CHAPTER XVIII.

THE FIRST SISTERS IN MONTANA, AND THE FIRST INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL IN THE NORTHWEST.

We have already mentioned that as early as 1863 the first steps had been taken by Father J. Giorda and Father U. Grassi toward opening an Indian Boarding School at St. Ignatius, and that some Sisters of providence from Montreal has been obtained for the purpose. We must now follow this little band of heroic women, these pioneer Sisters of Montana, and briefly summarize their long journey to the Rocky Mountains.

The little colony consisted of four, namely, Sister Mary of the Infant Jesus, the head of the band, Sister Mary Edward, Sister Pail Miki, and Sister Remi. They left the motherhouse, in Montreal, June 1, 1864, and going by the way of New York, the Isthmus of Panama and San Francisco, Cal., arrived at Vancouver, Wash., on July 11, where they spent some time, heartily welcomed by the members of their own community, who had a foundation there since December, 1856. Father Giorda, the Superior of the Indian Missions in the Rocky Mountains, soon after came to meet them with Father G. Gazzoli. Arrangements were now made for the Sisters' band to proceed to Walla Walla, which was at this time the outfitting and starting point for all travel to the upper country. The Sisters of Providence had already founded an establishment here.

By the 17^th of September all preparation for the journey had been made. The day happened to be the eve of the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, the principal festival of the Order of Providence, and both our travelers and their Walla Walla Sisters would have much preferred to postpone the departure at least another day. but Father Giorda was of a different mind; "Everything is now ready," said he, "and if we put off making a start today, we shall have to go through out long preparations once more; let us go." Little sweets could not detain brave

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souls prepared for big crosses. Father Giorda made the sign of the Cross and set out, leading the way.

The party consisted of the four Sisters, Fathers J. Giorda, G. Gazzoli, and F. X. Kuppens, the rear being brought up by two good Irishmen, who were in charge of a large prairie schooner, a kind of Noah's Ark on wheels, loaded with luggage and other effects for the caravan, as well as with provisions for the Coeur d'Alene Mission. They had gone but a short distance when "the big thing" stood, stuck fast in a mud hole, whence it proved no easy task to release it. some six miles from town the party went into camp, and after pitching their tents, partook of a rustic meal served on the ground. Sister Paul Miki, being rather delicate, was the only one whose appetite had not been sharpened by the outing and exercise of the day. She felt fatigued and, without eating a morsel, retired to rest her weary frame on a blanket spread on the ground, and her aching head on a saddle, which in miner's style was not doing her service as a pillow.

The next morning the Sisters were happy; the delicate one felt better, and Father Giorda had told them that they would celebrate their great festival in the woods with Mass and Holy Communion. The devotions over, they had their second camp meal, and again mounting their horses, set out for a somewhat longer ride than the one of the previous day.

Riding horseback and camping out were now, day after day, the Sisters' occupations for a whole month. They were fatigued at first, being entirely unused to this manner of traveling, but they soon became accustomed to it, and the more they traveled, the better they liked it. Thus, by a benevolent law of compensation, while the difficulties and hardships increased with the journey, determination and courage were augmented in the same proportion, and the Sisters were really more fatigued and jaded at the beginning than at the end of their course.

On the morning of the third day their mounts were to be seen nowhere around. Father Kuppens and the two Irishmen started out to look for the strays, and did not return till late in the evening. The animals had made their way back toward the town, and were only overtaken in its vicinity. To be left afoot by the horses running off during the night was a very common occurrence to travelers in this part of the country. We passed over

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the same trial just three years after and were left in the same predicament several times. No one but those who have experienced it can realize how annoying, and how full of anxiety it is to be left on foot, sometimes a hundred and more miles away from every habitation. This was often the case late in the all, when good camping places along the beaten trail were not to be found, owing to scarcity of grass or lack of water. As the animals could neither be picketed nor hobbled on such grounds, they would, naturally, stray and strike out for some better pasture.

On the following day our party had to dray rather heavily on their store of good humor to keep up their spirits. One of the Sisters, when about to get on the saddle, was severely kicked by one of the horses. However, notwithstanding the brute's vicious compliment, she was soon able to resume her journey, and kept up with the rest, though not without considerable suffering through the whole day. It was late that evening when they went into camp and pitched their tents for the night. The place was a sandy desert with no grass for the horses, and the scanty meal of our travelers had been spoiled by over-seasoning, that is, a sudden gust of wind had salted and peppered everything with sand, dust, and all manner of unpalatable ingredients. To add to their discomfort, they found it hard work to stay their tents against the wind, and keep them from being blown down over their heads. As a consequence, they had little if any sleep at all that night, the wind blowing a furious gale the whole time.

