CHAPTER VIII

FOUNDING ST. MARY'S MISSION. SPIRITUAL SEED AND
FIRST LESSONS IN AGRICULTURE.

The site described at the close of the preceding chapter was reached by our missionaries on the 24^th of September, the day on which the Church honors the Blessed Mother of God under the title of "Our Lady of Mercy." Though seemingly casual, the coincidence appeared very significant and full of meaning to Father De Smet and his companions, who regarded it as most propitious for themselves and their labors, no less than for the forlorn races whom they had come to rescue from the darkness of heathenism and the shadow of death, and who were, indeed, in more than one way objects of pity.

Hewing down a couple of trees, they soon constructed a large Cross, which they planted on the spot to the chant of the Vexilla Regis. That roughly hewn cross was the symbol of all their hopes; as it also must have been the terror of the infernal hosts who, for ages untold, had lorded it over these regions.

They named the premises and the Missions St. Mary's, after Our Lady. The beautiful crystal-like stream flowing close by, the imposing mountain, just opposite, towering up to the clouds, and whole valley, participated in the appellation, becoming respectively St. Mary's River, St. Mary's Peak, St. Mary's Valley. What charms did not Our Lady's name lend at once to things and places. Its very sound seemed to dispel forthwith all the wildness, the gloom and barbarism of the surroundings. How greatly has Christianity contributed to the civilization and welfare, temporal and spiritual, of mankind, by simply calling persons, things, places, her own names!

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The formal inauguration of the new mission took place on the first Sunday of October, which is devoted by the church to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.

Soon the building operations were commenced, the need of shelter for the approaching winter and of a chapel for Divine service being most urgent. With such energy and speed die the missionaries work that together with a couple of smaller structures, they had finished a church or chapel, capable of containing a fair number of Indians; the more so, because these people could be crowded into much less space than any other mortals.

The buildings, of course, were primitive and poor; what else

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could they be under the circumstances? They were constructed of cotton wood logs, as this wood was plentiful along the river bank. Two of the structures were roofed with split shingles or shakes, made fast with pegs or wooden nails, another, with poles, covered with earth, the seams or chinks between the logs, both within and without, being filled with clay. The floor was then made of rough planks, the material for the purpose being whip-sawed or thinned down with the axe. The chapel measured 25 by 33 feet and had two galleries, one on each side, 8 feet by 30; thus all the inside space was utilized. A year or so after, this structure was replaced by another whole dimensions were somewhat larger, that is, 30 X 60 feet. We owe these details to Brothers Wm. Claessens, who was the foreman builder. The joy of our good Indians at having on their soil and in their midst a Dwelling of the Great Spirit and the House of Prayer was great. We heard the following incident from the lips of saintly father Giorda and from Brother Claessens, one of the founders of St. Mary's, and it is well worth recording.

The chapel had just been finished, when one of the Indians exclaimed: "Why! It is the place where little Mary said the House of Prayer should be built." It seems that while some lodges were camped together thereabout, several years before, a girl, about thirteen, named Mary, had fallen sick and died on the very spot now covered by the chapel. She had been baptized in her sickness by one of the Iroquois at her own request, and whilst thanking God for the grace of baptism, suddenly cried out: "There is no happiness on earth. Happiness is found only above." Her weak, trembling hands raised, and her eyes turned upward, giving expression to her words, she continued, "I see the heavens open and god's Mother calls me up there." Then addressing those round her, she added: "Listen to the Black robes when they come; they have the true prayer; do all they tell you. They are coming and will build the House of Prayer where I am dying."

The circumstances had been almost forgotten, but the new chapel now brought them back to their minds.

The incident, as related to the Fathers by the Indians seemed worth reproducing on canvas, and an oil painting, 39 inches by 49, representing it, became a conspicuous object at the mission. When, where and by whom the work was done, the writer has

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not been able to ascertain. The picture can be seen today in the Fathers' residence at Missoula, where it was transferred when the Flat Heads were removed from the bitter Root Valley.

The news that the true Black robes has come into the land of the Selish or Flat Heads soon spread among the tribes near and far, and before the end of October, as we are told by Father De Smet, the missionaries could record the fact that, one single day had brought to their instructions the representatives of twenty-four difference tribes.

According to promise, the Flat Heads were all back from the hunt by the latter part of November, and one-third of the tribe were regenerated in the water of holy baptism on the third day of December, the feast of St. Francis Xavier. Others were baptized on Christmas Day, there being among the latter 115 Flat Heads led by their chiefs, 30 Nez Percés and their chief, and one Blackfoot chief, with all his family. That first Christmas, says Father De Smet, was celebrated with all the solemnity possible in the wilderness:

I began my first Mass at seven in the morning; at five in the afternoon I was still in the chapel. The heart may feel, but the lips cannot express the emotions which I then experienced. From six hundred to seven hundred newly-made Christians with bands of little children baptized within the last year, offering to their Creator their regenerated hearts, protesting that they would preserve in the holy service of God until death, was certainly an offering most acceptable to God, and one which, wee trust, will being down the dews of Heavens upon the Flat Head nation and neighboring tribes.

