Grace Period, 5: Interchange Begins
About Grace Period Revised December 2022 Introduction In the early 1840s, Jesuit missionaries established missions in four Native communities in the Inland Northwest: St. Mary’s among the Salish in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana in 1841; Sacred Heart among the Schitsu’umsh (Coeur d’Alenes) of northern Idaho in 1842; St. Michael’s at a Qlispe winter camp near Albeni Falls, Idaho, in 1844; and in1845, St. Ignatius in Qlispe territory in northeastern Washington. During this initial period of encounter, harmony and goodwill prevailed. The Natives welcomed the Jesuits into their homelands and adapted their ways of life to their instructions, religious and otherwise. Yet, as graceful as was this period, it was brief. As early as 1847, Inland Northwest Natives were growing increasingly hostile to Christianity and its messengers. The First Jesuit In the fall of 1839, Pierre Gauch é and Ignace La Jeune, two Iroquois men who lived among the Salish Tribal People of pr...