About St. Francis Mission
Historic, Historical Places, Interesting Places, Historic Districts
St. Francis Mission is a Roman Catholic mission complex on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in St. Francis, South Dakota, among the Lakota-Sioux Native Americans. The mission was founded in 1886 by the Jesuits who were welcomed by Bishop Martin Marty, and it soon grew to a large collection of buildings. Most of these were destroyed by a fire in 1916, but many were soon rebuilt. The mission complex includes 26 buildings, the most prominent of which are St. Charles Borromeo Church and the 1916 Drexall Hall, the latter a multifunction structure providing classrooms, meeting spaces, and residential spaces. The complex also includes one of two known copies of a statue of Kateri Tekakwitha by Joseph-Émile Brunet. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
