In 1841, Jesuit missionaries, led by Pierre-Jean DeSmet, established the St. Mary’s Mission among the Flathead Indians (also known as the Bitterroot Salish) in present-day Stevensville, Montana. The Mission was established at the request of the Flatheads who had heard about the power of the Blackrobes (the Indian term for the Jesuits) from Iroquois trappers sent into the area by the Canadian fur companies.
According to Indian agent Peter Ronan, in his 1890 book History of the Flathead Indians:
“On the 3d day of December, 184, about one-third of the Flathead tribe were baptized into the Catholic faith, and the others who were under religious instructions were received into the fold on Christmas day of that same year.”
In his book Charlo’s People: The Flathead Tribe, Adolf Hungry Wolf reports:
“But after all their efforts to learn about the Catholic religion, the Flatheads were soon discouraged by the attitudes of the priests. The People wanted to add Catholicism to their own Ways of Life—not to exchange their Ways for the ways that the priests demanded.”
(See also Indians 201: Christianity Comes to the Flathead Indians)
Accompanying DeSmet were two other Jesuit priests—the scholarly priest Gregory Mengarini and the artist missionary Nicholas Point—and three lay brothers. Jesuit scholar Wilfred Schoenber, in his chapter in Religion in Montana: Pathways to the Present, reports:
“Mengarini produced several significant works in the Flathead language. Point painted Indians, gradually amassing a collection that compares favorably with that of Catlin and other early frontier artists.”
Father Point (1799-1868) was born in Belgium, and in 1842 founded a mission among the Coeur d’Alenes, another Salish-speaking tribe. During his time with the Indians, he kept a journal and made hundreds of sketches of Indians and their daily lives. He returned to St. Louis in 1847.
(see also Indians 101: The Cataldo Mission and the Coeur d’Alene Indians)
The museum at the Historic St. Mary’s Mission in Stevensville has a display, Bitter Root Salish through Jesuit Eyes, displaying reproductions of Father Point’s works.
While his art shows Flathead culture in the 1840s, it should be noted that he also emphasizes the incorporation of Christianity into Flathead culture in some of his drawings.
According to the display:
“A family sights a herd of bison. Women were excellent riders, and they accompanied men on the hunt to butcher the animals and dry the meat for storage.”
According to the display:
“…Salish hunters are blessed by St. Hubert, the Catholic patron of hunters whose symbol is a stag with a cross between its antlers. The warriors are leaving for the winter hunt ask for protection.”
While the Salish-speaking Plateau Indians did use Plains-style tipis when hunting, the winter lodge was generally an A-frame shaped lodge covered with tule mats. Tules are common marsh plants which grow at low elevations. They may grow to a height of more than 10 feet.
According to the display:
“This picture vividly portrays one of the Salish and Catholic beliefs. Ignace, a Coeur d’Alene Chief, goes to the mountains to sweat, fast, and pray for a guardian animal spirit to give him powerful hunting medicine.”
According to the display:
“This watercolor of a Catholic altar in an Indian tule mat lodge, the traditional housing of Platea Indian people, eloquently expresses the hopes of missionary artist Nicolas Point for the conversion of the Northwest tribes. At the time time, it evokes the possibility of a merging of Christianity with Salish beliefs.”
According to the display:
“The most successful hunters were those who had been given powerful hunting medicine by animal spirits who visited them during a vision quest, a spiritual retreat in which man or women went alone into the mountains, fasted, and prayed for assistances. All hunters respected the souls of the animals who gave themselves up to humans. When an animal was killed, a prayer offering was made, and the carcass was treated with reverence.”
Chief Victor’s Cabin
The displays in Chief Victor’s cabin includes several reproductions of Father Point’s color portraits.
Indians 101
Twice each week—on Tuesdays and Thursdays—this series looks at a variety of American Indian topics. More about the Plateau Indians from this series:
Indians 101: Plateau Indian Basket Hats and Trinket Baskets (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Indian Beadwork at the Maryhill Museum (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Women's Clothing in the High Desert Museum (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Indian Reservation Life (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Hall of Plateau Indians (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Women, Tradition, and Plateau Indian Art (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Raising a Tipi (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Bitterroot Salish Encampment (photo diary)