"We Have Allmost Every Religion but Our Own": French-Indian Community Initiatives and Social Relations in French Prairie, Oregon, 1834-1837

Abstract

MELINDA MARIE JETTE "we have allmost Every Religion but our own" French-Indian Community Initiatives and Social Relations in French Prairie, Oregon, 1834-1837 DURING THE EARLYSUMMER MONTHS of1834, theFrench Canadian men who had settled in the area of theWillamette Valley now known as French Prairie, likely in consultation with their Indian wives, discussed the need for religious and educational training for their growing families. By July, theyhad decided to send a letter to thenearest Roman Catholic ecclesiastical seat at Red River in the Canadian Northwest, asking that priests be sent to theirnascent community. Dated July5,1834, the Willamette settlers'first letter to Joseph Provencher, known as the Bishop of Juliopolis, probably did not reach theRed River colony until the fall orwinter of 1834.1 Having received no news from the bishop by the early spring of 1835, the French Canadians sent a second letter, repeating their request for priests and "promising to do all in their power to help them survive." They pledged twentyminots of grain per family to support the priests, "which themembers ofthe company there saying that they can easily deliver," since the Willamette Valley was a "beautiful country where one plants and harvests nearly year-round, and fishing there is in abundance."2 The French Canadians' petition forCatholic priests was not to bear fruit until 1838. In a curious turn of events, however, while the French Canadians were busy drafting their first letter to Bishop Provencher, the first party of Christian missionaries was already on itsway to Oregon. Headed by the Reverend Jason Lee, a small group of American Methodist missionaries joined Nathaniel Wyeth's second expedition to the West and arrived at Fort 222 OHQ vol. 108, no. 2 ? 2007 Oregon Historical Society This map, produced by the Oregon StateHighway Commission in the1960s, isa modern renderingofFrenchPrairie and thesurroundingareas in the1830s.French Prairie was originally thehome of the AhantchuyukKalapuyans but,as this map demonstrates, it became prime area for non-Kalapuyan colonization and re settlement following theFrench Canadians' retirement from theregionalfur trade. Jette, Community Initiativesand Social Relations inFrench Prairie 223 Vancouver in mid-September 1834.3 The Methodists subsequently established theirmission in theWillamette Valley; but, hampered by organizational problems, bouts of poor health, and their own cultural biases, theymade no significant attempts to convert the local Kalapuyans toChristianity during their first three years there.4 Jason Lee and his colleagues were more successful with their French Indian neighbors. Given sectarian tensions between Catholics and Prot estants in both theUnited States and Canada during the early nineteenth century, the Catholic French-Indian families were surprisingly hospitable to theAmerican Protestants during their first few years in the Willamette Valley5 During themid-i830s, theyworked together to solve local problems in French Prairie, reaching across cultural divides ? even in times of ten sion and conflict ? and demonstrating a commitment to ethnic, religious, and community solidarity.6 Because the early French Canadian settlers and theirNative wives were nearly all illiterate and left fewwritten records, their role in early Oregon history has long been obscured.7 A fresh examination of the surviving docu mentary record, including some previously untapped Canadian sources, however, reveals a complex story inwhich the French-Indian families in French Prairie used all themeans at their disposal ? including tieswith Methodist missionaries ? to advance their own community interests.8 FRENCH PRAIRIE SETTLERS initially came intocontact withAmerican missionaries when Jason and Daniel Lee spent September 19 through Septem ber 26,1834, touring the Willamette Valley to reconnoiter a site for their new mission. French Prairie, theoriginal territoryof theAhantchuyuk Kalapuyans, was named after the French-Indian families who settled there. Located in the mid-Willamette Valley, French Prairie isbounded by the Willamette River to the north and west, the Pudding River to the east, and what remains of Lake Labish (lac labiche) to the south. The Methodist missionaries firstvisited the French-Indian families living inAhantchuyuk Kalapuyan territory, staying with Joseph Gervais and Yiamust Clatsop and their children, who lived on a farm about tenmiles southwest of Campement de Sable (Champoeg). Also living at theGervais home were Yiamust's sisterCeliast and her husband Solo mon Smith,who was then a schoolteacher to the local French-Indian children. The families whom themissionaries met at...