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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 2, October 6, 2019
A JOURNEY FROM MONTREAL TO VANCOUVER
A fanciful representation of the Hudson’s Bay Company
“Express,” the canoe route used by Hudson’s Bay Company
voyageurs, settlers and their families, and the first two
missionary priests in the Pacific Northwest. (Wikimedia Commons)
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After Spain withdrew from the Pacific Northwest, Britain and the United
States began to exert their own claims. Westward expansion increased
rapidly after the Convention of 1818, a treaty between the United States
and Great Britain, which agreed that the Northwest would be “free and
open” to settlers from both nations—at least for the time being.
The Hudson’s Bay Company moved quickly to consolidate British
claims to the region. In 1825, Fort Vancouver was established on the
north side of the Columbia River, and quickly became the Company’s most
important outpost in the west. Meanwhile, the first Americans, mostly
fur traders, were also making their way west in the wake of the Lewis
and Clark Expedition.
Before long, people living in these remote areas were asking for
priests. As early as 1824, an English woman wrote to Bishop Dubourg in
New Orleans on behalf of the Catholics living near the Columbia River.
In 1831, Bishop Rosati of St. Louis received a delegation of four
Flathead men, who had traveled across the Rocky Mountains in search of
“Blackrobes” for their people. The journey was so arduous that two of
the men died shortly after arriving in St. Louis; the other two never
made it home. And in 1834, some Catholic settlers in Oregon’s Willamette
Valley wrote to Bishop Provencher on the Canadian frontier, asking him
to come. We are, they wrote, in “Great Angstitty [anxiety] for youre
arrival.” Bishop Provencher assured them he was looking for a priest to
send, and that in the meantime they ought to mend their ways: “What idea
do you give of God and of the holy religion you profess to the Indians?”
he asked. “You prejudice them against a religion which you violate.”
The calls for “Blackrobes” in the west would soon be answered. Two
French Canadian priests were chosen for the mission: the 43-year-old
Father Francis Norbert Blanchet and 29-year-old Father Modeste Demers.
With some difficulty, Archbishop Signay of Quebec convinced the Hudson’s
Bay Company to provide passage west for the two priests. The source of
the difficulty lay in tensions between Protestants and Catholics (sadly,
religious division was one of the first things the Old World brought to
the New). The Company’s leadership found it expedient to have priests in
the area—for one thing, many of their employees were Catholic; for
another, the presence of French Canadians could help solidify British
claims to the disputed territory in the Northwest. However, Protestant
missionaries already in the region were adamant that no Catholics should
interfere with their efforts. In the end, thanks largely to the
determined support of John McLoughlin, Chief Factor at Fort Vancouver,
the two priests were granted permission to travel west, but only on
condition that they minister on the north side of the Columbia—far from
the Willamette Valley where the majority of the Catholics were. Thus the
first Catholic missionary efforts in the Pacific Northwest were
undertaken in what is now the Archdiocese of Seattle.
On May 3, 1838, the journey finally got underway. Archbishop Signay
reminded Blanchet (now grandly known as the “Vicar General”) and Demers
that they were being sent, first and foremost, to “the Indians scattered
in that country,” and secondly, “to the wicked Christians who… live in
licentiousness and the forgetfulness of their duties.” They were to
study the native peoples’ languages and prepare grammars; teach the
faith, prepare people for baptism and regularize “fur trade” marriages;
establish schools and catechism classes for children; and plant crosses
in all “remarkable places… so as to take possession of these various
places in the name of the Catholic religion.”
ABOVE: Father Francis Norbert Blanchet (left) and Father Modeste
Demers (right), the first missionary priests in the Pacific
Northwest. Wikimedia Commons. BELOW: A map of their journey
from Montreal to Vancouver, prepared by N. Meany, SJ for
Wilfried Schoenberg’s A History of the Catholic Church in the
Pacific Northwest, 1743-1983. (Washington, DC: Pastoral Press,
1987).
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The journey lasted seven months. The travelers—including Hudson’s Bay
Company voyageurs, families headed for new lives in the west, and the
two priests—followed a circuitous river route, which added hundreds of
miles to the distance covered (Blanchet calculated that they travelled
5,325 miles in 196 days). Much of the way was traversed by canoe,
interspersed with long and tedious portages between rivers. In some
areas they journeyed on horseback. The two priests did not wait until
they arrived to begin their ministry: all along the way, they performed
baptisms and catechized young and old of every race, making an effort to
preach the faith even when they were to remain only a day or two in a
given place.
On October 10, they finally passed the crest of the
Rocky Mountains. The two priests rose at three in the morning to offer
Mass and “to consecrate to their Creator these mountains and abrupt
peaks whose prodigious height ascend towards heaven to celebrate in such
beautiful language the praise of the Almighty.”
After crossing the
Rockies, they continued west to the Columbia River. At Big Bend, one of
the overloaded boats capsized, and twelve died, including men, women,
and children. “Sad, long and excruciating was the night,” wrote
Blanchet; “the next day, the boat having been repaired, the survivors
continued their sorrowful journey.”
They headed south on the Columbia River, stopping at “Forts Colville,
O’Kanagan, and Walla Walla.” In each place, Blanchet later wrote,
“immense crowds of Indians assembled in order to behold the Blackgowns
whose presence they had so long waited for.”
At long last, on Saturday, November 24, 1838, they reached their
destination, Fort Vancouver, where they were welcomed by James Douglas,
who was in charge of operations in the absence of John McLoughlin. There
was little rest for the priests after their extraordinary journey. That
very night, they gathered the Catholics of the place for prayer and
instruction. And the next day, Sunday, they celebrated Mass with as much
solemnity as they could muster.
“November 25th., 1838, was beautiful as a summer day,” Blanchet
remembered. The Fort’s school house was prepared for the Mass. “The
building was too small to contain the crowd composed of the gentlemen,
ladies and Catholics of the outside camp…. The divine service of that
day was moving, even to tears, as many of the Canadians had not heard
Mass for ten, fifteen and even twenty years. That day was one for them
that would never be forgotten.” The Catholic Church had returned to the
Pacific Northwest, and this time they were here to stay.
Corinna Laughlin, Pastoral Assistant for Liturgy
Sources consulted
· Wilfred P. Schoenberg, SJ, A History of the
Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest
· Archbishop F. N. Blanchet,
Historical Sketches of the Church in Oregon during the Past Forty Years
(1878)
· History of the Hudson’s Bay Company:
http://www.hbcheritage.ca/history
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