Roman Catholics Arrive in PNW
[show Blanchet and Demers photo]
First Catholic missionaries were Francois Norbet Blanchet and Modeste Demers at the HBC Fort Vancouver in 1838.
- In response to Indian delegations to St. Louis requesting the Black Robe. Clark then to Catholics.
Strategy was to get Indian chiefs to teach.
Used Blanchet’s Catholic Ladder.
Conversion meant give up their ways - buffalo hunting, gambling, wives, medicine bags.
Different than Protestants: Father Point, “it is better to graft then to fell.”
Civilization and Christianity must go together. Farming was a key element.