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In this monthly series, we’ll explore the history of the Catholic
Church in the Pacific Northwest from pioneer beginnings to the present
day. The series will highlight important places of faith in the
Northwest, the “holy ground” where the seeds of faith have been planted
in our midst. --
Corinna Laughlin
Part 1, September 8, 2019
CATHOLICS AT NEAH BAY
Neah Bay. A Makah mother smiles in this 1910 photo
by Asahel
Curtis (Wikimedia Commons).
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The Christian faith first came to this part of the world more than four
hundred years ago. If the stories are to be believed (and not all
scholars do believe them), a Greek sailor employed by the King of Spain,
and best known by his Spanish name, Juan de Fuca, entered Puget Sound in
1592. It was a small exploratory expedition—just one caravel and a
pinnace—and no soldiers accompanied them. De Fuca later told his story
to an English sailor named John Douglas, who told the writer Samuel
Purchas, who in turn included De Fuca’s voyage in his famous book
Purchas His Pilgrimes. According to Purchas, Juan de Fuca “came to the
Latitude of fortie seven degrees, and that there finding that the Land
trended North and North-east, with a broad Inlet of Sea, between 47 and
48 degrees of Latitude: hee entred thereinto, and sayling therein more
than twentee days… Also, hee said that hee went on land in divers
places.” Having gone thus far, Juan de Fuca returned to Mexico,
expecting to be richly rewarded for having discovered what he was sure
was the fabled Northwest Passage. He never got his reward—but, thanks to
an English trader who sailed into Puget Sound in 1787, Juan de Fuca’s
name was given to the strait which he may (or may not!) have visited.
It was not until the eighteenth century, when Spain’s dominance of
the Pacific was challenged by Britain and Russia, that Spain made a
serious effort to lay claim to the Pacific Northwest. In 1774, the brig
Santiago sailed north out of Monterey. This time, the expedition was
accompanied by two Franciscan priests—Father Juan Crespi and Father
Thomas de la Perra, both companions of St. Junipero Serra, father of the
California Missions. On board ship, off the coast of what is now Oregon
and Washington, the priests offered Mass, gave communion, heard
confessions, and led the crew in rosaries and novenas—the dawn of
Catholic liturgical life in the Northwest. Meanwhile, the crew prepared
a cross to be placed in the ground when the expedition reached 60
degrees north latitude. “The carpenters constructed a wooden cross about
five varas [fourteen feet] in height,” wrote Father Crespi in his diary.
“The inscription on the upper part was I. N. R. I.; along the body of
the cross between the arms and the foot, Carolus Tertius, Rex
Hispaniarum, and on the arms, Año de 1774.” The cross was the perfect
emblem of Spanish exploratory missions in the New World: political and
religious motivations were inseparably, and problematically,
intertwined.
As it happened, the cross was never planted. The expedition traveled
as far north as present-day British Columbia, but a sick crew and
contrary weather prevented the expedition from landing. They did,
however, interact with the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest,
both men and women, who came to the ship in canoes in order to barter
with the newcomers. These people showed “not the least distrust,” wrote
Father Crespi. “They sang and played upon instruments of wood fashioned
like drums or timbrels…. They had coverlets of otter skins sewn together
so well that the best tailor could not sew them better.”
The Santiago returned to Monterey without achieving its objective,
but other expeditions followed. In 1779, the Arteaga expedition made it
as far north as Bucareli Bay in present-day Alaska. They landed, planted
a cross, and celebrated Mass, the first in the Northwest (on land, at
any rate!). In 1790, Alferez Manuel Quimper, captain of the Princesa
Royal, explored the strait of Juan de Fuca. On August 1, he entered what
is now Neah Bay, landed, and with great ceremony took possession. Again,
the mixing of sacred and secular, religious and military motivations is
striking: “Immediately taking a large cross on their shoulders, the men
of the vessel, being arranged in martial order, with their muskets and
other arms, they carried this in procession, chanting a litany with all
responding. The procession being concluded, the commander placed the
cross and erected a pile of stones at the foot of it as a memorial and
sign of possession of all these seas and lands and their districts,
continuous and contiguous.” In all of this, the Spanish of course
ignored the prior claims of the native peoples living in the region, the
Makah.
Lieutenant Salvador Fidalgo, who led the short-lived Spanish
settlement at Neah Bay.
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The men stayed on shore about three days, and then the Princesa Royal
departed. Two years later, however, under the command of Lieutenant
Salvador Fidalgo, the ship returned with instructions to establish a
fort. The Princesa anchored in Neah Bay on May 29, 1792, renaming it
Bahía de Núñez Gaona in honor of the viceroy of New Spain. Within a few
weeks, the crew—sailors, soldiers, and colonists, numbering about 90—had
cleared trees and built a bakehouse, a blacksmith shop, barracks, and
pens for livestock. They also planted gardens and set up six guns, aimed
towards the water and the British, who were also laying claim to the
Northwest at the time. An American sailor, traveling through the Strait
of Juan de Fuca, observed that “the Spaniards had erected a cross upon
the beach, and had about ten houses and several good gardens.” There is
no indication that any priest accompanied the colonists and no chapel
was built; nevertheless, this small Spanish fort was the first Catholic
settlement in the Pacific Northwest.
The settlement at Neah Bay was short-lived. Relations with the Makah,
at first quite positive, soured. There were reports of sexual assault of
native women by the Spanish; a Spanish soldier was killed, and in
retaliation the Spanish opened fire on a canoe full of Makah men,
killing six. “It does not seem right to me that you should have taken
vengeance on persons who might have been quite innocent and when the
assassin is not known,” Lieutenant Fidalgo’s superior wrote, ordering
him to maintain good relations with the Makah.
The geopolitical landscape was in constant flux, and the new fort was
abandoned after just a few months. By 1795, Spain had withdrawn from the
Pacific Northwest entirely. As for the Neah Bay settlement, the Makah
burned what the Spanish left behind, and used the site as a rubbish
heap.
In 2008, three unlikely partners joined forces to mark the site in a
more permanent way: the Makah Tribe, the State of Washington, and the
government of Spain. Today, a monument recalls the short-lived Spanish
settlement as well as honoring Neah Bay area veterans. It can also claim
to be the site of the first Catholic community in the Pacific Northwest:
a rocky start, to say the least.
In our next issue: The extraordinary journey of the first
missionary priests to the Pacific Northwest
Corinna Laughlin, Director of Liturgy
MAKE A VISIT
Neah Bay is about 150 miles from St. James Cathedral (about
4.5 hours via car and ferry). It is located on the Makah Indian
Reservation. The Makah Museum includes archaeological finds from
the Ozette site, a Makah village destroyed in a landslide
300-500 years ago, and gives a glimpse of pre-contact Makah
life. Fort Nunez Gaona-Diah Veterans Park marks the site
of the Spanish settlement at Neah Bay and offers spectacular
views.
MAKAH MUSEUM, 1880 Bayview Ave, Neah Bay, Washington 98357
Phone: (360) 645-2711
makahmuseum.com
FORT NUNEZ GAONA—DIAH VETERANS PARK
Neah Bay, WA 98357
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Sources consulted
Wilfred P. Schoenberg, SJ, A
History of the Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest
https://mynorthwest.com/1344432/neah-bay-name-history/
https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2017/10/19/establishing-and-disbanding-the-neah-bay-settlement-1792/
https://magazine.wsu.edu/2009/03/18/a-memorial-and-a-blessing/
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