Sébastien Rale occupation missionary
Sébastien Rale (also Racle, Râle, Rasle, Rasles, and Sebastian Rale (January 20, 1657 – August 23, 1724) was a French Jesuit missionary and lexicographer who preached amongst the Abenaki and encouraged their resistance to British colonization during the early 18th century. This encouragement culminated in Dummer's War (1722–1725), where Rale was killed by a group of New England militiamen. Rale also worked on an Abenaki-French dictionary during his time in North America.Early years
Rale was born in Pontarlier, France and studied in Dijon. In 1675, he joined the Society of Jesus at Dole and taught Greek and rhetoric at Nîmes. He volunteered for the American missions in 1689 and came to the Americas in a party led by Louis de Buade de Frontenac, the Governor General of New France. His first missionary work was at an Abenaki village in Saint Francois, near Quebec City. He then spent two years with the Illiniwek Indians at Kaskaskia.Queen Anne's War
In 1694, Rale was sent to direct the Abenaki mission at Norridgewock, Maine on the Kennebec River. He made his headquarters there and erected  a church in 1698. The New England colonists were suspicious of a French missionary arriving in the midst of a tribe that was already hostile, anticipating that the Frenchman would do his best to stoke hostility towards the colonists.Queen Anne's War pitted New France against New England, fighting to control the region. Massachusetts Governor Joseph Dudley arranged a conference with tribal representatives at Casco Bay in 1703 to propose that they remain neutral. However, a party of the Norridgewock tribe joined a larger force of French and Indians commanded by Alexandre Leneuf de Beaubassin to attack Wells, Maine in the Northeast Coast Campaign. New England colonists suspected Father Rale of inciting the tribe against them. However, French minister Pontchartrain also wrote to Rale's Jesuit superior because he suspected Rale of "being lukewarm about the war".Governor Dudley put a price on Rale's head. In the winter of 1705, 275 New England militiamen were dispatched under the command of Colonel Winthrop Hilton to seize Rale. The priest was warned in time, however, and escaped into the woods with his papers, but the militia burned the village and church. Rale wrote to his nephew:Sebastien Rale and the Abenaki
Rale was tasked with one of the longest and most eventful periods of priesthood in this area of the New World. Rale devoted himself to his mission work and began to study the Abenaki dialect to be a more effective priest. In addition, he also studied the Algonquin dialect in order to run a mission in Illinois for a few years after leaving Kennebec for a short time. In 1694 Father Rale was sent to the Kennebec mission in old Acadia. This was the westernmost mission in the area and Father Rale was the first permanent pastor in lower Kennebec.Father Rale showed compassion for the Abenaki people, in a letter to his brother which consisted of a long poem he said, "My throat is white and it bleeds" and "I shook the chapel bell in tears/ And cried revenge!" during Father Rale's war facing the settlers taking the side of the tribe. At a time when many French people and Jesuit priests like Father Rale himself believed the Abenaki people were wild beasts in need of civilization, Rale expressed no such sentiments; eventually becoming a martyr to the Abenaki by dying during his campaign to help them resist the encroachment of New England settlers on their lands.The Jesuit mission in Abenaki territory had existed since 1632, many years before Rale had begun his mission there. The mission was created by the French around the same period that they gained control of Quebec. Rale was put in charge to keep the Abenaki from moving, and to have a more sedentary lifestyle that revolved around Christianity. Many people in St. Lawrence looked toward the Abenaki land to help with the fur trade as their land was to the south of them.The Abenaki people’s land was of high priority for the settlers in the area because of fur trade implications. Before Rale got to Norridgewock the native people there had signed a treaty making them British subjects with very little idea of what this meant. This made the French come after Father Rale and his group of Abenaki in search of supplies needed to further the fur trade.The native people in Norridgewock were said by the New England settlers to have verbally proclaimed themselves at their will but Father Rale denied this had ever happened and kept loyalties to the French. Throughout his life and mission Rale remained a beloved priest of the people of the area and is still thought to be a martyr as many Abenaki believe he gave his life to help them resist the encroachment of settlers.The colonists asked the Abenaki to remain neutral near the beginning of the French and Indian War but because of their religious ties with the French they could not fight against them. Father Rale was present at the meeting on behalf of the native people and stated that the Abenaki would be "ready to take up the hatchet against the English whenever he gave them the order".
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