The Indians and the Jesuit

Father de Smet built the first permanent settlement in Montana.

- MARK BOARDMAN

It took the Salish Indians of Montana nearly three decades to acquire a Catholic mission on their land. It took far less than that to tear it down.

The Salish people were exposed to Catholicism at some point in the 1810s, when Iroquois traders brought the faith with them. The Salish liked what they saw; they began petitioning the church to build a settlement on their land. There were attempts at doing so. The first two failed to even reach the land. A third was massacred by Lakotas in 1837.

Enter Father Pierre-Jean de Smet, who had already built a reputation as a missionary to various Indian tribes. A couple of Salish tribal members, by chance, ran into him in St. Louis in 1839. They persuaded the Jesuit to come to their land, to preach, to help start the mission they so desperately craved. De Smet agreed.