CHAPTER XXXII.

MISSION OF ST. LABRE AMONG THE CHEYENNE INDIANS. ORIGIN, THE URSULINES. CHEYENNE ELOQUENCE. Dr. P. BARCELO, GEORGE YOAKUM. SCHOOLS. DR. A. VAN DER VELDEN.

Passing from Northern to Eastern Montana, the Mission that now invites our attention is St. Labre, located on the banks of the Tongue river, near the mouth of Otter Creek, some seventy-five miles south of Miles City, Custer County.

The Indians occupying this section are a small fraction of the Northern Cheyennes, and number about a thousand souls. They lived grouped in small camps or villages in the Upper Tongue River country along the Rosebud. Until 1885 these Indians had no reservation of their own. About this time the Government set apart for them a reserve on the banks of Lame Deer and Muddy Creek. But they refused to leave their home on Tongue River for the new place.

Father De Smet was the first to Christianize any of the tribe. There are Cheyennes still living who remember the great Black robe, and take a pardonable pride in the fact that they were baptized by him. But until 1882, little was done in their behalf, although they never ceased to ask for Catholic missionaries.

A discharged soldier from Fort Keogh, a convert to the faith, by name of George Yoakim, having frequently met Indians about the Fort, became interested in their welfare. He brought their case to the attention of the Rt. Rev. James O'Connor, the Vicar Apostolic of Nebraska, to whose jurisdiction Eastern Montana still belonged. The zealous Bishop wrote to the Jesuit Fathers at Helena and to the general Superior of the Indian Missions in our Territory, warmly recommending these poor, forsaken Indians to their care. He displayed great pity for them, and desired the Fathers to do all they could in their behalf. Accordingly, Father P. Barcelo, who was stationed at Helena, at the wish of his Superior visited the Cheyennes in 1882-83 and spent among them several months. The opening,

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however, of a permanent Mission could not be attempted through lack of men.

In 1883 the Rt. Rev. J. B. Brondel was appointed to the spiritual charge of the whole of Montana, and how to provide missionaries for the Cheyennes was on of his first cares. He made an appeal to his confreres in the States, to secure through them the services of a zealous priest and a colony of Sisters for that purpose. On receiving Bishop Brondel's appeal, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Gilmour, of Cleveland, Ohio, invited the Religious Communities of his Diocese to answer the call from Montana. Bishop Gilmour's invitation reached the Ursulines on the Eve of St. Ursula, October 20, 1883, and thirty of the Community sent in their names as volunteers for the Cheyenne Mission.

One who is at all conversant with the history of the time-honored and devoted Ursuline Sisterhood will not be surprised at this generous response. The Ursulines were the first among Religious women to establish themselves in the northern parts of North America. At the close of the 17^th century there were in Canada but six Religious Communities of women and two of these, the House of Quebec, established in 1639, and that at three rivers, established in 1690,m belonged to this Order. In the United States, New Orleans, Louisiana, was the first city to obtain a Community of Ursulines, a Convent of the Order having been founded there in 1727. De Courcy observes that until 1790, the Untied States did not know what Nuns were, as Louisiana had not yet become a part of the United States, but was still a French colony.

Subsequently, the Order spread to several States of the Union; in Ohio, the Ursulines had flourishing Convents and schools at St. martin's, near Fayetteville, at Cleveland and Toledo, whence they were now to branch out into the far Northwest. Pioneer life in unsettled communities, missionary life among the Indians, with all the privations inseparable from it, was no new experience for the members of this veteran Order, and had no terrors for them.

As many more Nuns had volunteered than there was immediate need for, of the thirty who had offered themselves Bishop Gilmour chose six, all Americans by birth, natives of

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Ohio. On Christmas morning he wrote to his confreres, Bishop Brondel, announcing the Christmas present he was sending to Montana. The Rev. Jos. Eyler, of the Cleveland Diocese, had also accepted the invitation and was ready to accompany the missionary colony to the new field. With Mother Amadeus at the head, the little band of Ursulines left Toledo on the 15^th of January, 1884, and journeying through Chicago, St. Paul and Bismarck, arrived at Miles City on the 17^th, a couple of days after bidding farewell to this home in Ohio.

