The Missionaries

This painting was done by Alexander Caulfield Anderson’s son, Walter Birnie Anderson, who was a member of the B.C. Police in the Comox area.

The HBC men had been settled at Fort Vancouver, on the banks of the Columbia River, for decades before the first of the Missionaries came west to establish permanent settlements in the Columbia District.

The first Missionary to arrive here was the Methodist Missionary Jason Lee, who in 1834 settled in the Willamette Valley, 10 miles north of present-day Salem, Oregon. In 1840, Jason’s nephew, Daniel Lee, established another mission at the mouth of the Columbia River, somewhere in the area around Point Adams on the south bank of the Columbia. 

The Methodists (also called Wesleyans) began their work in the Protestant movement, following the writings of John and Charles Wesley, whose father was an Anglican priest. The Methodists placed a strong emphasis on religious experience and salvation, more so than on formal dogma. It seems that their religion can be summed up in four distinct concepts: Original sin theory says that everyone has to be saved; everyone can be saved; everyone can know that they are saved; and everyone can be saved entirely. Like all Protestants, the Methodists/Wesleyans rejected the authority of the pope and insisted that the Bible was the only guide for Christians.

So, here is how the Methodists arrived in the Columbia district: In 1833, Missionary Jason Lee decided that he would come west as a Missionary to the Indigenous peoples on the Columbia plateau and in the river basin. Part of the reason why he wanted to do that is that he had read an article that told the story of four Upper Columbia River Indians who had met William Clarke, co-captain of the Lewis and Clarke Expedition, and requested that a missionary be sent west to teach them religion. The president of the Wesleyan University that Jason Lee, and his nephew, Daniel, attended, urged them to volunteer to act as missionaries in the Columbia district. In 1834, the two men traveled west in Nathaniel Wyeth’s expedition to Oregon Territory. On their arrival at Fort Vancouver, Chief Factor John McLoughlin encouraged them to set up their Mission in the Willamette Valley. 

These Missionaries had a difficult time making headway among the Indigenous people: the Kalapuya people in the valley were few in number and not terribly interested in the Missionary’s religion. In addition to that difficulty, Jason Lee himself was unaware of the Kalapuy peoples’ religion and was not interested in learning more. He was so unsuccessful that in 1838, Lee decided that the region would be better served if it was annexed to the United States, and he travelled to Washington to present his petition to Congress. Then, in 1840, fifty-one people joined Lee in Oregon, sailing into the mouth of the Columbia River on the ship, Lausanne, under the command of Captain Spaulding. The Lausanne had come from the eastern United States (New York) via Cape Horn, and Jason Lee also arrived at Fort Vancouver with this ship. 

Upon his arrival in the Willamette, Lee moved his Mission south to the present site of Salem, where they built a granary, sawmill, and grist mill, as well as a new Indian Manual Trading School. Three years later, in late 1843, Jason Lee was dismissed as Superintendent of the mission, and he travelled to New York to save his position. He never returned to Oregon, but died in 1845.

So, the Methodist church in the east chose to dismiss Jason Lee from his position, and (likely) they put someone else in charge of the Mission.

Are Methodists Presbyterians? No: they are not. The Presbyterian church originated in 16th century Scotland under John Knox, who was influenced by John Calvin; the Methodist movement began in 18th Century England as a reaction to the Church of England which began when King Henry wanted an heir and a divorce from his then-Queen.

As you can see, I know nothing about religion and so probably don’t have a good understanding of what I am writing, both above and below. Nevertheless, I still have to (sort of) understand the differences between the various groups of missionaries that arrived in the Columbia District. Looking at the differences helps me understand why what happened happened. Or at least, I hope it does.

Now, the Presbyterians. The Presbyterians came in two types: they generally used a type of religion run by church elders (called Presbyters), and had regional bodies that oversaw the work of the local church. However, the Congregational Presbyterians are different because they believed in the autonomy of the local church. The Missionaries that arrived on the west side of the Rocky Mountains were Congregational Presbyterians.

Both groups of Presbyterians believed in the teachings of John Calvin, who taught that Christ’s death was meant to atone for the sins of a select few chosen by God, and that everyone else was destined for hell. They believe in the depravity of man, that God picks who is saved or not saved, and that once a man is saved he cannot be lost. And, oh yes, this sounds very much like Dr. Marcus Whitman, the Presbyterian Missionary who arrived in the Columbia district on his first visit in 1835. In that year, Samuel Parker and Dr. Marcus Whitman were sent to the west by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

As a result of their short visit in 1835, the Presbyterians sent out Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, Henry Spalding, and W.H. Grey in 1836, and Cushing Eels, Elkanah Walker, and A.B. Smith in 1838 (Samuel Parker did not return). These Presbyterian Missionaries came west to establish Missions among the Indigenous people, and not only were they planning to teach them religion, but they wanted to change their lifestyle by teaching them to farm.

Whitman established his Mission, Waiilatpu, among the Cayuse Indians on the Walla Walla River. Spalding established his Mission on the Clearwater River in Idaho, some 110 miles to the east of Whitman’s Mission. Reverend Cushing Eels and his wife, Myra, and Reverend Elkanah Walker and his wife, Mary, were assigned to the mission at Tshimakain “the place of the springs,” fifteen miles northwest of Spokane House. There was also a Mission near The Dalles (two Missions, in fact, in later years, and I don’t know much about these missions at all!)