From all accounts, the faith, piety and fervor of the first concerts to Christianity seemed, indeed, to have reappeared among these children of the forest. We may be pardoned, if were here quote from the official report of Lieut. John Mullan, U.S.A., who, thirteen years later, in company with the Hon. Isaac Stevens, was detailed by the U. S. Government to explore what is now the State of Montana, and who spent some time in the Bitter Root Valley. His account is much to the point:

When I arrived at the camp with my guide (says Lieut. Mullan), three or four then came to meet me and we were invited to enter the lodge of the great chief. With much eagerness they took care of

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our horses and unsaddled them and led them to drink. As soon as all the camp had been informed of the arrival of the white man among them, the principal men of the tribe collected at the lodge of the chief. All being assembled, at a signal given by the chief, they prayed aloud. I was struck with astonishment, for I had not the least expectation of such conduct on their part. The whole assembly knelt in the most solemn manner and with the greatest reverence adored the Lord. I asked myself: "Am I among Indians? Am I among people whom all genealogists calls savages?" I could scarcely believe my eyes. The taught that these men were penetrated with religious sentiment so profound and beautiful overwhelmed me with amazement.

But the missionaries had come to teach the Indians not to pray only, but also to work, toil being next to godliness, and, after piety, the best aid to good living for fallen man. Hence after the first lesson in manual labor given to the Indians by the building of the chapel and winter quarters, others were given them in cutting and splitting rails and fencing in a piece of land preparatory to putting it under cultivation with the opening of spring. Whilst this kind of missionary work greatly surprised the Indians, there was no seed at hand to show in the new field, and the nearest place where it could be had was Fort Colville, over three hundred miles away. This circumstance furnished Father De Smet with the opportunity of doing two things at the same time, of going after the seed and other supplies needed at St. Mary's, and dispensing seed spiritual, the truths of Christianity, to several Indian tribes along his course to Fort Colville.

Accompanied by his interpreter and ten Flat Heads, he set out from St. Mary's on October 24, visiting and instructing as he went along the Kalispels, Pend d'Oreilles and Couer d'Alenes. To improve his time, the method he adopted in teaching Christian doctrine to the Indians was the following:

With the help of his interpreter, he translated into Indian the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary, the Ten Commandants, with the acts of Faith, Hope, Charity and Contrition. He then made his Indian pupils stand in a circle, insisting that they should always take the same places. When they were thus arranged, he would teach to one the first Commandant, the second to another, and so on. As to prayers, he made each one learn by memory a different sentence of the same prayer, so that by every one recit-

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ing what he had memorized, the whole would be rendered. This took him about three days, and all, young and old, soon knew the Commandants and the prayers by heart.

The advent of the Black robes in the land of the Selish or Flat Heads had been spoken of to them and they were now eager to be instructed and have missionaries remain among them. He baptized during the trip 190 people, twenty-six of them adults. Some of the latter were decrepit with extreme old age, and seemed to have been kept alive providentially, like old St. Simeon, that they, too, like him, "might see their salvation' before dying. Instances are cited by Father De Smet which are, Indeed, very touching. But we must pass them over so as not to make out narrative too lengthy.

The Father returned to St. Mary's on December 8, the Feat of the Immaculate Conception, having spent forty-two days in his journey.

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The seed brought from Fort Colville consisted of potatoes, wheat, and oats, a few bushels of each, and the seeding season having arrived, the Indians watch with great curiosity the plowing, sowing and planting. To them it was all itenemus, to no purpose or foolish. Tearing up the bosom of the earth, spoiling and destroying the grass of their ponies, just to bury in the ground to rot what seemed good to eat, appeared to them most strange. When told that what had been planted, after rotting under the soil, would in due time reappear, multiplied, they were utterly incredulous, and would laugh the teller almost to scorn. Brother Claessens, still living, who looked after the field, often relates that Indians could be seen day after day perched on the fence for hours waiting for the seed to come to life again.

It was not long, however, before their incredulity began to give way under what they saw with their own eyes, the green blades and tender stalks shooting forth from the ground. The sight delighted them and from that moment to the ripening of the crop they seemed to grow actually feverish with expectancy. Happily the yield proved even larger than the missionaries had hoped for and all in the camp were able to share of its abundance.

This was the first farming done in Montana, and while the Indians now saw for the first time the advantage of tilling the soil and sowing for crops, that first lesson in husbandry proved also the best means of illustrating a fundamental mystery of Christianity, the resurrection of the dead. The great Apostle makes use of the same natural fact, the reproduction of the seed buried and rotting in the ground, to teach all men the same doctrine.

The Indians became very fond of potatoes, green corn, peas, beans, turnips, and carrots. But they had no use for greens, and especially disliked onions. The latter made their eyes water, while they thought the former good only for horses. One morning Brother Joseph, looking over his little garden, missed half a row of carrots and some onions. The next morning, while a few more carrots had disappeared, the missing onions, to his surprise, had been put back, and pretty much in the same row.