![\"Blue](\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/files\/2025\/03\/St.-Katharines-Hall-Marker.jpg\")
<\/a>St. Katharine’s Hall Marker, 2025, Clausson<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Shrine Church and St. Katharine’s Hall, 2025, Clausson<\/p><\/div>\n
It\u2019s a crisp February day, and the sun is finally showing its face again. In the sunlight, it feels almost like spring. A brisk walk from campus, with admittedly a few wrong turns, brought me to St. Katharine\u2019s Hall and the wayside marker in front commemorating the site. Situated beside the old St. Patrick\u2019s Church, now called the Shrine Church, is the hall built at the directive of Katharine Drexel, as a location for teaching the Native Americans at the Carlisle Indian School. <\/span>[1]<\/a><\/p>\n Drexel was born in 1858 as the heir to an incredibly rich and prominent family in Philadelphia. She was raised firmly in the Roman Catholic faith. After her father\u2019s passing in 1885, Drexel and her sisters inherited his $15 million-dollar estate.[2]<\/a> In 1889, Drexel made her monastic vows, adding the additional vow to be a \u201cmother and servant of the Indian and Negro races\u201d which is quoted on the marker in front of her hall in Carlisle. [3]<\/a> Using her immense wealth, Drexel traveled about the nation funding, promoting, and teaching at schools for Black and Native American children.[4]<\/a> St. Katharine\u2019s Hall in Carlisle was one of these schools.<\/p>\n Being far more familiar with the more infamous legacy of the Indian boarding schools, generally hearing about them in the context of phrases like \u201ccultural genocide,\u201d \u201cforced assimilation,\u201d or, worse yet, with Captain Pratt\u2019s quote \u201ckill the Indian and save the man,\u201d I was instantly perturbed by what I saw as benign platitudes on the wayside marker.[5]<\/a> I immediately painted Drexel as the stereotypical cruel nun, with high standards and harsh punishments, paired with images of Native students being taken from their families and having their hair cut forcibly. Not a pretty picture\u2014nor an accurate one.<\/p>\n Mother Katharine Drexel, 1941, [S.B.S.<\/a>]<\/p><\/div>\n Drexel was certainly guilty of a \u201cWhite Savior\u201d bias, believing that she was \u201csaving souls\u201d particularly, she said \u201c\u2018in the case of a pagan people, [where] the children may carry into the home the lessons of faith and morality\u2019\u201d taught at the schools she funded.[6]<\/a> For this reason though, she favored building schools on reservations, allowing students to stay with their families. Some Native communities recall her mission sites as \u201cplaces of abuse and neglect,\u201d while others are considered \u201cmodels of cooperation and cultural enrichment.\u201d[7]<\/a> Though none of these schools were nearly so infamously problematic as the Carlisle Industrial school.[8]<\/a> It is also worth noting that despite the way it sounds from the marker, she did not actually work at the Carlisle Indian School itself, rather at the hall bearing her name where she provided only religious education to specifically the Catholic students at the Indian School, which was otherwise Protestant affiliated.[9]<\/a> The “Select Free Colored School” and many of her other schools provided academic education primarily with religious and moral education as well.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n While some would argue that her bias alone makes her a participant in culturicide, I would argue that she was more so a bystander to the attempted eradication of the Native American culture, having worked so near to schools like the Carlisle Indian School, allowing them to commit abuses. Still, in the 21st<\/sup> century there is a hesitance to honor individuals involved with the Carlisle Indian School or the early 20th<\/sup> century Indian education initiative in general because of the stains of racism and abuse on the initiative as a whole. However, this marker was put up by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament\u2014which was founded by St. Katharine\u2014not a government or secular organization, making it seem less out of place.[11]<\/a><\/p>\n St. Patrick’s Church Marker, 2009, William Fischer, Jr., [WEB]<\/p><\/div> Hot-Chee Dogs Marker, 2021, Shane Oliver, [WEB<\/a>]<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n The marker looks remarkably similar to those put up by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, though. (See the image of St. Patrick’s Church marker for reference.)[12]<\/a> Both are dark blue, rectangular, with a flourish at the top, etc. The one for St. Katharine\u2019s Hall has a different insignia on top, though, because it is not a state ordained marker, as those by the Commission are. Other historical markers in Carlisle that aren\u2019t put up by the state come in different colors or shapes to differentiate themselves, such as the \u201cHot-Chee Dogs\u201d marker by the Hamilton Restaurant.[13]<\/a> The marker for St. Katharine\u2019s Hall seems to be attempting to emulate the official historical markers, as though by doing so it presents itself with greater authority and importance.