Next came the Catholic Missionaries, the first of which arrived in the Columbia District in 1838. Francis Noel Blanchet and Modeste Demers stopped at Fort Colvile on their way west in 1838, and representatives of five tribes came to see them. As they left the post they promised to come back and establish a Mission there — seven years later, Pierre Jean de Smet did so, and he called it St. Paul. One month later, Father Antonio Ravalli came to Kettle Falls to take charge of that Mission (he is one of the Missionaries who broke up a fist fight between Chief Traders Donald Manson and John Tod, who were returning to their New Caledonia district with the Brigades). Then Christian Hoechen took it over, and even later, in 1847, Father de Vos began his residency there. This is the Missionary that I know most about, as he was at Fort Colvile when A.C. Anderson was put in charge of it, and James Robert Anderson (A.C.’s son) wrote a few stories about him.

So, after their visit to Fort Colvile in 1838, Francis Noel Blanchet and Modeste Demers continued west and arrived in the Willamette Valley in November 1838, going there in response to requests from the French Canadian population in that place. Blanchet established his first Mission at the Cowlitz and his second in the Willamette valley (named St. Paul Mission) in 1839. Father Antonio Ravalli arrived in 1845 (he would later be at Fort Colvile, as you see above). Ravalli was especially beloved by the Indigenous people in the Rocky Mountain region of Montana. 

Modeste Demers came west with Francis Noel Blanchet, as I said above. In his work with the Indigenous people, Demers spoke and wrote books and hymns in Chinook Jargon that, and learned a number of the Indigenous languages. He was active in the Cowlitz district, but also in the north: He was at Fort Langley in September 1841, where he baptized many of the First Nations who gathered to see him. (When James Douglas first visited the new site of Fort Victoria, the First Nations there told Father Jean Baptiste Zacharie Bolduc of Demer’s Fort Langley visit.) The following year, Demers travelled up the Brigade Trail to Fort Alexandria, where he spent the winter and built a small chapel (which is in Dairy Fields, by the way). In 1844, he returned to Oregon and served as pastor in Oregon City, after which he was appointed Bishop of Vancouver Island. And that is where his grave is, outside the church that stands on the corner of View Street and Blanshard.

So how did the Missionaries hear of the need for Missionaries in the Columbia District. In 1832, a delegation of Nez Perces and Flathead Indians travelled to St. Louis to ask for Missionaries to come west. This wasn’t their only journey to St. Louis: they also travelled there in 1831, 1835, and 1838. In 1832, the first delegation of Kootenai and Salish men invited Black Robes to teach them. On the 1838 mission to St. Louis they met Father Pierre Jean de Smet, and in 1839, de Smet responded to their request. Father Pierre Jean de Smet had come from Belgium to the United States specifically to work with the Indigenous people who wanted to know more about the Catholic religion. In 1840 (it seems, although my sources disagree), he came west and toured the region in search of mission sites. In 1841, he returned to establish his mission, St. Ignatius, among the Flatheads at a site south of Flathead Lake, in Montana, I believe.

And the last Missionary I will speak of is Pere John Nobili, who became a Jesuit priest in 1843 after fifteen years of study. He left Rome in September 1843, and joined Pierre de Smet’s expedition, reaching Fort Vancouver in August of 1844. He was sent to New Caledonia with the brigades in summer 1845, and he was the other Missionary who with Antonio Ravalli separated Chief Traders Donald Manson and John Tod. Ravalli, as I said, went on to Fort Colvile, but Nobili continued up the Brigade trail to Priest’s Encampment, where he set up his alter and performed a funeral service for N’Kuala’s son, also called N’Kuala, who had been accidentally shot and killed by an HBC man named Patrick McKenzie, as they travelled south to Fort Colvile with the outgoing Express. (N’Kuala’s son was buried at Priest’s Encampment.) Nobili went as far north as Fort St. James, but returned to Fort Alexandria to spend the winter with A.C. Anderson (teaching him the Italian language). He left New Caledonia with the outgoing 1847 Brigade, and in 1848 we find him at Fort Langley, making his way into New Caledonia with the Brigade that left Fort Langley that year. It was at this time that N’Kuala showed Nobili the Capote that Governor Simpson had left for him at the Kamloops post as he travelled through the District, on his way through the Fraser River canyons to Fort Langley in 1828. The Capote (blanket coat) was still in good condition: N’Kuala had looked after it well.

There is one common discovery among all these Missionaries, from the first to arrive in this district, to the Catholics who came later. They all found that the First Nations and/or Indigenous peoples who lived west of the Rocky Mountains already understood and practiced some simple religious ceremonies. But where did they get them? Can it only be from the Iroquois men who worked in the fur trade? Or was there an earlier Missionary? 

This is another little story: While he travelled down the Columbia River in 1824, Governor George Simpson told Alexander Ross to find two Indian lads who would be sent to the Red River School to learn religion. Ross did find two Indigenous boys who were willing to travel out to the school, and the HBC men gave them the names of Spokane Garry, and Kootenay Pelly. Both boys arrived at the school and were taught religion, but sadly, Kootenay Pelly was killed by fall from his horse. Spokane Garry arrived back in the Columbia District in the incoming Express of 1831 — the same Express that George Traill Allan travelled into the district in. Allan does not mention Spokane Garry in his 1831 journal, but as he is leaving the district in 1841, he does tell the story of Spokane Garry’s return to the Columbia district in 1831.

Spokane Garry was an excellent Missionary among his people. It is because of Spokane Garry’s enthusiastic preaching that the Indigenous people in the area made their long journeys to St. Louis to encourage the Black Robes to come west as their Missionaries, so that they could teach them the Catholic religion. And it is also the reason why the Black Robes — the Catholics and the Jesuits — were the most successful of all of these Missionaries on the West side of the Rocky Mountains. They taught the religion that the First Nations and Indigenous people understood — the religion that they had learned from Spokane Garry.

Grand words: but it has to be noted that some of those Indigenous men travelled to St. Louis before they heard Spokane Garry preaching. It must have been the Iroquois? Who else?

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2024. All rights reserved.

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