Pine Ridge

Sacred Heart Church

History

Located at the central intersection in Pine Ridge Village, Sacred Heart was founded in 1890, the first Catholic church organized on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Services were conducted in a converted store building built in 1880 until a church was completed in 1927. This served the growing community until the present-day, larger Sacred Heart Church complex was dedicated in 1972.

Sacred Heart Church serves the largest congregation on the Pine Ridge Reservation, including the communities of Pine Ridge Village, Slim Buttes, Calico, Wolf Creek, and Batesland, together with families from White Clay and Rushville.

Staff

  • Fr. Brad Held, S.J., Pastor
  • Angela Stover, Office Manager
  • Carol LaDeaux, Religious Education Director
  • Marsha Tibbitts, Community Outreach Minister
  • Dave Bark, Maintenance

Address

P.O. Box 359
Pine Ridge, South Dakota 57770
(605) 867-5551 (office)
(605) 867-6287 (kitchen)
(605) 867-1969 (fax)

 
Holy Rosary Church

History

During the Council of White Clay on September 17, 1876, Chief Red Cloud demanded that the "Black Robes" be allowed to assist his people. When construction began in 1896 on Holy Rosary Mission Church, the fruit of Red Cloud’s hope came to bear. With its main beams planed from nearby trees and its red bricks fired from local clay, Holy Rosary Church was the result of Lakota, Franciscan and Jesuit labors. The church held its first Mass on Christmas Day in 1898.

Unfortunately, the historic church—the first country brick church west of the Missouri River—burned to the ground on Good Friday, April 5, 1996. All that was salvaged was its flame-scarred baptismal font, which exists today in a new church on the grounds of the original one. Dedicated by Bishop Blaise Cupich on October 7, 1998, the new Holy Rosary Church has traditional Lakota stained glass windows that are the result of a collaboration between Red Cloud High School art students under the direction of Lakota Elder Francis He Crow and Fr. Dave Smith, S.J. Four Lakota artists designed and executed the Stations of the Cross, which also hang in the church. Mass is held daily at Holy Rosary.

Address

100 Mission Drive
Pine Ridge, South Dakota 57770
(605) 867-5491