Coeur d'Alene Tribe to unveil memorial for Sisters Building in DeSmet

DeSmet, Idaho – The Coeur d’Alene Tribe will pay tribute to the Sisters of Charity of Providence Boarding school, known locally as the Sisters Building, that was destroyed in a fire February 3, 2011 with a public unveiling of a memorial that has been erected to honor the history of the site.

“The Old Sisters building burned down and since then we have searched for a proper way to tell the story of the convent and the Nuns to bring education to the tribe,” said Ernest Stensgar who has been helping to lead the project. “We decided to do it with pictures and tell the story of the tribe being removed to DeSmet and what happened during that era.”

The 3-story building was originally constructed in 1908 and was used as a girls boarding school until 1974. It featured a living quarters for the students and nuns, classrooms and a church. Since the closure, the building had been used in various ways; it was the location of the Tribe’s Cut N Sew business and also housed the Tribe’s Department of Education Employees for a number of years. It had been, prior to the fire, been used mostly for storage.

The memorial unveiling will be held at the site of the building in DeSmet, Idaho on Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 1:00 pm.