In 1962, the Catholic Bureau counted 129,000 Native American Catholics served by 394 Catholic mission chapels and 9,200 children served by 54 Catholic schools on or near Indian reservations. By the next decade, tuition funding from tribal trust accounts ceased as the accounts became depleted. This prompted several schools to close and caused critical situations for a number of the 47 reservation schools. In response, Catholic Bureau director Monsignor Paul Lenz founded an "Association of Catholic Indian Schools", which in June 1983, coordinated plans to maintain the schools through direct mail campaigns, personal appeals and wills of request.