St. Mary's Church and Pharmacy

About this property

The Historic St. Mary's Mission is a mission established by the Society of Jesus of the Catholic Church, located now on Fourth Street in modern-day Stevensville, Montana. Founded in 1841 and designed as an ongoing village for Catholic Salish Indians, St. Mary's was the first permanent settlement made by non-indigenous peoples in what became the state of Montana. The mission structure was rebuilt in 1866. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The Salish came to know about the Jesuits from Catholic Iroquois fur trappers who settled among them either in 1811, or sometime after 1816. Especially Ignace (Big Ignace) aroused attention with his stories about the "Black Robes". Indian delegations reached St. Louis in 1831 and 1835, both in vain, asking for a priest to follow them back to the Salish country. Lakotas near Ash Hollow (Nebraska) killed a third group sent to make the same request in 1837, including Ignace. In 1839, two Iroquois Indians met Father De Smet at Council Bluff, by chance, and they relayed the request again. In July 1840, Father De Smet was greeted by more than 1,000 Salish and Pend d'Oreille Indians in Pierre's Hole. He promised to fulfill the request within a year. On September 24 the next year, Father De Smet returned to the Salish. Accompanying him to the Bitterroot Valley were Fathers Gregory Mengarini and Nicholas Point, as well as Brothers Joseph Specht, William Claessens, and Charles Huett. The women hewed down the timber, assisted by their husbands, with the greatest alacrity and expedition, and in a few weeks we had constructed a log church, capable of holding 900 persons. To ornament the interior, the women placed mats of a species long grass, which were hung on the roof and sides of the church, and spread over the floor,-- it was then adorned with festoons formed of branches of cedar and pine. Nicolas Point's plan included houses with lawns. They were built in harmony with that plan although it made the village open to attacks. A palisade shielded the church. The first communion was at Easter 1842. At this time, Chief Victor held the position as principal representative for the Bitterroot Salish. Father Anthony Ravalli joined the mission in 1845. He inoculated the Indians against smallpox and ran the dispensary. In 1846, the fields yielded 7,000 bushels of wheat and a considerable quantum of garden crops. However, by this time many Salish Indians had turned their backs to the mission and slowly, took up their former lifestyle. They felt betrayed by the establishment of a mission at Colville for the Blackfeet, who were their enemies.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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