Healing and Reconciliation in White Earth
Land Acknowledgement
Saint Benedict’s Monastery, St. Joseph, Minn., stands on land which was the ancestral homeland of the Dakhóta and Anishinaabe peoples. The sisters acknowledge with reverence and respect the Indigenous Peoples who dwelt here.
In 2021, then-prioress Sister Susan Rudolph issued a formal apology to White Earth Nation on behalf of the community for our participation in the federal government’s Assimilation Policy. An excerpt from the apology says:
We acknowledge the injustice done through our community’s participation in the federal government Assimilation Policy to educate Native American youth at St. Benedict’s Mission boarding school on the White Earth Reservation (1878–1945), St. Mary’s Mission on the Red Lake Reservation (1888–1940s), and the Industrial Boarding School (1884–1896) on the monastery campus.
…the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict have been working in collaboration with the White Earth community and its Tribal Historical Preservation Office and the College of Saint Benedict to strengthen the bonds that continue to move toward healing, reconciliation, and peace with our Native American sisters and brothers.