On reaching the banks of the Spokane River they were met by Seltis, the chief of the Coeur d'Alene Indians. He joined the party and accompanied them, as their escort, the entire day. On the 29^th they came to the shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene, and here the clouds commenced to pour down rain upon our travelers. But they were not greatly inconvenienced, as they soon found their tens a timely shelter from the storm.

There now lay before the pilgrims thirty-five miles of rough mountain road, or sixty miles by water, to reach the Coeur d'Alene Mission. As the big prairie schooner could not be taken any further than their present camping place, it had been previously arranged that the Mission's raft or flat boat, and a number of pack animals for the transportation of persons,

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Luggage, and provisions, would meet the caravan at this point. The boat not being large enough to take both persons and cargo, the Sisters were to go by water, while the goods could be freighted on packhorses over the mountain trail.

To perfect these arrangements Father Gazzoli had left the party a few days before. it was, therefore, expected that by the time our travelers would arrive at the lake, the transportation would also be there. But they were disappointed, nothing of the kind being in sight. While the rest of the party were to remain in their present camping place, Father Giorda himself set out for the Mission and arrived there before Father Gazzoli. For the latter had been afoot because of his horse running away from him. He had to walk two whole days to reach the Mission, and when he arrived he seemed more than half starved and utterly exhausted. His mishap explained the disappointment.

Boat and pack animals for the party at the lake were soon in readiness. Father Caruana, with several Indians, took the horses over the trail, arriving at the camp the first of October in the evening; while chief Edward and two French Canadians, who manned the boar down the river, came in sight on the morning of the next day. Before long, all were on the move toward the Mission. Father Caruana, with the goods, returning by trail, and Father Kuppens and the Sisters by water. The latter had scarcely left the shore to cross the lake when a strong breeze sprang up and for awhile the boat, passengers and crew seemed in danger. They crossed safely, however, and pursued the rest of their course up the river without accident. On October 5 they landed at the Mission, the river bank lined with Indians, who were eager to see the "lady black robes."

After two days' rest the Sisters and their escort set out again and began the second part of their journey. A couple of Indians, Joseph and Adelaide, his wife, sent by Father Grassi from St. Ignatius, had come to meet our travelers, and proved very serviceable, as the road not lay through thick forests over the Coeur d'Alene Mountains. Steep ascents, deep ravines, fallen timber, streams and gulches, lay in their path, and the difficulties and inconveniences of the travel before them were greater than any they had so far encountered. But the brave Sisters were inured by this time to all manner of discomfort, and bore these troubles

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as they had done the others, not only without complaint, but with a buoyant and sparkling cheerfulness. They prayed, they sang, they chatted as they went along, and had many a hearty laugh over the incidents of the road. Father Giorda enjoyed listening to them from without, when all by themselves under their tent they seemed to overflow with good humor and merriment at the happenings of the day; and equally as good-humored himself, he would say to his companions with reference to the Sisters; "Birds chirping in the evening bring fair weather in the morning."

Whenever they happened to pass the night near an Indian camp, Father Giorda's zeal was remarkable and most edifying. He assembled the Indians and held evening devotions with them; he taught them their catechism; heard their confessions, and in the morning at Mass all received Holy Communion. On one of these occasions he showed himself not unversed in the ways of the saints. Though the party had replenished their "commissary" or larder, at the Coeur d'Alene Mission, traveling as they did very slowly, their provisions were growing light, and Father Giorda feared they might run short of them before the end of the journey. Having found in an Indian camp an old man extremely poor, and totally blind, he brought him his own share of the evening's repast, and lest his charity should entail the least privation upon the others, he went that night without eating a morsel himself.

Every morning he gave the Sisters the points for their morning meditation, the exercise being preceded by a pious canticle and the subject of the meditation drawn from the Sorrows of Our blessed Lady. Thus their journey to the Rocky Mountains had some of the advantages of a pilgrimage.

In the afternoon of October 15 they arrived at Frenchtown, the first white settlement they had seen since leaving Walla Walla, a distance of 400 miles. The heartiest hospitality was here tendered to them by Louis Brun, more commonly known as Louis Brown, a French Canadian, and his wife, a fairly civilized Indian woman. The couple had been married by Father De Smet, and were the first settlers in this locality. Words cannot describe the surprise and pleasure of this couple at meeting the Sisters, the first white women who had ever crossed the Coeur

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d'Alene Mountains. A month later Emily and Eliza, the old pioneer's daughter, were among the first pupils of the Sisters of St. Ignatius.