<\/p>\n It may seem that up to this point, I have neglected Drexel\u2019s service to the African American community as noted on the marker. That is because I wanted to end on a wholly positive note. This marker clearly wanted to remember the good work that Drexel did in her life. It instantly led me to skepticism because of its proximity to and mention of the infamous Indian School. While her involvement with Indian schools is checkered, her work with the African American community could be called patronizing at the worst. She stood up for anti-lynching bills, fought against racial profiling, and she educated Black youths without expecting their conversion to Catholicism in return. Being positioned across the street from Carlisle\u2019s historic Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church, it\u2019s a pity the marker didn\u2019t give greater emphasis on Drexel\u2019s egalitarian work.[14]<\/a><\/p>\n Coming at the marker with so much historical, emotional baggage, I felt that the wording of the marker was trying to praise someone with their flowery vow to conceal the reality of their work. Whereas, in reality, the marker\u2019s use of her monastic vow is problematic for an entirely different reason: the vow was spoken before she had actually done the service to the Black and Native American communities, so it fails to really convey the full depth of her service. I wish instead it spoke plainly to her devotion to education and equality, admitting where at times it was misguided but using that to emphasize her opinions on equality that were actually quite progressive at the time. Ironically, a more secular and nuanced marker would paint Drexel as more of a saint than the current one because readers would find it more believable and be able to more fully honor and commemorate her for the truly impressive human that she was.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> \u201cAbout Us\u2014St. Patrick Church,\u201d St. Patrick Church, Carlisle, last modified 2020, accessed February 28, 2025, [WEB<\/a>]; Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (S.B.S.), \u201cSt. Katharine\u2019s Hall,\u201d marker (Carlisle, PA).<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Amanda Bresie, \u201cMother Katharine Drexel\u2019s Benevolent Empire: The Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions and the Education of Native Americans, 1885\u20131935,\u201d in Remapping the History of Catholicism in the United States<\/em>, ed. David J. Endres, Catholic University of America Press, 2017), 72,\u00a0 [JSTOR<\/a>]; \u201cSt. Katharine Drexel,\u201d Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament<\/em>, accessed March 2, 2025, [WEB<\/a>]. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Rachel Bulman, \u201c\u2018Think It, Desire It, Speak It, Act It\u2019: St. Katharine Drexel on Racial Equality,\u201d Word on Fire<\/em>, March 3, 2021, [WEB<\/a>]; S.B.S., \u201cSt. Katharine\u2019s Hall\u201d<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Bresie, \u201cMother Katharine Drexel\u2019s Benevolent Empire,\u201d 71-94; Bulman, \u201c\u2018Think it, Desire It, Speak It, Act It\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Arnold Krupat, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d in Boarding School Voices: Carlisle Indian School Students Speak<\/em>, (University of Nebraska Press, 2021) xiv-xv, [JSTOR<\/a>].<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Bresie, \u201cMother Katharine Drexel\u2019s Benevolent Empire,\u201d 92.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Bresie, \u201cMother Katharine Drexel\u2019s Benevolent Empire,\u201d 93-94.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Krupat, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d xiii-xxx.<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> Amanda West, \u201cSt. Patrick Church and the Indian School\u201d Dickinson College Wiki<\/em>, last modified December 13, 2007, 00:18 [WEB<\/a>].<\/p>\n [10]<\/a> Elisabeth Davis, \u201c\u2018Our Colored and Indian Charges Furnish So Much Amusement for Us\u2019: Catholicism, Assimilation, and the Racial Hierarchy in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1883\u20131918,\u201d Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies<\/em> 91, no. 1 (2024): 47\u201364. [Scholarly Publishing Collective<\/a>]<\/p>\n [11]<\/a> S.B.S., \u201cSt. Katharine\u2019s Hall\u201d<\/p>\n [12]<\/a>\u00a0Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Comission, \u201cSt. Patrick\u2019s Church\u201d marker, Carlisle, PA, 1986.<\/p>\n [13]<\/a> Shane Oliver, \u201cHot-Chee Dogs,\u201d\u00a0Historical Marker Database<\/em>, last updated July 12, 2022, updated by Carl Gordon Moore Jr., [WEB<\/a>].<\/p>\n [14]<\/a> Bulman, \u201c\u2018Think It, Desire It, Speak It, Act It\u2019; Davis, \u201c\u2018Our Colored and Indian Charges\u2019\u201d;\u00a0For more on the Bethel A.M.E. Church\u2019s history see \u201c200 Years of History\u201d Bethel AME Carlisle, 2025, [WEB<\/a>].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" St. Katharine’s Hall Wayside Marker It\u2019s a crisp February day, and the sun is finally showing its face again. In the sunlight, it feels almost like spring. A brisk walk from campus, with admittedly a few wrong turns, brought me to St. Katharine\u2019s Hall and the wayside marker in front commemorating the site. Situated beside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5522,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5522"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a>