The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-03-02
FATHER LACOMBE
THE APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS
OF WESTERN CANADA.
Remarkable Missionary Career of
Sixty-three Years Among the In
dians Graphically described In Re-
cent Biography by Miss Hughes.

~ '''~~ s"~S"~~'
On last Wednesday, February %, the
Very Reverend Albert Lacombe, o. M.
l., the black-robe voyageur and mis-
sionary free-lance of Western Canada,
rounded out the efghty-fifth year of
his life. On the thirteenth of next
June he will celebrate the sixty-third
anniversary of his ordination to the
holy priesthood which took place in
st. Hyacinthe, in the Province of Que
bee, at the hands of Bishop Bourget
of Montreal. During all these years
he has been actively engaged in mis-
sionary work among the Indians of
the Canadian Northwest. He is the
last link in the chain of jealous apost-
les which binds the newer era ushered
in by the advance of civilization with
the olden days when the plains of
western Canada were overrun by the
moccasined feet of its aboriginal in
habitants.
During his residence in Western
Canada he has seen wonderful chang
es take place. Indians and buffaloes
no longer roam at will across it's wind
swept plains. Its fertile soil has been
dedicated to the welfare of the teem-
ing multitudes it is destined to sup
port with it's rich yield of the fruits
of the earth. Father Lacombe has
now practically retired from active
duty to spend the evening of life in
Well-earned repose. And yet his rest
less spirit Graves an outlet for his
energy though he is no longer capable
of enduring the continuous hardships
nostrils, when there was prospect of
bringing the Redman beneath the
yoke of the Gospel
One who has known him during the
greater part OF mis- missionary career
has declared that Father Lacombe is
one of the most remarkable men-decid-
edly the most remarkable priest
Western Canada has ever seen.
AS the apostle and civilizer of savage
tribes, as the explorer of vast wilder
nesses, and the pathfinder of incoming
new populations, he has been without
an equal
Interesting Biography.
In order to realize the truth of these
statements all that is necessary is to
read the biography of this venerable
missionary recently published by Miss
Katherine Hughes who has had ex-
ceptional opportunities to gather and
correlate the principal facts connected
with his long and varied missionary
career. The book is divided into two
parts. The first deals with the old
regime during which the Indians were
the only tenants of the western plains
with the exception of the agents of the
Hudson Bay Company and the few
missionaries who ventured into this
unexplored land. The second deals
with the period of transition during
which occurred the great changes
which have eliminated in the pre-
sent prosperous and civilized condi-
ton of the Canadian west. She has
told the story in chronological order
and yet, withal, ii is something more
than mere narration of dry facts. 1t
depicts Father Lacombe as the black
robe voyageur, the missionary knight
errant of the western plains, travel
ing back and forth across the prairies
between the Red River and the noun
tains of the setting sun, now shar-
ing the tepees of the nomad tribes;
now making stand at some mission
place-with axe and plough guiding
the Metis and Indians to the ways of
the white man. leading them out
from the blanket and tepee to the
school and homestead" II is an inter-
esting story.
Albert Lacombe was born ON Febru-
ary %, 1927, in the parish of St. Sui
pice i'm Montreal. After his ordination
at the age OF twenty-five, he set out
for the western missionary field, urged
thereto by the pleading OF Father Bel
court who was then stationed at Penn
bina i'm what is now the State of North
Dakota. His trip took him to Buffalo
thence by boat and by stage to Dubu-
que, Iowa, where Bishop Loras resided,
I'm whose diocese the mission Of Penn
bina on the Red River was then 1ocat-
ed. On his journey north he passed
through the then frontier village OF
st. Paul where he was entertained for
a time by Father Ravoux. Shortly
after reaching Pembina, the thoughts
of the young levite turned to the mis-
sions farther west among the Indians
of the Canadian plains. He decided
to enter the Order OF the Oblates of
Mary Immaculate and with that end
in view retraced his steps by way of
St Paul to Montreal In 1861. In the
following year he offered his services
for the Red River missions to Bishop
Tache or St. Boniface and a few