Mary Immaculate School for Native Americans

The Mary Immaculate School for Native Americans was constructed in June 1908 for educating children of the Coeur d’Alene tribe in the Sacred Heart Mission in Desmet, Idaho.

It was eventually closed as a school in 1974 and the title of the building was transferred from the Sisters of Charity of Providence to the Coeur d’Alene tribe.

In 1740 one of the tribe's greatest chiefs, Circling Raven, told his people of a vision he had of men in black robes with crossed sticks that would come to teach the Schetsu'umsh new knowledge and new medicine.

When the Jesuit missionaries came to the Bitterroot Valley a hundred years later, the Coeur d'Alene Indians received them as the men in black robes that Circling Raven prophesied about.

His methods for this conversion process were based on the results of Jesuit missionaries in Paraguay, which included isolation of the native peoples from other tribes and outsiders and increasing the potential for agrarian self-sufficiency.

The Jesuit records indicate that according to Father Point, the conversion rate of the Coeur d’Alene Indians was 100%, though his report is considered to be exaggerated.

The responsibility for the cost and construction of the church would fall on the Native Americans, who would be meagerly compensated in small meals by the Sacred Heart Mission.

Indian students had their hair cut upon arrival, were often only allowed to speak English, and dressed according to American styles of clothing.

Following these discussions, the governmental agents dropped the public school proposal and granted the Sacred Heart mission over 1200 acres to provide the resources necessary to educate the tribal students.