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Thirty Years Among The Indians Of The Northwest: The Personal Experiences Of Father Constantine Scollen
One of the most unusual and controversial missionaries in the early Northwest Frontier was an Irishman named Father Constantine Scollen. His zeal for souls led him to volunteer, in 1862 as a lay brother, and travel from his native Ireland to win, to Christianity, the Aboriginal peoples of the Canadian Prairies and Northern Montana. In 1873, in Alberta, he was the first lay brother to be ordained as a priest in the Northwest. He went on to be a great apostle and teacher among the Crees, Blackfeet and Métis and a pioneer of education and languages.
Among his many accomplishments are that he established, at Fort Edmonton, the first regular school west of Manitoba. He built the very first church in what is now Calgary. In 1876 and 1877, he participated, for the Cree and Blackfeet people, in the negotiating and signing of Treaties Six and Seven with the Canadian Government.
Father Scollen's intervention with his friend Chief Crowfoot, of the Blackfoot Confederacy, in 1879, and again with Chief Bobtail, of the Cree, in 1885 helped to avoid bloodshed in both instances. He was a good friend Chief Sweet Grass, of the Cree and was also acquainted with Chief Sitting Bull when in exile in Canada.
In addition to his childhood tongues of Irish and English, he was fluent in Greek, Latin, French, Italian, German and the First Nations languages of Cree, Chippawa, Blackfoot, Sarcee, Assiniboine and Arapaho. In 1883, he wrote a Blackfoot dictionary and grammar for the Oblate Fathers and in Wyoming in 1891, he created possibly the first written form of the Arapaho language and alphabet and his original notebook is today in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.
Constantine was, throughout his time on the frontier, tortured by personal demons and illness, suffering from both alcoholism and cholera. His relationship with the Church's hierarchy was often very strained. He became very outspoken, on behalf of the native peoples and remained so for the rest of his life.
In his many roles, over thirty years, as priest and missionary, teacher and doctor, translator and interpreter he was always an avid observer of the changes that affected these wonderful people during the hard times that saw the passing of their old way of life. In 1893 he wrote down his memoirs in a manuscript which he intended to have published by a New York publishing house.
Unfortunately, in 1902, at the time of his death from tuberculosis, these personal experiences were never seen in book form and the manuscript has now been lost to time. A number of the chapters had been serialized, in the Buffalo Bulletin between March 1893 and April 1894, but until now even these have never made it into one location.
Among his many accomplishments are that he established, at Fort Edmonton, the first regular school west of Manitoba. He built the very first church in what is now Calgary. In 1876 and 1877, he participated, for the Cree and Blackfeet people, in the negotiating and signing of Treaties Six and Seven with the Canadian Government.
Father Scollen's intervention with his friend Chief Crowfoot, of the Blackfoot Confederacy, in 1879, and again with Chief Bobtail, of the Cree, in 1885 helped to avoid bloodshed in both instances. He was a good friend Chief Sweet Grass, of the Cree and was also acquainted with Chief Sitting Bull when in exile in Canada.
In addition to his childhood tongues of Irish and English, he was fluent in Greek, Latin, French, Italian, German and the First Nations languages of Cree, Chippawa, Blackfoot, Sarcee, Assiniboine and Arapaho. In 1883, he wrote a Blackfoot dictionary and grammar for the Oblate Fathers and in Wyoming in 1891, he created possibly the first written form of the Arapaho language and alphabet and his original notebook is today in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.
Constantine was, throughout his time on the frontier, tortured by personal demons and illness, suffering from both alcoholism and cholera. His relationship with the Church's hierarchy was often very strained. He became very outspoken, on behalf of the native peoples and remained so for the rest of his life.
In his many roles, over thirty years, as priest and missionary, teacher and doctor, translator and interpreter he was always an avid observer of the changes that affected these wonderful people during the hard times that saw the passing of their old way of life. In 1893 he wrote down his memoirs in a manuscript which he intended to have published by a New York publishing house.
Unfortunately, in 1902, at the time of his death from tuberculosis, these personal experiences were never seen in book form and the manuscript has now been lost to time. A number of the chapters had been serialized, in the Buffalo Bulletin between March 1893 and April 1894, but until now even these have never made it into one location.
180 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 14, 2014
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