St. Stephen's Mission

I have been a frequent visitor of the St. Stephen’s Mission and have taken for granted the rich cultural heritage as something fun to look at during a boring mass. However, after discussing it in class I have been compelled to do a little more research on the subject.

The United States Government created the Wind River Reservation, in the Wind River Mountains near what is now Lander and Riverton. The Northern Arapahoe and Shoshone tribes began to seek structure in this new land. Chief Black Coal was quoted in 1878 as saying, “This (land in southern Wyoming) was the country of my fathers, now dead and dying. We love our children. We very much want a good school house, and a good man to teach our children to read your language, that they may grow up to be intelligent men and women, like the children of the White man. And then, when Sunday comes, we would be glad of some good man to teach our children about the Great Spirit." Soon after, Bishop James O’Connor offered $5000 and with the help of government funds founded a school and church. Bishop O’Connor and New York Mission of the Society of Jesus sent Father John J. Jutz, a German missionary, to lead the new church. Father Jutz arrived in April of 1884 to find that Reverend John Roberts had already been assigned to the post. Jutz then decided to travel to the far eastern end of the reservation. The Northern Arapahos settled there were open to the idea of a new school. Jutz arrived at Black Coal’s camp in May and founded what was to become the St. Stephen’s Mission with the help of Brother Ursis Nunlist.

The original Mission consisted of three buildings, a church which also housed the boys dormitory (the structure was destroyed by a fire 1928), a sister’s covenant and girls dormitory (this building was demolished in 2003 due to structural damage), and what is now known as Sister Incarnata Hall. The church was rebuilt and that structure is what stands today.

The Jesuits have had a history of denying the Native’s their cultural history, including forbidding the students at the St. Stephen’s boarding school to speak their Native Language. However, in the past 30 years the Mission has moved forward and began to incorporate the Arapaho and Shoshone culture into the church. In the mid 1990’s the interior of the church was in need of restoration and the missionaries combined with the Native American worshippers, remodeled the church in a traditional Native American depiction of Catholic imagery. This consisted of murals depicting, on the left side of the alter, a Native American Virgin Mary in a swirling Wyoming landscape, and on the right side, a Native American Jesus galloping toward the Great Spirit. There are also traditional Indian Stations of the Cross as well as a symbolic ceiling mural. The stained glass windows were installed later, in 1996, with the help of Central Wyoming College art professor, Sally Wesaw. The windows were designed by local artists and symbolize Native American teaching of the Great Spirit including sacred hunts, creation, and sacred animals.

This is an example of cross cultural change and the gradual combining of traditional native teachings and forced structured religion. The Jesuits attempted to initiate a sterile Christian doctrine but their attempts were unsuccessful until the native people integrated their own traditional rites and rituals. In 2010, the Jesuits gave up leadership of St. Stephen’s Mission to the Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne. The people celebrated this with a traditional pow-wow ceremony. The church, ironically, serves primary Caucasian Catholic worshipers formerly from St. Margaret’s Church in Riverton.