The Holly chieftain., 1922-09-21
V1bp6SN1lA0l5lzfl1n@ Of
MInlp&g,1n@ Indians
BY JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN

IroquoiS Confederacy ana SET theIn
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 English
for the possession Of America.
1t is far cry from 1909 to 1922; from New
York to Montana; from 1roquois 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 labored among the American In
dlans 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 Champlain
started over the Oregon Trail to everlasting fame
And here is the story in brief with Its fascinating
sequturs-sequences of cause and effect:
The Iroquois Confederacy. because of Cham.
plains attack swore undying enmity to the
French. The Indians of this unique confederacy-
Mohawks Cayugas, Onondagns. Senecas Oneidas
and Tuscaroras-by the time the French and Brit
ish came to grips In 1889. were dictatorial over
lords Of all the tribes from Hudson's bay to the
Cherokee frontier of the Caronas and from the
Connecticut to the Mississippi. Their geograph-
lChl locatlon ana lnHuence gave them the balance
Of power between the French and the British
They were big factor in the several wars which
finally resulted In 1.-The expulsion Of the French
after the capture of Quebec by Wolfe in 1850.
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 an American punitive expe-
dtion 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, the
st. Lawrence and struck the Mississippi
valley. They ended up among the Flatheads of
the Bitter Root valley. These Iroquois were led
by Ignatius La Mousse (Old Ignace), who achieved
dominating influence among the Flatheads
taught them the rites of the Roman Catholic re-
llg0n and created tribal desire for the presence
OF Blackrobes (Jesuit mssionaries) which resulted
in a decision in 1890 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
to get acquainted with the white man. ST. Louis
founded In 176S. The Lewis and Clark expe-
dition (1S04-6) had passed through their country.
John Golfer had discovered the Yellowstone in
1907. only to have 1t ridiculed as impossbility
and dubbed "Colters He'll" Astoria had been
established In 1872 Gen. William II. Ashley and his
associates of the Rocky Mountain Fur company,
with headquarters mt st. Louis, had begun to use
the Oregon Trail soon after 1922 on their trips to