Their father, banker Francis A. Drexel, had just died and his will had generated headlines across the country. He'd left his daughters $14 million and mandated the sisters would control the money even if they were to marry. But marriage and money meant little to them at the time. Their stepmother, Emma, had died only two years before, and the women were intent on keeping their dwindling family as tightly knit as ever. Suddenly a butler appeared. “Two gentlemen, priests, downstairs to see the Misses Drexel.” The sisters looked at each other in confusion at the unexpected announcement. “Katharine, you go down,” Louise finally said. Downstairs awaited the two men whose request would set Katharine's future on a path far from her world of luxury. Bishop Martin Marty, vicar apostolic of northern Minnesota, and the Rev. Joseph Stephan, director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, described their plight to Katharine. Out West, an impoverished and mistreated Indian population suffered, they said. Not only was the Indians' earthly existence in jeopardy, but they had no knowledge of Christianity. The priests knew what needed to be done: Build schools and center missionary efforts on the education of Indian youths. But to do so required money. That's what led them to the Drexel parlor. The wealthy Drexel family was renowned for its charity among Philadelphia's poor. Devout Catholics, the Drexels believed their fortune had been entrusted to them by God for distribution among the needy. Still, the hard lives of the Indians were remote to the classically educated heiress. Katharine had traveled America and Europe, made a formal society debut, met the pope and attended the lavish soirees her parents held. Suitors from European nobility to Philadelphia gentility came calling on Katharine, who was clever and pretty and loved dancing and music. “[Katharine] is in appearance perhaps the most attractive of the three sisters, although not quite so tall as the other two,” opined a newspaper in 1889, when Katharine was a bridesmaid at Louise's wedding. “She has a good complexion, a sweet expression and is noted for her smile. Her eyes are blue or blue-gray, and one of her greatest charms is a wealth of uncommonly beautiful brown hair, much more than ordinary. It is said to reach far below her waist.” She was expected to assume the role of a magnanimous society wife, but Katharine knew she wanted to serve God in a more profound way. The plight of American Indians struck a chord in her. Katharine and her sisters agreed to help (OPPOSITE PAGE TOP) Mother Katharine, who will be canonized October 1, used her Drexel family fortune to build St. Michael's Mission and St. Michael Indian School on 200 acres near Window Rock on the Navajo Indian Reservation. (OPPOSITE PAGE BELOW) A wooden statue of of Mother Katharine depicts her devotion to the well-being of the Navajo Nation's young people. (TOP LEFT) Built of local stone and wood in 1935, St. Michael's still celebrates Mass daily. (TOP RIGHT) Originally a trading post, this 1898 dwelling housed the mission's Franciscan friars until 1910 when they moved into larger quarters. Now a museum, this small stone building presents exhibits on the friars' work and Navajo life. (ABOVE) Taking time out from their basketball game, St. Michael Indian School students, students, left to right, Kimberly Kiml Arviso, Coshele Clitso and Byron Mego, strike a pose.

the priests and provide funds for mission building in the West. At first, Katharine sought religious men to run her missions. But few were willing or able to do the job. During a private audience in 1887, she begged Pope Leo XIII to send out more missionaries. But the pope responded, “Why, my child, don't you, yourself, become a missionary?” “Your Holiness,” Katharine stammered, “I didn't ask for sisters. I asked for priests.” Confused, she left the interview in tears. Yet the pope's suggestion reverberated in Katharine's soul. Even as a teenager, she'd thought about becoming a nun. A prolific writer who penned 3,000 letters during her life, Katharine made a list of reasons for and against the idea: “Jesus Christ has given his life for me. It is but just that I should give him mine,” she wrote. On the other hand, she scribbled, “I hate community life. I should think it maddening to come in constant contact with many different old maidish dispositions.” Finally Katharine left her lavish life behind. “Miss Drexel Enters a Catholic Convent. Gives Up Seven Million!” screamed a May 1889 headline in the Philadelphia Public Ledger.

Bishop James O'Connor of Omaha counseled Katharine to establish a new order and in 1891, she professed her vows as the first nun of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, taking the name Mary Katharine. She established her motherhouse in a Philadelphia suburb, Cornwells Heights, now called Bensalem.

In 1896 Katharine bought 200 acres of spring-fed valley the Navajos called Tsehohotso, about 2 miles west of Window Rock. Two years later, Franciscan priests Juvenal Schnorbus, Anselm Weber and Placidus Buerger set up residence on the land in a one-story stone building that was originally built as a trading post.

Now a museum, the tiny building served as a residence and chapel for the three men. Clutter was no problem; thanks to the Franciscans' strict vows of poverty, they had few possessions. One of their bedrooms testifies to the priests' spartan lifestyle. Clerical robes hang from the back of a door, and a cot is made up with gray wool blankets. In another room, a chapel reconstructed from a turn-of-the-century photo holds rough wooden benches facing a plain altar. Three other rooms are filled with displays and photos of Mother Katharine, the priests and the people they served, as well as posters, cards and books for sale.

The religious men were eager to evangelize but soon realized there was no point preaching the word of God if no one understood what they were saying. With the help of the Navajos and two teenage Anglo boys, Charley and Sammy Day, who had grown up speaking the language, they created a Navajo dictionary. The Navajos got used to hearing their native words spoken by the brown-cloaked men and grew to trust the Franciscans, whom they called éénishoodi, which means “those who drag their gowns.” Katharine headed West in 1900 to oversee the building of the St. Michael Indian School. Sisters arrived to staff the school, and the Franciscans traveled hundreds of miles crisscrossing the reservation to recruit students. By opening day on December 3, about 50 had shown up.

