Old Missoula

 

Missoula’s first Wagon and the luck of a Flathead Fisherman

 

 

The following description of the Peter DeSmet mission is largely taken from the book, Jesuits in Montana – 1840 – 1960, by Reverend Wilfred P. Schoenberg, S. J., published in 1960, and Frontier Omnibus, by John W. Hakola, published in 1962 by Montana State University Press.

 

 

In 1841 the first wagon to ever arrive in Missoula (and Montana) came with a Jesuit mission led by Father Peter DeSmet, the stocky Belgian priest whose remarkable career eventually covered the western part of the continent many times over.

 

Sought out in 1839 by two Iroquois from Montana for the mysterious power of the Black Robes, DeSmet first left St. Louis in the spring of 1840 for his initial visit to Wyoming’s Green River where he found a camp of hundreds of tribal members and followers from all over the Northwest. Flathead, Nez Perce, Pend d’Oreilles, Snakes, Shoshone, and others had gathered and word of his mission spread like wildfire.

 

At the Green River Rendezvous he was greeted as a divine Leader whose gifts would restore the tribes to their former greatness. Hopefully, the acquisition of firearms would become part of the bargain. The ascension of Blackfeet warriors, who were better armed and increasingly dangerous, was always a motivational tool in the quest for DeSmet’s assistance. And the Canadian influence of Iroquois trappers made the Catholic mission especially intriguing. Some of the Indians already knew of the power of the Black Robes and could recite prayers even before DeSmet’s arrival.

 

DeSmet then traveled to Pierre’s Hole, “at the foot of the Tetons,” where a huge camp of Flathead, Nez Perce and Pend d’Oreilles had gathered. After baptizing several hundred and preaching the gospel – some of it in Salish – DeSmet made a journey to a place where the mountains divided the waters of the continent, presumably the continental divide in Montana. Here he found the vision that drove him to return the following year.

 

“I said a mass of Thanksgiving at the foot of this mountain, surrounded by my Indians, who chanted canticles of praise to God, and took possession of the country in the name of the Holy Father.”

 

He returned to St. Louis in August of that year.

 

In 1841,  the following year, DeSmet returned in force, accompanied by two other priests, three craftsmen, four two-wheeled carts, and a wagon.

In Frontier Omnibus, John W. Hakola writes:

“The three missionairies rode in the saddle of the horses. The brothers looked after the wagons and were assisted by Thomas Fitzpatrick, noted guide, John Gray or Grey, a man experienced as a hunter and a trapper, Jim Baker a frontiersman of note, a young Englishman named Romaine, and five teamsters.”

They arrived at Fort Hall, in what is now Idaho, and found themselves almost out of provisions.

 

After buying what they described as two bags of “Toro”, or pemmican, they were in a bad spot. Noted as an important staple for Native Americans, the pemmican consisted of “dried buffalo meat, grease, and berries.” It didn’t last long and Mengarini described it as “not unpleasant.”

 

While things were now approaching desperation, an odd incident occurred that somehow has escaped wide notice in our historical accounts. Unaccountably, one of the Flatheads who accompanied them possessed the tools and gifts of a fisherman – and a good one at that.

 

A very early fishing report as described by Mengarini:

“However, when the end came and we had no more [pemmican], we politely informed them [some twenty Flatheads] of the fact and notwithstanding that we had already faced hunger so often, we found its visage as ugly as ever. Francois Saxa, however, with Indian ingenuity, soon rid us of our unwelcome visitor. Fort Hall is on a branch of the Snake River. Taking a line and unbaited hook, he went to a hole in the river, threw in his line and began to switch it from side to side. The hole must have been swarming with fish; for, in a short time, he had landed such a number, some caught by the fins, some by the tail, some by the belly, that all danger of starvation was quickly dispelled.”

In an accompanying footnote of Frontier Omnibus Hakola noted that this Francois Saxa and his brother, Charles, were sons of Old Ignace and all three had visited St. Louis in 1835 to seek Blackrobes. “The three returned to the Flatheads, Old Ignace, or Aneas as he was sometimes called, was killed by the Sioux August 7, 1837, while on his way east to again urge the cause of the Flatheads for missionaries. Francois Saxa was sometimes known as Francois Lamoose. He lived in western Montana and died in 1919 at the age of 97.”

 

Their journey beyond Fort Hall to Montana is described as difficult and dangerous.

 

“On September 9, the last stage of the Jesuits’ journey began. Accompanied by the Flatheads they moved ponderously toward Hell’s Gate.”

 

Here he quotes Father Mengarini, “If the road to the infernal regions were as uninviting as that to its namesake, few I think would care to travel it.”

 

Bucking and pulling the wagon and carts over rough terrain was not easy.

 

“Sometimes they had to unhitch the mules to drag the wagons by long ropes, and often they held their breath while their precious cargoes were eased over critical ledges. These were the first wagons to cross western Montana, one circumstance of the journey which added but little glamor and relieved no one of a heavy burden. . .

 

“After the missionaries arrived at Hell’s Gate, they camped there for two days while they made little scouting trips in search of a permanent place for their mission. Finally, having decided on a lovely little valley along the Bitter Root River, twenty-five miles south of Hell’s Gate, they hitched up their squeaking carts again and rolled through the mountains and valleys into their promised land.”

 

They arrived at what is now St. Mary’s mission on September 24, 1841.