Thank you for visiting.
Please note that until our name change is "official" this website has been prohibited by the MN Dept of Health, Mortuary Science Section. When this notice disappears, our transition to the Oyate Tawicohan-Franciscan Funeral Services will be available to assist you. Thank you for your understanding.
Presently, we are working toward transitioning the Oyate Tawicohan Funeral Services into Franciscan Funeral Services. At this time, we are still Oyate Tawicohan Funeral Services. Our name means "the way of the people" in the Lakota language and this commitment to respecting the way of the people who use our services will continue into the new funeral service.
We are a faith based funeral service with an emphasis on serving underserved families and individuals and those who cannot or do not want to pay the price of traditional funeral services. Faith based does NOT imply a religious institution or business. As the founder of Franciscan Funeral Services, I can assure you that we provide the same unbiased and respectful services for each family that we serve. As a member of a religious order, I have vowed to follow Jesus the Christ and Saint Francis of Assisi as they reached out to those in need, consoled mourners, and struggled to live from pay check to pay check.
Prior to our beginning five years ago, those who required county burial assistance rarely had a choice of services requested or essential merchandise. The casket that was used, screamed out, "COUNTY BURIAL." It was reinforced cardboard with a tacky grey covering. The concern of those required to use these caskets had less to do about the quality of the casket as it did about the image it created for those who viewed the casket and for the family who often felt that they had not "provided better" for their loved one.
Today, we are able to offer a choice of three metal caskets to those who are planning on county founding. Our price fits well into a $2,100.00 funeral payment and leaves enough for additional services and merchandise.
This past year we have welcomed Helen Williams and Margaret Brooks to our team. Helen has worked with "in need" families for years and has struggled to find funeral directors with whom to work. Margaret provides hearse as well as make up, clothing, and "casketing of the remains." Generally all three of us are at work for the funeral and burial. These women are a blessing to both us and the families we serve.
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Each of us here at Oyate Tawicohan Funeral Services wish you peace and many blessings as you celebrate the holidays and holy days that are important to our many religious traditions.
May God bless you and keep you,
the light of God's face shine upon you.
May God be gracious to you.
May God look on you kindly.
May God fill you with peace.
-St. Francis of Assisi
