St. Mary's Mission, Red Lake Indian Reservation (Red Lake Nation). Sisters and students pose on the porch of the convent/school. In 1889, with a donation received from the Drexel sisters, a convent/boarding school was built. Upstairs were sleeping quarters for the sisters and girls; downstairs contained the kitchen, recreation room, and refectory for serving meals. At the time there were five sisters, 35 boarding students of ages six to eighteen, and 25 day students. It proved to be so successful that it had to be enlarged within two years. A house was purchased to be the dormitory for boys and the temporary church (built in 1891) served as the dormitory for boys after a new church was completed in 1893. [SBMA; Lindblad, pp. 41-43]
St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). About 85 boarding students and six sisters posed in the inner court of St. St. Benedict's Mission School in the early 1890s. Record keeping for this large a group of children was not simple. While the churches constructed and operated the schools on the reservations, government policy allowed the schools an annual appropriation of a flat rate for tuition, board and clothing annually; the amount varied from $100 to $150 per pupil. This policy required careful quarterly reports to be sent to Washington. All expenditures had to be accounted for - the number of pounds of meat, sacks of flour, bushels of beans and potatoes, barrels of sugar, pounds of rice, and gallons of syrup and soap These accounts show the frugality of the mission school's fare. For example, the 1886 end-of-year record shows $2.00 for candy and $2.50 for a pair of geese. [SBMA, McDonald, pp. 240-241]
St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). Sister Lioba Braun, at the organ, leads the sisters at St. Benedict's Mission in song. Sister Lioba, one of the first sisters to help establish St. Benedict's Mission at White Earth, brought her gift of music and singing and soon had a choir that was able to sing at the religious services. The sister to the immediate right of Sister Lioba is identified as Sister Meinrad Burrell and the sister to Sister Meinrad's right as Sister Basilia Cosgrove. [SBMA]
Sister Laura Hesch befriended a 100-year-old Ojibwe woman who lived alone on the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe). It was through such relationships that she won the hearts of the Ojibwe.
Sister Laura made inroads into life of reservation by making friends with the Ojibwe children who loved the treats she brought when she visited Mille Lacs Indian Reservation (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe).
Until Sister Laura Hesch was given a larger mission center for her activities Mille Lacs Indian Reservation (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe), she met with Ojibwe children wherever she found them.
Sister Laura Hesch had a way with children at the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe). She often treated them with a lunch when she taught them.
Before Sister Laura Hesch could establish a mission center on Mille Lacs Indian Reservation (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe), she taught Ojibwe children at their homes. Her motherly affection for children soon won their hearts.