History
The History of Fire and the Human Use of Fire in the Northern Rockies
History
The History of Fire and the Human Use of Fire in the Northern Rockies
History
The History of Fire in the Northern Rockies
Jesuit preists and their church murals were perhaps the first exposure the Salish and Pend d’Oreille had to the hellish image of fire common to Christian cosmology. The missionaries were giving expression to a prevailing sense in western culture that fire was inherently evil, and must be extirpated or in some way brought under control.
The Mural
"St. Michael the Archangel Driving the Devil into Hell" by Father Joseph Carignano, S.J. This mural is one of many painted in the St. Ignatius Mission Church in 1903-1905 by Fr. Carignano, who also painted similar images in St. Francis Xavier church in Missoula between 1900 and 1903. May of the murals, including this image, are copies originals by Raphael that hang in the Louvre in Paris.
Father DeSmet
Jesuit preists and their church murals were perhaps the first exposure the Salish and Pend d’Oreille had to the hellish image of fire common to Christian cosmology. The missionaries were giving expression to a prevailing sense in western culture that fire was inherently evil, and must be extirpated or in some way brought under control.
The Mural
"St. Michael the Archangel Driving the Devil into Hell" by Father Joseph Carignano, S.J. This mural is one of many painted in the St. Ignatius Mission Church in 1903-1905 by Fr. Carignano, who also painted similar images in St. Francis Xavier church in Missoula between 1900 and 1903. May of the murals, including this image, are copies originals by Raphael that hang in the Louvre in Paris.
Between 1815 and 1820, a small party of Iroquois under Ignace LaMousse — Sk͏ʷíɫny̓á or Big Ignace, as he was known by the Salish people—reached western Montana. Fur traders hoped the Iroquois would bring more Salish people into the fur trade, but instead several of them married into the tribe, more or less dropped out of the fur trapping business, and joined in the Salish way of life. They also introduced the Salish to the religion of the Blackrobes — the Jesuit missionaries who had worked among some Iroquoian bands since the 1600’s. And the Blackrobes, in turn, would advocate conversion not only to their religion, but a way of life completely different from their own. And this included a very different view of fire.
In Big Ignace’s stories of the Blackrobes, the Salish recognized the prophecies of one of their elders, Xall̓qs (Shining Shirt), who had long before received a vision that men wearing long black dresses would come and teach the people a new way of prayer.
With continuing raids from the Blackfeet, economic and ecological upheaval from the fur trade, and repeated losses from epidemics of European diseases, it was a time of increasing trouble for the Salish. Perhaps the power of the Blackrobes could help. During the 1830s, the tribe sent four delegations to St. Louis to seek out the priests. The Jesuits finally dispatched Pierre Jean De Smet, and he helped build a mission in 1841 at the principal Salish winter camp, Ɫq̓éɫml̓s (Wide Cottonwood Trees). The Jesuits called it St. Mary's, and other whites later named the town there Stevensville.
The missionaries were intent not just on bringing their teachings to the people, but on getting rid of the traditional Salish spiritual practices, which they regarded as the “work of the devil.” In a larger sense, the Jesuits sought to transform the entire culture of the Salish. They unsuccessfully tried to convince the tribe to switch to agriculture and abandon what they described as their “roving” way of life. At the mission, the priests taught religious practices, but also farming, milling, carpentry, and other skills.
When the Jesuits established another mission among the Blackfeet in 1847, many Salish felt betrayed, seeing this as lending power to the enemy. They turned away from the missionaries, who were then left exposed, ironically, to Blackfeet raids. The Jesuits abandoned St. Mary’s in 1849, and established the first St. Ignatius mission among the Kalispels. In 1854, the Blackrobes wanted to return to Montana, and Pend d’Oreille leaders agreed to allow the Jesuits to establish a mission in their territory — the second St. Ignatius mission — in exchange for providing education to the tribe. In 1868, the Blackrobes also reestablished a mission at St. Mary’s. Many Salish and Pend d’Oreille people embraced Catholicism, and since that time, the cultural and spiritual life of many tribal people has consisted of a blend of native and Christian ways.
The Mission started to grow. Flour and saw mills and schools for the Indian children were soon erected. By the 1880s, enormous boarding schools were constructed, and hundreds of tribal children would be schooled there over the following decades. The education consisted primarily of Catholic teachings and industrial and agricultural skills.
Father DeSmet