NO. 7 SOHON'S portraits of INDIANS — EWERS I9 



Other games involving wagers were played with fervor and keen de- 

 hght. (Irving, 185 1, p. 392.) 



The Iroquois Hving with the Flathead encouraged them to sponsor 

 a series of deputations to St. Louis during the 1830's, in quest of the 

 "black robes," Catholic priests who could bring them the full benefits 

 of Christianity. 



In response to these persistent requests, Jesuit officials selected 

 Father Pierre Jean De Smct, a Belgian priest, with 2 years' exper- 

 ience in missionary work among Indians, to visit the Flathead and 

 determine the feasibility of missionary work among this far western 

 tribe. Me journeyed from St. Louis to Green River (in present 

 Wyoming), where a Flathead delegation met him on June 30, 1840. 

 They guided him to the main Flathead-Pend d'Oreille camp at 

 Pierre's Hole. He found the Flathead hospitable and inclined to 

 embrace the black robes' religion. De Smet baptized nearly 600 of 

 the Indians, including the aged chiefs of both the Flathead and Upper 

 Fend d'Oreille tribes. He assured them that a resident missionary 

 would be sent them the following spring, and returned to St. Louis, 

 enthusiastic over the prospects of a permanent Flathead Indian 

 Mission. 



Next spring Father De Smet headed the little party entrusted 

 with the inauguration of the first Catholic Mission in the great 

 Northwest. It included two other priests, Fathers Nicholas Point 

 and Gregory Mcngarini, and three lay brothers. In the fall of 1841, 

 they established St. Mary's Mission in the Bitterroot Valley. 



For 5 years St. Mary's Mission appeared to prosper. Father 

 De Smct was not content merely to convert the pagan Flathead to 

 Christianity. He initiated a series of fundamental changes in Flathead 

 culture which he believed was necessary to improve the economic 

 and social condition of the tribe. 



The primitive Flathead had been accustomed to regard supernatural 

 assistance as a powerful war medicine. Many warriors were attracted 

 to Christianity as a source of stronger war medicine than they pre- 

 viously had possessed. A series of decisive victories of Flathead 

 warriors over much larger enemy forces, following their conversion, 

 convinced even their enemies that "the medicine of the P>lackrohes 

 was stronger than theirs." (Chittenden and Richardson, 1905, vol. 2, 

 p. 589.) De Smet admired the courage of the Flathead, but he could 

 not reconcile their interpretation of spiritual power as war power 

 with the Christian ideal of universal peace. Like the fur traders before 

 him, Father De Smet viewed the traditional Flathead-Blackfoot war- 



