Prologue: Katharine Drexel

The Drexels of Philadelphia were a family of power, privilege and wealth. Francis Drexel, along with his two brothers, shared ownership of an international banking empire that included a partnership with J.P. Morgan and other well-established financiers.

Francis and his wife Hannah became proud parents of their second daughter, Katharine, on November 26, 1858, but tragically, complications set in, and Hannah died four weeks later.

Two years later, Francis married Emma Bouvier, a member of another prestigious Philadelphia family, and soon there was a third daughter--Louise. Emma accepted both Elizabeth and Katharine as her own, and was seen to be a loving, wise mother, devoted to her husband, her children, her faith, and her favorite charities.

In 1880 Emma became quite ill, and for three years required almost constant attention before dying on January 29, 1883. Nursing Emma during her long illness only sharpened Katharine's already clear perspective on life. None of the vast Drexel fortune, she realized, could relieve Emma's pain or prevent her death. And then, scarcely two years later, while reading a book one Sunday afternoon in February 1885, Francis slumped forward and died.

Each of the three daughters, Elizabeth, Katharine and Louise, received large inheritances, and it didn't take long for hopeful petitioners to start knocking on their doors. In April 1885, less than two months after her father's death, Katharine was visited by the Benedictine Bishop Martin Marty and Fr. Joseph Stephan, director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, who requested that she provide financial help for their several Indian-related projects.

In January 1887, the three sisters traveled to Rome and were granted two private audiences with Pope Leo XIII. Katharine begged the Holy Father to send more missionaries to the Indians of western America. To which the Pope replied, "Why, my child, don't you yourself become a missionary?" By September the Drexel sisters were visiting Indian missions in the Dakotas. After meeting with the famous Sioux chief, Red Cloud, Katharine became convinced that the best way she could serve the Indian people was to establish a religious order with that purpose as its primary function. But by church tradition, before she could start a religious order, she would first have to go through the process of becoming a nun herself. Accordingly, on May 7, 1889 Katharine entered the postulant-training program under the direction of the Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh. Six months later, on November 7, she became a novice in the Sisters of Mercy, For the next year and a half she underwent the rigorous training and discipline routines of preparing for a life as a nun. During this time, in addition to her studies, she purchased 60 acres of land in Cornwells Heights (now Bensalem, Pennsylvania) and supervised the construction of a complex of buildings that would serve as the "Motherhouse" for her new order.

It was within this rather hectic period, too, that on September 28, 1890, her beloved sister, Elizabeth (Drexel) Smith, died in childbirth.

So, it must have been a glorious day; on February 12,1891, when Katharine professed her vows, and became the first Sister of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People. Within a month of her profession, she accepted ten novices and three postulants to pioneer her novitiate. By the end of 1891, the community numbered 21 members.

The following years were both busy and exciting, as Mother Katharine, with the help of her sister, Louise (Drexel) Morell, recruited new postulants for her order, purchased land in Virginia, Louisiana and Tennessee for the purpose of constructing schools for Black children, and opened St. Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

On October 16, 1895, Monsignor Joseph Stephan, still the Director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions in Washington, D.C., acting as an agent of Mother Katharine, purchased the original homesteads of John Wyant and Joe Wilkin, at a place called La Cienega Amarilla (Ts' ohootso) a few miles west of the Arizona-New Mexico territorial line, and less than a mile south of the Navajo Reservation boundary (at that time). Msgr. Stephan then spent almost two years trying to find an order of priests willing to serve in such an isolated location. Finally, on September 3, 1897, the Franciscan Province of St. John Baptist (headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio) agreed to provide priests for the Navajo Reservation. But even then, it was over a year before the first contingents of Franciscans were assigned to the mission.

On October 7, 1898, Fr. Juvenal Schnorbus, OFM, Fr. Anselm Weber, OFM, and Bro. Placidus Buerger, OFM, arrived at La Cienega and took up residence in a stone building that had originally been constructed for use as a trading post.

The way was now open for Mother Katharine to initiate plans for a school that would primarily serve Navajo children. Arrangements were made for Mother Katharine's first visit to La Cienega and a chance to meet with Navajo elders. Fr. Anselm was successful in contacting several respected Navajo elders, including Tall Silversmith who was bluntly opposed to any form of Anglo-American education. As arranged, the Navajos, including Chee Dodge, Charley Mitchell, Braided Hair and Tall Silversmith, arrived at La Cienega and met with Mother Katharine on November 2, 1900. The first speaker was Tall Silversmith, who minced no words in expressing his opposition to the American's methods of education. However, he was followed by Charley Mitchell and several others, who had previously visited St. Catherine Indian School, and they all expressed optimism, and the hope that Mother Katharine's school would be a great help to the Navajos toward improving their living conditions. Mother Katharine then addressed the group, assuring them of her intentions, and answering many of their questions and objections. Before their departure, the headmen shook hands, and offered Mother Katharine and Fr. Anselm their support of the school.

Mother Katharine then selected a site for the school on top of a small mesa about 100 yards southeast of the friar's mission. Several months later, Mother Katharine authorized Fr. Anselm to purchase an additional 40 acres from Samuel E. Day; and have the property surveyed.

On her second visit to La Cienega (by now named St. Michael Indian Mission), in early November, 1901, Mother Katharine relocated the proposed site of the school about a half-mile east of the mission, on the land acquired from the Day family; She also awarded the contract to build the school to James H. Owen of Minneapolis, Minnesota, who had just completed building the government Indian School at Keams Canyon.

With clear legal title to the land, and all the designs and specifications of the school building worked out, construction of the facilities began on March 1, 1902.

Up to this time the friars had been receiving all their mail at Ft. Defiance, some eight miles away. That spring, Fr. Anselm made application for a post office to be established at the mission. The application was approved, and John Walker was named to the position of postmaster. The first delivery of mail took place on September 1, 1902. From that date La Cienega became officially known as St. Michaels, Arizona Territory.

Meanwhile, work at both the stone quarry and the construction site continued at a steady pace. Mother Katharine, accompanied by Sister Ignatius and Mr. Didier, the carpenter at St. Catherine's School, inspected the construction work at St. Michaels on May 29-June 1, and were generally satisfied with the progress of the project. The three of them made a subsequent inspection tour on September 13-15, staying in the vacated Day home.

On this visit, Mother Katharine fixed October 19 as the date for the Sisters' arrival at their convent quarters, with an anticipated opening of the school on December 3, the feast of St. Francis Xavier.