Oregon missionaries facts for kids

The Oregon missionaries were brave pioneers who traveled to the Oregon Country in North America starting in the 1830s. Their main goal was to share Christianity with the local Native American tribes. Before this, there were some missionary efforts, but it was hard to find people willing to go all the way to Oregon. Many preferred to go to places like India or China.

Interest in Oregon grew in the 1830s. A school teacher named Hall J. Kelley started a group called the "American Society for the Settlement of the Oregon Country." Around the same time, four Nez Perce people visited St. Louis in 1831. It's not clear if they were asking for a "book of life" (a Protestant idea) or "Blackrobes" (meaning Catholic priests). Either way, their visit inspired many Christian missionaries to head to the Oregon Territory.

These missionaries played a big role beyond just religion. They helped establish United States influence in the area. At the time, the Hudson's Bay Company, which was British, also had a strong presence. The missions set up by Americans became important foundations for the future settlement of the Pacific Northwest.

The Wyeth-Lee Journey

In 1834, a Methodist minister from New York named Jason Lee became the first of these missionaries to arrive in the Oregon Country. His goal was to start the first American settlement and convert the native people.

Lee traveled with Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth, who was on his second trading trip. Their group was called the Wyeth-Lee Party. They started their journey on April 28, 1834.

Jason Lee built a mission school for Native Americans in the Willamette Valley, where the city of Salem, Oregon is today. This school later grew into the Oregon Institute. Eventually, it became Willamette University, which is the oldest university on the West Coast.

The Whitman-Spalding Journey

In 1835, Dr. Marcus Whitman made his first trip west from New York, crossing the Rocky Mountains. In 1836, Marcus Whitman made the same journey again. This time, he traveled with his new wife, Narcissa Whitman. Another missionary couple, Henry H. Spalding and his wife Eliza Spalding, joined them. Narcissa and Eliza were the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains.

The Whitmans arrived at Fort Walla Walla on October 26, 1838. They started a mission at Waiilatpu. This was about 25 miles east of Fort Walla Walla, in the land of the Cayuse Indians. Today, this area is in the state of Washington.

The Spaldings started their mission among the Nez Perce Indians at Lapwai. This location was at the foot of Thunder Mountain, in present-day Idaho. Henry Spalding is known for creating the Protestant Ladder. This was a teaching tool used to explain Christian history to Native Americans. It was a long strip of paper or cloth with pictures, similar to the Catholic Ladder used by Catholic missionaries.

Catholic Missionaries Arrive

Catholic missionaries also came to the Oregon Territory. Some, like Father Francis Norbert Blanchet and Father Modeste Demers, arrived from Quebec in 1837. Later, another group of missionaries, like Father Pierre-Jean De Smet in 1841, came from the Eastern United States, similar to the Protestant missionaries.

Official Catholic missionary work began when Father Francis Norbert Blanchet was made a leader for the Oregon Country in April 1838. He and Father Modest Demers reached Fort Vancouver on November 24, 1838.

At first, the missionaries used hymns and books translated into the Chinook Jargon. This was a language often used for trade among different native groups. But they realized that the deeper ideas of Catholicism were not being understood. So, in April 1839, Father Blanchet started using carved shale sticks to teach. These sticks, called the Catholic Ladder, showed pictures of Christian history.

The Catholic Ladders were given to Native chiefs starting in October 1839. Soon, paper copies were made, and later, 2,000 copies were printed and sent to the Pacific Northwest. Protestant missionaries, like Henry Spalding, later created their own versions, sometimes using images from the Catholic Ladder. Both Catholic and Protestant ladders sometimes showed the other group as "heathens."

In 1841, Father Pierre-Jean De Smet started the Rocky Mountain Mission in the Pacific Northwest. Many Jesuit missionaries, especially from Italy, wanted to join this mission.

Blanchet became a Bishop in 1843. The region became an "Apostolic Vicariate," which is a church district. It stretched from the Arctic to the Rockies and down to the US-Mexican border. In 1846, Oregon became the second "Ecclesiastical Province" (a larger church region) in the US. Blanchet became the archbishop of Oregon City.

Catholics in the region sometimes faced difficulties from the mostly Protestant white settlers. For example, Father Augustin Magliore Blanchet, Francis Blanchet’s brother, was blamed for the Whitman massacre in 1847. This happened even though he had only arrived in the area three months before the event.

What Happened Next: The Legacy of Missionaries

Missionary work in the Oregon Country continued into the 1850s. In 1853, the Washington Territory was created, separating from the Oregon Territory.

Converting Native Americans to Christianity had mixed results. In some cases, Native Americans were very wary of the missionaries. This suspicion grew when many Native people became sick with diseases brought by the missionaries and other white settlers.

As tensions between native tribes and white missionaries increased in the 1850s, leading to small wars like the Rogue River Wars, missionaries began to focus more on white immigrants coming from the eastern parts of the US, rather than on the native populations.