From Hill 57 to Capitol Hill: 'Making The

From Hill 57 to Capitol Hill: 'Making the Sparks Fly': Sister Providencia Tolan's Drive on Behalf of Montana's Off-Reservation Indians, 1950-1970 Author(s): Joan Bishop Source: Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Summer, 1993), pp. 16-29 Published by: Montana Historical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4519595 . Accessed: 04/04/2013 12:35

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This content downloaded from 174.19.24.231 on Thu, 4 Apr 2013 12:35:05 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Capitol Hill: 'Making the Sparks Fly'

n a fall day in 1957a car pulledup at Hill 57, the off-reservationIndian Drive on Behalf of Montana's settlement located on a windswept slope several miles northwest of Great Falls, Montana.Before Lois Murray,a new Great Falls Tribunestaff reporter, could get out of the Indians, 1950-1970 car, several of the Chippewa-Creeresidents met her and firmly closed the car door. Later Murrayasked Tribuneeditor WilliamJames how she could meet the Indians. Only through by Joan Bishop Sister Providencia,he told her.' For more than two decades Sister ProvidenciaTolan, a sociology professor at the College of Great Falls, lobbied on behalf of America'sIndians. Initially,in the early 1950s, the plight of off-reservationChippewa-Cree groups living on Hill 57 and other areas near Great Falls triggered her drive to energize "an impressive cross-section of the Great Falls community,"many of whom "hadresorted to an ostrich-likeattitude when the local Indian problem proved too difficultto solve." During the mid-1950sSister Providenciaworked with members of the MontanaInter-tribal Policy Board, AffiliatedTribes of Northwest Indians, and the National Congress of American Indians. By the late 1960s she had also served as tribal consultant for six of Montana'sseven Indian reservations.2 Subsequently, Sister Providencia transformedthe grass roots movement she had formed into a campaign directed at Michael J. (Mike) Mansfield, Lee Metcalf, and James J. Murray,three of Montana'sDemocratic politicians in Washington, D.C.Because of seniority, committee appointments,and party stature, these three men had the power to influence federal Indian affairs. Sister Providenciaoften acted as intermediary between local activists and community leaders in Great Falls and bureaucratsand politicians in Washington, D.C.,where leaders recognized her "keen sense of political organization."In 1959 Dr. CatherineNutterville, Sister Providencia'sCollege of Great Falls mentor, wrote that "Montanain these last few years has become more aware of the plight of the Indians, thanks first of all to the work of Sister Buckskin-Sister Providencia."Rocky Boy tribal leader EdwardEagleman described her as a "fearless,and eloquent sister, and probably one of the best informed persons in the United States on the Indians'economic problem."3 SisterProvidencia Tolan and FlorenceStanding Rock of RockyBoy's Reservation(upper left) at a 1966Democratic meeting in GreatFalls, Hill 57 homes in 1986 (above)

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y the mid-1960s, duringthe Lyndon B. Johnson administration,Sister Provi- denciaand her coalitionof communityand Indian leaders and state politicians in Washing- ton, D.C., influenced federal Indian policy with increased appropriationsthrough the Bureau of IndianAffairs and Officeof EconomicOpportunity for Indians on or off the reservations. UltimatelySister Providenciahelped prompta rethinking of federal Indian policy and contributed to substantivechanges in those policies concerned with terminationand relocation. She be- lieved that Indianvalues and pride could only be perpetuated on the reservations. "As a sociologist,"she explainedin 1958,"I must insist that the tribe,a sub-group,is a strengthand a realresource to the wider group."4 Sometimes critics viewed her as domineering and paternalistic-the Catholic sister who dic- tated what was best for the Indian population. 'That Nun,"some called her. Others considered her activityill-advised. Yet, in the balance, Sister Providencia,with the help of lawmakersand citi- an off-reservationcommu- zens' groups, elevated In 1914Denise moved with her to Oak- with the unusual name of Hill 57 to a national parents nity land, California,where she attended Lakeview symbol of urban Indian poverty. The plight and School and from in Elementary graduated Holy fate of Hill 57 residents became the case micro- Names in 1927. That summer she re- and contributed to Academy cosm for all Indians major turned to Montanato be with her cousins at their federal reform in Indian policy.5 grandparents'Grass Valley Ranch near Flathead Christened Denise Hortense Tolan, Sister Lake. At one point, alone with grandmother Providenciawas bornin Anaconda,Montana, Feb- Denise confided that she wanted to to former Deer Deschamps, ruary 24, 1909, Lodge County become a nun and teach the Indians."'Never,' my John Tolan and Alma Deschamps Tolan. attorney grandmothersaid calmly, Youlike boys too much.' Denise's maternalgrandparents, a pioneeringmer- Goodpsychology," commented Sister Providencia chantand in Missoula,influenced ranchingfamily in 1976. 'This was the challenge I needed."7 her as a child. She absorbed her grandfather's Aftertwo of at Names tales of Montana's laced years study Holy College early days, frequently in Oakland,Denise took her professionalvows as with accounts of settlers' depredationsto the In- a Sister of Charityof Providencein Seattle,Wash- dians. Of her grandmother,she wrote "'Church' in 1930. Over the next decade she I associate with Grandmother Des- ington, taught is a word at Providence schools in Se- One when the lilacs were elementary Moxee, champs. day blooming, attle,Yakima, and Tacoma, Washington; De Smet, mother drove Grandma,my brotherJack, and me and Des Illinois.Sister Providencia in Idaho; Plaines, to the St. IgnatiusMission the Flatheadvalley." also several summers cred- For the rest of her life Denise remembered that spent earningcollege its from Washington and Oregon universities to- visit, seeing the impressive interiorpaintings and ward a bachelor's in which she the black-robed Sisters of degree sociology, especially watching received from the College of GreatFalls in 1944. Charity,who "let her play with their large black At the same she received a less formalbut beads."6 time, rosary no less importanteducation in politics by follow- 1. Lois Murray,S.P., conversationwith author,October 11, 1990, 4. Sister Providenciato FrankMorrow, February 21, 1958,Cas- GreatFalls. cade CountyCommunity Council Records (hereafter Cascade Council 2. VictorO. Reinemer(hereafter Vic Reinemer)to MaxGubatayo, Records),Montana Historical Society Archives, Helena (hereafter MHS). January5,1959, James E. MurrayCollection (hereafter Murray Collec- 5. GreatFalls Tribune,August 5, 1979. tion), Toole Archives, Mansfield Library,University of Montana, 6. Sister Providencia,conversation with author,April 13, 1983, Missoula (hereafterUM); Lois Murray,S.P., Good News Sisters of Spokane,Washington; Sister Providencia, "Biographical Information," ProvidenceSt. IgnatiusProvince, 1 (October1990), insert, n.p. n.d.,and Sister Providencia to her family,"Christmas Greetings," 1976, 3. Vic Reinemer,conversation with author,September 18, 1990, Sister ProvidenciaTolan Papers (hereafterS. ProvidenciaPapers), Helena;Catherine Nutterville to RobertMcCormick, February 2, 1959, Sisters of Charityof ProvidenceArchives, Mt. St. Joseph, Spokane, MurrayCollection; Great Falls Tribune,May 7, 1964. Washington.