It became known that the Sisters who were to locate at Miles City and among the Cheyennes, would arrive on that day, and train-time brought to the depot most of the population of the "wicked little city of Montana," the unenviable name the place had acquired in some of the Eastern states. The white and the Indian, soldier and civilian, the cattle-king and the cowboy, the miner and the gambler, all classes of the town's inhabitants were represented.

Bishop Brondel had come all the way from Helena to receive in person the Christmas gift sent him by Bishop Gilmour, and stood on the platform, with the Rev. E. W. J. Lindesmith, Army Chaplain of Fort Keogh. There, his arms outstretched and his face beaming with joy, he greeted the travelers, and bade one and all a hearty welcome to Montana.

The first plan of the Ursulines was to establish a central Mission and their Motherhome at Miles City, whence small bands would go forth to open schools among the different Indian tribes in Montana, beginning with the Cheyennes on Tongue River. the founding, however, of schools later on in the northern part of the State made it desirable to have their Motherhouse more centrally located, and owing to this as well as for other reasons, it was finally built at the Mission of St. Peter.

On their arrival at Miles City, Bishop Brondel made arrangements for the erection of suitable buildings for the accommodation of the new Community. In the meanwhile the Nuns opened a temporary school in humble quarters, which were secured at a monthly rental of twenty-five dollars.

The Rev. J. Eyler now started for the Cheyenne country, to look over the situation and select a convenient site for the new

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Mission. A piece of land, with a log cabin on it, was bought just where Otter Creek empties into the Tongue River, the spot being considered best suited for the new institution.

Sometimes after, three of the Ursulines, accompanied by Mother Amadeus who went along to see the little colony safely installed in their new home, set out to join Father . They left Miles City, march 29, and camped four nights on the road. A Sibley tent and army transportation, consisting of a Government ambulance for the Sisters, wo wagons for their baggage and provisions, as well as an escort of a few soldiers, had been kindly furnished by the Commanding Officer of Fort Keogh. The roads were bad and the difficulties of the journey correspondingly great. The good Sisters, however, acquired some excellent experimental knowledge. Up and down steep gulches, through deep ravines, over high, forbidding bluffs, and along the edge of precipitous embankments--their road was certainly a rough one. They learned what are the realities of fording streams, cutting wagon trails through clay, making bridges over swamps and treacherous quicksands. Many times the soldiers were obliged to unload the entire outfit and carry the baggage across troublesome places. Yet, we are assured there was not a profane word, not a murmur of complaint uttered.

The caravan was met by Father Eyler some seven miles from the Mission site, and reached their destination at noon on the second day of April. These brave missionary Sisters greeted their new home with sincere delight, and kneeling on the threshold of the cabin, reverently kissed the ground, as that of the promised Land, and poured forth their souls in silent, but deep, heartfelt thanksgiving. Their dwelling, a log hut with a mud roof, had three compartments or rooms, unconnected with in by any opening, the entrance to each being from the outside. The rooms were lighted each by half a window--and a very small window at that--and two of them were without flooring.

The largest room, about 16 X 22 feet, was made the Nuns' apartment. It had a floor, and the walls were well prepared over white copies of the "Police Gazette"! The middle compartment was converted into a class-room; while Father Eyler's quarters were at the other end of the cabin. Some cowboy's

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Benches and dry-goods boxes answered the purpose for chairs and tables, and were all the furniture on the premises. The Nuns' apartment was at one and the same time, chapel, kitchen and dormitory.

The Ursulines set to work and soon had the place scrubbed, and in good order. In one corner of their quarters an altar was erected, and there on the next morning, April 3, the Feast of St. Richard, the patron saint of Bishop Gilmour, Father Eyler celebrated the first Mass.

The poverty of the Indians and all their surroundings had suggested to Rt. Rev. Bishop Brondel a very appropriate name for the Cheyenne Mission; it was to be called St. Joseph Labre, after the poorest of God's poor. The original log cabin was in time replaced by a large, comfortable frame structure. Its cost was considerable, as all the building material had to be hauled by team a distance of seventy and more miles.

The Cheyennes welcomes the "Lady Black robes" with great joy, and their coming had been celebrated the night before their arrival, in true Indian fashion, by a glorious wr dance.

