Pierre-Jean De Smet

Pierre-Jean De Smet (in Flemish Peter Jan De Smet ), born with Termonde (Belgium) the January 30th 1801 and dead the May 23rd 1873 with Saint Louis (Missouri), is a Jésuite Belgian missionary among the Indians of North America.

Biography

Youth

Born in a broad middle-class family from Termonde, it was filled with enthusiasm by the accounts of a Belgian priest missionary with the Kentucky returned to the country in 1821 to recruit collaborators there. De Smet set out again with him, entered to the Jesuits as soon as it had arrived on the American ground, and made his Florissant noviciate (Missouri) while dealing with young people “redskins” (Algonquin S) who studied there. Seven last years with the college-seminar St Governed allowed him, while preparing with priesthood, to initiate themselves with the local habits and to already learn the rudiments from several languages. De Smet was ordered priest in 1827. Patient, it spent 4 years to Belgium (1833-37) - it was also the occasion to recruit new missionaries - but returned soon with St Louis. At the end of 1837 it was sent “missionner” the tribes of the means Missouri.

First contacts

It was the time when, of rivers in rivers and rivers in mountains, the Indians were driven back towards the West. The conquest of the West was done using alcohol, of rifles and iniquitous contracts. The Indians lost their grounds and guerroyaient themselves without mercy. De Smet plants initially its tent among Potowatomies, opening a small school there and obtaining close Sioux which they cease their fatal raids. The great adventure starts however when, in 1838, a delegation of Head-Punts comes to ask for the presence of the “black Cassocks” among them. De Smet answers the call and share in April 1840 in the Rocky Mountains of north. De Smet there speaks about the “Large-Spirit” and tries of the sédentariser by creating Réductions with the manner of those of the Paraguay. With the return of a voyage in Europe there to collect money and to recruit missionaries (1844), it starts to circulate in all the area of the Rocky Mountains, contacting various tribes, obtaining a truce between wild Pieds-Noirs and the Heads punts, visiting the Sioux and promising to them to return. Many letters sent to parents and friends in Belgium often give picturesque or alarming descriptions of habits met among these various groups. A first edition of sound Voyages to the country of Rock the (anthology of its letters) the fact of better knowing in Belgium. As prosecutor of the mission, it turns over again to Europe in 1847 to find benefactors there.

Mediator

Its reputation as “indigénophile” is already such as it is invited like mediator with the great conference of Fort-Laramie, in 1851, where the American representatives of the government negotiated with the chiefs Cheyenne and Sioux the authorization of the passage of white colonists going towards the west. The incursions and wild installations of the gold diggers creating of new tensions often degenerating into armed conflicts De Smet was again put at contribution by the General William Harney “to pacify” the Indian tribes. In 1862, the agreement of Fort Laramie not being respected the Sioux “do not take the path of the war”. A good thousand of colonists are assassinated. The situation was serious because the United States was into full hardly civil. Abraham Lincoln, that De Smet met twice, again required of him to intervene. Initially torpedoed by the generals on the ground this special mission changed when the rebellion was spread: in 1867 Cheyennes and Pieds-Noirs joined the Sioux. De Smet became sent plenipotentiary then. With the conference of Strong Rice, in June 1868, it again obtains peace while negotiating directly with Sitting Bull, the legendary chief of the Sioux. It has ascending extraordinary on the Indians for whom it was the only White “whose language is not fourchue”. In their reports/ratios the American generals are admiring: the Indians have a real affection for “black Cassock”.

Last years

De Smet still went on a journey in Europe in 1869 and visited last once the Sioux in 1870. For the remainder, the disease forced it to reside at St Louis where he died on May 23rd, 1873. It should be added that, once more the commitments entered into by the US government were not held. The conflict began again in 1876, but De Smet was not there any more.

Public recognition

Three American cities bear the name of the missionary: in South Dakota, in Idaho and in Montana. In 1967, the Jesuits of Missouri ourvrirent a college De Smet in Bad cold-Heart, Missouri. Termonde ( Dendermonde ), the birthplace of Smet set up a statue to him.

Publications

Voyages to the Rocky Mountains , Brussels, 1873.
selected Letters , Brussels, 1878.

References

H.M. Chittenden and A.T. Richardson, Life, letters and Travels off P. - J. De Smet , 4 volumes, New York, 1905.
Eugene Laveille, the Father De Smet , Liege, 1913.
Jean Lacouture, Jesuits, a multibiography. 2. The Ghosts , Paris, 1992, pp. 114-157.

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