Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022
Rosemma Coursolle was born on December 13, 1924, in Morton, Minnesota. Her parents were Isaac H. Coursolle (1896-1980) and Annie H. Trudell Coursolle (1899-1941). Her brothers were Raymond and Ernie Coursolle.
Rosemma attended the Pipestone Indian School in Pipestone, Minnesota.
Beginning with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819, the United States enacted laws and implemented policies establishing and supporting Indian boarding schools across the country. The idea was to culturally assimilate Indigenous children by forcibly relocating them from their families and communities to distant residential facilities where their cultural identities, languages, and beliefs were to be forcibly suppressed according to Pipestone County Star.
For over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their communities.
Rosemma Coursolle attended the Pipestone Indian School in Pipestone, Minnesota.
The boarding school came about as attitudes toward the “correct” treatment of Native people turned toward assimilation with the passage of the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. Many Native people throughout North America resented the assimilation schools, but the Pipestone Indian School inspired particularly active resistance for two reasons. First, it was built illegally on Yankton Sioux reservation land. Second, during the school’s tenure, management of the quarries fell largely to the white superintendent of the school instead of the Yankton people, according to Carleton University’s article, “The Pipestone Indian Training School.” The Yankton’s resistance resulted in a complex battle for legal recognition of Yankton ownership of the quarry land. The conflict was not resolved until 1926, when the Supreme Court determined in Yankton Sioux Tribe of Indians v. United States that the building of the school violated the 1858 Treaty of Washington.
The students at the Pipestone Indian School were primarily Ojibwe, Dakota, and Lakota, but also Ho-Chunk, Potawatomi, Sac and Fox, Arikara, Blackfeet, and Omaha, and came from as far away as Montana and Michigan.
The Pipestone Indian School was used from 1893 until 1953. Efforts are underway to learn more about the cemetery on what is now Pipestone National Monument land that was used for students at the Pipestone Indian School. The marker, which was in a part of Pipestone National Monument that is not open to the public, was inscribed with the words “Peace For Ever,” according to the book The Blood of the People by Theodore Catton and Diane L. Krahe.
According to The Blood of the People, the cemetery was used for children who died at the school and did not have family to claim their remains. It is believed that the bodies of students who died at the school after 1904 were either sent to their homes or buried at Woodlawn Cemetery.
According to the book, as many as nine people might have been buried in the cemetery. Only three of them were identified in the book based on obituaries published in the Pipestone County Star.
The first was a 12-year-old girl named Annie Tappinnatis, who died in 1896 from tuberculosis. The second was an 11-year-old girl named Mabel Campbell, who died of tuberculosis in 1897. The third was a seven-year-old girl named Florence Resler, who died of pneumonia in 1903. The tribal affiliation of the girls was not listed and is not known. There may be more who were buried at the cemetery, including additional children or adults who were associated with the school, which was in operation from 1893 to 1953, according to “Researching the Pipestone Indian School cemetery” in Pipestone County Star.
Rosemma Coursolle married Amos Laverne Crooks, Jr., on January 25, 1947, in Renville, Minnesota. Amos, who was born in 1919, died on July 13, 1999. They had two children, Amy Ellen and Glynn Allyn Crooks.
Rosemma was a member of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. Rosemma Coursolle Crooks journeyed to the spirit world on October 14, 2003, at her home in Prior Lake, Minnesota, surrounded by family members, according to Sota Iya Ye Yapí, Vol. 34, No. 42, October 29, 2003.
A traditional all-night wake was held at the home of her son, Glynn Crooks, on October 15 and 16. Visitation continued at the Tiowakan Spiritual Center where the funeral was held at 2 p.m. on October 17, 2003. Interment was at the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community Cemetery. The funeral service was conducted by Pastor Marlene Helgemo and Danny Seaboy, Sr. Traditional music was provided by the Wahpekute Singers.
Bibliography
Catton, Theodore and Krahe, Diane L. The Blood of the People. National Park Service, 2016.
Kuphal, Kyle. “Researching the Pipestone Indian School cemetery.” Pipestone County Star, 9 Dec. 2021. www.pipestonestar.com/articles/researching-the-pipestone-indian-school-cemetary/.
“The Pipestone Indian Training School.” Religions in Minnesota. religionsmn.carleton.edu/exhibits/show/pipestone/pipestonehistory/the-pipestone-indian-training-
Sota Iya Ye Yapi, vol. 34, no. 42, 29 Oct. 2003.