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Dakota Territory must have looked strange and daunting to young women raised in green and friendly Ireland.  Yet Sisters of Mercy answered the call from bishops in the Dakotas to establish hospitals and teach Native American children.  Mercy history in North Dakota reads like an adventure, its heroines braving long journeys, overwhelming poverty, and fierce opposition.

Sisters of Mercy came from Omaha to Yankton, South Dakota, to open a school.  They were soon deeply in debt and having serious disagreement with the bishop.  After the bishop disbanded the community, two sisters made their way to Belcourt, North Dakota, where they built a boarding school for Ojibway children.  Struggling with government policies, the sisters appealed to Katherine Drexel, who provided a school building and supplies.  The school, however, was destroyed by fire in 1907.  The sisters had already opened a hospital in Devils Lake; the community moved there from Belcourt.

The Mercy community grew and attracted many young women who came from Ireland to spend the rest of their lives on the northern plains.  Hospitals and schools flourished in Devils Lake, Williston, and Valley City.  The hospitals stand today as modern healthcare facilities, to carry on the ministry of the Sisters of Mercy to the poor and sick.