For 19th century Christian missionaries, the American West and its array of Native American tribes represented one, big, happy hunting ground. While the brown-clad Franciscans worked their way north from Mexico, the black-clad Jesuits were working their way West from St. Louis.
And scattered in among the priests were dozens of Protestant evangelists who brought a burning fervor that had never been seen before - or since.Today, the Franciscan missions of New Mexico, Arizona and California are showpieces of American culture. The swallows of Capistrano, the old mission at Santa Fe, the seaside grace of Carmel are part of American heritage. But in the wilds of Idaho, Montana and Washington, several Jesuit and Protestant missions were just as ambitious and impressive, though their history has remained shrouded.
They're the unsung missions of the American Northwest.
"Unsung is a good term for our missions," says Bill Scudder, park manager at Old Mission State Park at Cataldo in Idaho. "We hear a lot of positive comments from people who come up from California. They're amazed to see we have missions here at all. There hasn't been a lot of publicity; but that's changing. Reader's Digest and National Geographic are publicizing us. Interest will keep growing."
If you can picture the missions of the Northwest as charms on a necklace, the "amulet" of the lot would be The Old Mission State Park at Cataldo, near Coeur d'Alene.
Set just off I-90 in Idaho's scenic panhandle, the Old "Sacred Heart" Mission is the oldest building in Idaho. It was also the prize jewel of Father Peter John De Smet, S.J. The tireless Jesuit left his homeland of Belgium in 1821, then left his footprints and imprint on a great deal of northern Idaho. He established four Catholic missions in the Northwest, picking Cataldo for his most ambitious effort because of the clear river water and fertile land.
Father Antonio Ravalli designed the mission at Cataldo. He carved wood to resemble marble, trimmed sheets of tin to give the impression of a chandelier and painted the ceiling blue with berry juice.
After De Smet's death in 1873 the mission fell into disrepair, but on the mission's centennial, plans were made to turn it into a state park. Thanks to some handsome funding and the work of scholars, the mission looks just as it did in 1860. The parish house was restored as well. Today the site has a visitor's center, trails to walk and picnic areas. It is open seven days a week.
But if Cataldo is the most popular mission in the Northwest, it may not be the most impressive. That honor belongs to the St. Ignatius Mission, 30 miles north of Missoula, Montana.
De Smet founded the mission to minister to the Flathead Tribe. Established in 1854 it became the home of the first industrial arts school, first hospital, first printing press, flour mill and blacksmith shop in Montana.
Today the mission is a national historic site that draws more and more visitors. The drawing card is the interior of the church. There, Brother Joseph Carignano - a cook and handyman - painted 58 murals that depict everything from the visions of St. Ignatius of Loyola to portraits of St. Francis, St. Augustine, St. Vincent De Paul and dozens of others. Unlike Catholic historic sites now owned by the government, the St. Ignatius Mission still has religious services and is an active, vital part of the local community.
If the Catholics dominated the Christian scene in the 19th century West, however, they didn't monopolize it. Several Protestant ministers worked their way to the Pacific Ocean as well. The most prominent was Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa. Long before Brigham Young brought the Mormons to Utah, the Whitman family was in Walla Walla, Washington. In 1835 they had already begun the Mission at Waiilatpu, an outpost designed to service the needs and save the souls of the Cayuse Indians.
The Whitman story, however, was to end in tragedy, not triumph. When visitors from the east brought measles to the area, one third of the Cayuse tribe died. Feeling the Whitman family was to blame, several members of the tribe entered the mission compound on Nov. 29, 1847, and killed the Whitmans and seven others. The tribe took many others captive.
Marcus Whitman died with the thought that his life's work had been a failure, but Whitman College and several other monuments to his memory today prove otherwise. The mission buildings are gone now, but the site is a popular historic landmark.
"We do a lot of work with school-age children," says Midge Rose of the National Park Service. "The way the story is told here changes. In the past it was all black and white, with the Indians as the bad guys. But now the slide show we offer presents a better idea of the cultural misunderstandings that led to the tragedy."
In the end, there are several other religious outposts that deserve a mention. St. Mary's Mission near Missoula was the first mission in Montana in 1841. It was the site of a school. In Washington state, De Smet's Kettle Falls mission still stands and the old mission at De Smet, Idaho, still serves the locals as a church. It was started by Father Joseph M. Cataldo and was patterned on the mission at Cataldo, Idaho, after the U.S. government placed the Old Mission outside the reservation boundaries.
St. Joseph's, a stone mission near Lewiston, Idaho, was a gathering place for the Nez Perce tribe.
And the tale of all of them is the same. It shows that history may be set in lead, but our view of history changes. And as Americans slowly learn to look at the past with fresh eyes, the unsung missions of the Northwest and the Native Americans who filled them will surely gain in interest and importance.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For information
These central travel councils and associations offer information and can direct you to other addresses and numbers:
Idaho: Idaho Travel Council, 700 W. State St., Boise, ID 83720 (telephone: 800-635-7820).
Montana: Gold West Country, 1155 Main, Deer Lodge, MT 59722 (telephone: 406-846-1943).
Washington: For a free copy of Washington State Lodging and Travel Guide, call 1-800-544-1800 ext. 2.