St. Ann’s Indian Mission in service to the Belcourt community

Since the mid-18th century and the days of Father George Belcourt, the Church has been serving the spiritual and material needs of the Ojibwe, Cree, and Metis people who lived in the northern Dakota territory. Today, that area is known as the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, and its largest city, Belcourt, was named after that founding priest who lived among the native peoples those many years ago.

The first log church was built in 1884 under the direction of Father J.B. Malo of St. John, N.D., and it was named St. Ann’s Church. Following Father Malo, two French Canadian priests, Father Joseph Quellette and Father Leonce Ducharme, arrived in 1894. St. Ann’s has continued a rich history with religious orders. The Benedictines took care of the area starting in 1933 with Father Hildebrand Elliot. The Benedictine nuns arrived in 1934 and they immediately started building a school that opened in 1936. The school closed in 1973 and when the Benedictines left in 1995, the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (S.O.L.T.), based in Corpus Christi, Texas, arrived. The S.O.L.T. order made it a priority to re-open the school, which happened in 1999.  Father Jacque Lee was the first S.O.L.T. priest to arrive in 1995, followed by Father Fred Underwood and finally Father Dale Craig, who became pastor in 1997. It is Father Dale that most people remember as starting the S.O.L.T era of St. Ann’s Mission. 

An Indian Mission can best be described as a parish located within a Native American reservation, or close to a reservation, serving the spiritual needs of the local Native American and non-native members of the community. Although providing the sacraments to the local faithful is the primary responsibility of any parish, most Indian Missions are usually located in areas that are economically challenged, which can lead to a myriad of other social and economic problems the mission addresses.

“Two things that define a mission church for me are the extra complexities in the area that mission serves and new ways that the mission Church gets called to meet those complexities,” said Father Michael Slovak, current pastor of the churches that comprise the St. Ann’s Mission area. “I’m learning about the beautiful culture of my Native American Community, along with the many different variants and different viewpoints of this community. We have everything from war veterans, to Medicine Men, and elders of the community. Plus being rural there are many farmers and ranchers as well. Secondly, in addition to the unique and beautiful culture of our area is the many ways our Church is called upon to respond, interact, and serve. We have three churches that include two thrift stores, a food pantry, a radio station, a school, five cemeteries and a missionary volunteer group.”

The Belcourt area has its share of challenges, just like many rural areas across the state. High unemployment is the driving factor that is associated with other social challenges including poverty, lack of nutrition, education issues, and substance abuse. St. Ann’s Mission has been a constant presence in the community assisting those in need, and doing so with limited resources. The greatest challenge for St. Ann’s is funding the church and school operations. There were older structures located on the church premises that had to be torn down due to their deteriorating condition, and remaining structures are still in need of improvements. A primary source of funding for St. Ann’s and other Indian missions in the Fargo Diocese is the national Black and Indian Missions grant program. The Fargo Diocese itself also assists financially and supports fundraising efforts for Indian Missions each year. Support also comes locally.

“We are blessed with the ongoing support of our community, as they are able,” said Father Slovak. “There are two separate donor programs with one for the Mission as a whole and one specifically for our school, which is tuition free. Our greatest treasure is our local parish volunteers and the volunteers that come from out of town through a S.O.L.T. volunteer program. We cannot afford many staff, so our volunteers are really important. We are actively trying to get our finances more constant and stable, but even with all of this, every year is an exercise in faith and as we wait to see how God will provide for us.”

St. Ann’s Catholic School is an important part of the St. Ann’s Mission. While having to deal with building issues like flooding in the spring, keeping classrooms warm in the winter, and the need for renovations to the kitchen area, the 19 students who currently attend St. Ann’s have found, according to the school’s principal, “a nurturing and welcoming place to live and grow.”

“We have seen great progress among our students academically, particularly in the area of reading,” said Principal Mary Beth Lalka. “We have been able to incorporate elements of Montessori education that have really benefited our students. We are able to give them individualized attention to help them succeed. In cooperation with their families, we help them to grow in their relationship with Our Lord. It is beautiful to see the depth of their faith and their love for God. We have been able to offer enrichment activities and enhanced learning experiences to help them to grow in knowledge and understanding.”

Lalka says her goals for the next school year are to continue working on the school building’s issues and increase enrollment. Lalka says she is very grateful to donors, the Diocese of Fargo, and those serving with S.O.L.T., as well as people in the community, who make this possible.

The St. Ann’s Mission has the same parish structure with the same sacraments, liturgical schedule, youth group program, and CCD/RCIA as other churches. Outside of the parish, the church is in constant dialogue with the people, reaching out into the community through the St. Ann’s Turtle Mountain Chippewa Food Pantry and the St. Ann’s Thrift Store. St. Ann’s Mission is grateful for the collaborative relationship that has developed with the Turtle Mountain tribal community and tribal leadership over the years. For example, when St. Ann’s needed a new van to pick up donated food items for the food pantry and distribute those items to clients, they turned to the First Nations Development Institute to obtain a grant for a new van. However, the grant couldn’t cover the entire cost of the new van, so the Turtle Mountain Tribal Council, recognizing the benefit of having the food pantry available to all residents, made up the shortfall.

Another collaborative effort between the community and St. Ann’s was assisting in the establishment of a homeless shelter.

“The Tribal Council wanted a homeless shelter started immediately,” said Father Slovak. “They found a building in Belcourt to renovate but it would take several weeks. They called us and asked if homeless clients could stay in our parish hall. I spoke with our parish council, and since we were on Thanksgiving break with no school or CCD for several weeks, we were able to accommodate the tribal leadership and have two to fourteen homeless staying at our Parish Hall, with the tribe running it and providing security, until the shelter could be moved to the renovated building.”

That effort led to an entire new ministry. Several volunteers had begun visiting the homeless when they were in the parish hall, and they continue to visit them in the newly renovated building. Volunteers spend time visiting the shelter weekly, and several homeless attend the mission’s Men’s Cursillo Retreat. Parish volunteers also regularly pick up a few shelter residents to attend Sunday Mass each weekend. 

Other successful efforts are ongoing. St. Ann’s serves over 60 people who are homebound, elders in the community, who are visited by S.O.L.T. priests every week. Father Slovak is also developing a program where volunteers from the parish with specialized skills can “adopt” an area of the parish grounds for maintenance and upkeep. He hopes this program will help with upkeep and give those volunteers a chance to give back to the mission.

“Some in our community struggle with calling our parish a mission,” said Father Slovak. “Some feel that the term ‘mission’ focuses too much on the challenges of the area or puts it in a bad light. As pastor of this mission, I totally disagree. It is true that missions are often located in areas with a lack of access to adequate resources, but the reality is that makes us more resourceful in how we respond. The real reason I believe that we are called a mission is that we are called to be and do more. I see the core of being a Mission church in the flexibility that we need to listen and respond to the people. Our focus is not on the struggles, but on the beauty that is present everywhere. I feel privileged to be serving the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, and being a mission just means we are finding as many ways to serve as possible both in the usual Church ways and any other way we can to serve God in serving everyone. It is exciting, it is an adventure, and it is a privilege.”