Holy Childhood of Jesus School

This Indian school was founded in 1829 by Father Pierre Déjean, who came here with two teachers, Miss Elizabeth Williams and Joseph L’Etorneau. The Indians built a church and the first school building, a hewn-log structure, forty-six-by-twenty feet. The school was both a boarding and a day school, with twenty-five boarders in its initial enrollment of sixty-three Indian boys and girls, who were taught, in French, the three “R’s” and vocational skills. Father Déjean was followed in 1831 by Father Frederic Baraga, the future “Apostle of the Ottawas and Chippewas.” Under the Franciscan Fathers, who arrived in 1884, and the School Sisters of Notre Dame, who came in 1886, the school continues to serve the state and community, caring for Indian children.