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Show CATHOLIC CflURCH IN UTAH ! - ' --'!- Father De Smet Missionary and Explorer i Tells of the Great Salt Lake Basin Procurator for Indian Missions Invit- j ed by United States Great Indian Coun- j cil Chaplain in General Harvey's Ex- ' pedition to Utah and Oregon Pacified j the Sioux Indians Traveled 180,000 Miles, Always Doing Good. j I While it was not generally known that De Smefc I passed through the Salt Lake valley, for there ap- f peared in De Smet's writings no exhaustive or de- I tailed account of his visit to Salt Lake, no doubt. f can now be cast on the fact that he was there and : had explored a considerable portion ofthe valley. j Under' date of January 19, in a letter ad - dressed to the editor of the Precis Historiques Brussels, and following a description of the Great Salt Lake basin, he writes: f "hi 1S41 I traversed much of this valley in my rambles in the Rocky mountains." Inasmuch as De Smet's writings consist, almost entirely of letters, addressed for the most part to friends in " ' Europe, and written after his return to St. Louis from his various trips, no attempt being made to carry on any connected narrative, and having for their principal object the obtaining of funds for the furtherance of his missionary work, it is not strange that he should have passed over, somewhat lightly, an incident which now seems of such great historic value. fc With his return to St. Louis on Dec. 10, 184, his active missionary work among the Indians . practically ended. Only twice, and both occasions on important missions, did he revisit the field of his early labors. Various reasons have been assigned for his retirement from active missinonary work, and many of them are far afield of the truth. Certain Cer-tain it is that the abandonment of his missionary work was contrary to tfie desires of Father De ; Smet. Por years he held the office of procurator for the Indian missions, and there-is little doubt but his former successful efforts in procuring f funds and aid for the-missions from Europe led his Superior to believe that Ins services in this direction direc-tion might ultimately be of greater benefit in Christianizing the tribes than they were if do- voted exclusively to mi&sionary work. Singularly i enough, at about this same time jealousy in certain I quarters prompted the sending to Borne of false f and malicious statements concerning De Smet's t work among the Indians, and challenging also the truthfulness of the report he had written upon the ; success of his missions. These attacks, however, had not the slightest influence upon the assignment assign-ment to him of other duties, and if the church did not entirely approve of his plan for the establishment establish-ment of an extensive series of missions among the i Indians it was only because that plan was too large to permit of its successful fulfillment in the then ;' ! existing financial condition of. the Society. One ' J thing seems certain, this arrangement did not al- ; j together suit Father De Smet, and, though he ac- ' I eepted the change with that spirit of cheerful obe- dienee which characterized his life, we find in his j more intimate correspondence frequent expressions I 1 of utmost regret that he was no longer able to j f continue his work among the Indians. j After his return to St. Louis in lS4t), he re- i i mained there with the exception of one short trip ; to New Orleans and a trip to Europe, until 1351, when he was invited by the government to attend j the Great Council of Indian Tribes, which had j been fixed for that year, and thus began that long j series of negotiations with the Indians which ultimately ul-timately resulted in the pacification of many war- like tribes. For his valuable work on behalf of ; peace, the great priest received the. thanks of President Pres-ident Pierce. Making such short trips as the duties of his i office required, and with one voyage to Europe, he remained in St. Louis until 1S"3. At this time there came a call for his services from a most unex- j pected quarter. Trouble with the Mormon3 had been more or less serious, and General Harvey, who was to command the second expedition sent into Utah, requested that Father De Smet be invited to accompany the expedition as chaplain. Thi3 request re-quest meeting with approval of the Government, as well as with that of the church authorities, he left St. Louis May 20, 1858, to join the army at Fort Leavenworth. It had then been seven years since he had crossed the plains when on his way to attend at-tend the Great Council between the war chiefs and United States officials, and we can well imagine the pleasure with which he returned to the scenes of lu3 .