This content downloaded from 174.19.24.231 on Thu, 4 Apr 2013 12:35:05 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Sister Providencia,christened Denise Hortense, stood with arms aroundher siblingswhen photographed(left) c. 1917with her father,John Tolan,Sr.; mother, Alma Deschamps Tolan; and grandmotherTolan. Denise posed againin Missoulaat age five playingthe grandlady (below)and as a young womanin 1928 (right). (All photos, Archives, Sisters of Charity of Providence, Spokane)

husband's six successful politicalcampaigns and chaired several governmentwar bond drives during WorldWar II in additionto her duties as wife and mother. The weaving of varied threads from such a backgroundwith Sister Providencia'sspecial af- finityfor NativeAmericans was perhapsbest illus- trated by a newspaper article and photograph appearingin early 1941. During summer months in the 1930s,the sister organizedseveral women's ing the career of her father, John Tolan, who, cooperativecraft guilds on Idaho'sCoeur d'Alene in an ex- beginning in 1934,was elected to six terms in the Indian Reservation,and 1939 arranged United States House of Representatives from hibit of their work at the San Francisco World's California'sSeventh Congressional District cen- Fair. In a CatholicReview article appearingFeb- tered in Alameda.Tolan chaired the House Com- ruary7, 1941,Sister Providenciais shown display- mittee InvestigatingDust Bowl Migrationduring ing craftsfrom nine Northwesttribes at the House the 1930s and in 1941 testified as amicus curae Indian Affairs Committee Room in the United before the United States Supreme Courtin oppo- States Capitol.Standing beside her is her father, sition to a Californiaruling that sought to halt RepresentativeJohn Tolan, and on her other side immigration.Neither Tolan's dedication to poli- is a smiling first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, looking tics nor his efforts on behalf of disadvantaged down at the beaded moccasins and gloves. The "First of Land migrantswas lost on Sister Providencia,and de- newspaper caption reads: Lady cades later,after she had lobbied effectivelyon be- Lauds Work of Nun."8 half of off-reservationIndians, journalists pointed Sister Providenciajoined the facultyof the Col- to her father's influence on her. Yet Sister lege of Great Falls, a Catholic coeducationallib- Providenciaalso seems to have inheritedsome of eral artscollege, in 1948,as a lecturerin sociology. her drive from her mother, who managed her 13. VerneDusenberry, "Montana's Displaced Persons: The Rocky Boy Indians,"Montana Magazine of History,4 (Winter1954), 12, 13; 7. ArthurDeschamps, Jr., telephone conversationwith author, Verne Dusenberry,"Waiting for a Day That Never Comes,"Montana August 8, 1988;Great Falls Tribune,August 5, 1979. Magazineof History,8 (Spring1958), 37-38; Denton R. Bedford(as told 8. CatholicReview, February 7, 1941. by MaryRego), "FirstThunder of the RockyBoys," The Indian Histo- 9. GreatFalls Tribune,August 5, 1979. rian, 10 (Winter1977) 37; Jeanne Marie OyawinEder, "ChiefLittle 10. SisterProvidencia to Lee Metcalf,January26,1973, Lee Metcalf Shell'sTribe of LandlessChippewa Indians of Montana:A Questionof Papers,MHS (hereafterMetcalf Papers). Recognition"(master's thesis, MontanaState University,Bozeman, 11. D'ArcyMcNickle, "Hill 57," Indians at Work,February 1, 1937, 1983),53; Sister Providencia, "People Without Place," n.d., S. Providencia 2. Papers. See also Cascade CountyCommunity Council, "Inter-Group 12. Joseph Kinsey Howard,Strange Empire, A Narrativeof the CommitteeReport on Landless Indiansof Montana,"1952, Cascade Northwest(New York:William Morrow, 1952), 588. CouncilRecords.

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She came to GreatFalls, an agriculturalcenter of approximately39,000 residents, disappointed. 'The whole idea behind my vocation as a sister," she said, was to work with the Indians at St. Ignatius Province.Nevertheless, with thoughts of the Flat- head positionbehind her, Sister Providenciatook on two jobs that fall, teaching and social work. Soon she became a familiarfigure in downtown GreatFalls. Jack Albanese, Jr., a well-knownGreat Fallsresident who assumed the nickname"Father Jack," described her constant movement "from the hospitalto the city jail,to the countyjail, to the bars, to the lower south side, and to the west side in search of and on behalf of human beings in r_ need." Frequently she befriended Indians who lived in the city or in fringe settlements on Wire Mill Road, Black Eagle, Mt. Royal, or Hill 57.9 Sister Providencialeft GreatFalls in 1951 for a study break in "the most exciting place in the D.C." 1952 she had world, Washington, By June Sister Providenciaand EleanorRoosevelt admire earned a master's in from the degree sociology Indianbeadwork in Washington,D.C., in 1941. Catholic University of America.10 When she returnedto her duties at the teaching come to GreatFalls to look for workbecause their College of GreatFalls in September,she resumed her rounds in Great Falls and renewed her home areas could not support them. Others, re- daily ferred to as landless were of Cree with Indians, those subsist- Indians, and/ friendships including or descent. In the mid-1880s these ing on Hill 57. Art Hinck, a sales- Chippewa nearby pickle bands had sometimes with the Ca- man, named it in the late 1930s for his Heinz 57 intermingled nadianMetis Euro-Canadianand Indianances- productline, it the name in (of advertising by writing to hunt on the northern Their Montana eight-feet-highnumbers with white-washedboul- try) plains. ders. The Indians had settled there in the late landless designation grew out of several migra- tions into the in the 1880s.Cree followers 1920s, after officialsordered their tent territory city camps of LittleBear had firstfled southwardfrom Canada along the Missouri River burned because they with some Metis in afterthe Riel Rebellion. were camped near the westside sewer 1885, discharge. Sister Providencia translated of their In 1937 McNickle, the novelist/adminis- portions D'Arcy from Latin and French texts in the mid- tratorfrom Montana'sFlathead Reservation,vis- history ited the Hill and described his first 1940sfor GreatFalls writerJoseph Kinsey Howard, impressions. who was their for his McNickle, then administrativeassistant in the documenting history book, Also into Montanain the United States Office of IndianAffairs, wrote: StrangeEmpire. moving late nineteenthcentury were a Chippewaband led We left town, crossed the river and went up the by Chief Rocky Boy (Sun Child) and Chief Little slope toward the bluffs which mark the river's Shell's disenfranchised from ancientbank. scatteredin the were Chippewa group, There, snow, their NorthDakotaTurtle Mountain Reservation.12 the flappingtents and patchworkshacks of some of Montana'shomeless Indians.The situationis From the 1880s to 1916 these Indianstraveled wholly exposed. It is windy, always windy, and over the state feeling "inferiorand unwanted"by treeless and grassless. Barren as a rock.1 many Montanans, including other Indian tribes such as the Blackfeetwith whom they had shared Some Hill 57 residents belonged to one or allotments For these and anotherof Montana'sIndian reservations but had temporarily. Chippewa Cree tribes United States government officials 14. Joseph Cottrell,"Interview with James ParkerShield," sound cassette, 1984, CriticalWriting Project, C. M. Russell High School, 15. WilliamD. James,conversation with author,January 12, 1990, Great Falls. Daniel Jarvey,conversation with author, November 11, GreatFalls; Lois MurrayS.P., conversationwith author,October 11, 1988, GreatFalls; Mary Louise Jarvey, conversation with author,Oc- 1990, GreatFalls. tober 31, 1988, GreatFalls; Edna McGillis,conversation with author, 16. House ConcurrentResolution 108, Congressional Record (here- October31, 1988, Great Falls. See also Milton Colvin,"Hill 57: The after Cong.Rec.), 83d Cong., 1st sess., 1953, 99, pt. 8:10815.See also Problemsof OffReservation Indians," Montana Opinion, 1 (June1957), Christine Bolt, AmericanIndian Policy and AmericanReform Case 15-18;Great Falls Tribune,February 21, 1954;Sister Providencia,"The Studiesof the Campaignto Assimilatethe American Indians (London: IndianVillages on Hill 57 at Great Falls, Montana,A Reportfor the Allen & Unwin,1987), 132-33and DonaldL Fixico, Terminationand SecondAnnual Northwest Regional Indian Youth Conference of Mon- Relocation,Federal Indian Policy, 1945-1960 (Albuquerque: University tana State University,May 1-3, 1964,"Metcalf Papers. of New Mexico Press, 1986), 33, 60, 98-101.

