Historical Marker · No. 570
Father Alexandra Ravoux
Brown County · South Dakota
Erected by Catholic Order of Foresters Court 1389, Aberdeen
The priest's name was Augustin. Augustin Ravoux was born at Langeac in France in 1815, ordained at Dubuque in January 1840, and learned Dakota from the Faribault brothers, who translated his prayer book into the language. His best-known ministry came seventeen years after this mass: he baptized 33 of the 38 Dakota men hanged together at Mankato on December 26, 1862, after the war in Minnesota. He died in St. Paul in 1906. The village here was Cuthead, a band of the Ihanktonwana, the Yanktonai.
What the plaque says
In 1845 near this spot in a Cuthead Indian village Father Alexandra Ravoux celebrated the first mass of record in South Dakota Sponsors Catholic Order of Foresters Court 1389 Aberdeen
Where it stands
45.71082, -98.31015 · Directions
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