"Come, Blackrobe": De Smet and the Indian Tragedy By John J. Killoren, SJ (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 461 was better than less, he added more and more detail, ending up in his last edition of 1859 with a very complex broadside that defies the talent of an ordinary catechist to understand. Meanwhile, other missionaries in Canada, the United States, and Europe, having recognized the value of what Blanchet had produced, designed their own versions of what had become formally known as Ladders. Ladders appeared in English, French, Spanish, and even Russian at various dates, extending from their origin into the twentieth century . The Ladder's presentation started at the bottom, using a system of bars and dots to represent centuries and years, with a sketchy history of the Old and New Testaments attached at the proper places, ending with the current theology of the Schoolmen, a narrow road leading Catholics into an enticing heaven and a broad road leading Protestants into a fiery hell. Protestant missionaries responded with their own Ladder, reversing the destinies of their followers with that of the Catholics. Their versions, which were never published , specialized in elaborate scenes ofthe pope and bishops falling headlong into the flames. These Ladders were seen by few and had little influence on the Indians. On the other hand, Catholic Ladders enjoyed great influence with the Indians , who tended to take what they saw literally. One of the many causes of die Whitman Massacre of 1847 has been correctly attributed to the Catholic Ladder, because many Indians believed that the Protestants were going to hell anyhow. Father Kowrach's edited account of Fadier Hanley's master's diesis, "The Catholic Ladder and Missionary Activity in the Pacific Northwest" (Ottawa, 1965), and his doctoral dissertation, "Frs. Blanchet and Demers and Missionary Preaching in Oregon" (Rome, 1965), is a happy achievement. Using the two academic papers, he has assembled his edited account, added photographs or facsimiles of various versions of Ladders, and retained Hanley's erudite footnotes . The latter are worth the price of the book, which in this reviewer's opinion, is a good bargain. Some of the illustrations in this book appear to be inappropriate, but this is a small matter. The book deserves to be in Catholic libraries everywhere. Wilfred P. Schoenberg, SJ. Gonzaga University "Come, Blackrobe": De Smet and the Indian Tragedy. By John J. Killoren, SJ. (Norman: University ofOklahoma Press. 1994. Pp. xv, 448. «2995; Í1795 paperback.) John Killoren's study focuses on the career ofthe nineteenth-centuryJesuit, Peter John De Smet, whom he views as a forerunner of twentieth-century 462 BOOK REVIEWS Jesuit activists. De Smet's lifelong passion was the welfare ofNative Americans, particularly those who lived on the northern Plains and in the Pacific Northwest . He played a unique role as both a witness to and a participant in the events that drove the tribes from their lands and onto reservations. Blessed with a charismatic personality and an ability to accept people on their own terms without abandoning his convictions, De Smet easily won the friendship ofpeople wherever he went. Native Americans looked upon him as a religious leader. Those in the Indian Service and the army valued his influence with the tribes. The first part of Killoren's book deals with the Jesuit missions in the Northwest . In 1841 De Smet established a mission among the Salish in present-day Montana 'where he and his colleagues intended to develop a Native American Catholicism. But this effort to present the Gospel to the Indians in their own idiom was not successful. In the first place, the effervescent De Smet mistakenly equated personal affection for himselfwith a desire on die part of the Indians to convert to Christianity. And second, the Jesuits had not reckoned with a large and continuing influx of white miners and settlers into the region. With their hopes for a "Wilderness Kingdom" frustrated, they changed their strategy to one of trying to teach the Indians to live as non-Indians. The second part of Killoren's study focuses on De Smet after 1849, when he was recalled to St. Louis, where he lived until his death in 1873. He was a prolific writer and became an exceedingly effective fund-raiser for the Western missions. At the...