The following day, October 16, being Sunday, they had Mass in the little log church, which the Fathers had recently erected in the settlement. In the afternoon, taking leave of their kind hosts, our pilgrims went to pitch their tents at the mouth of what is known today as O'Keefe's Canyon, some seven miles northeast of Frenchtown. This was the last time they were to camp on the road. "We are nearing the end of our journey," remarked Father Giorda to the Sisters; "the trials and crosses you have thus far encountered and endured are not to be compared with those that await you."

During the latter part of the journey the Sisters met occasional small bands of prospectors whose amazement at their presence in the wilderness reached its climax when they heard from the Sisters whither they were going, and for what purpose; "No," these miners would tell them, "you will never stay there. No white women could ever endure living in such surroundings."

About noon on the 17^th they arrived at the Agency, where a most unexpected reception was in store for them. The surly agent treated both Fathers and Sisters with worse then the coldest indifference. They soon withdrew from the presence of the inhospitable and ungentlemanly Government official, and continuing on their way, by evening they were at the end of their pilgrimage, reaching St. Ignatius just one month from the day they left Walla Walla.

A few miles from the Mission, Joseph and Adelaide, with their two sons, Batiste and Lome, whom they had taken along on the trip, leaving the rest of the party, went ahead to give the news to the camp. When the Sisters arrived, they found all the Indians assembled to bid them welcome.

The large building planned by Father Grassi for the new school was still under construction, and it would take some months yet before it could be made ready for occupancy. But this caused no delay; nor was there any time lost on the part of

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the Sisters in beginning active work, instructing the Indians. They opened a school upon their arrival on the place.

In fact, they had scarcely set foot inside their temporary quarters, when they were already engaged in educational work of various kinds, that is, sweeping, cleaning, washing, scrubbing and setting to rights, generally, what little furniture there was in their poorly furnished abode. These were the first object-lessons given by those valiant women to the crowd of Indians, who stood round in open-eyed wonderment. Where all had to be learned, all also needed to be taught, and the Sisters began their work, truly, from the beginning.

The Sisters' daily conduct, while furnished example of a superior degree of refinement and of every virtue, became also the most persuasive means of bringing home to their pupils' minds the knowledge of whatever makes for the proper formation of character. Is there a better system of educating youth than to train and instruct their heads, their hearts, no less than their hand by the force of example?

The preliminary work was gradually supplemented by the common branches in English, reading, spelling, writing, and arithmetic, class-room exercises being made to go hand-in-hand with all kinds of household occupations, laundry and dairy work, baking, cooking, hand sewing, mending and making garments, quilting, darning, etc. To these were added practical gardening, and such other kinds of manual labor as conditions rendered necessary or useful. Thus, while some of their pupils became proficient and even expert in all manner of domestic industries, in the mysteries of the needle, in cutting and fitting garments, etc., they would likewise handle the hoe, the shovel and rake, and even swing an axe with almost the ease of a woodman.

Indian children are quick to learn, quicker, in fact, than many a white child, not exactly because of brighter minds, but because of fewer things to distract them. A Government official who had come one day to inspect the school, on examining the class-work of the pupils, could scarcely believe his eyes, as he told the writer. He bethought himself that some clever trick was being played on him by those in charge, and concluded to make there and then a test that should expose the imposition. Calling up one of the Indian girls, whose copy books he had been admiring,

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"Miss," said he to her, "will you write me a letter, right here, which I may take along with me, as an evidence of your own proficiency and of the merit of the school?" "Certainly, sir," answered the girl; and seating herself at the same table, wrote down her composition on her slate and handed it to the gentleman. He was, indeed, surprised, at the promptness, ease and accuracy with which the Indian girl did the work. But one word had been misspelled. The inspector had the composition put on paper in the girl's own hand and forwarded it to Washington, D. C., for his official report.

Though both sexes of the Indian race appear to possess some liking for music, only the women are capable of learning how to sing. Many of these have a correct ear, and will pick up an air without great difficulty. Their voices, though rather weak and slender, are clear and pleasing, whilst a note of plaintive sweetness gives their singing a special charm. We doubt whether any white girls' choir anywhere could surpass the Sisters' choir of Indian girls at St. Ignatius.

