Missionaries and Indians in Cariboo : a history of St. Joseph's Mission, Williams Lake, British Columbia
Date
1979
Authors
Whitehead, Margaret
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Abstract
In August 1866, a French Roman Catholic Order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, established St. Joseph's Mission, Williams Lake, to cater to the spiritual needs of the Shuswap, Carrier, and Chilcotin Indians. The development of St. Joseph's was governed by numerous factors, including the Oblates' earlier work in Oregon, which set the priorities of their leader s, the response of the Indians , the financial needs of the Church in the newly created Vicariate of British Columbia, and the impact of individual missionaries.
Founded by Eugene de Mazenod as an élite order following almost contemplative rules, the Oblates met little success as missionaries in the turbulent Oregon Territory. Problems of interdenominational competition, conflict with the area's French Canadian ecclesiastical Church leaders, and the nomadic life-style of the Indians (compounded by two Indian wars) caused the Oblates undue pressure and frustration and se t the priorities of Bishops Louis D'herbomez and Paul Durieu, both of whom governed the direction of St. Joseph's Mission.
The Mission opened under propitious conditions. Many Indians held pre-contact religious beliefs compatible with Catholicism; many were familiar with Church precepts through the teachings of native prophets, the fur trade personnel, and circuit missionary priests. Indian isolation from white 'civilization ' and the absence of denominational challenge were added advantages. The Indians welcomed the priests, agreed to Church intervention in Indian society and sought education for their children. In spite of these favourable conditions, Indian missionary work was long neglected.
Two factors diverted the Mission from its intended course. In the face of a provincial, thus Protestant, educational thrust in the Cariboo, Bishop D'herbomez decided to provide parochial schools at the Mission for whites and Métis children. To help support his developing Vicariate, the Bishop also sanctioned Father James Maria McGuckin's vision to create a farm/ranch at the Mission to be a constant source of income. Both the school and the ranch succeeded but drained manpower to the detriment of missionary activity.
Under the influence of Paul Durieu, St. Joseph's again became totally an Indian mission in the 1890's. Durieu's controversial "Durieu System"--which called for the creation of a totally Church controlled Indian society--was successfully implemented among the Indians by Father François Marie Thomas a man who appealed to the Indians and who was a devoted disciple of Durieu's methods. Cariboo Indian Chiefs welcomed Durieu's Indian Total Abstinence Society which supplemented their attempts to fight the influence of alcohol . A novitiate for Indian girls and an Indian school helped to fulfill the original purpose of the Mission.
Bishop Durieu opened an Indian Residential School in 1891 to provide a Catholic educational environment. From its inception the Mission School was beset by problems. While the initial difficulty of inadequate staff was resolved by the use of members of religious orders, the problems of insufficient government support, white settler hostility and Indian reluctance remained constant. Nevertheless, the School persevered for seventy years in its goal of providing Catholic education for the Indians.
In spite of almost perfect missionary conditions, the need to provide an education for white and Métis Catholic children and to supply a financial base for ecclesiastical projects throughout the Vicariate changed the direction of St. Joseph's Mission for over twenty years. From 1890, with the advent of a religious revival and the beginning of Indian education, St. Joseph's Mission returned to its task of Catholicizing the Indians of Cariboo and at last began to fulfill the original objectives of its founders.