St. Catherine Indian School
Details:
Dates of Operation: 1886–1998
Current Diocese: Santa Fe
Religious Orders who worked at the Parish / School:
Sisters of Loretto, 1886–1889*
Order of St. Benedict (St. Benedict’s Abbey, Atchison, KS), 1889–1890*
Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, 1894–1998*
On a Reservation: No
On the Department of the Interior List: Yes
Tribal Nations Impacted (as listed in historical documents):
Navajo, Pueblos, as well as mission tribes of California and tribes from southern Arizona
Notes: Katharine Drexel (later Mother Katharine of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament) paid for the construction of the school. Lay teachers staffed the school from after the departure of the Sisters of Loretto until the arrival of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in 1894.