This content downloaded from 174.19.24.231 on Thu, 4 Apr 2013 12:35:05 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Joan Bishop finally, in 1916, carved "a sterile reservation"of poor could find work and were only lazy. Overthe 56,035acres calledRocky Boy's out of the old Fort cook's protest, however, Sister Providenciacom- AssinniboineMilitary Reservation in centralMon- mandeeredleftovers, filled coffee cans, and set up tana, one hundredmiles northeastof GreatFalls. tables outside the hospital's back door for the With limited enrollment, however, not all appli- needy. She continued her campaign to increase cants were accepted. Ultimately Rocky Boy's donationsof food, clothing, and fuel, yet at best in Chippewa and Chief Little Bear's Cree bands, the 1950s she knew that even majorcommunity allies in previous years, predominated,and the volunteer efforts were merely palliative.Bureau- Little Shell group was again left off tribal enroll- craticimpediments exacerbated the economicvoid ment records.This grouprepresented some of the surroundingoff-reservation groups. County offi- off-reservation"people without place," as Sister cials denied aid ordinarilybecause they consid- Providenciacalled them, who numbered several ered all Indians the responsibilityof the federal thousand in Montana in the late 1940s. Their government, while the federal Bureau of Indian plight would remain one of the sister's major Affairs refused assistance because the Indians concerns into the 1960s.13 lived off the reservations.15 In 1952 Sister Providenciamet about two hun- dred residents who were crowded together in makeshift shelters. They grouped themselves accordingto earliertribal affiliations, mainlyTurtle Mountain Chippewa with some Great Lakes Chippewa,Rocky Boy's Chippewaand Cree. Many eanwhile two federalIndian poli- familygroups lived a seminomadiclife. Each spring cies of the early1950s-termination and they left Hill 57 hoping to get haying contracts relocation-impelled SisterProvidencia near Fort Benton or Augusta or pick hops in into the politicalarena. Through their implemen- Washingtonstate. Everyone worked. James Parker tation she envisioned even more disastrous con- Shieldrecalled driving a tractorwhen he was eight sequences for Montana'sIndian population. years old. Eachfall they returnedto the hill where The federal terminationpolicy originatedwith as many as fourteen or fifteen people sometimes House ConcurrentResolution 108, passed by Con- crowdedinto a room. As a child, Shield sold rags gress on August 1, 1953. Relatedto earlier drives and metal scrap that he scavenged from a nearby for Indianself-determination in New Deal legisla- dump.Residents shared one waterpump. Without tion of the 1930s, Resolution108 or the '"Termina- telephone or bus connections they were virtually tion Resolution"sought federal withdrawalfrom isolated,even fromthe nearbycommunity of Great Indianaffairs. The resolution directed the secre- Falls.14 tary of the Interior to present to Congress by Withdispatch Sister Providenciaplanned ways January 1, 1954, a list of tribes that could "as to alleviateHill 57's poverty, soliciting donations rapidlyas possible end their status as wardsof the from friends, and urging volunteer groups, such United States." Congress would then pass indi- as the Mother GamelinClub of ColumbusHospi- vidualtribal termination bills. Initiallysome tribal tal,to repairand donate clothing. William D. James, groups backed the measure. Yet when Interior retired GreatFalls Tribuneeditor, recalls provid- officials and a nucleus of congressional leaders ing firewood and receiving a follow-upcall from actuallymoved "asrapidly as possible,"using out- Sister.The truckneeded a new battery.Would he dated 1947 statistics, and pressured hesitant In- providethat also?James noted what others have dian leaders to comply, more tribes rallied to- corroborated:it was impossible to refuse Sister gether against terminationlegislation.16 Providencia. One who tried was the Columbus In MontanaSister Providenciacommunicated Hospitalcook, who took the commonview thatthe with leaders of the Flathead,Blackfeet, and Rocky 18. KennethR. Philip,"Stride toward Freedom: The Relocationof 17. Table 4.1 Tribal lists, Policy Statement,March 25, 1947, in Indiansto Cities, 1952-1960,"Western Historical Quarterly, 16 (April OfficeFile of AssistantCommissioner John H. Provinse,reprinted in 1985),189; "Indian Project-Business andProfessional Women's Club, Bolt,American Indian Policy,133; Sister Providenciato Lee Metcalf, 1956-1957,"unpublished report, Cascade Council Records; Peter Red July11, 1954,Metcalf Papers; Russell Gardipee testimony, "Joint Hear- Hornin "NotesFrom Fifth Annual Institute of IndianAffairs-Montana ings BeforeSubcommittees of the Committeeson Interiorand Insular State University,"April 9-11, 1958, MurrayCollection. Affairs,"83d Cong.,2d sess., on S. 2750and H.R. 7319, Part 7, Flathead 19. Dorothy Bohn, conversationwith author, October 25, 1984, Indians,Montana, February 25, 26, and 26, 1954, p. 947 (hereafter GreatFalls; Great Falls Tribune, December 10,1953, February 21,1954. Flathead Hearings). Comments by tribal council chairmanWalter See also DorothyBohn, "'Liberating' the Indian,Euphemism for a Land McDonaldare in Don Matt, "TribalGovernment, How We Got To Grab,"The Nation, February 20, 1954,150-51. Citizens Research Com- Where We are," (FlatheadReservation) Char-Koosta (Confederated mitteemembers were JamesJ. Flaherty,Sister Providencia,Robert S. SalishPend d' Orielles,and Kootenai Tribes newspaper), December 1, McCleery,LaVerne Kelly, Stanley Deck, ClevelandHall, Catherine 1976;Earl Old Person,"Indians As HumanBeings," Integrated Educa- Nutterville,John Gedeon,Dorothy Bohn, namedin CitizensResearch tion, (April-May1967), 18. Committeeto James A. Haley, September7, 1955, MetcalfPapers.

