6/8/2007: When the Europeans first discovered America, some of the first immigrants of the area were missionaries who came to spread the word of God to the native inhabitants. While the Catholic priests and missionaries were more prominent in the southern part of the United States and into Mexico, missionaries were active among the natives on the Northern plains. Their efforts included not only converting the Native Americans to Christianity, but also establishing monasteries for the men and women. On this day in 1889, the New York Freeman’s Journal and Catholic Register reported on Josephine Crowfeather as the first full-blood Sioux to enter the Benedictine Novitiate.