From the Great Rivers to the Ends of the Earth: Oblate Missions to the Dene, 1847-1921

Michael Payne is head of the research and publications program, Historic
Sites and Archives Service, Alberta Community Develop- ment, and
co-author of A Narrative History of Fort Dunvegan.

The Oblates of Mary Immaculate trace their history to missionary
activities in early 19th-century southern France. Their motto,
Evangelizare pauperibus misit me (He has sent me to teach the Good News
to the poor), neatly summarizes the order’s evangelical mission. In
the mid-19th century, the Oblates expanded their activities into foreign
places, including British North America. In 1845, the first Oblates
arrived in Red River, very quickly establishing themselves as the
pre-eminent Roman Catholic missionary order in the northwest. Oblates
founded a string of missions from Red River to the Arctic Ocean, many
among the Dene or Athapaskan-speaking peoples of the Mackenzie River
region. This book details the history of these missions to the Dene.

For many years, missionary history tended to glorify the exploits of
missionaries and treat their claims of “civilizing” First Nations
uncritically. More recently, historians have been very critical of
missionaries and of their impact on Native cultures. This book attempts
to steer a middle course between these two extremes. The author believes
that Catholicism had a profound impact on the lives and culture of the
Dene—at least among those who accepted baptism and the Roman Catholic
church—and that the Dene integrated elements of this new faith into
their own spiritual understanding, creating in the process a new and
distinctive synthesis. Rather than seeing the Oblates as actors and the
Dene as acted upon, McCarthy describes their relationship as a two-sided
exchange that affected both parties. Indeed, some of the most
interesting material in this book looks at how individual Oblates
adjusted to the conditions of their northern missions and to the customs
and concerns of their Dene parishioners.

Between 1847 and 1921, the Oblates maintained 15 missions on Lake
Athabasca and along the Mackenzie River. This study summarizes the
history of these individual missions while placing them in a broader
conceptual context that suggests that missionary activity is as much a
matter of exchange as a matter of conversion.