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In 1954College of Great Falls studentAgnes Connorsinstructed childrenof Hill 57 at

GreatFalls Tribune Boy's reservations.She noted apprehension,divi- Affairsrelocation program. Since 1952the agency siveness, and a lack of leadership among tribal had offered reservation Indians stipends to relo- groups. "Theyare wobblyabout standing on their cate and work in large urbancenters. The bureau own feet, financiallyunsupported," she wrote to frequently failed, however, to give workers and Montana'scongressman Lee Metcalf. One cause their families priorjob trainingor preparationfor of the tribal leaders' anxiety, she explained, was the harsh realities of urban life, so that between their concern that if they spoke out againsttermi- 1950 and 1960 the approximatenational average nation, the Bureau of IndianAffairs would retali- return rate to the reservations among relocated ate. Flatheadtribal leaders, for instance, who had Indians was 40 percent. Sister Providenciahad experiencedbureau funding cuts for financialand met with familieswho left the RockyBoy's Reser- law-and-orderservices on the reservation since vation, moved to Los Angeles, and then returned 1952,were apprehensiveabout sustaining further to Montanadestitute and discouraged. Speaking reductions. Sister Providencia also noted that at the FifthAnnual Institute of IndianAffairs held Montana Indian groups feared abrupt termina- April 9-11, 1958, at Montana State Universityin tion. Blackfeetleader EarlOld Person later wrote Missoula, Blackfeet leader Peter Red Horn "Itis importantto note that in our Indianlanguage summed up the situation for some MontanaIn- the only translationfor terminationis to 'wipeout' dian groups:"While we are being relocated,reha- or 'kill off. We have no Indianword for termina- bilitated,and educated,we have to live. Presently tion. Why scare us to death every year by going there is a recession throughout this country. to Congress for money and justifyingthe request Employment is next to impossible for Indians. on the grounds that money is necessary to 'termi- These programs are all right to talk about, but nate the trust relationshipof the United States to don't forget-we have to live in the meantime."18 the American Indian'?"17 In fall 1953 Flatheadtribal leaders fighting ter- Besides the termination resolution, Sister mination contacted Sister Providencia and Dor- Providenciaalso targeted the Bureau of Indian othy Bohn, Cascade CountyCommunity Council 20. GertrudeLindgren, conversation with author, October 11,1985, 22. Vic Reinemer,conversation with author, October 1990, Helena; GreatFalls; Great Falls Tribune,February 9, 21, 1954. Sister Providenciato James E. Murray,October 11, 1955, Murray 21. Stephen DeMers, FlatheadHearings, 974-75; David Higgins, Papers;Sister Providenciato Lee Metcalf,July 11, November5, 1954, FlatheadHearings, 998; LarryW. Burt, Tribalismin Crisis:Federal and WashingtonNotebook newsletters, both in MetcalfPapers. See also Indian Policy, 1953-1961 (Albuquerque:University of New Mexico CharlesEugene Hood,Jr., "'ChinaMike' Mansfield: The Makingof a Press, 1982), 38; Sister Providenciato Lee Metcalf,July 11, 1954, CongressionalAuthority on the Far East"(doctoral diss., Washington MetcalfPapers. State University,Pullman, 1980).

This content downloaded from 174.19.24.231 on Thu, 4 Apr 2013 12:35:05 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Joan Bishop

IndianAffairs chairman, who had alreadyjoined combined opposition of Mansfield and Metcalf, seven others as the Citizens'Research Committee the MontanaInter-tribal Policy Board, and other on Indian issues. They promptly scheduled the vocal non-Indiancitizens forced committee lead- first of two open forums in a Great Falls district ers to drop the proposed legislation.21 court chamber on December 14, 1953. Although Sister Providencia'sdrive to sidetracktermina- Paul Fickinger, Bureau of IndianAffairs director tion assumed a partisan political character. She in Billings, presented the advantages of ending became an enthusiastic Democratic party sup- federal trusteeship, the majorityof speakers, in- porter who corresponded frequently with Mon- cluding K. W. Bergan, Montana Coordinatorof tana'sDemocratic legislators in the nationalcapi- IndianAffairs, and representatives of the Montana tal. In several instances she was renewing ac- Inter-tribalPolicy Board supportedthe Flathead quaintances, for she had met Senator James E. tribal leaders' opposition to termination.19 Murray through her father in 1941. Montana's A second forumheld on February8, 1954,dealt junior senator, Mike Mansfield,had grown up in with off-reservationIndian poverty, characterized Great Falls and had served in the House for ten as "one of the city's most pressing problems." years. Sister Providencia'smother, Alma Tolan, Sister Providenciaand Bohn organizedthe forum knew Mansfield'swife, Maureen.Lee Metcalf,the aroundparticipation by key Indianresidents and third correspondent,was elected to Congress in city and county officials.More than a year earlier, 1953. In the 1950s these three leaders worked SisterProvidencia, with the assistanceof her Great together closely, writing their WashingtonNote- Falls Chippewa friends, had started religious booknewsletter jointly for western constituents.22 classes on Hill 57 among the Turtle Mountain Chippewa,many of whom were already Roman Catholics.This religious bond and her relief effortshad created a rapportthat enabled the Sister to convinceIndian spokespersons to addresshealth and educationissues publicly.Acting as modera- Pr-'o gain their support, Sister tor, Bohn concluded the meeting by pinpointing Providenciasometimes exaggerated the "thereal stumblingblock of Great Falls' citizens magnitudeof GreatFalls's "groundswell" indifferenceto the problems of the landless Indi- of citizen support.Yet through her example as a ans." The forums and William James's special crusaderagainst Indian poverty (includingdirect- February 21 Tribune feature describing living ing the 1950 airlift to the snowbound Blackfeet conditionson Hill 57 chipped away at what Bohn Reservation)and her planningof the recent open identified as community "indifference."The fo- forums in GreatFalls, she had generated a grass rums also focused attention on the prospect of roots movement. Sister Providenciafocused on increasing Indian destitution among Montana Washington's politicians because, as she wrote tribes if terminationbills passed and forced other Metcalf, "only at the federal level can the moral Indian groups to seek livelihoods in cities and obligationto protectIndian ownership and Indian towns throughout Montana.20 rights be sustained."She envisioned Hill 57 as a InWashington, D.C., meanwhile, Flathead lead- nationalsymbol of off-reservationpoverty, writing ers confronted their terminationbill, which the to Metcalf in November 1954 that the "strongest Bureauof IndianAffairs had hurriedlydrafted. On argumentlies in what is happeningto the Indians February27,1954, Flathead spokesperson Stephen who are terminated."In her mind that included DeMers testified before a joint congressional Montana'slandless Indiansas well as other termi- hearing that the tribe would "need a minimum nated reservationssuch as those of Oregon'sKla- period of ten years in which to fully prepare its math and Wisconsin's Menominee tribes.23 people to take over full managementresponsibil- Sister Providencia'scollege students, several ity, includinga complete analysisand survey of all of whom were from the Blackfeet and Fort Peck assets." Blackfeet leader David Higgins, reiter- reservations,learned sociology by studying con- ated Bohn's concern that "communitiesin Mon- ditionson Hill 57 andplayed important roles in her tana could not bear the burden."That spring the lobbying efforts. In summer 1954 Sister 23. Andre Deligdisch, conversationwith author, c. 1986, Great Providenciainitiated a comparativestudy of res- Falls;Sister Providencia to Lee Metcalf,July 11, 1954,August 6, 1955, ervationand city Indiansand included other north- MetcalfPapers. 24. George Engstromand Sister Providencia,"City and Reserva- ern GreatPlains settlements similarto Hill 57. She tion Indians,"Social Order,5 (February1955), 59-65. See also Lee and her students collected and analyzedstatistics Metcalf,'Threat to Americans,Termination in the 83rdCongress," and on a of hous- James J. Flaherty,'The Obligationof FederalTrust," both in Social variety topics, including education, Order,5 (February1955), 57-58,66-68. ing, and voter participation.Findings of the study

