GUIDE TO CATHOLIC RECORDS ABOUT NATIVE AMERICANS IN THE U.S.
Volume 1: Eastern United States
Louisiana: LA-2

1939-1976

In Fargo, North Dakota, Bishop Aloysius Muench (later Cardinal; 1889-1962) founded the Tekakwitha Conference in collaboration with missionaries among Northern Plains tribes, which became an annual meeting supporting their pastoral mission

1977-1980

Under the leadership of Rev. Gilbert F. Hemauer, O.F.M.Cap. (1938-2016), Sister Kateri Mitchell (Mohawk), S.S.A., and others, and with financial support from the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, the Tekakwitha Conference reorganized. and emerged as a national association to support the spiritual needs of Native American Catholics. It established a national support center, first in Bozeman, and then in Great Falls, Montana.

 1977-present

 The annual conferences of the Tekakwitha Conference became four-day events featuring daily inculturated liturgies, workshops, and pilgrimages to local sites of common interest. It promoted the formation of Kateri circles (local chapters).

2013

The national center moved to a Conference-owned facility in Alexandria, Louisiana