St. Joseph's Indian School

St. Joseph's Indian School
Location
Chamberlain, United States, South Dakota
Information
Religious affiliation(s) Catholic
Established 1927
Founder Henry Hogebach

St. Joseph's Indian School is an American Indian residential school, located in Chamberlain, South Dakota, United States. It was founded in 1927 by Henry Hogebach, a Roman Catholic priest from Germany. The school is owned and operated by the Priests of the Sacred Heart.

History

The school was founded as a Catholic mission school in 1927 by German Roman Catholics. It is owned and operated by the Priests of the Sacred Heart, non-Native Americans. As a residential school, it provided dormitories for a range of Native American children, primarily from the Lakota and Sioux reservations on the Great Plains. The school was originally directed to assimilate Native American children to the majority United States culture, influenced by European traditions. They were encouraged and forced to speak English and to practice Catholicism.[1]

In the 21st century, approximately 200 Native American children attend the residential school. Today students live in family-style group homes with other students.[2][3]

Abuse

Eight former students of St. Joseph's Indian School on the Lower Brule Sioux Reservation filed a lawsuit with the South Dakota Supreme Court in 2010. The South Dakota Supreme Court also heard childhood-sexual-abuse lawsuits brought by 18 former students of St. Paul’s Indian Mission, on the Yankton Sioux Reservation, in Marty, South Dakota. St. Paul’s was one of a half-dozen Catholic boarding schools statewide for Native children, and the alleged crimes, including rape, sodomy, and molestation, occurred there before 1975, when the institution was transferred to the tribe and renamed Marty Indian School.

In March 2011, Circuit Court Judge Bradley Zell dismissed the cases, kicking off the appeal. In throwing out the suits, Zell decided a 2010 amendment to South Dakota childhood-sexual-abuse law — HB 1104 — should be applied to lawsuits that were filed before its existence, as these were.

Under HB 1104, plaintiffs over age 40 may collect damages only from individual perpetrators of childhood sexual abuse; they may not collect damages from entities such as the Catholic Church or the religious orders that hired and/or supervised the alleged perpetrators. (Younger plaintiffs may continue to sue and obtain damages from both organizations and individuals.)

Since the Native plaintiffs in these cases — and additional ones against other Church boarding schools — are over 40, and many of the individual perpetrators are dead, some say the legislature’s action and Zell’s decision targeted them. “In conversations I’ve had, people feel the 2010 amendment was designed both to make things difficult for Native plaintiffs and to help the Church,” said Robert Brancato, a certified fraud examiner who heads the Rapid City chapter of the national support group, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

Brancato also criticized the judge’s decision to project the law backward in time, calling it a violation of due process: “I’m looking at the bill right now, and I don’t see anything about it being retroactive.”

Zell disagreed, saying the situation was “convoluted” and that his decision was based on a 1997 South Dakota Supreme Court ruling that made retroactive a 1991 expansion of opportunities to bring sexual-abuse claims in the state. Following that logic, Zell said, the latest change to the law would be retroactive, too.

On the other hand, said plaintiff’s attorney Rebecca Rhoades, of Manly & Stewart, in Newport Beach California, South Dakota’s legal code says that no law “shall be construed as retroactive unless such intention plainly appears.”

“It’s a quandary,” said Zell. “The Supreme Court will decide, and if they send the cases back, hopefully they’ll provide guidance.” He didn’t expect a decision for at least six months.

On December 14th, 2011 the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled former students of the St. Joseph's Indian School on the Lower Brule Sioux Reservation can pursue a lawsuit over alleged abuse, on 12/14/2001.

Eight former students filed the lawsuit in June 2010. A copy was first served to the executive director of child services at the school, who was not a registered agent of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart. The lawsuit was later served within 60 days to the president of the PSHI, which operates the school. But in the meantime, the South Dakota Legislature passed a law that places a time limit on the filing of abuse lawsuits. The South Dakota Supreme Court, however, ruled that the service on the president of the PSHI was "related" to the first service. That means the plaintiffs won't be affected by the new law, which Indian advocates have described as unfair. "Therefore, we hold that the Plaintiffs timely served PSHI in accordance with South Dakota law and the circuit court did not err in denying PSHI’s motion to dismiss," the decision stated.

As of October 2018 the results of the lawsuit have not been public. It is widely assumed that a settlement was reached and the Catholic Church paid the victims of child sexual abuse and bound them with non-disclosure agreements as the Church has done in many other cases.

Fundraising

In the 2010s, St. Joseph's School has been investigated for several issues related to its fundraising practices. In 2013 the school failed to meet the give.org standards for charity accountability.[4][5]

In 2014 it was the subject of investigative reports by CNN and Indian Country Today.[2][3][6] The school sent out mass mailings featuring offers of made-in-China dreamcatchers and fictional, emotional letters from nonexistent students. These tactics have been called, "the worst of poverty porn."[2][3] Cooper went on to report, "A school run by non-Indians is raising a fortune off of racial stereotypes."[3]

In 2014 the school's attorney told Indian Country Today that they would "never, ever" send any more of the fictional letters.[6] But as of 2015, the school continues its aggressive direct mail campaign, sending tens of millions of pieces of junk mail a year.[6]

The school has been criticized by the Better Business Bureau for sending out a letter claiming they had insufficient funds to heat the school.[6] At the time of this claim, the school had millions of dollars free to spend.[6][4]

See also

Further reading

  • St Joseph's Indian School (1 December 2000). Voices of Indian Children: The Children of St. Joseph's Indian School. AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-58500-924-4.
  • David Nagel; St. Joseph's Indian School (Chamberlain, S.D.) (2002). Saint Joseph's Indian School Seventy-fifth Anniversary. Tipi Press Printing.
  • Diane M. Philen (1984). St. Joseph's Indian School. Register-Lakota Printing.

References

  1. ↑ Cynthia L. Landrum (1995). The History of St. Joseph's Indian School: A Study in Assimilation. University of South Dakota.
  2. 1 2 3 Fitzpatrick, David (2014-11-17). "U.S. Indian school's fundraising letters sent to millions signed by fictitious kids". CNN Investigations. Retrieved 2015-03-30. "They are raising money in the name of Indians, using the worst of poverty porn of all Indian country to raise money on all our social ills" - Michael Roberts, president of the First Nations Development Institute
  3. 1 2 3 4 Cooper, Anderson (Anchor), with David Fitzpatrick and Drew Griffin (Reporters) (2014). 'Poverty porn' helps school get millions (Television news report). US: CNN Investigations. 3:48 in interview with Crow Creek Lakota Sioux vice chairman, Leonard Pease.
  4. 1 2 Cooper, Anderson (Anchor), with David Fitzpatrick and Drew Griffin (Reporters) (2014). 'Poverty porn' helps school get millions (Television news report). US: CNN Investigations.
  5. ↑ "Charity Review: St. Joseph's Indian School and Missions. Standards Not Met". give.org. 2013-08-01. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Fitzpatrick, David (2014-11-24). "St. Joseph's Indian School Has Learned a Lesson About Fundraising". Indian Country Today Media Network. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
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