The refusal to abandon their homes on Tongue River--a section much coveted by stockmen who had large herds of cattle in the neighboring ranges--brought upon the Cheyennes much trouble and suffering. They were continually harassed by cowboys who wanted them out of their way. They were also unjustly treated by the Indian Agents, who refused them their fair proportion of rations, because they would not move to the Rosebud Reservation. The buffalo had practically been exterminated and, as a consequence of all this, the poor wretches were in such dire distress, that some of them had actually died of starvation. The Rt. Rev. Bishop Brondel visited their settlement in August, 1884, and again in November of the following year, and saw with his own eyes the extreme destitution of these unfortunate creatures.

"We are glad to see you," said they to the Bishop on the latter occasion: "You speak the truth. You have not many tongues. Your language is right. Last winter four of our

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women died of hunger; this winter we shall all die. You told us to cultivate the land, but we have no tools. We used to live on the buffalo; all the buffalo are now exterminated, and last winter all the antelope were killed. Some of us had cattle, but they were stolen from us. We cannot farm, we get no rations, or if we do, ewe cannot live on the little we get; we cannot steal, and in consequence we must all die. Winter is coming and we have no blankets. Tell the Great Father at Washington, we need help right away and have no means to cultivate the soil. This is our country, we fought against the Sioux and the Crows to keep this place and hold it. We fought for the whites against the Sioux, the Bannacks and the Nez Perces, and now, the whites want us to leave, and go where there is no good land, where there is little wood, little water, and where we do not care to live, with Indians whom we do not like."

This strong pleading was given emphasis by the pressure of two young men standing before the Bishop, one of whom had passed two days, and the other four, without a bite to eat. The Bishop, moved with compassion, ordered a steer to be purchased and butchered at once, to feed the famishing people. On his return to Helena, he laid their pitiful case before His Excellency Governor S. T. Hauser, through whose prompt action orders were issued from Washington fro their immediate relief. What, if in their maddening hunger and with death from starvation, facing them, these poor creatures did kill, as has been charged against them, a beef or two? Can we blame them?

The following communication of Bishop Brondel to Governor S. T. Hauser will throw additional light on our narrative:

To His Excellency S. T. Hasuer,
Governor of Montana,
Helena, M. T.

Dear Sir:

At my return from a visit to the Cheyenne Indians on Tongue River at the mouth of Otter Creek, Custer Co., M. T., I feel it my duty to communicate to Your Excellency the condition of these wards of the Government.

Two years ago I established a Catholic Mission at that place, and ina letter to the Secretary of the Interior mentioned my reason for

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doing so, namely, because most Cheyennes are living on Tongue River. a priest and three Ursuline Nuns went to live on a farm which I bought in that locality. Ina visit last fall, I learned that the Cheyennes wanted an Agent, reservation food, clothing and farming utensils. I made my wishes known to the proper authorities, and a reservation was made in the vicinity of Rosebud, but no regular Agent was appointed; also, that part, where our Missions was established, was left out of the limits of the reservation. The Cheyennes of Tongue River had fought their way back from the Indian Territory. Pursued by General Miles, they stopped when they reached their former home and told the General that he might kill them there, but that they would not live elsewhere. Miles told them to remain, and they would not be interfered with. They served as scouts in the Sioux, Nez Perces and Bannack wars. They say they fought other Indians to keep their land on tongue River and will not go to Rosebud where rations are now distributed, because that is not their land and it is a poor place. They do not want to live with the Rosebud Indians because they are bad. They do not want to live at other Agencies because they are a distinct people from the Sioux, Crows and others. The buffaloes were killed long ago, all the antelopes were killed last winter, the whites stole their horses and cattle, the Government does not defend them, they do not want to steal and hence they say: this winter we shall all die. The clerk of the Agent of the Crows, who distributes rations on the Rosebud, refuses to help us, or we get so little that we cannot live.

All the Cheyennes send their children to the Mission schools. The Sisters of the ST. Labre Mission have a contract with the Government for thirty children. I have established that Mission at an expense of about ten thousand dollars. During my visit last week I saw that those Indians had no blankets, or if they had, the blankets were old and used up. One fine young man told me he had nothing to eat for four days, another had not for two days, and the testimony of the Sisters and the priests in charge confirm the truth of these assertions. I was so moved by pity that I bought a steer for sixty dollars from the Postmaster at Birney six miles off and distributed the meat to twenty-nine lodges so as to retard starvation. The Indians told me that last winter four women died of starvation, and this winter they say they shall all die, for they have nothing any longer to hunt, and they could not raise a crops for want of farming implements; either could they go to beg at other Agencies, for they have no horses to go, and should they go, they are sent away from one Agency to the other.