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rounding the Menominee tribe's termination, duplicated her letters and reports, and mailed copies to congressmen, triballeaders, and friends who were officers of both the Association of American Indian Affairs and the National Con- gress of American Indians.25 In summer 1955,Great Falls residents who had ralliedaround Sister Providenciaand Bohn, hoped for the passage of emergency aid bills for the Hill 57 landless Indians,which Metcalfand Mansfield introduced into Congress in July. The proposed legislation directedthe secretaryof the Interiorto provide immediate relief and welfare services to people living on the hill. In August, however, the legislation failed, in partbecause Interiorspokes- men testified against the measure in the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. Afterwards the Montanadelegation sent a joint press release to Congressman Lee Metcalf, Senator James E. the Great Falls Tribuneexpressing their frustra- Murray, and Senator Mike Mansfield (left to right), tion over the Interior's role. 'The Department Montana'sthree in in 1956 "M's," Washington,D.C., says it cannot help the Hill 57 Indians,"the press release said, "because Congress has not given it confirmedtheir views on the value of reservations: specific authority,yet when Congress acts to give Although Indianfamilies who moved away expe- it specific authority,the Departmentvigorously rienced "a slight rise in economic opportunities, protests." Sister Providencia's reaction to what there was a loss in group status and individual some calledthe "Hill57 Heartbreak"differed from attainment."The study was published in her most. "I do not mind too much that the bills did friend Father Joseph Corley'sJesuit journal, So- not pass,"she wrote, because "attentionis now on cial Order,under the heading, 'Threat to Ameri- the long-term answer" and hinged on national can Indians"with two campaignpieces writtenby publicity about off-reservationsettlements such Lee Metcalf and Great Falls Paper Companyen- as Hill 57.26 trepreneur James J. Flaherty. Pleased with the An opportunityto educate Washington'slaw- results of the study, and especially by compli- makers came that September when Sister mentsfrom Murray and Joseph M. Gilmore,Bishop Providencia welcomed Metcalf, Montana Con- of Helena, Sister Providenciamailed copies of the gressman OrvinB. Fjare, and other members of magazine to Montanatribal leaders and distrib- the House Subcommitteeon IndianAffairs to Great uted others in Great Falls.24 Falls. She had persuaded Hill 57 resident Peter Sister Providencia's Social Order paper was Gopher to invite them to his home where he only one of several Indianstudies she compiledin showed them a prized possession, a hand-sewn the mid-1950sand providedto Montanalawmak- Americanflag that had belonged to his tribalfam- ers in Washington,D.C., as "ammunition"against ily for five generations. The next day Sister termination.Earlier, in July 1954, she had sent a Providenciachaired hearings in the mayor'scoun- four-pagepaper on Utah terminationto Metcalf cil chamber. Latershe conveyed her satisfaction and to Murray,then chairmanof the Senate Inte- with the congressional visit and the issues dis- rior and Indian Affairs Committee that ruled on cussed. "Ithank God that the 3 Ms from Montana Indian appropriations.The following April, after have alreadythought in the direction of services she attended the Universityof Minnesota's Con- to all Indians,"she wrote Murrayin October.27 ference on Indian Tribes and Treaties, she dis- Encouraged by the congressional tour, Sister seminated informationon the controversies sur- 28. SisterProvidencia to MikeMansfield, October 29,1955, Metcalf 25. Sister Providenciato Lee Metcalf,January 19, 1955, Metcalf Papers;Sister Providenciato Mike MansfieldJuly 22, 1955,Michael J. Papers. Mansfield Collection (hereafter Mansfield Collection), UM; Sister 26. In 1955Representative Metcalf introduced H.R. 7433 and Sena- Providencia,"Wardship of Hill57 Indians,"n.d., MetcalfPapers. Sister tors Mansfieldand Murrayintroduced a companionmeasure, S. 2556, Providencia,"Population of Hill57-Tribal Affiliation,"October 6, 1955, Cong.Rec., 84th Cong., 1st sess., 1955, 101, pt. 9:12166,12168; press andAndre Deligdisch and Ethel La Rock,'The StudentCommittee at release, August 4, 1955, Metcalf Papers; Sister Providenciato Lee the Collegeof GreatFalls, "summary-Hill 57 Censusfrom July 1, 1954- Metcalfand Mike Mansfield,August 6, 1955, MetcalfPapers. June 30, 1955,"Cascade Council Records. 27. GreatFalls Tribune,September 8, 1955;Sister Providenciato 29. SisterProvidencia to MikeMansfield, October 1955, and Sister James E. Murray,October 11, 1955, MurrayCollection. Providenciato James E. Murray,November 16, 1955,Metcalf Papers.

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Providenciaand her students began collecting in- County Welfare Departmenthas relented on re- depth enrollment statistics to refute Bureau of strictions against relief for wards. We are happy IndianAffairs arguments and pinpointlocal prob- if our effortsand yours accomplishnothing else."29 lems. It was "not speedily done," she wrote to That December, in honor of her work, the all- Mansfield."I have to go out there [Hill57] myself Indian National Congress of American Indians because those poor people are so suspicious of (organizedin 1944) gave Sister Providenciatheir anywhites, even my students."First, by ascertain- annualmerit award"for her inspiring leadership ing that most off-reservationIndians were not of Indians and whole communities."They also Canadiansand thus ineligiblefor federal aid as the recognized her activitiesthrough the years as she bureau contended, but were federal Rocky Boy's kept tribes informed,bridging "the gap"she and andTurtle Mountain enrollees, Sister Providencia they perceived "in Indian organizationfrom the gave Montana'slawmakers information they could Rocky Mountainsto the Mississippi."30 use to force the bureau to reconsider its policy. On CapitolHill, early the next year Mansfield, Documentationwas difficult, however, because by then Democratic party whip, used Sister Cascade Countywelfare officials often would not Providencia'scollege reportson Hill57 in a Senate supportenrolled Indians. "Forty-nine persons with address callingfor a federalpolicy for Indians"on federalwardship status were denied general relief or off the reservations."Then in February the or hospitalization"she reportedto Mansfield.The Montanadelegation wrote to IllinoisSenator Paul impactof Indianson the county welfare situation Douglas asking him to make reservations and was overwhelming: although Hill 57 residents Indiancommunities eligible in his DepressedAreas represented only 1 percent of Cascade County's Bill, a suggestion he subsequently adopted.This population,they comprised10 percent of the county legislationwhich finallypassed as the Area Rede- welfare load and 25 percent of the medical load. velopmentMeasure in January1961, provided for The sister outlinedher predicamentto Mansfield federal loans for work projects.31 confidentiallyin July:"The county people are not Active also at the state level, Sister Providencia awareof the enrollmentand you may be sure that presented a report on Hill 57 at the third annual I shall not be the one to divulge it to them, if there Institute of Indian Affairs meeting at Montana is dangerof the poor people being deprivedof the State University in Missoula in spring 1956. Her special privileges granted by the County at this effortshad long impressed other Montananssuch time,to 'non-wards."'28 as leaders of the Montana Farmer's Union and faculty of Montana State University. One was GretchenBillings, a newspapereditor of Helena's People's Voice and participantin the university- based MontanaHuman Relations Committee that investigatedreservation Indian issues in 1954. In August 1956 Billings wrote a feature article describing Sister Providencia's"total approach" in In October Sister Providencia wrote the of the for off- Mansfield with a about the confronting "enormity problem" again follow-up reservationIndians.32 number of Indians in Falls: increasing Great Nevertheless as the Sister are not educatedfor life. If the Federal year progressed, 'They city Providencia with what she be- had done a there would be no grew discouraged government job lieved was too much for herself. At a There would be no Hill 57." with publicity problem. Then, December awards dinner in Great where donations from friends in Great Sister Falls, Falls, she received the GreatFalls Business and Profes- Providenciacirculated one thousand of her copies sionalWomen's 1956"Woman of the Year"award, Mansfieldletter to signers as a petition.Her work she vented her frustrationover Indian issues by triggered local changes. A month later she re- comparingherself to Don Quixote,"fighting wind- ported heartening news to the Montana delega- mills all year."She reported"only failure," evident tion through Murray:"Best of all the Cascade in a "newindependence of despairon a mass scale 30. NationalCongress of AmericanIndians, Certificate of Award, across Montanawith Indianpeople dead on their December1955; Sister Providencia,"Dear Friends of the Minnesota Conference,"May 14, 1955, S. ProvidenciaPapers. 31. Mike Mansfield,"Federal Indian Policy," address to the U.S. 32. GretchenBillings, (Helena)People's Voice Newspaper, August Senate,May 22, 1956,reprinted in Cong.Rec., 84th Cong., 2d sess., 1956, 17, 1956. 102, pt. 7:8650;James E. Murray,Mike Mansfield,Lee Metcalf to 33. Sister Providencia,"Acceptance of Award"speech, December SenatorPaul H. Douglas,February 9,1956, reprinted in Cong.Rec., 84th 4,1956, GreatFalls, S. ProvidenciaPapers; Great Falls Tribune, Decem- Cong.,2d sess., 1956, 102,pt. 3:2986;Area Redevelopment Act, Public ber 5, 1956. Law87-27(hereafter PL), United States Statutes atLarge (hereafter U.S. 34. SisterAgnesKathleen to MotherBrendan, Provincial Superior, Stat.), v. 75, 87th Cong., 1st sess., 1961,p. 47. August 12, 1956, S. ProvidenciaPapers.

