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 Francis
Norbert Blanchet—older brother of our first bishop, A. M. A.
Blanchet—was one of the first priests in the Pacific Northwest, and the
first to take up permanent residence in this part of the world. He came
from French Canada with a mission to bring the message of the Gospel to
those who had never heard it—the Native American peoples—and to bring
back to the faith the Catholic trappers living in the area, some of whom
had been without priests for decades.
By all accounts, F. N. Blanchet was a severe and tireless apostle.
Historian Wilfred Schoenberg, SJ calls him “a nineteenth century iron
robot, programmed to preach and bless crosses and holy water.” He left
Montreal on May 3, 1838, and reached Fort Vancouver on the Columbia
River seven months and 4,325 miles later. Blanchet arrived on November
24, and on November 25, a Sunday, he offered Mass and announced that he
and Father Demers, his companion, would be offering a mission beginning
that very evening. The mission consisted of daily Mass, preaching,
prayers, hymn-singing, and catechism classes, and lasted no less than
four months and twenty days!
It was the hymn-singing that began to draw the Native American
peoples to the mission in addition to the whites. One evening, the 76
Catholics at Fort Vancouver were joined by 140 Native Americans from the
neighboring tribes. Father Demers, with a special gift for languages,
was soon able to converse with them in the Chinook Jargon.
Word about the missionaries spread, and when they offered another
mission in Cowlitz, north of Fort Vancouver, in 1839, tribes from around
the region sent delegations to listen to this “good news” and bring it
back home. This was a new challenge: how could they convey the
essentials of Catholic teaching not only in a short time, but in a way
that could be readily understood and imparted to others?
Blanchet came up with an imaginative and inspired answer to this
question. He had seen the Native Americans communicate complex stories
through carved wooden poles. He decided to do the same. On a piece of
wood—later, on paper—Blanchet notched forty horizontal lines,
representing the forty centuries from the creation of the world to the
birth of Christ. Then he made thirty-three dots, representing the years
of Christ’s life, and above them three crosses—the death and
resurrection of Christ. Then eighteen more horizontal marks, and
thirty-nine dots brought the story up to the present moment—1839. Using
this simple scheme, Blanchet could point to key moments in salvation
history—the creation, the flood, the giving of the commandments, the
resurrection, the establishment of the Church, and so on. Blanchet
called it l’échelle historique, the “history ladder.” The Native
American peoples called it the “sahale stick,” the “stick from heaven.”
It allowed them to share the Christian story with each other.
The “Catholic Ladder” was an immediate success, and was used by
missionaries in the west for decades. It also sparked controversy. On
the Ladder, Blanchet placed a withered branch, representing the various
Protestant movements. Non-Catholic missionaries working in the Northwest
responded with a “Protestant ladder,” vividly illustrated with mitered
figures falling into hellfire. (It is hard not to wonder what the Native
Americans, hearing the Gospel for the first time, made of these
competing visions of Christian history.) Nevertheless, the Catholic
Ladder remains a powerful example of inculturation in the preaching of
the Gospel in the Pacific Northwest.
Corinna Laughlin, Director of Liturgy
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