In the name, then, of our common humanity, in the name of

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Indians who have fought other Indians to secure to our white population peace and plenty, I appeal to your Excellency to secure to them certainly of tenure of their lands, the appointment of an Agent who would protect them and secure their interest, helping them to farm next spring, and the immediate dispatch of food and clothing. Procrastination in this matter is death to fellow human beings, and a telegraphic message to Washington concerning the matter would, in my humble opinion, be a necessity . . . . . . .From all that I have seen and heard, I come to the conclusions that the Cheyennes are the bravest, most honest, most laborious and the least corrupted of our American Indians.

No sooner had governor Hauser received Bishop Brondel's appeal than he wired the following to the Hon. Secretary of the Interior:

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
TERRITORY OF MONTANA,
HELENA, M. Y., NOV. 14, 1885.

Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar,
Secretary of Interior,

Washington, D. C.

Bishop Brondel, founder of the Mission on Tongue River, has just returned from the Mission and reports that the Cheyenne Indians there are in a starving condition--I forward his statement by mail today. I respectfully recommend that you take some immediate action in the matter.

(Signed) S. T. Hauser.

The Hon. Secretary of the Interior answered by telegraph as follows:

WASHINGTON, D. C. NOV. 16^th., 1885.

Governor Hauser
Helena, Mont.

Commissioner Sparks has this day instructed the Agent to provide for immediate wants of the Tongue River Indians--Inspector Armstrong now at the Crow Agency has been instructed to se that it is done and to report the fact.

(Signed) L. Q. C. Lamar, Secy.

Bishop Brondel sought to enlist the good services and influence of the Hon. G. G. Vest, U. S. Senator, in behalf of the Cheyennes on Tongue River, for the specific purpose that the land on which they had settled might be secured to them

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by the Government, and that also the allowance for this alcohol might e confirmed and increased. The interest taken in the matter by the Hon. Senator appears from the following letter which he sent to the Rt. Rev. Bishop:

UNITED STATES SENATE
WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER 22, 1885.

My dear sir:

I am just in receipt of your favor of the 16^th instant.

Governor Hauser is now in this city, and I was with him when he presented your letter in regard to the Tongue River Indians to the Secretary of the Interior.

It will afford me very great pleasure to do what I can in the direction indicated in your letter. I will see the Commissioner of Indian Affairs tomorrow and represent the case to him in person.

I do not know that I can do anything towards increasing the amount of pay for the tuition at St. Labre's or at St. Peter's, for the Blackfeet, but I will try to have sufficient appropriations pout in the legislation of Congress this session.

You may rest assured that I will do everything in my power, as I take great interest in those Indian Schools.

I am respectfully and truly,

Your Friend.

G. G. Vest.

Bishop John B. Brondel.
Helena, Mont.

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CHAPTER XXXII.

ST. LABRE'S MISSION .

From what has been said above, the reader must have already surmised that the locating of the Mission on Tongue River, tending naturally as it did to establish the Cheyennes on a section whence the whites have wanted them removed, was not looked upon with favor by the cattle owners, whose large herds were fattening on these ranges.

This was made clear by an outrageous deed perpetrated at St. Labre's September 15, 1884, and even more by the comments which were made upon it by the Miles City Daily Journal in its issue of September 18.

The same journal had this to say of the outrage--

Yoakum had been acting as interpreter for the Mission, but at the same time making himself very officious in matters concerning the Indians, who, under his supposed advice, have been giving much trouble and annoyance to settlers and stockmen in the vicinity. Probably, this summary punishment may bring him to his senses and teach him not to espouse the cause of the Indians as against the white settlers, and cattlemen whoi are developing the country. There

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Is no trouble apprehended from the Indians--continues the paper--in fact, the cattlemen would rather rejoice at an opportunity to inaugurate an open armed resistance against them and drive them from the country.

The italics are ours. This modus operandi, this goading the Indians on to some act of hostility, in order to have an excuse for getting rid of them the sooner, has been but too often the favorite method of the frontier man, "to develop the country."

