The Wider Image: Native American survivors of alleged boarding school sex abuse want justice
A handout letter obtained from the South Dakota Unified Judicial System, from Thomas Hillenbrand, former abbot of Blue Cloud Abbey, to a former St. Paul’s Indian Mission School student named Anita Honke (nee Markley) and her husband Richard. In the letter, dated April 19, 2003, Hillenbrand apologized to Honke for harm allegedly done to her as a child by "Fr. Francis," a priest from Blue Cloud Abbey who had taught at the boarding school. That now-deceased clergyman, whose full name was Francis Suttmiller, was claimed by locals to have "abused young girls at the mission. God only knows how many," the abbot wrote. The local Catholic diocese for years has contended in court proceedings that it’s not responsible for any purported harm because it didn’t operate the school or have direct oversight of the priests and nuns who staffed it. South Dakota Unified Judicial System/via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. SEARCH "O'HARE YANKTON" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES
