The Jesuits are returning more than 500 acres in South Dakota to the Rosebud Sioux. The formal return of the property is expected to be complete sometime in May.
The property had been given by the US government to the Jesuits in the 1880s for use for churches and cemeteries, according to remarks in a YouTube video by Jesuit Father John Hatcher, president of St. Francis Mission.
"At the beginning of the mission, we had 23 mission stations," Fr Hatcher said. "But over the years as the people moved off the prairie and into cluster housing, those churches were closed because they were considered unnecessary." Other properties never had churches built.
