CHAPTER II
LOUISE'S ZEAL FOR THE CONVERSION OF HER TRIBE
AND HER STRUGGLES WITH THE MEDICINE-MEN.
Soon after this she resolved to devote herself entirely to the service of the missionaries who had come to labor in the territory of the Coeur-d'Alenes. With this view she generously renounced her native spot, the guidance of her father, the society of her relatives and acquaintances, to be with the missionaries at the first, and then at the second mission station established in those countries. "I will follow the Black Gowns," she often said, "to the end of the world, for fear that death should surprise and strike me far from them, and thus deprive me of the help of the holy sacraments, and the salutary counsels of the Fathers. I wish to profit by their presence and their instructions to learn to know the Great Spirit well, to serve him faithfully, and to love him with all my heart."
This desire, or rather this ardent thirst to hear the word of Eternal Life, never for a moment diminished in Louise. Sooner than be wanting to the fidelity of her promises and her pious resolutions, she subjected herself, with unlimited confidence in God and with a holy ardor, to the severest trials and greatest sacrifices. From the time of her conversion, during the whole residue of her life, she lived by choice and predilection in great poverty and in privations of every kind, never seeking to diminish them by the assistance of others, and without ever letting the slightest murmur escape her, As St. Paul lays it down, she seemed to profess "to know only Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
The zeal and fervor in the service of God, which she manifested immediately after her baptism, were the unfailing tokens of a predestined soul, filled with extraordinary gifts from heaven. These privileged favors were manifested in all their light by her admirable gentleness, which the greatest opposition could not disturb, by her patience under every trial, by her truly angelic modesty, by her fervent and sustained piety. She seemed, as it were, absorbed in prayer, and nothing apparently could then distract her thoughts. Such was her avidity, her holy ardor, to hear the Word of God, that every time a new religious truth broke in its effulgence on her mind, a visible joy overspread her countenance and her whole person: to her it was the precious discovery of a hidden treasure, a living fountain to quench her thirst of heavenly truths, a bread of life giving her new vigor. Each time she sought to share her happiness, this bread, this fountain, this treasure, with all who were like her hungering for the divine Word.
An ardent and an untiring zeal for the salvation of souls seemed ever to occupy her thoughts. She employed all her leisure moments in the conversion and instruction of numerous pagans in her village. Neither the opposition which she encountered, nor the obstacles which she met,nor the insults which she received, nor the dangers to which she exposed herself, naught could divert her from the holy work which she had resolved to accomplish. Thus each day was marked by some new triumph, by some new increase of the number of the children of God or of the catechumens.
Louise boldly attacked face to face, the most formidable and dangerous adversaries of religion; the ministers of Satan himself, the sorcerers or jugglers, commonly called among the Indians medicine men, who by their impostures and diabolical arts, always impose on the simple and ignorant. They are the most deadly enemies whom the missionaries encounter, and must ever combat in the bosom of the Indian tribes. They never cease by tricks and calumnies and lies to throw obstacles in the way of the missionary and fetter the progress of religion. The presence of the priest is the more odious to them as they know that their private interest, their wealth, is at stake, and that their illicit gains will vanish and cease on the manifestation of religious truths. Inde irae! Hence, their hatred and resentment; hence, too, the incessant war they wage on the ministers of the true faith, and the persecutions they incessantly excite against them, whenever they can exercise sufficient influence over their adherents. And on what a people did they exercise their influence, before the arrival of our missionaries in their country!
Father Point, a missionary among the Coeur-d'Alenes from 1842 to 1846, wrote of them as follows, in a letter printed in 1848. These details prove the civilizing tendency and power of religion.
"Not a quarter of a century since, the Coeur d'Alenes were so hard-hearted, that to paint them to the life, the common sense of their first visitors found no expression more just than the singular name which they still bear; minds so limited, that while rendering divine worship to all the animals that they knew, they had no idea of the true God, nor of their soul, nor consequently of a future life; in fine, a race of men so degraded, that of the natural law, there survived among them only two or three very obscure notions, which few, very few attempted to reduce to practice. Yet it must be said to the credit of the tribe, that there were always in their midst elect souls, who never bent the knee to Baal. I know some, who from the very day when the true God was preached to them, never had to reproach themselves with the shadow of an infidelity."
Among these the most remarkable was our heroine, Louise. Rising above all human respect, she always followed the advice of the missionary. As long as the wily medicine-men existed, she untiringly opposed and exposed them. She boldly entered their lodges, and with or without their leave, spoke to them of the great truths of religion, alone true and divine, exhorting them to follow it, in order to avoid the terrible judgments of God, hell with its frightful torments. She did this with such energetic fortitude, and such peremptory arguments, that their obstinacy was shaken and their obduracy softened.
