Archives West Finding Aid

The papers have had, to a degree, an imposed order placed upon them due to the condition in which they arrived at Utah State University. The papers upon arrival had virtually no filing order, with the exception of about four feet of the St. Christopher's Mission correspondence file. This file is the first series of the collection and has been left intact. Although called a correspondence file, this name is somewhat of a misnomer, as the file contains more that just correspondence. In this series resides most of the early records of the mission. These records date from the early 1940's into the 1960s and the documents contain the origins of St. Christopher's Mission to the Navajo. Of interest here is a block of material that details the acquisition of land for the mission. This purchase involved considerable negotiation between authorities of the Navajo tribe, the Federal government, and the state of Utah government and most of the correspondence is in the collection. This file also includes material regarding the Southwest Indian Mission corporation, blueprints, personnel material etc. This block of documents ends mostly in the 1960s.

The second series of records in the collection contain subject files relating to Liebler's personal life and interests, as well as the operations of the Hat Rock Valley Retreat center and his continued involvement with St. Christopher's. This material had no discernable order, thus the decision was made to organize them alphabetically by subject. These documents include Liebler's files concerning his religious concerns over the direction of the Episcopal Church in the United states, as well as his budding interests in the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements withing the Christian community of America. The subject files also include his personal files (taxes, insurance, personal belongings etc.), as well as his written work. This section also contains a small file of Hat Rock Valley Retreat Center and a small file of St. Christopher's file. The next series in the collection is a correspondence series. The letters have been arranged into an incoming and outgoing correspondence file. The incoming material has been sorted alphabetically by surname and then filed chronologically by date. Occasionally large blocks of letters from the same individual were found and these have been filed together under that individual's name and then placed into alphabetical order and filed at the end of each four letter set.

The remainder of the collection consists of newsletters, newspaper clippings, oversized material and reel t reel tape recordings. The newsletters were published by St. Christopher's mission and by the Hat Rock Valley Retreat Center. The St. Christopher's newsletters begin in 1944 and run through 1974, and the Hat Rock Valley Retreat Center newsletters, called messages, run from 1966 through 1985. Finally, the collection has a large block of newspaper clippings about Liebler's work with the Navajo and about pertinent news items to the Navajo or the Episcopal church. These have been filed chronologically by date. The oversized material has been cross referenced to its proper place in the collection. A list of Liebler's reel to reel tapes finishes the register. These tapes cover topics such as Liebler's radio talks, religious services, and historical information about his work. In addition, the collection has one 16mm movie produced in 1949 about St. Christopher's. The film is a silent color movie.

Some newsletters relating to Joan Liebler and documents relating to Bishop Steven Plummer, who was Vicar of the St. Christopher's Mission several years after Father Liebler's retirement in the 1960s were added to box 34 in June 2013