After escorting their children to the school, many of the parents refused to leave. They slept outside in blankets at night and during the day followed their children around, ensuring they were being treated properly.

For months, the perplexed children silently watched the nuns, swaddled tip to toe in black and white, only the ovals of their faces showing, even in the high-desert summer. The buildings in which the students lived and learned seemed strange, imposing multistory structures. Children who had come from one-room hogans now slept in long rooms filled with beds.

Soon, though, the teachers and students began to communicate. The nuns encouraged their charges to speak English and taught them the three Rs and skills like sewing, social graces, leadership. Enrollment doubled the following year. Eventually the school reached its capacity of 150 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Now, instead of convincing parents to send their children to St. Michael, the school had to turn away students.

“We realize the good that is being done by this school and would like to see this influence spread,” wrote Chee Dodge, Henry Taliman and several other tribal leaders in a 1925 letter to Mother Katharine. “We humbly request you again and again to enlarge the school at St. Michael and hope that you will grant our petition.” A gymnasium and several other buildings were eventually added, and a high school opened in 1948.

Mother Katharine continued to establish schools for American Indians and African-Americans around the country. As with St. Michael, she oversaw construction of the schools and missions and helped develop

St. Michael's

programs and curricula. But her pace slowed in 1935 when she suffered a heart attack at age 77.

Giving up leadership of her order, she retired to a contemplative life in Philadelphia, spending the next 20 years in prayer and meditation. She contracted pneumonia and died on March 3, 1955, at age 96, in the motherhouse of the order she had founded.

Today, with the help of her carefully invested fortune, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament still run St. Michael Indian School, serving 400 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, who come from nearby communities. The original massive stone school and residential buildings are still used along with the newer buildings, surrounded by sprawling grounds peppered with religious statues.

Each year, 90 percent of St. Michael graduates enter college, compared with just 9 percent of American Indians nationwide, and in 1996 the school was awarded the University of Arizona President's Cup, given annually to the high school with three to nine students enrolled in the university's freshman class with the highest combined grade point average. Extended families often scrape together tuition money to send youngsters to St. Michael, where students celebrate their culture through traditional ceremonies and other events.

The Franciscans continue to minister to the community at their mission. In 1910 the missionaries moved out of the little trading post into a larger residence. A few decades later, that residence was replaced by another, and a church was added in 1935. Built of local stone and wood, the church boasts 53 beige stone arches supporting an exposed-wood roof and stained-glass windows with symbols from the Old and New Testaments. Mass is said daily and on weekends in the parish church, which seats about 150.

In spring and summer, the church's front lawn explodes with flowers and vegetables, the pet project of Brother John Friebel. A half-acre of petunias, zinnias, marigolds, dahlias, cosmos, roses and other blossoms toss their brilliant heads among edibles like carrots, onions, corn and squash, and thanks to the brothers' fast-flowing artesian well, it's all surrounded by an emerald-green grass pathway.

"I have to admit it's kind of neat," Friebel said modestly, adding that visitors from as far away as Gallup, New Mexico, drop by to admire the garden. Friebel usually shares his vegetable harvest with locals and puts up the rest for the brothers and sisters to enjoy during the winter. In 1998 the Franciscans celebrated a century of work in Navajoland and were recognized in a Navajo Nation proclamation for their "presence, evangelization among the Navajo people and their ethnological and anthropological contribution to the Navajo Nation."

Mother Katharine, beatified in 1988 at a Vatican ceremony that included Indian ceremonial dancers, is on her way to becoming a saint and is expected to be canonized October 1. St. Michael Indian School faces increasing funding and maintenance problems and there are fewer young people interested in religious life, but the men and women who work there have faith that Katharine Drexel's vision, sparked by that unexpected visit from two priests more than a century ago, will endure.

WHEN YOU GO

Location: 295 miles northeast of Phoenix.

Getting There: To St. Michael Indian School, take Interstate 40 to Indian Route 12, Lupton Road (Exit 357). Drive north on Lupton Road 22 miles; turn left at the sign for St. Michael Indian School. To get to the Franciscan mission, continue up Lupton Road to State Route 264. Head west about a mile on 264 and turn left onto Mission Road. The buildings are located at 24 Mission Road.

Fees: Donations accepted.

Attractions: St. Michael's Historical Museum in the Franciscan friars' original 1898 dwelling presents exhibits on the Franciscans' work and Navajo life; a 1935 stone church; and a prayer chapel, which contains a 16-foot-high sculpture titled Redemption of Humanity, depicting Christ being lowered from the cross.

Hours, Dates: St. Michael's Mission and museum, Monday through Saturday, 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.; most Sundays, 10 A.M. to 5 P.M., Memorial Day through Labor Day. Call for other times. Church, open daylight hours. Chapel, open 24 hours. St. Michael Indian School, daily, 8 A.M. to 4 P.M.; tours by arrangement.

Travel Advisory: The Navajo Nation observes daylight-saving time.

Additional Information: St. Michael's Mission and museum, (520) 871-4171. St. Michael Indian School, (520) 871-4636 (school), (520) 871-4432 (convent).