A priest stands next to a Catholic Ladder. In 1839, Father Francis Norbit Blanchet used a Catholic Ladder diagram to explain Christian Concepts to Native Americans at Fort Nisqually. Washington State Historical Society Collections.

Cultures in Conflict Despite missionary accounts that Native peoples were receptive to Christianity, it conflicted with Native life-ways in many ways. Factors such as family hardships or prejudice against Native spirituality influenced conversion to Christianity.

Polygamy The Native American practice of polygamy, condemned by the missionaries, was deeply ingrained into the economic and social order of their culture.

Miscommunication Cultural politeness may have compelled Native Americans to pretend to understand and respond enthusiastically to the interpreted words of the missionaries, causing the priests to be hopeful for conversion.

Medicine men The influence that Native American medicine men held over the people was another barrier to conversion by Christian missionaries.

Potlatches and Gambling Potlatches and gambling were integral parts of Northwest Native American culture. The Christian missionaries attempted to convince the Native Americans to plant crops and work the land instead.

Death and Burial Practices The Native American practice of burying their dead above ground was abhorrent to the priests, who were frustrated at their inability to provide Christian burials for their Native American converts.

SOURCE: Carpenter, Cecelia Svinth, Fort Nisqually: A Documented History of Indian and British Interaction (Tacoma, WA: Tahoma Research Service, 1986).

The operations of Fort Nisqually in the nineteenth century brought together two peoples: Native Americans and employees of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) / Puget's Sound Agricultural Company (PSAC). Not surprisingly, cultural encounters occurred. Some of the most profound encounters involved religion.

Traditional Native religion is a complex subject that, as historian Cecelia Carpenter noted, is difficult to write about. She has stated that "Belief in the spirit world was an integral part of the life of the traditional Nisqually Indian people. It could not be separated from an individual because it permeated his every thought, word, and action." Features of traditional religion included vision quests, spirit powers, and shamans.

HBC/PSAC employees, coming from a Euro-American background, brought the Christianity of their homelands to Fort Nisqually. It was an essential part of the men's beliefs and heritage. Many of the Hawaiians and Indians from Eastern North America employed at the Nisqually post had previously converted to Christianity before arriving in the Northwest. While some of the HBC/PSAC personnel were Protestant Christians, most were Catholics.

A few of the HBC/PSAC officers at the Nisqually station personally took an interest in introducing Christianity to Native Americans. William Kittson, in charge of the post in the 1830s, wrote of a time in August 1834 when he spoke about Christian practices to a group of about 250 Indians. According to his entry in the fort's journal, the Native Americans were attentive and responded with a religious dance.

Catholic priests visited Fort Nisqually on several occasions. The first to arrive was Father Modesto Demers. As mentioned in official church reports, he performed ceremonies for baptisms and marriages at the post in the spring of 1839. Later that same year, in August, Father Francis Norbit Blanchet stopped at the Nisqually station and provided religious instructions. He used a diagram, called a Catholic Ladder, to help explain Christian concepts.

In the early 1840s the Methodist Episcopal Church (now known as the Methodist Church) maintained a mission station near Fort Nisqually. One of the American missionaries, Chloe Clark Willson opened a school for the children of local Native Americans and HBC/PSAC employees. The first U.S. Independence Day celebration in present-day Washington State was held close to this Mission in July 1841. Missionaries, Indians, HBC/PSAC workers, and visiting sailors from the U.S. Exploring Expedition participated in the event.

In later years cultural encounters continued as other churches and religious groups came to the area. It was at a Presbyterian Church on the Nisqually Indian Reservation, for example, that services for the 1895 reburial of Leschi and Quiemuth were held. The two Nisqually chiefs were honored and remembered that day.

SOURCES:
Bagley, Clarence B., "In The Beginning," in Ezra Meeker, Pioneer Reminiscences of Puget Sound and The Tragedy of Leschi (Seattle, WA: Lowman & Hanford Stationary and Printing Company, 1905).

Carpenter, Cecelia Svinth, Fort Nisqually: A Documented History of Indian and British Interaction (Tacoma, WA: Tahoma Research Service, 1986).

Carpenter, Cecelia Svinth, The Nisqually-My People: The Traditional and Transitional History of the Nisqually Indian People (Tacoma, WA: Tahoma Research Service, 2002).

"Leschi's Bones Reburied," The Daily Ledger (Tacoma, WA), July 4, 1895, p. 5.

Notices & Voyages of the Famed Quebec Mission to the Pacific Northwest (Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society, 1956).