Yet the Cheyennes in the testimony of all who are acquainted with them, are a brave people, upright, honorable, of remarkably good morals and exceptionally free from the curses of their fellow Indians--fire-water, immorality, and gambling. Father Barcelo relates that whale he was at St. Labre's some depraved cowboys attempted one day to force a Cheyenne woman to take a drink of whiskey, holding a pistol to her face to make her do it. They failed, and the women's heroic firmness cowed the villains. "The northern Cheyennes," says R. L. Upshaw, who is in charge of these Indians as Agent, "are proverbial fore the chastity of their women." The same favorable testimony is given them by all who have come in contact with the tribe.

It is therefore a matter of no little surprise that, notwithstanding the natural virtues, so few of these Indians have, thus far, embraced the faith. The records of the Mission from its start to the end of 1890, give but 200 baptisms, and those mostly of children.

It must be borne in mind, however, that successful missionary work among the Indians, owing to the many and most serious obstacles in the way, is always exceedingly slow. The seeding and reaping seasons here are not spanned by a few months; but a lifetime; and one show sows, despite his lengthy years, may not live long enough to see the real fruit of his labors. "Faith cometh by haring," and it takes many a year to master an Indian language, and this, particularly, when it must be learned without any other assistance than that obtainable through some uneducated frontier man, or some half-breed, as is nearly always the case.

Besides these and other serious difficulties attendant upon a new Indian Mission, special ones stood in the way of St. Labre. The secular clergy who were assigned to its charge

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did not remain on the field, either because of poor health, or of discouragement. The unsettled state also, as well as the utter destitution of these Indians, proved an obstacle to their instruction. "We are starving," the poor creatures would say time and again to the priest, " and the howlings of our hungry stomachs deafen our ears to thy voice; give us something to eat, that we may be able to hearken to thee." Indian or white, hungry peoples' mind are seldom sensible and docile to aught but the pleadings of their empty stomachs. Our Divine Savior knew it well, and made miracles to feed His hearers. The old monk's Italian ditty--Buona piattanza, buona osservanza--thatis, good fare, good discipline, is another expression of the same philosophy.

We are tempted to offer an additional reason why, perhaps, so few Cheyennes have thus far been converted, but we suggest it will all reserve. May not theirs be the one of the cases wherein et suos castos habet diabolus, and the defilements of the flesh are avoided through a spirit of pride? Despite their natural goodness and commendable moral standing, these Indians are known to be a very presumptuous race, the proudest of the Indian tribes, wrapped up in the consciousness of their superiority over their fellows. Now, we learn from Holy Writ, that God in His inscrutable and mysterious dealings with men, gives His Grace to the humble, while he Refuses it to the proud. Our divine Savior has exemplified this in a most striking manner in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. The later, because humble, finds grace, notwithstanding his sinfulness; wheedle the former, with all his goodness, fails to do so, and is rejected, because of his pride.

Another noticeable trait of the Cheyennes is their gift of speech; for they likely surpass every other tribe in natural eloquence and poetical imagery and the vividness with which they can express their thoughts. On one of his visit to St. Labre, Bishop Brondel was welcomed by one of the head men of the nation who goes by the name of Old Wolf. We reproduce the old chief's address, as taken down by the Bishop himself while it was spoken, every word interpreted to him by one of the Missionaries.

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Said Old Wolf:

There is a mountain in this vicinity known by every Cheyenne. The mountain is high and strong and many years old. Our forefathers knew him, as well as we do. When children, we went out hunting, and cared not whither we knew or not the way. When men, we went our to meet our foes, no matter where they came from. Though the way ran high up and low down, our hearts trembled not on account of the road; because the mountain was ever a safe guide to us and never failed us. when far away, on seeing him our hearts leaped for joy, because the mountain was the beacon which told us that our home came nearer. In summer the thunder shook him from head to foot and fire bored holes in his sides. But the noise soon passed away and the mountain stood there. In winter the storms rushed around him to bury him our of our sight and covered him with layer upon layer of snow; with difficulty could we distinguish him from the rest. Only his height told us he was our mountain. But during the spring all the snow disappeared and the mountain, covered with green grass, stood before us as of yore and the trees upon it stood firmer. This mountains is the priest of God. White and Indian speak evil of him; they want to estrange him from our hearts, but we know he has but one word and his heart is as firm as a rock. He comes to instruct us, and what the mountains is in our journeys, that is his word. He is the mountain that leads us to God!