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feet from hunger because no agency of the federal 1950s,for instance,it was an acceptedpractice for government would admit jurisdiction" over the sisters to traveltogether. Yet it was commonto see off-reservation Indians. Acknowledging criticisms Sister Providenciamake frequent trips to Hill 57 from some citizens, Sister Providencia added: with a college student at the wheel of the car.35 'They call me the Sob Sister of Great Falls, cod- Over the years Sister Providencia'ssuperiors dling the people, making them dependent, wast- supported her nonetheless. "Be assured of my ing my time on a hopeless problem."33 sincere remembranceand appreciationfor all the The "they"in the sister's speech included some work you do besides being a teacher,"wrote her college administrators and members of her order. Superior General Mother Philippe de Cesaree "Why does Sister Providencia devote so much from Montrealin 1967.A year later her provincial time to the Indians?"wrote Sister Agnes Kathleen superior, Sister Xavier, responded to Sister to Mother Brendan, the Provincial Superior on Providencia'srequest to solicit contributionsfrom August 12, 1956. Sister Agnes complained that her order for the Indians:"You need not request Sister Providencia's classes and health had suf- permissionat this level. Beforewe'd ever consider fered and that "the Indians are here all day long asking you to stop your work, we would have to to see Sister." She added: have very good reasons that you aren't really those need the kind of attention We have childrenrunning around using the toilet helping who you room, etc., causing comments.If the community give them."36 wants her to do this work with the Indians,then In the mid-1950s,however, against a backdrop what arrangementscan it make to give her time of perceived failures and criticisms, Sister and space?What are we to do?A mere admoni- Providenciadevised new approaches.She wrote tionwill not solve the problem.Sister Providencia a one-pagepaper titled "5Planks to Nail Down 57 has had admonitionswithout number. You may Problems."The five planks included: "Save the wonderin the light of the foregoingwhy I did not family;Guarantee education (50%on Hill 57 not to the of the object Sister's attending meeting attending);Work on employment;Save the tribe NationalCongress of AmericanIndians in Spo- resource for the ser- kane next week? it is a relief to have (a state); Equalize special Well, really, vices." Sister Providencia that an her away for awhile and let us get the house suggested ap- cleaned.34 pointed committee investigate these precepts at local, state, and national levels. She circulated Sister Providencia's drive to confront barriers, copies of her "5 Planks"and incorporatedits rec- "break wide open the whole question of termina- ommendations into talks that she and her stu- tion," and "bring the scorners face to face" ran dents presentedto local service clubs andon radio counter to some views of a sister's work. Great broadcastsover GreatFalls KMON.In 1957Sister Falls Bishop William J. Condon had refused to Providenciaincluded several of her "Planks"in allow her to chair the February 1954 Indian forum Montana House Joint Memorial No. 6. on off- because it was too controversial. Ursuline Sister reservation issues that legislators addressed to Genevieve McBride, who taught in Great Falls the Congress of the United States. Murray in- and at nearby St. Peter's Mission during these tended to use this Hill 57 memorial to influence years, expressed a norm perhaps when in 1984 more politiciansin Washington.He reasoned that she commented to an interviewer: "I was more although this resolution came from a state with a interested in the human side instead of politics." small populationand withoutgreat impacton the It may well have been politics and Sister whole body of Congress, it nevertheless empha- Providencia's approach, as much as criticism of sized the Indian'sdistress and the necessity for her college Indian activities, that also annoyed increased federal response to problems of Indian some of her contemporaries. In Great Falls on subsistence, health, education, and welfare.37 daily rounds she ruffled many feathers. In the Hon.James E. Murrayof Montanain the Senateof the UnitedStates," 35. SisterProvidencia to MikeMansfield,August 6,1955, Mansfield March26, 1957,Cong. Rec., 85th Cong., 1st sess., 1957,103, Appendix Collection;Sister Providencia to Lee Metcalf,March 13, 1957,Metcalf 2426. Papers;Dorothy Bohn, conversationwith author,October 25, 1984, 38. U.S. Congress,Senate Subcommitteeon IndianAffairs of the GreatFalls;Marsha Daniels, "Interviewwith Sister Genevieve McBride," Committeeon Interiorand InsularAffairs, "Federal Indian Policy," soundcassette, 1984,Critical Writing Project Great Falls High School, Hearingson S. 809, S. Con. Res. 3, and S. 331, 85th Cong., 1st sess., GreatFalls; Lois MurrayS.P., conversationwith author,October 11, May 13, 1957;"Statistics About Hill 57, April,1957, collected by Mrs. 1990, GreatFalls. Dave LaMere,B. P. W. delegateand compiledby Mr.Richard Charles 36. Mother Philippe De Cesaree, Superior General, to Sister of GreatFalls," and "Statementof Mrs. Dave LaMere,"Hill 57, May Providencia,October 9, 1967,and SisterXavier, Provincial Superior to 1957,Great Falls, Montana,both in CascadeCouncil Records. Also in Sister Providencia,December 12, 1968, S. ProvidenciaPapers. 1957 Sister Providenciaand her college studentswrote and dissemi- 37. Sister Providencia,"5 Planks to Nail Down 57 Problems,"S. nated: "A PreliminaryReport from the Worshipin Understanding," ProvidenciaPapers; Laws, Resolutionsand Memorialsof the State of "Economicand SocialPicture for Hill57 Families,""These Children of Montanapassed by the 35th LegislativeAssembly in RegularSession Hill57 FamiliesWere Not in School OpeningDay, September 3, 1957," (Helena:State PublishingCo., 1957), 764; "Extensionof remarksof all in CascadeCouncil Records.

