The Society of Jesus has a mission among the Pottowatomies on Sugar Creek, a tributary of the Osage river.[127] The Ladies of the Sacred Heart have an establishment here. During the summer of 1841, the late distinguished Madame de Galitzin, provincial of the Order in America, visited this section of the country for the purpose of founding, among these rude savages, a house of education, in which the hapless children of the desert now enjoy the benefit of being instructed in the Christian faith, of being formed to habits of industry and cleanliness, and acquiring a knowledge of those branches of education suited to their condition.—These two missions are located near the frontiers of the States, and are the only ones in this immense territory.
The upper Missouri, and all its branches as far as the Rocky Mountains, are without spiritual assistance {166}. Wherever the priest has passed in traversing the desert, he has been received with open arms among the tribes that rove over this country—alas! so long a time forgotten and neglected!
The evening of 4th October, I arrived at the Fort des Montagnes, belonging to the Hon. Hudson Bay Company, without having accomplished the object of my travels and my desires, namely, meeting the Black-feet.[128] The
- [Footnote: on the site of St. Paul, and gave the infant settlement its name, but in 1844 he was
removed, dying in 1866 at Prairie du Chien. Father Ravoux made many missionary journeys over his wide territory—in 1845 to Fort Vermillion, in 1847 to Fort Pierre—and established an incipient Sioux mission. The withdrawal of Galtier made it imperative for Ravoux to devote himself to the care of the Catholic communicants of his wide diocese. See his Reminiscences and Memoirs (St. Paul, 1890). He was still living in 1904.—Ed.]*
