The Bolivar County Democrat., 1922-09-23


running home to the Mohawk valley Of New York
This was in 1909 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 Engllsh
for the possession OF America
It Is far cry from 1909 to 1922: from New
York to Montana; from Iroquois to Flatheads.
Just the same 1t Champlain who set the feet
OF Marcus whitman and Father Pierre-Jean De
Smet, s. j. on 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-
ther De Smet greatest and most practical mission
ary who ever abored among the American In
dams dotted the far Northwest with religious
and educational establishments, kept many a
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 Chanplain%
started the Oregon Trail to everlasting fame. =
And here is the story in brief with It's fascinating
sequiturs- of cause and effect:
The Iroquois Confederacy, because Of Cham
plains attack. 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
fish came to grips in 1889. were dictatorial
lords Of all the tribes from Hudson's bay to the
Cherokee frontier of the Carolnas 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 a big factor in the several wars which
finally resulted in the expulsion of the French
after the capture of Quebec by Wolfe in 1859.
In the Revolution all the IroqCois kept siding
with the British, except the Onedas and part Of
the Tuscaroras They laid waste the American
frontier Sullivan led American punitive expe-
diton and destroyed their homes, crops and
chards. TIE outcome of the Revolution drove the
four hostile tribes to Canada.
In Canada many of the exiled Iroquos were
Christanized by Jesuit missionaries whose prn-
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 (Old Ignace), who achieved
a dominating influence among the Flatheads,
taught them the rites of the Roman Catholic re-
ugion and created tribal desire for the presence
Of Blackrobes (Jesuit missionares) which resulted
In decision in 1880 to send delegation to 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
sto get acquainted with the white man. ST. Louis
.,aEas founded in 176S. The Lewis and Clark expe-
EDITION (1SO4-6) had passed through their country
=, John Golfer had discovered the Yellowstone in
1907 only to have 1t ridicued an impossbility
=. and dubbed Golfers He'll" Astoria had been
established In 1872 Gen. William II. Ashley and his
associates of the Rocky Mountain Fur company
with headquarters at ST. Louis, had begun to use
the Oregon Trail after 1922 on their trips to