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In Great Falls Sister Providencia'scampaign By 1958 James Murray and Lee Metcalf had gained momentumwhen a group of her college grown more outspoken on Indian concerns. In students organizedto lobby as the Friends of Hill July 1956 and again in January 1957, Murray, 57. With Sister Providenciathey worked enthusi- Senate chairmanof the Interiorand IndianAffairs asticallyon a new project,the selection andprepa- Committee since 1955, introduced concurrent rationof a Hill57 spokespersonto testify at special resolutions"to improve the standardof the Ameri- hearings in Washington,D.C. Sister Providencia can Indianwithout exacting termination of federal already had secured donations for the trip from protectionof Indianproperty or of any other rights GertrudeLindgren, chairperson of the Business as its price." Metcalf, a member of the House and ProfessionalWomans' Club, and local Indian Interiorand InsularAffairs Committee, spoke fre- women. In May Eunice La Mere, Hill 57 resident quentlyagainst termination policies. He addressed and Rocky Boy's enrollee, joined other Montana the National Congress of American Indians con- Indianleaders fromthe Crow,Blackfeet, and Flat- ventions in 1956 and again in 1958. At the latter, head reservations.She told congressmen that 62 held in Missoula, Montana, Metcalf, wearing a percent of Hill 57 residents lived on relief and the "brightfeathered bonnet,"gave the keynote ad- populationwas growing. Sister Providencia ap- dress to 200 delegates, representing270,000 per- plauded La Mere's and other firsthand Indian sons belonging to thirty tribes in twenty states. testimonies that fueled the growing nationalcriti- Earlierthat year he had spoken twice to meetings cism of relocation and terminationpolicies.38 of the IndianRights Association. Sister Providencia monitoredsuch public statements with pleasure. They contributedto what historian Francis Paul Prucha called "an outcry too loud to ignore." Popular opinion thus forced Interior Secretary Fred A. Seaton to give a radiobroadcast from the NavajoReservation in WindowRock, Arizona, on September 14, 1958, repudiatingHouse Concur- rent Resolution 108 and criticizingpast interpre- ore often inthe mid-1950s Montana's tationsof the terminationbill. He declaredinstead lawmakers took their cues on Indian that the only qualificationsfor ending the Indians' theirtribal constituents and issues from relationshipto the government should be tribal of American the leaders of the NationalCongress readiness and "acceptanceof the plan prior to Robert C. Indians, characterizedby sociologist action by Congress."40 Dayas "theprincipal Indian power group to grapple Sister Providenciacontinued to lobby, but less the Bureau with the shifting goals and tactics of the lone Don Quixote or Sob Sister of GreatFalls of IndianAffairs and the Departmentof the Inte- and more with the assurance her Blackfeet name of Montana's Indian rior." Significantlyseveral implied: "She-Who-Captures-Two-Horses-in- Wetzel Walter leaders, Walter (Blackfeet), Battle."Actively she sought more publicityfor Hill Salishand Kootenai McDonald(Flathead: tribes), 57. During the summer of 1958 she renewed her Peck:Assiniboine and FredaBeazley (Fort tribe), formerWashington-based friendship with author/ officers in the MontanaInter-tribal Policy Board, broadcasterRobert McCormick and provided him also became officers of the National Congress. with an Indian bibliographyfor his prospective Besides oppositionto termination,they criticized national telecast. Later that year she watched the government'srelocation policy and declared NationalBroadcasting Company cameras film Hill concentrate instead that "thegovernment should 57. Then on Sunday afternoon, November 13, not on relocatingindustry to the reservationand 1958, McCormick narrated the "Kaleidoscope" the Indianto the industry."39

Metcalf,"The Bureau of IndianAffairs," speech, NationalCongress of Lee 39. RobertC. Day, 'The Emergenceof Activismas a SocialMove- AmericanIndians, September 17,1958, Missoula, Montana; Metcalf, in HowardM. BruceA.Chadwick, and Robert C. Day, eds., 'The Need forRevision of FederalIndian Policy," speech, IndianRights ment," Bahr, and NativeAmericans Today: Sociological Perspectives (New York: Harper Association,January 3, 1958,Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February & Reservation)Char-Koosta, September 4,1958,Mt. Kisko, NewYork, all in the MetcalfPapers; DailyMissoulian, Row, 1972) 807; (Flathead TheUnited Glacier January29, 1959;Freda Augusta September17, 1958;Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father: 1958; (Browning) Reporter, Lincoln: MHS;Walter Wetzel, telephone conversationwith StatesGovernment and theAmerican Indian (2vols., University Beasley Papers, of the InteriorFred A. March25, 1992. of NebraskaPress, 1984), 2:1056;Secretary author, radio CascadeCoun- 40. James E. Murray,S. Con. Res. 85, (Improvementof Standard Seaton,reprint of September13, 1958, broadcast, of Livingof AmericanIndians), Cong. Rec., 84th Cong.,2d sess., 1956, cil Records. and S. Con.Res. 3, (Standardof Livingof the 41. Sister Providenciato Lee Metcalf, January 1, 1959, Sister 102,pt. 9:11926; Murray, Metcalf American Rec.,85th Cong., 1st sess., 1957,103,pt. 1:278; Providencia,'To all neglected relatives..." January29, 1959, Indian)Cong. which documentfacts Lee "A of Two Congresses,"speech, NationalCongress Papers;Sister Providencia,"Bibliographic data Metcalf, Story Providencia of AmericanIndians, September 25, 1956, Salt Lake City, Utah; Lee in 'The AmericanStranger'," n.d., S. Papers.

