Almeda Jones St. Clair (February 28, 1868 – December 8, 1952), also known as Amelia St. Clair, was an American indigenous Christian missionary, teacher, translator, and expert lacemaker,[1] whose lace work was shown at the 1900 Paris Exposition, and presented to Queen Alexandra.[2]
Almeda Jones St. Clair | |
|---|---|
 Almeda Jones St. Clair, from a 1909 publication | |
| Born | February 28, 1868 Dakota Territory |
| Died | December 8, 1952 Redwood County, Minnesota |
| Other names | Amelia St. Clair |
| Occupation(s) | Educator, missionary, lacemaker |
Biography
editAlmeda Jones was born in Dakota Territory, the daughter of Mary Jones. She married Henry Benjamin Whipple St. Clair, an indigenous (Sioux) Protestant Episcopal clergyman,[3] in 1889. They had thirteen children together,[4] and celebrated fifty years of marriage together in 1939, at a community event at the Birch Coulee Indian Mission in Minnesota.[5]
As a minister's wife,[5] St. Clair taught and worked in various indigenous communities in the Upper Midwest. She taught lacemaking at Bishop Whipple Mission in Minnesota,[2] initially as assistant and translator for missionary Susan Salisbury.[6][7] Her lace designs included a pillow covering made for Queen Alexandra.[8] She also sang hymns in "the Dakota language" for community groups.[9] In the 1930s, she and her family lived at the Flandreau Sioux reservation, and she taught at the Flandreau Indian School there.[10]
Her son Henry died in 1931.[11] She died in 1952, aged 85 years, in Paxton Township, Redwood County, Minnesota.[12] Her great-granddaughter, Iyekiyapiwiŋ Darlene St. Clair, is a professor at St. Cloud State University and director of the school's Multicultural Resource Center.[13]
References
edit- ^ "Short Items Gazetted". The Redwood Gazette. 1901-06-12. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-07-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Zempel, Gavin (October 9, 2023). "Lacemaking at Birch Coulee, 1893–1926". MNopedia. Retrieved 2024-07-29.
- ^ Shelby, G. Frank (August 1905). "A Sioux Indian Chapter". St. Andrews Cross. 19 (11): 13–14.
- ^ The History of Redwood County, Minnesota. H. C. Cooper, jr. 1916. pp. 431–432.
- ^ a b "Rev. and Mrs. Henry St. Clair to Observe Golden Wedding". The Redwood Gazette. 1939-11-02. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-07-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Eidsvig, Maxine V. (June 7, 2002). "Lace Ladies". Ojibwe News. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
- ^ "Taught to Make Lace". Star Tribune. 1949-10-22. p. 9. Retrieved 2024-07-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Whipple, E. (1909). "The Church and the Dakotas of Birch Coolie". The Spirit of the Missions. 74: 203–207 – via HathiTrust.
- ^ "'I See By the Gazette'". The Redwood Gazette. 1933-04-27. p. 9. Retrieved 2024-07-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ U.S., Indian Census Rolls, 1937, via Ancestry.
- ^ "Henry St. Clair Dies in Sisseton Monday". The Redwood Gazette. 1931-09-10. p. 12. Retrieved 2024-07-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Death date found on her gravestone, and confirmed in the Minnesota, U.S., Death Index, 1908-2017, via Ancestry.
- ^ Fulthorp, Deborah. "Iyekiyapiwiŋ Darlene St. Clair: The Sacred Story of a Dakota Woman Challenging Knowledge Inequity" in Colleen D. Hartung, ed., Women Advancing Knowledge Equity: The Parliament of the World's Religions (Parliament of the World's Religions 2023): 121.
External links
edit- "Almeda", photograph of Almeda Jones St. Clair, in the Bishop Henry B. Whipple Indian photograph collection, Minnesota Historical Society
- "Six Indian Women Displaying Lacework", including Almeda Jones St. Clair, in the Bishop Henry B. Whipple Indian photograph collection, Minnesota Historical Society
- "Mrs. Hibbard, Almeda St. Clair, Susan Salisbury, and Jeanette Crooks Campbell", a photograph in the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society