The Rev. J. Eyler, owing to poor health, returned to his Diocese in June, and for a little over a year from his departure, St. Labre remained without a resident priest. It was visited during this interval by Father Barcelo and also by Father Guidi, principally, however, by the former, who spent there several months. the Rt. Rev. Bishop himself had been there in August, 1884, and revisited the place in February, 1885. To the heroic little band of Ursulines, who bravely remained at their lonesome and dreary post, these occasional visits were so much spiritual sunshine and a source of inestimable comfort. But yet, the long intervals of desolation between could not but sorely try these pious souls; and for the Mission to be left without a resident priest was a more serious drawback to its progress. On the ther hand, the abnormal condition of things could not be easily remedied; first, because of the scarcity of priests in the new diocese, and secondly, because missionary

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work among the Indians is anything but attractive to human nature, offering as it does, from a human point of view, very little consolation.

But while at this period the new-formed Mission of St., Labre was rather poorly off in things spiritual, its material resources were even less promising. The new diocese was poor. Hence the Rt. Rev. Bishop felt obliged to go on a lecturing tour through some of the Eastern States, to raise funds in behalf of the Indian Mission on Tongue River which he had so much at heart. He met with gratifying success, and thus the material straits of the institution were, at least partially, relieved.

Provision had also been made for the spiritual wants of the Cheyenne Mission, but unfortunately the one appointed proved unfit for the charge. Thereupon, the Jesuit Fathers were called to assume for the time being the care of St. Labre. Accordingly, Fathers A. van der Velden and P. Prando were assigned to the Cheyennes in this early part of October, 1885. Father P. Prando labored on this field about one year, passing thence to evangelize the neighboring tribe of the Crow Indians. Father A. van der Velden has been at his post ever since--save an interval of a few months in 1887--now along, now assisted by some of his confreres.

Of the mission and school work done at St. Labre's by the Fathers and the Ursuline Nuns we can offer no higher encomium than by quoting R. L. Upshaw, the Agent in charge of the Indians, himself a non-Catholic. In his official report of 1887, to the Indian Department, R. L. Upshaw speaks of the School as follows:

The only school connected with this Agency is the St. Labre boarding school on the Tongue River, a contract school being in charge of the Sisters of the Ursuline Order. The school building is a very good one, erected at the cost of $7,000. It has a capacity for fifty boarders and twenty day students, the attendance has been an average of thirty-five for the year; boarders, boys and girls. The pupils are making fair progress; great obstacles have been overcome; Indian prejudices are breaking down and the way made easier every day; but the obstacles in the way of bringing these savages to light are still very great. The school is inmost excellent hands and deserves every encouragement. The sister make sacrifices seldom made

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without prospect of great and immediate reward. The major part of theirs will not be realized until death shall have claimed them.

Of the missionary work done by the Fathers he writes as followed in the same official report:

The religious instruction to these Indians, aside from that given at the St. Labre School, is given by the Rev. A.. van der Velden, S. J., who devotes himself to his duties with the ardor characteristic of his Society, in drawing these people from their barbarism. The encouragement he has met with, if measured with the tangible evidences of success, is very poor, but his persistence in his holy duties must in time have its effect, even upon the benighted and perverse savages he has to deal with. He has some knowledge of medicines and has dispensed a quantity of them purchased at his own cost. A part of theyear he has been necessarily absent from the reservation, attending to church business, and his absence was severely felt. It is hoped that the authorities of his church may find it possible to give him an assistant, as the field is too large for one man. I believe, continues the Agent, the influence of the priests is of the greatest importance in bringing these people to a state of civilization of any value. A semi-civilized savage, copying all the vices of his white neighbors, will be a worse citizen than the barbarian pure and simple.

Thus Indian Agent Upshaw, non-Catholic, and in contact with the red men for a good many years in his capacity of government official.

It would be well for the advocates of non-sectarian Indian education--who are doing today their utmost to withdraw the Indian from the influence of the priests and Sisters--to ponder a little over the last two sentences prompted by long experience and observation. We have passed them in italics for their special benefit.

Father van der Velden was changed in 1894, and though some three years later, 1897, he returned, it was only for a temporary stay, as the Superiors had now resolved to give up the care of St. Labre.

We now have the Cheyennes, to pass on to their neighbors, the Crow Indians, and in the next two chapters shall present the local history of the Mission among them or St. Xavier's, which is the last remaining to complete the first part of our task.