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 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Montana Historical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Montana: The Magazine of Western History. http://www.jstor.org 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 s * x e _ F s*S K . From Hill 57 t Sister Providencia Tolan' uz cn Off-Reservatio cSg o o 3 D 13 PZ D s - | Js X . _= s*es *4. w.^ . w - P F - t; h 3 s ,Pf we .+, ,£4 S. - s-t - . S ., v e ib S-|: ka -F * r ' ;Jb_ * s s K * w s? * TF - * E w _ * t- ** - ze e * _sE,. W * .e w. - 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) 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 Montana The Magazine of WesternHistory 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 contrib- uted to substantivechanges in those policies con- cerned with terminationand relocation. She be- lieved that Indianvalues and pride could only be perpetuated on the reservations. "As a sociolo- gist,"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. 18 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 dur- ing 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