The right Rev. James O'Connor, Bishop of Omaha, who visited the Mission in the summer of 1877, writes of the Indian school at St. Ignatius as follows: "In this school the ordinary branches of a plain education are taught. Thank goodness, the 'ologies are excluded. All the pupils are taught household work and gardening, and to each is allotted a piece of ground to till. They took great pride in showing me these little gardens and insisted on my tasting their strawberries, which were the largest and most luscious I had ever tasted. Everyone who visits convents knows the neatness with which they are kept, but the order and cleanliness of this house surpassed anything of the kind I have ever seen."

With the opening of the boarding school for Indian girls, a school was also provided for the Indian boys. But as the Mission had not the means to house, feed and clothe all the children, the facilities provided for the boys were only those of a day school. The venture was not a success, for the reasons set forth above. Day schools are practically useless when there is question of the Indian.

The gratifying success that attended the boarding school for the Indian girls emphasized more and more every day that neces-

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sity of a similar school for Indian boys. But whence were the means to come, when the maintenance of the girls' school alone was already proving more of a burden than the limited resources of the Mission could carry? This, in fact, had now become a serious problem, so much so that the Superior were confronted with the alternative of closing the school, or of making an appeal of public charity for its support.

The latter was the plan resolved upon by Father Giorda. Accordingly he himself now started out with two of the sisters to solicit contributions from the ever-generous miners of Montana. The begging party went from one mining camp to another, throughout the whole Territory, the good-hearted pioneers responding generosity to the appeal. This soliciting was kept up for several years, two of the Sisters, during the mining season, going out to bed for their own, and their pupils'; sustenance. Had it not been for this, the school would have had to be closed.

Later on, as we shall see when speaking of the boys' school, the U. S. Government made a small allowance for a specified number of pupils. From that date the institution ceased to be a burden to the general public, and its capacity for usefulness was also considerably widened; as substantial improvements became now possible, the school continued to advance year by year.

The present faculty of the school consists of fourteen members of the Order of providence, and the girls in their keeping have ranged in number from 120 to 140.

Besides teaching and caring for their pupils, these good Sisters do much charitable work among the Indians in the camp. They visit the sick, prepare medicine and proper nourishment for them, and teach the Indian women to tend and care for any sick of the family. After several years of toil and patient endurance in the cause of Indian education, two of the four pioneer Sisters of Montana and co-founders of the school went to their rest. Sister Paul Miki passed to the Lord on December 19, 1880, from her post of duty, and her saintly remains repose in the cemetery of St. Ignatius among the Indians whom she loved so dearly.

Sister Remi, whose health had been seriously impaired by long and arduous school work on the mission, was recalled to

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Montreal for medical treatment. But she had run her course and won the crown, and there, shortly after her arrival, the Heavenly Bridegroom, April 25, 1885, summoned her to Himself.

Sister Mary Edward, returned to the motherhouse several years ago. Hence of the four founders of the school the only one still remaining in Montana is Sister Mary of the Infant Jesus, whose present residence is at Missoula.

The departed ones, as well as those called to other fields have been succeeded by other members of the Order. Thus, the Sisters of Providence, the pioneer Sisters of Montana, and the Sisters of Providence, the pioneer Sisters of Montana, and the first women to devote themselves to the uplifting of the Indian female sex in our States, have been at their work with unflagging earnestness now over a quarter of a century. And what has been the result? The barbarism of the Indian woman of forty years ago, thanks to the enduring and persistent efforts of the Sisters, is in great measure a thing of the past. Therefore, as it can no longer be contrasted with the present conditions, neither can these rightly understood, still less fully appreciated by most people of the day. the difference between the past and the present in this regard is as between the brightness of day and the darkness of might, and perhaps, even greater if things be considered aright. All we can say is that the present Indian woman, owing to her having been formed in the Sisters' school, is moral, cleanly, well-bred, becomingly clad, industrious, as well as God-fearing; and that as no more could be done in her behalf, neither need anything further be said in commendation of the Sisters' educational work.

It will be seen in the course of our narrative that the example of the Sisters of Providence was followed some time later on by another noble and brave Sisterhood, the Ursulines, who also have come to Montana to devote themselves to the cause of Indian education. the first colony arrived in our mountains in 1884, and though but seven years at work in the thorny field, they have achieved real wonders. They are conducting today seven Indian schools in our State, to each of which due and timely reference will be made as we proceed with our subject.