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program's "The American Stranger,"which de- celerated PublicWorks, might be used locally. In picted the "chronic distress" among the May 1965 a group of concerned citizens formeda Menominee Indiansin Wisconsin and Montana's privatecorporation called Opportunities,Inc., to Flathead, Blackfeet, and off-reservationIndians contractwith the federal governmentto adminis- represented by Hill 57. Sister Providencia ex- ter anti-povertyprograms locally and provide "a pressed joy to Metcalfin "beingcaught in a whirl- community house with a trained staff for assis- pool of reaction.As a result of the programthe true tance to the Indiansand also unfortunatesof other native feels less a stranger and others now view races."On May 15, 1963, Sister Providenciaexu- themselvesas strangeAmericans who shouldknow berantlywrote, "DearMother Provincial,Things so little about their neighbors and their survival are really happening and moving for Hill 57 at problems."41 last."44 Sister Providenciaencouraged other commen- When she addressed a Missoula audience giv- tary as well. In December 1959 she took visiting ing "An Overview of the War on Poverty," in journalistRobert Fenwick to Hill 57. Laterin the December 1966 Sister Providenciatold how pro- year she and others greeted Democratic vice- grams engendered by the 1964 Economic Oppor- presidentialcandidate LyndonJohnson in Great tunity Act were operating in Great Falls. The Falls.At an October8 receptionin his honor at the populationof Hill 57 had decreased because In- Great Falls civic center, Johnson declared that dian families had moved into town to participate "the case of the landless Indians on Hill 57 is in local CommunityAction Programs,the Neigh- primarilya federal responsibility."42 borhoodyouth corps, and the Headstartprogram. Otherfamilies, however, had chosen to stay on the hill, andSister Providenciawould note that in 1971 Hill 57 had become "areligious center for worship services attended by Indians from Wyoming, Canada,and the RockyBoy's and Blackfeetreser- A s pleased as she was with national vations."She described the "vigorouscultural life publicitysurrounding the hill, from a tac- of their own that is just as motivatedby the ancient ticalpoint of view, SisterProvidencia con- social and religious ideals of the buffalo days as sidered a spring 1961 visit from a congressional it ever was."45 task force particularly significant because the Sister Providenciacontinued to workand lobby Departmentof the Interiorhad directedit to inves- on Indianissues throughthe next decade. Murton tigate specificallythe problemsof eligibilityfor aid McCluskey, a Blackfeet leader and former direc- to Indians living in the cities. The task force's tor of the Great Falls Indian Education Office, reportsubsequently recommended federal aid for commentedon SisterProvidencia's ability to bring Indian communities and spurred passage of the people together on issues when she chaired and 1961 and 1963 augmentationsto the 1956 Adult organizedmeetings. She was also a consultantfor EducationAct and the enactment in 1962 of the CommunityAction Agencies of the Officeof Eco- ManpowerTraining and Development Act that nomic Opportunityfor four communitiesand four aided Indianswherever they lived.43 tribes in Montana.Her papers reveal her pride in In April she applaudedthe implementationof being adopted by the Blackfeet, Gros Ventre, one of her 1957 "Planks"when GreatFalls Mayor Assiniboine, and Crow tribes.46 WilliamH. Swanberg appointed a citizen's com- In recent years historians have noted how the mittee of seven to investigatethe problemsof local emergence of Indianactivism and self-determina- Indians.A month later Metcalfmet with the com- tion in the 1960s and 1970s originated in the mittee, Sister Providencia,and her classes at the conflicts of the 1940s and 1950s in part as the College of GreatFalls to explainhow new federal threatof terminationist policies strengthened tribal programs,such as the CivilianConservation Corps, Area Redevelopment,low-cost housing, and Ac- 45. Sister Providencia,"An Overview of the War on Poverty," December28, 1966, MetcalfPapers; PL 88-452,U.S. Stat., v. 78, 88th 42. Robert W. Fenwick, "America'sLost People," Denver'Post, Cong., 2d sess., 1964, p. 508; Sister Providenciato ElizabethAnn January1, 1960;Great Falls Tribune,October 28, 1960. Cooper,August 4, 1971, S. ProvidenciaPapers; James ParkerShield, 43. AdultEducation Act, PL84-959, U.S. Stat.,v. 70, 84th Cong.,2d "Hill57 Serves as a SpiritualRetreat," September 14, 1980,and James sess, 1956,p. 986, and augmentationsto it: PL 87-273,U.S. Stat.,v. 75, ParkerShield, "MisconceptionsAbout Indians,"November 9, 1980, 87th Cong.,1st sess, 1961,p. 571, and PL88-230, U.S. Stat.,v. 77, 88th both in GreatFalls Tribune. Cong., 1st sess., 1963, p. 471; ManpowerTraining and Development 46. MurtonMcCluskey, telephone conversation with author,Sep- Act, PL 88-415,U. S. Stat., v. 78, 87th Cong., 2d sess., 1962,p. 388. tember 18, 1990. 44. Sister Providenciato Mother Provincial,May 15, 1963, S. 47. PeterIverson, "Building toward Self-Determination: Plains and ProvidenciaPapers; memorandum, "Hill 57 CommitteeDiscussion with SouthwesternIndians in the 1940s and 1950s," WesternHistorical SenatorMetcalf-College, May 2, 1963,"and BenjaminW. Hilley to Quarterly,16 (April1985), 173;Burt, Tribalismin Crisis,126; Walter MerrillW. Englund,May 10, 1965, MetcalfPapers. Wetzel, telephone conversationwith author,March 25, 1992.

This content downloaded from 174.19.24.231 on Thu, 4 Apr 2013 12:35:05 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Joan Bishop resolves. Historian Peter Iverson contends that to an Indianeducation meeting in Billingsthis past we have not given sufficientcredit to the enduring week. All I could do was just sit there and shake natureof Indiansin this country.Sister Providencia my head in wonder. The new definition of an played a role in this growth especially when she Indiancovering landless and terminatedIndians, encouraged and advised MontanaIndian leaders the competent leadership of Indians from differ- and assisted them in communicatingwith Wash- ent states, the deference of federaloffices to them. ington's Politicians and bureaucrats.Thereafter All I can say is WOWin college vocabulary and she participatedin a new praisethe Lord... our old decade of active planning. battle, you and I since As chairperson of the 1955."49 Montana Inter-tribal For more than two Policy Board's Steering decades Sister Provi- Committee in 1960, she dencia exercised her tal- held meetings in Great ents as a leader, teacher, Fallsand Browning to help writer, and speaker, mo- prepare Montana tribes bilizingforces andinvolv- andthe NationalCongress ing others. She startedby ofAmericanIndians forthe building a rapport with June 1961 American In- Indian friends, then she dianChicago Conference, organizedcommitted stu- a harbingerof Red Power dents and convinced a movementsof subsequent nucleus of Great Falls years. Blackfeet leader citizens that action and Walter Wetzel appointed understandingwere nec- her tribal consultant and essary. To Metcalf she acknowledged her coun- was a "sparkplugand a sel as he worked through catalyst"who made Hill ihe Montana Inter-tribalct - 57 a national symbol of Policy Boardand as presi- off-reservation poverty, dent of the National Con- thereby helping bring gress of American Indi- d.o abouta change in federal ans.47 E2 Indianpolicy. For Murray By 1966 Sister Provi- she "spoke the con- dencia had seen changes science of those of us who and issued the challenge Sister Providenciain Spokane,c. 1980 areconcerned with Indian in her direct style: "Well Sister Providenciain Spokane,c. 1980 welfare."50 folks,"she wrote, alluding In the late 1970s Sister to past history, "tothe People of the Buffalo:The Providenciaretired and wrote A Shiningfrom the drums are sounding here, muffled it may be, but Mountains,a history of the Sisters of Providence steady and strong. I hope that they are taken up Mission established in 1864 at St. Ignatius, Mon- across the plains and I warn the dinosaurs who tana.Thereafter she lived in the Sisters of Charity still think the Indians are 'things' to get pushed home at Mt. St. Joseph in Spokane,Washington, around-to move out of the way."48 which she described as "that place of blissful A letter Sister Providencia sent to Senator quiet."After her death at age eighty on December Metcalf in 1971 summarized the results of her 23,1989, FatherRobert Fox salutedher duringthe quest: '"Whata long step from the War of '54 and homily: "Dearand joyful friend who came charg- the abolishmentof Indiangroup existence. I went ing into our lives," who would "makethe sparks fly and help us hear the thunder roar in the land 48. SisterProvidencia, "To the Peopleof the Buffalo,"June15,1966, of the Shining Mountains."51ots MetcalfPapers. 49. SisterProvidencia to Lee Metcalf,September 20,1972, Metcalf Papers. 50. Lee Metcalf to Sister Providencia,August 8, 1966, Metcalf BISHOPis a writer in where Papers;James E. Murrayto Sister Providencia,May 27, 1958,Murray JOAN Helena, Montana, Collection. she is currentlyresearching the historyof the Lewisand 51. Sister ProvidenciaTolan, S.P., A Shiningfrom the Mountains ClarkCounty Library. She is a graduateof the Univer- (Alberta,Canada: Jasper Printing, 1980); Sister Providencia, memoran- of and has contributed dum, December 19, 1971, and Rev. RobertFox, Homily, recording, sity California,Berkeley, previ- 1989, both in S. ProvidenciaPapers. ously to this magazine.

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