. New $27,000 Building at Reserve Nears Completion
Reverend Philip Gordon is Receiving Strong Support from Outside

Transcribed from the Rice Lake Chronotype - January 13, 1924

The most unique Indian Catholic Church in the United States will likely be completed early this year at Reserve, Wisconsin. To the Chronotype editor Reverend Philip Gordon, pastor, stated that $22,000 had already been expended and that about $5,000 more was needed to complete the building. Father Gordon is a Chippewa Indian, and one of two Indian priests in the United States, the other being Reverend Albert Neganequot of Oklahoma, a Potawatomie Indian.

The former Catholic Church at Reserve was destroyed by fire August 9, 1921, since which time the schoolhouse has been used for services and no parochial school, has been held for two years. The new church under construction is 129 feet long by 40 feed wide and will seat about 300. The walls are 28 inches thick, consisting of concrete on the inside and granite rock facing on the exterior. The church interior is of pioneer style with hewn logs and a reminder of the old medicine lodge. Wampum belts, Indian pipes, crossed calumets, and beads will appear in the stained glass windows. The ceiling will be decorated in brilliant hues of red and blue familiar to the Indians.

The new church will be the fulfillment of a life-long dream of the able Indian pastor. Father Gordon was born near Superior, the village of Gordon being named after his forbearers, and we was educated in the schools of Superior. Later he went to St. Tomas College, St. Paul, then completed his classical and theological studies at Innsbruck, Austria, and spent two years studying at Rome. He saw many of the famous cathedrals of Europe and finally conceived the idea of a church of typical Indian architecture. Father Gordon is very proud of his Indian ancestry, and when it comes to Americanism speaks of himself as one of the original and typical Americans.

This week a big drive is on at Superior under the auspices of the Civic and Commerce Association and other organizations to raise funds for the church, Father Gordon being termed one of Superior's favorite sons.

Among Rice Lake citizens who citizens who have already voluntarily contributed to the building fund are the following: J.S. Crisler $50, Quinn Bros. $50, and J.P. Schneider $60. Others have already indicated they will also contribute. Many of the forbearers of the Chippewa Indians at Reserve use to live around Rice Lake years ago.

In connection with the church at Reserve is a nine-room rectory, and Father Gordon plans to complete the school and also build a community house and a hospital with a dispensary. That he is zealously interested in the welfare of the Indians is indicated by what he done for his own people, and only last week he was at St. Paul and Minneapolis where he secured several carloads of food and help from the government for the destitute Indians on the White Earth Reservation.

Twelve miles east of Reserve at Pakwa-wang was a mission church and cemetery with 250 Indian graves, which was flooded when the Wisconsin-Minnesota Light & Power Company built it new conservation dam two years ago that flooded about 20,000 acres of land. The matter of payment for damages is now in process of adjustment.

Reverend Philip Gordon has been named a member of the committee to outline a new Indian policy for the United States, the other members being Judge E.H. Gary, George W. Wickersham, Nicholas Murray Butler, William H. Hays, Frank Munsey, William Randolph Hearst, Robert H. McCormick, Elihu Root, Arthur Brisbane, George Ade and Albert J. Beveridge. Father Gordon has for years been fighting for greater freedom of the Indians from what is termed a policy of bureaucratic control by the government.

 
Father Philip Gordon
1885 - 1947
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