The Dolores star., 1922-09-29

running home to the Mohawk valley of New York.
This was in 1903 two years after the founding of
jamestown. eleven years before the landing of the
Pilgrims and eighty years before the beginning Of
the armed clash between the French and English
for the possession of America
1t is far cry from 1909 to 1922: from New
York to Montana from Iroquois Flatheads
Just the same. ii Champlain who set the feet
of Marcus Whitman and Father Pierre-Jean De
smet, S. J., the Oregon Trail two centuries
later. Marcus Whitman, Presbyterian missionary,
patriot, statesman and martyr, saved Oregon and
the Pacific Northwest for the United States. Fa-
her De Smet. greatest and most practical mission
ary who labored among the American In
dians dotted the far Northwest with religious
and educational establishments, kept many
savage tribe from the warpath and served well
the government of his adopted land The history
of the American Northwest cannot be told without
whitman and De Smet-both of whom Champlan
started over the Oregon Trail TO everlasting fame
And here is the story in brief with its fascinating
sequturs-sequences of and effect:
The Iroquois Confederacy, because of Cham
plains attack. swOre undying enmity to the
French. The Indians of this unique confederacy-
Mohawks. Cayugas, Onondagas, Senecas Oneidas
and Tuscaroras-by the time the French and Brit
ish came TO grips in 1859, dictatorial over
lords of all the tribes from Hudsons bay to the
Cherokee frontier of the Carolinas and from the
Connecticut TO the Mississippi. Their geograph-
ical location and influence gave them the balance
of power between the French and the British
They big factor in the several wars which
finally resulted in the expulsion of the French
after the capture of Quebec by Wolfe In 1853
In the Revolution all the Iroquois kept on siding
with the British, except the Oneidas and part of
the Tuscaroras. They laid waste the American
frontier Sullivan led American punitive expe-
dition and destroyed their homes, crops and or
chards. The outcome of the Revolution drove the
four hostile tribes to Canada
In Canada many of the exiled Iroquois were
Christanized by Jesuit missionaries whose prin-
cipal work in America had been in New France
and the French possessions.
In 1916 party of "a Iroquois left the Roman
Catholic mission of Caughnawaga Canada, on the
St Lawrence and struck out across the Mississippi
valley. They ended up among the Flatheads of
the Bitter Root valley. These Iroquos led
by Ignatius La Mousse (OId Ignace), who achieved
a dominating influence among the Fatheads,
taught them the rites of the Roman Catholic
Ngion and created a tribal desire for the presence
Of Blackrobes (Jesuit missionaries which resulted
in decision in 1880 to send delegation the
white mans country to ask for them.
Here 1t is profitable to glance at the chronology
of this part of the West, which just beginning
to get acquainted with the white st. Louis
was founded in 176s. The Lewis and Clark expe-
John Golfer had discovered the Yellowstone in
1907 only to have it ridiculed impossibility
and dubbed "Colter's He'll" Astoria had been
established in 1872 Gen William Fl. Ashley and his
associates of the Rocky Mountain Fur company,
with headquarters at st. Louis, had begun to
the Oregon Trail soon after 1922 on their trips to