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Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

1994

Admiring Advocate of The Great Plains: Father Pierre, Jean De Smet, S. J., On The Middle Missouri

Robert Carriker Gonzaga University

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Carriker, Robert, "Admiring Advocate of The Great Plains: Father Pierre, Jean De Smet, S. J., On The Middle Missouri" (1994). Great Plains Quarterly. 798. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/798

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. ADMIRING ADVOCATE OF THE GREAT PLAINS FATHER PIERRE,]EAN DE SMET, S. ]., ON THE MIDDLE MISSOURI

ROBER T CARRIKER

The Great Plains fascinated Pierre-Jean De future direction of America. His numerous Smet. When describing his favorite haunts in publications, moreover, and their frequent the broad trans-Mississippi West, De Smet's reprintings secured for De Smet an influential letters bulged with superlatives. He used only role in advertising the Middle Missouri during grand and eloquent adjectives to describe the the early frontier movements into the Plains celestial peaks of the Rocky Mountains, the and mountainous Northwest and did much to spewing geysers in the Yellowstone basin, The lift the veil of mystery, for Europeans and Dalles of the Columbia River, and the free­ Americans alike, surrounding the region. form, contorted rock formations that sprawled Born in 1801 to a wealthy merchant family across the White Cliffs of the upper Missouri in the Flemish river city of Termonde, Pierre­ River. It was the Great Plains, however, that Jean De Smet knew few restraints as a youth. received from Father De Smet not only some Impulsive by nature, he surprised even him­ of his most dramatic prose, but also some of self when, at the age of twenty, he crossed the his most perceptive comments regarding the Atlantic Ocean to America without his fa­ ther's permission and entered the Society of Jesus, a Catholic order of religious men pro­ fessing a special dedication to education and missionary work. l Shortly after De Smet en­ Robert Carriker is professor of history at Gonzaga tered the order, the Jesuits-as the Society of University. He has published several articles on Plains history and is the author of Fort Supply, Indian Jesus is commonly known-established a new Territory: Frontier Outpost on the Southern Plains western headquarters near St. Louis, Missouri, and a forthcoming biography of De Smet entitled Father and the young Belgian became part of that Peter John De Smet: Jesuit in the West. religious community. Here he completed his training in the Society and was ordained to the priesthood. In 1838 Pierre-Jean, now Fa­ [GPQ 14 (Fall 1994): 243-56] ther De Smet, received his first assignment as

243 244 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1994

developed an appreciation for the uniqueness of the region's flora, fauna, and geology. Lean­ ing across the rail of a steamboat or sitting astride a horse, he took extensive notes about Plains plants, animals, terrain, and natural phe­ nomena. Later he re-shaped his jottings about the character of the land and its inhabitants into long, detailed letters, many of which also appeared in the four books De Smet published about his missionary experiences.4 Thus De Smet's letters not only entertained himself and his correspondents, they also educated thou­ sands of Americans and Europeans about the region he interchangeably referred to either as the "middle Missouri country" or the "up­ per Missouri country." Prior to his first ascent of the Missouri Riv­ er De Smet read descriptions of the Great Plains penned by Meriwether Lewis and FIG . 1. The young advocate of the Plains-Father William Clark. He also secured a copy of Pierre-Jean De Smet, S.]., in 1840. Reproduced courtesy of Oregon Province Archives of the Washington Irving's popular book about over­ Society of Jesus, Gonzaga University. land travel, Astoria.5 Still, no amount of prep­ aration readied De Smet for the strange new environment in which he found himself at St. Joseph's Mission once the Wilmington deliv­ ered him to Council Bluff. "It is not uncom­ a missIOnary: to establish a mission for the mon to meet bears in our neighborhood," he Potawatomi Indians at Council Bluff, a well­ informed his superior, and "Wolves come very known promontory on the Missouri River.2 often to our doors .... Weare obliged to be continually on our guard against these bad FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE PLAINS neighbors, and so I never go out without a good knife, a tomahawk or a sword cane." From the first, De Smet relished the Great Snakes, field mice, horse-flies, mosquitoes and Plains. "The soil all around seemed to be very "prodigious," eight-inch-long night moths also rich," the young priest observed from the up­ vexed De Smet at this location (Life, 1:16). per deck of the steamboat Wilmington, adding In addition to recording the peculiarities of that the woods were also "superb and the prai­ his warm and cold-blooded neighbors of the rie smiling and beautiful. " 3 To be sure, this animal kingdom, De Smet compiled notes commodious vantage point influenced De about the landscape in and around the mis­ Smet's initial observations; even so, no alter­ sion. In this endeavor he received encourage­ nate form of transportation or subsequent hard­ ment and assistance from a trio of scientists. ship during the next three decades changed During the spring of 1839 De Smet traveled his opinion about the beauty and bounty of up the Missouri River on mission business, the Missouri River country. The mystery and principally seeking to negotiate a peace be­ potential of the Great Plains continued to tween the Potawatomis near his mission and mesmerize De Smet on eighteen succeeding the Yankton Sioux who lived in a village at journeys, during each of which he prowled the the confluence of the Vermillion and Mis­ Plains with enthusiasm. Along the way he souri rivers. Much to his pleasure, he found on FATHER DE SMET ON THE MIDDLE MISSOURI 245 board the St. Peter three explorer-scientists: On his return to Council Bluff a few weeks Joseph N. Nicollet, Charles A. Geyer, and John later De Smet enjoyed yet another experience Charles Fremont. Eagerly they inducted the of life on the Great Plains: a canoe trip down youthful De Smet into their circle of scientific the willful Missouri River. Seated cross-legged inquiry. Their infectious passion for observ­ between two experienced paddlers in a hol­ ing and recording the curious natural world lowed out tree ten feet in length, De Smet saw that flourished on the Great Plains impelled first-hand, and at eye-level, the sawyers, snags, De Smet to seek to do the same. Daily, as the and sandbars that clogged the swift-flowing steamboat chugged drearily northward from river and gave character. Running the river Council Bluff, he received tutorials on Great exhilarated De Smet, and he repeatedly used Plains botany, zoology, and geology from these the word "impetuous" to describe the single­ luminaries of frontier science. Nicollet even mindedness of the current. "Judge how swift provided the priest with a set of scientific in­ its course is," he challenged readers of his let­ struments so that in the future he could docu­ ters; "in three days, sailing from four o'clock ment his own observations. in the morning until sunset, we had passed Not content with mere conversation, the over 120 leagues [360 miles]. Two nights only scholars took advantage of the steamboat's fre­ I slept in the open air, having no bed but my quent fuel-stops to go ashore and show De buffalo robe, and no pillow but my traveling­ Smet how to gather "minerals, petrifications bag. Yet I can assure you that my slumbers and rare and new plants." To his amazement, were as peaceable and profound as I ever en­ many of the plants they accumulated were joyed in my life" (Life, 1:90). edible: "I gathered a great number of plants which I preserved in my herbal. We passed A TRANSIENT PLAINSMAN over several spots where there were only on­ ions, round, and about as large as the marbles After spending nearly two years at Council children use for play, but excellent for eating. Bluff, Father De Smet received a new assign­ In another place we gathered a great quantity ment from his Jesuit superiors. Four times dur­ of asparagus, as thick as a man's thumb" (Life, ing the 1830s emissaries from the Flathead 1:186). On another excursion De Smet duti­ tribe of the Pacific Northwest came ro St. Louis fully followed Professor Geyer to the top of a to ask the Catholic clergy for missionaries. hill where a little park of wild flowers awaited Shortages of manpower and money under­ discovery. The path upward posed no prob­ mined the good intentions of both the Bishop lems for the athletic priest, but the descent, of St. Louis and the provincial of the Missouri he wrote, turned out quite differently. J esuirs, so the request remained unhonored until 1840. In that year the superior of the I followed him, thinking that I could go Missouri Jesuits, deciding he could, in good where he had gone, but almost the first conscience, no longer refuse the Indians, au­ step I took, the slippery earth gave way thorized Father De Smet to journey to the under my feet, and I made a third of the Flatheads' Rocky Mountain homeland. descent at railroad speed. . . . Hung up Personally ignorant of the way west, De there 200 feet above the river, I did not Smet attached himself to a caravan of fur trad­ find myself very well fixed for meditation ers heading for the mountains in April 1840. or reflection. But I took careful measures After many exhausting weeks on the yet un­ and partly by jumping from rock to rock named Oregon Trail, De Smet met a cadre of and crawling from shrub to shrub, and part­ Flathead warriors at the Green River in lyon my hind-quarters without regard to present-southwestern Wyoming who took him my breeches, ... I reached terra firma in to the tribe's main village. He spent several safety. (Life, 1:180-81) weeks traveling with the Indians and several 246 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1994 more at the Three Forks of the Missouri before during his eighteen months residence at St. he left the Rocky Mountains in late August. Joseph's Mission. His first real opportunity to He needed to return to St. Louis, he explained, study the river came in May of 1840 during his before winter snows and freezing temperatures journey with an American fur company cara­ closed down the regular routes of travel back van to the Green River fur trade rendezvous. to Missouri. Accompanied by only a single De Smet knew full well that most westering companion, De Smet rode horseback across frontiersmen referred to the river as the eastern Montana, followed the Yellowstone Platte-French for "flat"-following the pre­ River to Fort Union, and from there hurried cedent set by the Mallet brothers in 1739. down the Missouri River to St. Louis. He re­ Even so, he preferred to call it the Nebraska, peated this round trip in 1841-42. asserting that a "Sioux" name was more ap­ During the course of these journeys De propriate than a French one for this water­ Smet traveled across the Great Plains from course. Actually, De Smet erred slightly in two directions, east and west. What he ob­ this judgment for the term is the Oto word served made an indelible impression upon him, nibraska and the Omaha word nibthacka, both and he wrote exuberant letters recounting the related Siouan language words that mean "flat experience to friends and family living in Eu­ river" (Life, 1:203n, 275n).6 Acting as a fledg­ rope. The breadth of the northern Great Plains, ling natural scientist, De Smet decreed the with its elongated horizon, parallel ridges, and Platte the chief tributary of the Missouri. lush vegetation, especially fascinated De Smet, Again, his assessment was in error. filling him with a sense of awe that made him De Smet's haunting descriptions of the riv­ stare meekly at the blank sheets of paper in his er, however, are remarkably accurate, even by lap. At such moments he inserted a para­ today's standards. In one of his most obser­ phrased passage from Washington Irving's vant passages he described the hundreds of Astoria into his letters rather than attempt a small islands that dotted the river, then not­ feeble narrative of his own. At other times De ed: "If to this be added the undulations of the Smet trusted to his own instincts and wrote river, the waving of the verdure, the alterna­ boldly and simply about the scene unfolding tions oflight and shade, the succession of these before him. islands varying in form and beauty, and the De Smet's prose could be bland or exuber­ purity of the atmosphere, some idea may be ant depending on his mood. He wrote in al­ formed of the pleasing sensations which the most clinical fashion, for example, when traveler experiences on beholding a scene that describing the environmental changes that seems to have started into existence fresh from took place as one moved west from the banks the hands of the Creator" (Life, 4:1352). of the middle Missouri River. He might, for In the spring of 1841 De Smet again re­ example, focus his attention on the changes turned to the Platte, this time as a member of in the height, density, and depth of the near­ the Bidwell-Bartleson emigrant party bound by forests. In contrast, he could display great for Oregon and California. As before, he in­ emotion when describing the Platte River and tercepted the Platte's southern bank near its environs. present-day Grand Island in mid-May and for several hundred miles followed the river's DE SMET'S PLATTE course. He never lost his enthusiasm for the serenity of the river. On three occasions De Father De Smet first viewed the Platte Riv­ Smet quoted Washington Irving's terse char­ er in 1838 from the decks of the steamboat acterization of the Platte as "the most magnif­ Wilmington as he progressed up the Missouri icent and most useless of rivers." True, the River to Council Bluff. He did not stop then, river could extend out 2000 yards and be so nor did he find the leisure to explore the Platte shallow as to make it virtually unusable for FATHER DE SMET ON THE MIDDLE MISSOURI 247

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FIG. 2. The Upper Missouri Country of 1850 as De Smet knew it. De Smet was familiar with all of the forts. Reproduced courtesy of Toni Smith, cartographer, Ashburn, Virginia.

water craft, but it was because of this, not in pearance of motion completing the charm spite of it, that De Smet considered the river of the illusion. (Life, 1 :203-04) without equal in the world. "Putting its de­ fects aside," he wrote, "nothing can be more DE SMET AND THE POWERFUL PLAINS pleasing than the perspective which it pre­ WEATHER sents to the eye" (Life, 4:1351). In fact, he considered it the most picturesque of rivers: The natural phenomena of the Great Plains intrigued De Smet. Few travelers in the upper Think of the big ponds that you have seen Missouri country could resist commenting on in the parks of European noblemen, dot­ the capricious weather systems that blew across ted with little wooded islands; the Platte the heartland, and De Smet was no exception. offers you these by thousands, and of all Sighting his first tornado during his 1841 trav­ shapes. I have seen groups of these islands els across the Plains, he considered the expe­ that one might easily take, from a distance, rience sublime and promptly wrote a dramatic for fleets under sail, garlanded with ver­ account: dure and festooned with flowers; and the rapid flow of the river past them made them A spiral abyss seemed to be suddenly formed seem to be flying over the water, this ap- in the air. The clouds followed each other 248 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1994

into it with such velocity that they attract­ azine of Baltimore published it in translation.7 ed all objects around them, whilst such A prefatory note by the magazine's editor sug­ clouds as were too large and too far distant gests that De Smet left the poem with a friend to feel its influence turned in an opposite in New York City, identified only by the ini­ direction. The noise we heard in the air was tials C.C.P. De Smet's long list of correspon­ like that of a tempest. On beholding the dents contains only one person with the same conflict we fancied that all the winds had initials, Constantine C. Pise, a benefactor of been let loose from the four points of the the Jesuit Indian missions, who is almost cer­ compass. It is very probable that if it had tainly the translator.s approached much nearer, the whole cara­ van would have made an ascension into the HAIL STORM AND WATER SPOUT ON clouds; but the Power that confines the sea THE PLATTE to its boundaries . . . watched over our by Pierre-Jean De Smet, S. J. preservation. The spiral column moved majestically toward the North, and alight­ It chances oft, e'en on the brightest day, ed on the surface of the Platte. Then an­ That clouds, in rolling on their hurried way, other scene was exhibited to our view. The Engender currents, in whose icy breath water, agitated by its powerful action, be­ The vapors freeze above;-while under- gan to spin round with a frightful noise, all neath, the river boiled, and more quickly than a The hope that smiles along the flowery plain rainstorm falls from the clouds, it rose to­ Would blasted be, did not kind heaven ward the whirl in the form of an immense restrain cornucopia whose undulous movements The bursting vengeance, and the storm were like the action of a serpent endeavor­ command: ing to raise itself to the sky. The column "Pass not the waters, or the desert land." appeared to measure a mile in height; and Still on the Platte's green banks and islets such was the violence of the winds which fair came down in a perpendicular direction that Th' effects terrific of the storm appear: in the twinkling of an eye the trees were Too often does that frozen thunder-cloud torn and uprooted and their boughs scat­ The loveliest vales in desolation shroud: tered in every direction. But what is vio­ Frightful arena! where, with wasting lent does not last. After a few minutes the power, frightful visitation ceased. The column, not The furies rage unchained, and wither tree being able to sustain the weight at its base, and flower. was dissolved almost as quickly as it had With my own eyes, as raged the hail storm been formed. Soon after the sun reappeared; round, all was calm and we pursued our journey. I saw a savage pelted to the ground. (Life, 4:1352-53) Happy the man who, in the desert's gloom, Can find a shelter! happy he, on whom So profound was his experience that De Heaven looks with pity; that did I obtain; Smet, perhaps attempting to give these events For, though exposed upon the desolate more permanent form, immediately set about plain, transfiguring them into verse. The poem, "Hail Heaven did not fail to rescue me; the wrath Storm and Water Spout on the Platte," is the Of the impending tempest changed its path, outcome of that exercise. Previous to this edi­ Far driven to the north where, as I stood tion of the Great Plains Quarterly, the poem Fixed in suspense, upon the solitude appeared only once, in 1846. Originally writ­ It spent its fury; and meanwhile, the skies ten in French, The United States Catholic Mag- A scene sublime display before my eyes: FATHER DE SMET ON THE MIDDLE MISSOURI 249

A vast abyss, as 'twere, of spiral shape, To their own liquid empire: with a grand From which, with thundering noise, black And grumbling noise, they issue their clouds escape command, In struggling evolutions;-gulphs pro­ When all that stunned the ear, or shocked found- the eye Like those tremendous whirlpools that Is driven, like magic, from the brightening abound sky. In certain seas, and in their eddies sweep Alas! though happy, very brief, their reign: All things that float upon the boiling deep. One peal of thunder breaks-and lo! their So do these winds engulph, with violent vain power, And short-lived grandeur sinks precipitate All other offspring of their stormy hour. Into the Platte's deep stream; and where so The tempest spirit yells above my head; late The mutinous winds raise up their voices Was seen their glory now appears their dread doom; Upon the. river, whose tumultuous waves Their cradle is converted to their tomb. Are tossed in wild confusion; in the air At this dread crash, the north wind rallied A thousand gleaming meteors appear. strong; But heaven was with me, in my dangerous The south wind fled with all his cloudy plight: throng: The north wind yielding to the south wind's And then, mid smiling skies, the sunny day, might Sweet flowers, and zephyrs calm, resumed Was by its conqueror to the river driven, their vernal sway. On those vexed waters conflict fresh was given, PLAINS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY With furious alternations; then around Was heard the mingled and uproarious Beginning in 1846 and continuing until the sound final few years immediately preceding his death Of battling tempests, deeper, louder, far in 1873, Father De Smet acted as treasurer of Than the terrific thunder-peals of war. Saint Louis University and socius, or vice-ad­ There might be seen, on their aerial field, ministrator, of the Missouri Vice-Province of Those giants of the storm now stretch, now the Society of Jesus. In addition to these for­ yield, mal duties, he voluntarily and unofficially as­ Like snakes each other struggling to de- sumed the responsibilities of procurator for all vour; of his order's western Indian missions. In the When lo! directed by that mighty Power course of this last occupation De Smet raised That rules the tempest, from their heaving money for the missions, used the funds to buy caves, necessary supplies such as clothing for the Bursting, with sudden violence, the waves, priests and farm implements for the Indians, Like mediators, stand between the foes, and arranged for the delivery of materials to And mutual sacrifice for peace propose. frontier outposts. But what will not the favorable hour Ever ready to return to the West that so Effect when aided by ambition's power? enchanted him and the Indians he felt so drawn These new-sprung majesties their proud to, De Smet used his position as procurator to fronts rear make more than a dozen trips back and forth Up to the clouds; but seem to approach so across the Great Plains. In August of 1848, for near example, he spent twenty-five days meander­ The empyrean, only to subject the air ing between the Niobrara, White Earth, and 250 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1994

FIG. 3. Father Pierre-lean De Smet, S.]., in 1864. Photograph by Matthew Brady. Reproduced courtesy of Oregon Province Archives of the Society of Jesus, Gonzaga University. FATHER DE SMET ON THE MIDDLE MISSOURI 251

Little Medicine rivers visiting Native peoples. ancient castles, but under forms so extraor­ He made several similar circuits during the dinary, and so capricious a style of archi­ 1850s and then almost annually from 1862 to tecture, that we might consider them as 1870. appertaining to some new world, or ages During the course of these excursions De far remote. Here a majestic Gothic tower, Smet became intimate with the physical char­ surrounded with turrets, rise in noble gran­ acter of the Great Plains and energetically deur, and there enormous and lofty col­ shared his knowledge with others in long let­ umns seem reared to support the vault of ters. In June of 1864, for example, De Smet heaven ... , Cupolas of colossal propor­ penned this passage on the changing seasons tions, and pyramids which recall the gigan­ on the Great Plains for his European corre­ tic labors of ancient Egypt, rise around. The spondents: atmospherical agents work upon them with such effect that probably two consecutive I have traversed these regions in all sea­ years do not pass without reforming or de­ sons of the year. I have seen the prairies in stroying these strange constructions. (Life, spring, covered with a rich and supple man­ 2:659-60) 10 tle of verdure, waving and bowing under every breeze; they were enameled with flow­ De Smet referred to the most northwestern ers, as varied in form as in color. . .. I portion of the Great Plains as the Yellowstone have admired them after the burning sum­ Desert, specifically the chain of broken hills mer sun had transformed the vivacious paralleling the Yellowstone River as it runs green into a grayish yellow and the supple from the confluence of the Bighorn River to plant had become hard, dry and crisp, wait­ Fort Union. The region's cactus-riddled, bro­ ing only for the match of a careless hunter ken-up ravines earned no praise from De Smet, or a spark from the lightning to become the but its abundance of natural curiosities, in­ prey of flames ... I have passed these places cluding petrified tree trunks and mineralized again after the fire had devastated them, rocks, furnished him an opportunity to emu­ leaving not the slightest trace of verdure. late the erudition of Professor Geyer and his These plateaus, these prairies, these bluffs other explorer-scientist friends. and hills then offered the image of a land of De Smet also posed questions about the desolation, which it makes one sick to look origin of the Plains, asking himself and the at. Finally the snows of winter come and readers of his letters why the Great Plains bore cover with a mournful shroud all this strange so few trees when evidence suggested that at nature. This is its last and gloomiest trans­ an earlier time in history they had been heavi­ formation. . .. (Life, 4: 1382-83)9 ly wooded. Formulating an answer, he first acknowledged the theories of scholars who De Smet's description of the Badlands in speculated that the landscape's barrenness re­ western South Dakota further illustrates his sulted from a combination of ancient forest unique talent for word pictures. fires and climatic changes that in concert dras­ tically affected the fertility of the soil on the The Bad Lands, in the portions which northern Plains. His own theory was that the are traversed by the White River, are the desert-like condition resulted from some un­ most extraordinary of any I have met in my recorded ancient flood of biblical proportions. journeys through the wilderness. The ac­ "I have examined different localities," he tion of the rains, snow and winds ... ren­ wrote, "and the enormous heaps of shells of ders it the theater of most singular scenery. the testaeeous kind and of the genus museula, Viewed at a distance, these lands exhibit which I found a few feet from the summits of the appearance of extensive villages and the loftiest hills, and whieh were incorporated 252 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1994 in alluvial earth and mingled with sand and the sensations which I experienced bordered water-worn pebbles, convince me that this on the sublime," he explained another time. portion ofland has undergone changes as great But because it seemed to be always changing, as they are amazing" (Life, 2:659). Along with De Smet never felt his research on the river most of his contemporaries, De Smet never was completely finished. He liked to spend his considered the possibility that a series of Ice "leisure hours in reading and in taking notes Age glaciers scarred and shaped the Plains. upon the Missouri," he informed his superior; Such a concept would have seemed far-fetched "I examine, I draw upon my own fund of expe­ to many a professional scientist at the time, to rience, I question the best-informed travelers, say nothing of an amateur like De Smet. and then I write" (Life, 3:817). Finally, in 1864 De Smet finished his essay on the Missouri, a DE SMET'S MISSOURI mini-dissertation taking readers on an imagi­ nary descent of the second longest river in the Similarly, De Smet never linked the course United States. He noted every significant trib­ of the Missouri River with the Ice Age. De utary, every landmark; he calculated the mile­ Smet loved the Missouri River; he considered age between points of interest; and he made it the great artery of the Plains. It never made no apology for the dangers one encounters sense to him why Americans seemed neither when traveling on the river. His discourse on to appreciate its beauty nor understand its the character of the Missouri, along with his utilitarian value. True, he would be the first to thirty-two written references to steamboat and admit, the river could be monotonous. "The canoe travel on it, is considered by many his­ windings of the river present lovely views ev­ torians to be among the finest of frontier trav­ ery moment," De Smet wrote, "but the regular el narratives.ll succession of bluffs and bottoms give such a sameness to the country that unless one were A PLAINS PRIEST'S TRAVELOGS very familiar with the region he could never tell in which one of a dozen precisely similar By vocation, De Smet lived the simple life spots he found himself" (Life, 1:181-82). But of a priest and a missionary. By avocation, the mighty Missouri could also be a dynamic however, he aspired to be a great traveler and watercourse, even a treacherous one. The de­ writer. In 1841 the American Jesuits issued a structive side of the Missouri exposed itself to modest pamphlet entitled The Indian Missions De Smet several times during the months of in the United States of America under the Care of April and May when he witnessed it in flood the Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus; two stage. "I will only remind you," he cautioned letters written by Father De Smet occupied readers of his letters and books, "that steam twenty-six of its thirty-four pages. The publi­ navigation on the Missouri is one of the most cation ultimately proved to be a useful tool in dangerous things that a man can undertake. raising funds for the Jesuit missions, and its In my opinion, the sea, despite its storms and success encouraged De Smet to continue his the tribute which one is compelled to pay [Le. own writing with an eye to additional publica­ seasickness], is much to be preferred" (Life, tions. His superiors encouraged this outlet of 1:161). his talents, and ultimately De Smet wrote and So many times did De Smet ascend and published four books between 1843 and 1863. descend the Missouri River between St. Louis The anticipated result of De Smer's publi­ and Fort Union, or cross and explore its many cations was an increase in monetary contribu­ tributaries, that he became possessive about tions to the Jesuits' Western Indian missions. the watercourse and constantly referred to it In his lifetime, it is estimated that De Smet in his letters as "my river" (Life, 4:1356). successfully solicited approximately a quarter "Whenever I crossed this magnificent river, of a million eighteenth-century dollars, an FATHER DE SMET ON THE MIDDLE MISSOURI 253 amount that would certainly be multiplied four was widely believed among GermanJesuits that times in today's inflated currency.12 In addi­ the name "De Smet" was merely a nom de plume tion, De Smet's poignant narratives about the used by several Missouri Province Jesuits who Indians made him the most widely known and wrote their composite experiences into letters read Catholic missionary of his day.u and books (Life, 4: 1530-31). The accusations De Smet's colorful descriptions of Western of the German Jesuits are not true, though it geography earned him notoriety and respect can be said with certainty that De Smet did among a cadre of responsible Western politi­ receive a portion of the information and anec­ cal leaders. In 1853, for example, Isaac Stevens dotes he used about the middle Missouri in asked Father De Smet to accompany him on some of his publications from frontiersmen his survey for a proposed northern route for such as Alexander Culbertson, E. T. Denig, the transcontinental railroad. Revealing he Robert Meldrum, Zephyr Recontre, and C. E. had derived much pleasure and information Galpin. from reading one of De Smet's books, the newly An unanticipated result of De Smet's liter­ appointed governor of Washington Territory ary efforts was their eventual translation into added, "I understand that since its publica­ five languages and their becoming the vehicle tion you have journeyed extensively in the by which thousands of Europeans and Ameri­ western country, particularly between the cans, both Catholics and non-Catholics, were Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. The object introduced to the mysterious American fron­ of my writing at this time, therefore, is to ask tier. Many other explorers and overland trav­ of you such additional information as you may elers wrote about their experiences on the be able to give me" (Life, 4:1568).14 Several Great Plains, but few saw their words widely years later, Governor William Gilpin of Col­ published. 17 All of De Smet's books went orado Territory wrote an effusive letter to the through at least five editions, and some were missionary crediting his writings with being reprinted as many as eleven times. 18 In the the chief factor in developing the governor's 1840s the Great Plains region was still little "inexpressible ambition to penetrate to a com­ understood by the vast majority of the citizen­ plete comprehension of this superlative por­ ry on the North American and European con­ tion of our country".IS Explorer-scientist tinents; De Smet's books both triggered their Joseph Nicollet, Superintendent of Indian curiosity and did much to lift the veil of mys­ Affairs Donald D. Mitchell, and road builder tery.19 Captain John Mullan wrote similarly laudato­ During the 1850s, when the United States ry appreciations of De Smer's published obser­ felt the last bellicose strains of Manifest Des­ vations about the Plains landscape. tiny and the effects of the Mexican War, the By contrast, it is ironic that at times De westward movement took on a new urgency. Smer's writings received criticism, not acco­ Even as the fallout from the Compromise of lades, from his priestly brothers. The Father 1850 polluted the political atmosphere in east­ General of the Society of Jesus, in fact, chas­ ern America, so too the strained dynamics of tised De Smet on at least two occasions for unfinished revolutions clouded European pol­ writing about the West and the Indians with itics in France, Austria, Italy and Prussia. As a what he considered an enterprising vocabu­ result, the American frontier appealed to large lary. "More than one person assures me that groups of Europeans as never before. De Smet your relations [letters]' published with so much fed their appetite for a new life when he wrote eclat," wrote Father John Roothaan, "are prod­ in one of his letters: ucts of imagination and poetry."16 Another time Roothaan took it upon himself simply to Nature seems to have lavished its gifts on declare some of De Smer's testimony about this region [of the Great Plains]; and with­ the West patently false. Even as late as 1867 it out being a prophet, I can predict a future 254 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1994

far unlike the past for this desert. ... These the President of the Republic, like some of his plains, naturally so rich and verdant, seem predecessors, pluck some plumes from the In­ to invite the husbandman to run the fur­ dian eagle, once the emblem of their greatness row, and promise an ample reward to the and power, to place them in the crown com­ slightest toil. Heavy forests await the woods­ posed of the trophies of his administration?" man, and rocks the stonecutter. The sound Must all bend to America's scepter, including of the axe and hammer will echo in this the Indian nations, he asked rhetorically, wilderness; broad farms, with orchard and knowing full well the affirmative answer. If vineyard, alive with domestic animals and white pioneers from Europe and America oc­ poultry, will cover these desert plains to cupied the land, then what would become of provide for thick-coming cities, which will the Native peoples? This, said De Smet, "is rise as if by enchantment with dome and indeed a thorny question, awakening gloomy tower, church and college, school and ideas in the observer's mind, ifhe has followed house, hospital and asylum (Life, 2:647-48). the encroaching policy of the States in regard to the Indians" (Life, 2:644). Father De Smet saw great potential for For De Smet the solution to the "Indian ambitious pioneers in the upper Missouri re­ Question" lay in three ingredients: time, iso­ gion and strongly encouraged Europeans to lation, and missionaries. First of all, the Indi­ relocate to America. During his numerous trav­ ans needed a respite from their constant els over the Plains, he often found himself contact with whites. Ideally, De Smet hoped thinking of how best to use God's bounty. "Eu­ to delay direct relations between the races for rope's thousands of poor, who cry for bread twenty years. Next, he proposed that during and wander without shelter or hope, often this twenty-year hiatus Indians should be iso­ occur to my thoughts. 'Unhappy poor,' I often lated on a reservation. Humanity and justice cry, 'why are ye not here? Your industry and demanded it for them; it was also the Indians' toil would end your sorrows. Here you might only remaining hope for future well-being. rear a smiling home, and reap in plenty the There was so much land in the middle and fruit of your toil'" (Life, 2:647). Echoing the upper Missouri country with so many natural spirit of Manifest Destiny, he predicted: "This advantages, De Smet thought, that both white great territory will hold an immense popula­ pioneers and Native Americans in separate tion, destined to form several great and flour­ locations could share the bounty. He project­ ishing states" (Life, 2:645-46). ed this "separate but equal" arrangement to last preferably for three generations, but at DE SMET'S VIEWS OF PLAINS INDIANS least for two decades. To De Smet the reserva­ tion was a place where Indian people would be But what to do with the Indians? This was, free to enjoy the best of their culture while indeed, a thorny question for De Smet, an they came to terms with the fruits of Euro­ Indian missionary. The Mexican War un­ American civilization at their own pace. Giv­ leashed a militant spirit in Americans, De Smet en a choice, De Smet preferred a few large lamented, a pugnacity that boded ill for the reservations for many tribes rather than many Indians. He felt the "American Republic soar­ small reservations for individual tribes. But ing, with the rapidity of the eagle's flight, to­ size was not the critical consideration; estab­ wards the plenitude of power." The American lishing a haven for Native people was his par­ territorial ambition realized in the recent war, amount concern. he felt, was "nothing less than extending her Finally, De Smet believed that missionar­ dominion from the Atlantic to the Pacific, so ies, protected by the federal government, as to embrace the commerce of the whole should be the only white people allowed to world." But now, De Smet asked, "Will not live among the Indians on these reservations. FATHER DE SMET ON THE MIDDLE MISSOURI 255

De Smet wished to instruct Native peoples in quently. De Smet was especially taken with the tenets of the Catholic faith. He would Plains rivers-the Platte and the Missouri­ trade food for their souls. In his estimation, as he sought to convey their grandeur to his the missionaries could also assist Indians with audience. And with the coming invasion, De education and agricultural assistance, food for Smet advocated a Jeffersonian approach to mind and body. At the same time missionaries relationships with the West's Native peoples. would deflect the most vile aspects of white Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet remained enamored society, especially liquor, away from the Indi­ of the Great Plains throughout his life. ans. Eventually the exemplary life and good intentions of the missionaries would lead the NOTES Indians to adopt Western civilization. Leav­ ing the Indian field to missionaries could be 1. Ignatius Loyola founded the Society ofJesus controversial, De Smet admitted, but his ba­ at the University of Paris. The papacy formally sic guiding principle was that missionaries recognized the order four years later, in 1540, and by the time of Ignatius' death in 1556 it had grown saved Indians' souls while neither frontiers­ to nearly 1000 members. By 1770 the society con­ men nor sold.iers even tried. It never occurred sisted of about 23,000 members in 42 provinces, to De Smet that in bringing Euro-American 669 colleges, and 274 mission stations around the civilization to the Native peoples he tacitly world. Alarmed by their rapid growth, Pope Clem­ encouraged the destruction of their cultures, ent XIV suppressed the Jesuits in 1773, a ban that remained in place until 1814. The restoration of cultures that he himself greatly admired. The the American Jesuits, however, began as early as "Indian question" was, indeed, complex, and 1805 in Maryland. though De Smet devoted the major portion of 2. The United States Army located Fort At­ his life to finding solutions to it, he died in kinson on the Council Bluff in 1819. For many 1873 without ever discovering an infallible years it was the army's most westerly outpost. Iron­ ically, it closed in 1827 because it was too remote answer. from white settlements. Today the location is near the town of Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, approximately CONCLUSION fifteen miles north of Omaha. See Virgil Ney, Fort on the Prairie: Fort Atkinson on the Council Bluff, In more than three decades of travel in and 1819-1827 (Washington, D.C.: Command Publi­ cations, 1978). across the Great Plains, Father Pierre-Jean De 3. Hiram Martin Chittenden and Alfred Tal­ Smet attained a knowledge and understand­ bot Richardson, Life, Letters and Travels of Father ing of the region's features that only a few Pierre-Jean De Smet, S.]., 1801-1873,4 vols. (New other men of his day possessed.20 Fewer still York: Francis P. Harper, 1905), 1: 151, hereafter published their observations, and among those cited parenthetically as Life in the text. 4. Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet, Letters and Sketch­ even fewer could match De Smet's expressive­ es, with a narrative of a year's residence among the ness or popularity with readers. Sheer volume Indian tribes of the Rocky Mountains (Philadelphia: of material, however, does not distinguish Fa­ M. Fithian, 1843); Oregon Missions and Travels over ther De Smet as an interpreter of the Great the Rocky Mountains in 1845-1846 (New York: Ed­ Plains region. His advocacy for it does. As a ward Dunigan, 1847); Western Missions and Mis­ sionaries: A Series of Letters (New York: P.J. champion for the Great Plains, De Smet Kennedy, 1858); New Indian Sketches (New York: reached massive audiences in both Europe and D.&J. Sadlier & Co., 1863). America with his eloquent, memorable texts. 5. Nicholas Biddle's narrative History of the From De Smet's first observations of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Meri­ Great Plains at his mission on Council Bluff, wether Lewis and William Clark was published in Philadelphia in 1814. Washington Irving issued he correctly gauged the coming interests of Astoria in 1836. De Smet referred several times to European settlers. He described the sheer enor­ the Lewis and Clark expedition in his letters, and mity of the Plains, its flora and fauna, and its he also quoted directly from Astoria. In addition, changing weather, as he crisscrossed it fre- De Smet made several oblique references to 256 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1994

Maximilian of Wied's 1842 volume, Travels in the Missionary De Smet; Nicollet and Pope; Governor Interior of North America, 1832-1834. Simpson's Journey around the World and some 6. Lillian L. Fitzpatrick, Nebraska Place-Names: information not yet published obtained from Dr. Including Selections from the Origin of the Place-Names Evans on his geological survey of these regions." of Nebraska, by J. T. Link (Lincoln: University of Quoted in Hazard Stevens, The Life ofIsaac Stevens, Nebraska Press, 1960), p. 13. 2 vols. (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 7. United States Catholic Magazine, 5, no. 11 1901),1: 292. (1846): 593-94. 15. Gilpin to De Smet, 20 July 1860, quoted in 8. The master index to De Smet's voluminous Garraghan, Jesuits of the Middle United States (note correspondence is in the Jesuit Museum and Ar­ 11 above), 3: 84. chive at Florissant, Missouri. 16. Roothaan to De Smet, 14 April 1851 , quot­ 9. See Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet, New Indian ed in ibid., 3: 427. Sketches (note 4 above). See also Merlin P. Law­ 17. For more information regarding literature son, "Toward a Geosophic Climate of the Great on the West of the imagination, see Anne Hyde, American Desert: The Plains Climate of the Forty­ An American Vision: Far Western Landscape and Niners," in Images of the Plains, ed. Brian Blouet National Culture, 1820-1920 (New York: New York and Merlin Lawson (Lincoln: University of Ne­ University Press, 1990); Lee Clark Mitchell, Wit­ braska Press, 1975) for additional views of weather nesses to a Vanishing America: The Nineteenth-Cen­ on the Plains by other overlanders. tury Response (Princeton: Princeton University 10. E. Laveille, S.J., The Life of Father De Smet, Press, 1981); and John Mack Faragher, Women and S.], (New York: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1915), pp. Men on the Overland Trail (New Haven: Yale Uni­ 208-09. Pioneer geologists also viewed Plains land­ versity Press, 1979). See also Paul Shepard, "Dead marks with imagination. See Yi-Fu Tuan, "Moun­ Cities in the American West," Landscape 6 (Win­ tains, Ruins and the Sentiment of Melancholy," ter 1956-57): 25-28, for descriptions of the land­ Landscape 14 (Autumn 1964): 27-30. scape of the high Plains. 11. Gilbert J. Garraghan, S.J., read widely on 18. The numerous editions of De Smet's works the subject of nineteenth-century travel while pre­ are catalogued in Phyllis R. Abbott, "Publicizing paring his history of the Missouri Province of the the Missions" (master's thesis, Gonzaga Universi­ Society of Jesus, and he concludes that De Smet ty, 1952). For example, De Smet's narrative of his pictured Missouri River navigation with "a pen as journey of 1851, when he ventured up the Missou­ sympathetic as it is true to fact." Gilbert J. Gar­ ri River as far as Fort Union by steamboat and then raghan, S.J. Jesuits of the Middle United States, 3 traveled overland to Fort Laramie for an Indian vols. (New York: America Press, 1938), 3: 82. council, was written in six parts, each appearing Hiram M. Chittenden, the author of several im­ three times in France, twice as magazine articles, portant works on Western river navigation, in ad­ and once as a book published in 1853. Later this dition to being the editor of the De Smet papers, volume was republished in English under the title came to the same conclusion. Chittenden and Ri­ of Western Missions and Missionaries, fully ten years chardson, Life and Letters of De Smet (note 3 above), after the original articles appeared in print. 1: 161 and 3: 867. 19. Garraghan, Jesuits of the Middle United States 12. A French franc in the middle of the eigh­ (note 11 above), 3: 83. teenth century was equivalent to about 18.33- 20. De Smet was one of the best traveled fron­ 18.75¢. See David M. Brumbach, "Peter John De tiersmen of his day and one of the few who could Smet, S.J.: Fundraiser and Promoter of Missions" say that he had stood at both the source and mouth (Ph.D. diss., Washington State University, 1992). of the West's two great rivers, the Missouri and the 13. Garraghan,jesuits of the Middle United States Columbia. The only other person to write of a (note 11 above), 2: 428. similar accomplishment was W. A. Ferris, Life in 14. Isaac Stevens wrote a letter to Andrew Jack­ the Rocky Mountains: A Diary of Wanderings on the son Donelson in 1853 in which he claims that the Sources of the Rivers Missouri, Columbia and Colo­ only reliable sources of information about the Plains rado from February, 1830, to November, 1835, ed. and Rockies are "Lewis and Clark's Travels; Irv­ Paul C. Phillips (Denver: Old West Publishing ing's Astoria and Rocky Mountains; Travels by the Company, 1940).