This artwork tells the story of the Salish prophet Xallqs ‘Shining Shirt'. Before Lewis and Clark's arrival, Shining Shirt had numerous visions that held great importance for our people. However,...
This artwork tells the story of the Salish prophet Xallqs ‘Shining Shirt'. Before Lewis and Clark's arrival, Shining Shirt had numerous visions that held great importance for our people. However, the Blackrobes ‘Jesuits’ exploited these visions, manipulating them to portray their arrival as a positive event when, in reality, it had detrimental consequences for the Salish people. The Blackfeet, the main tribal enemies of the Salish and Kootenai, gained access to firearms through the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada by 1780. This posed an additional threat to the Salish and Kootenai people, especially when traveling past the Hellgate or venturing into the plains, where they faced the risk of being wiped out by the Blackfeet. The
artwork shows a war scene with Blackfeet shooting guns and bullets flying and the Salish side with bows and arrows.
In 1815 and 1820, the Iroquois mentioned the "Black robes," referring to the Jesuit missionaries who had been present in Canada since the 1600s. The Salish saw an opportunity to bring the Jesuits to their region, believing it would grant them access to firearms and additional protection against their enemies. Throughout the 1820s and 1830s, the Salish sent delegations to seek out the Jesuits. Salish and Kootenai men traveled to St. Louis. In 1841, St. Mary's Mission was established in Stevensville, bringing firearms and increased trade to the area. However, it also brought many atrocities and harm to the Salish people. One disturbing instance was when the Black robes dug a large hole and forced the Salish to discard their medicine bundles into it. Afterwards, the Blackrobes dug them up and sent them to the Smithsonian.
By 1849, the Salish wanted the missionaries to leave, and they eventually abandoned St. Mary's Mission, selling the buildings to a fur trader named John Owen, who converted it into a post called Fort Owen. In 1854, the Jesuits moved the St. Ignatius mission to its present location in Montana. The establishment of the St. Ignatius mission Ursulines (Boarding School) had a profound impact, resulting in language loss and ethnocide an atrocity aimed at "killing the Indian to save the man." Shining Shirt's visions were manipulated by the Jesuits to mask their true intentions, and it is crucial that we acknowledge the tribal narrative and not just what has been told to us by the Jesuits.
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