Endowed with a heart and a courage above her sex, Louise feared neither the sneers nor the threats of these deceitful and embittered charlatans. Accordingly, the Almighty blessed the efforts of this "valiant woman" of the wilderness, and always crowned them with such extraordinary success, that in a short time the medicine-men and their silly juggleries fell into complete contempt. "In fine," wrote Father Point again, "from Christmas to Candlemas, the missionary's fire was kept up with all that remained of the ancient "medicine." It was a beautiful sight to behold the principal supporters of it, with their own hands destroy the wretched instruments which hell had employed, to deceive their ignorance or give credit to their impostures. And in the long winter evenings, how many birds feathers, wolves' tails, feet of hinds, hoofs of deers, bits of cloth, wooden images, and other superstitious objects were sacrificed!
Among Louise's chief conquests, they especially mention the conversion of Natatken, one of the principal leaders of the idolatrous sect. He resisted stubbornly; but at last, touched by the good example of all the converts, and above all, by the exemplary life of Louise's family, with which he was connected by blood, he yielded to the earnest exhortations, the sweet and persuasive words of the young girl, and opening his heart to the grace of our Lord after having long been a rebel, he came like a timid lamb to the humble fold of the Good Shepherd. Louise devoted herself with the utmost care to the instruction of the new catechumen, and formed him to a kind of apostolic work in his tribe. Till then a great master of Indian sorcery, he listened to and followed her wise counsels and instructions with the docility of a child; and after all the necessary trials, Louise led him, humble and contrite, with his wife and children, to the feet of the priest, to receive the sacrament of regeneration. Natatken received the name of Isidore. He soon became very zealous and very fervent. Endowed with native eloquence, he unceasingly exhorted his companions to convert and persevere in the faith, and in the holy practices which religion imposes on her children. He gave the example himself. He remained faithful to the grace of the Lord till his death, which was as edifying as consoling.
Emotestsulem, one of the great chiefs of the tribe, after having been baptized under the name of Peter Ignatius, had unfortunately relapsed into gambling, the ordinary forerunner of apostasy among the Indians. As soon as Louise heard this sad news, although she was at a distance of two days' march, she resolved to go to his town and find him so as to endeavor to bring him back to his duties. She set before his eyes the scandal which his conduct occasioned in the tribe, the injustice of his course, and the danger to which he exposed his faith. She spoke to him with energy. Such was the authority that Louise had acquired by her great charity and exemplary life, such was the respect which she commanded from all, that the great chief hearkened to her with the submission of a child, and went to cast himself at the feet of the priest in the tribunal of penance, to repair the scandal and be reconciled to God.
These two incidents, the conversion of Natatken and that of Emotestsulem, will surprise all who know how reluctant the Indians, and especially their chiefs, are to receive correction, especially when it is administered by a woman.
Let us say a few words of the famous sect of jugglers or sorcerers, whom our modern spiritualists have begun to style mediums. This sect is spread over all the Indian tribes of both Americas, from the Esquimaux, who inhabit the Arctic regions, to the extremity of Patagonia.
All historians agree in saying, that the most perverse and wicked men in all the tribes are the medicine-men. Before their conversion to the faith, as well as everywhere else among the Indian tribes, each Coeur-d'Alene had his manitou (tutelary spirit or divinity). To this manitou the Indian addresses his prayer or supplication, and offers his sacrifices, when he is in any danger, sets out for war, or goes fishing or hunting, as well as in every other enterprise in which he is about to engage, in order to obtain success or some extraordinary favor. He believes that he can ask everything of his manitou, reasonable or unreasonable, good or bad. To obtain favors, he must be able to handle the bow and arrow, and although initiation to the manitou is considered as the most important act of life, the adept is required to submit to ceremonies and practices which are generally very difficult and often very painful. The young man after making profound incisions on the fleshy parts of the body, or after a rigorous fast, is supposed to discover in his dreams the form or resemblance under which the manitou manifests himself. During his whole life he is bound to bear the image or a mark of it; and on all occasions he must present his offerings and address his prayers to him. His talisman is the feather or beak of a bird, the claw or tooth of an animal, a root, a herb, a fruit, a scale, a stone, no matter what. He believes that this tutelary spirit will protect him against the evil genii, who to injure the children of earth excite the winds and waves, lightning, thunder, and storm. This spirit protects him against the attacks of his enemies, and wild beasts, and in all diseases that come upon him.
If I mention these dangerous and diabolical superstitions, so profoundly rooted in the mind of the Indian, it is to display more clearly the courage, firmness, patience, and perseverance which Louise must have had to oppose them successfully and even overcome them. Louise prepared herself for the struggle by long prayers and frequent fasts, and fortified herself by her humility, by her fidelity to the grace of our Lord, who made use of her as a chosen instrument to crush the monstrous serpent beneath her feet, and expel him from her tribe. Nevertheless, the devil never sleeps,
he is always sowing tares in the good field, as Holy scripture tells us, he "goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." We must always fly to the "Watch and pray," for we perceive always that some trace of the old leaven remains.