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Saint Katharine Drexel founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, a congregation of missionary nuns dedicated to the welfare of American Indians and African Americans (1891).   She contributed more than $12 million of her inheritance (the Drexel family of Philadelphia) to a variety of charitable and missionary activities among American Indians, Alaska Natives, and African Americans.  She also founded and endowed several churches and schools serving American Indians and African Americans, including St. Catherine's School, Sante Fe (1894) and Xavier University, New Orleans (1925).

Hundreds of letters, photographs, and other materials on her philanthropy are available in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives.