Tag: catholics

colonization, columbia river, General History, Kalapuya, Native Issues, Washington Territory, Willamette ValleyLeave a comment

Modeste Demers Ethnographic Descriptions of the Tribes, 1839

David G. Lewis, PhD

Modeste Demers was assigned with the Oregon Territory, in 1837, at the same time as Francois Norbert Blanchet and they traveled together overland to their assignment in canoes and on horseback, in Hudson’s Bay trading party.  Along the way, Demers and Blanchet take time to have short missions with the tribes and baptize more than 100 people. Demers set up his initial residence in Fort Vancouver and spent three months learning Chinuk Wawa (Jargon), which was the language the missionaries used to instruct nearly every tribe they encountered in the region. In the following early report of the tribes encountered … Continue reading Modeste Demers Ethnographic Descriptions of the Tribes, 1839

colonization, columbia river, General History, Native Issues, Oregon indians, treaties1 Comment

Blanchet’s Mission to the Cascades, 1841

David G. Lewis, PhD

Blanchet’s mission to the Cascades is perhaps his first visit to this location. His interactions with Tamakoun, also later called Tomaquin, are quite revealing of the tribe and its divisions. The notation about villages on the two banks suggests a different leadership and some division in the tribe. Tamakoun does not suggest that the attentions of the Methodists or the Catholics are in any way undesirable only that there is a difference, yet he had become coverted to Catholic by this account. It is in this location that Blanchet’s ethnographic notes really show the tribal culture. His notes about the … Continue reading Blanchet’s Mission to the Cascades, 1841

colonization, columbia river, General History, Grand Ronde Reservation, Oregon indians1 Comment

Blanchet’s Mission at the Walamette Village, 1841

David G. Lewis, PhD

The following is report from a Notice, Notice No. 4, part of a series of reports of the Catholic missionary Francois Norbert Blanchet (September 30, 1795 – June 18, 1883) from 1841 to 1842 about his missionary conversion work among the tribes of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, in the middle Chinookan area. Blanchet visits the villages at Willamette Falls, Clackamas, Vancouver, and the Cascades from May 1841 to early 1842. Blanchet had arrived in Oregon in 1839 and began holding sermons at St. Paul in the area of French Prairie, the north Willamette Valley. His first visitors would be … Continue reading Blanchet’s Mission at the Walamette Village, 1841