(Continued on Page 5.), I i H ' q CATHOLIC CHURCH IN UTAH (Continued from page 1.) earlier travels. The misunderstanding between the .Mormons and the United States Government having been settled, and General Harvey's expedition expedi-tion called back. Father De Smet again returned to St. Louis, reaching that city September, 18.18, when he tendered his resignation as chaplain in the army and prepared to resume his interrupted duties. At about this time occurred the outbreak of the Indians in Oregon. Father De Smet was requested by the Secretary of War to retain his commission as army chaplain, and again accompany General Harvey, who was to command the expedition against the Indians. This reappointment again meeting with the approval ap-proval of his superiors in the church, Father De Smet left for Oregon, goiu via Panama, and arrived ar-rived at Vancouver Oct. 8, l8oS. The Oregon campaign, cam-paign, however was closed before he was able to join the expedition or reach the field of operations. But his long voyage was not without beneficial results, re-sults, for he remained during the winter and the greater part of the following spring and summer, directing his efforts toward the pacification oE the Indians and in effecting a peaeeuble and satisfactory satisfac-tory solution of the trouble with the mountain tribes. After his return from Oregon and the northwest, north-west, he once more resumed his duties in St. Louis, remaining until 1 8(50, when business of the Society again took him to Europe. From this time his health, which was failing rapidly, together with increasing years, was unequal un-equal to the wear and tear of the many journey? which his duties and conscience imposed on him. For the last twenty years of his life he was seldom free from physical ailment of some sort, brought on, no doubt, by the hardships and exposure of his missionary life. To quote from one of his letters will best illustrate the deprivations of his early life: "I have been for years a wanderer in the desert. des-ert. I was three years without receiving a letter from any quarter. I was two years in the mountains, moun-tains, without tasting bread, salt, coffee, tea. sugar I was for years without a roof, without a bed. I have been six months without a shirt on my back, and 'often I have passed whole days and nights without a morsel of anything to eat." With a life spent in this manner small wonder that disease should lay heavy tribute on his declining de-clining years. On March 30. IStiS. Father De Smet left St. Louis on what was practically his last visit to the Indians, and from a secular point of view his most important. It was at this time that a' Sioux uprising upris-ing threatened all pur northern territory. Father De Smet was appealed to from Washington to penetrate pen-etrate the regions closed to all other white men, reach the hostile Indians, and bring a deputation from them to meet a Peace Commission, which would convene at St. Louis. His mission was crowned with success, which always marked his intercourse in-tercourse with the Indians, and once more he paved the way for peace between the whites and the hostile tribes. Returning from his expedition, he made a short trip to Europe, and on June 1. 1870. started on his last visit to the tribes, ascending as far as Grand j River Agency in South Dakota. Increasing illness and bodily, infirmities now weighed heavily upon him. and in 1871 he made what was destined to be his last visit to Europe, and to he home of his birth. He left Europe April 11. 1872, completing hi l iuctccnth soyagc across the Atlantic, and with his arrival in St. Louis ended, his life's travels which reached the prodigious total of 1S0.00U miles. When a moment's consideration is given to the crude methods of travel available at that tiuid and that much of this distance was accomplished by stnpc. v.agou, horseback and often on foot, hi.-work hi.-work in travel alone bears convincing testimony oi the arduous life he led. He remained at the Jesuit College. St. Louis, tili his death, which occurred on May 23, 187:). i' , the seventy-third year of his life. Following the examples of his predecessors on foreign missions. Father De Smet observed closely the topography of the regions he visited, the ethnical eth-nical peculiarities of the tribes with whom he came in contact, and took notes in his wondrous travels on every thing of interest to his successors and to students of the aboriginal history of the great American desert. These notes, the result of intelligent observation observa-tion and an unique experience, are of inmorta:;'. scientific and geodetic value: Geography T? stron . , limy, physics, natural history, ethnology, aboriguni! . customs, manners, superstitions and tribal creed-- all are here. These notes were, from time t-time, t-time, expanded into letters and narratives written to his ecclesiastical superiors, to foreign Review? and to relatives and friends. Periodically, thes. letters were collected and published in book or pamphlet form in Knglish. French or (iennan. 1 I)!:;, there rppi'aiTd in Knglish. Father De Smet' ; "Letters and Sketches, with a Narrative of a Yenrvj Residence Among the Indian Tribes of the Kock j Mountain.'' In 1S41 was published in French hi-i ' Yoyages aux Mrntagnes Rocheuses." This book let was translate- into German and Italian, l iic appeared in f uctession. "Oregon Missions ;r.e' Travels Over the Rocky Mountains." "Missions de l'Oregon et Yoyages aux Montagnes-Rochcuses ct aux Sources de la Colombie. de l'Athabasoa et du Sascatshwin en 1S4.V4." "Missions de l'Oregon ct Yoyages." "Yoyages :IU (5 rand Desert en 1."1." "Cinquante Xouvelles Lettres du K. P. De Smet." and, in IS08. ''Western Missions and Missionaries." From these works and a sheaf of unpublished letters, found among the archives of the St. Louis I mvcrsity. Colonel 11. -M. tJuttenden ami .Mr. A T. Richardson have compiled "The Life and Travels Trav-els of Father De Smet Among the North American Ameri-can Indians." a work in four volumes 'and Ltiwj pages. These four volumes, with maps and illustni-j tions. are a most valuable addition to the literature j of the west and southwest. 1 The body of the great missionary rests in ihe; little cemetery near the Jesuit Novitiate, Florissant, Floris-sant, within sight of the spot where his labors began, be-gan, and within sound of the chapel bell. |