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| == Early missionary work == | == Early missionary work == | ||
| During his time at Sainte-Martine, the young priest aspired to do missionary work in the west of ] |
During his time at Sainte-Martine, the young priest aspired to do missionary work in the west of ] and applied for such work. In 1830, Archbishop Panet requested that the young priest accompany him on a journey to ]. Following an interview in February 1831, Belcourt was enlisted to go on the trip. After spending two months learning the ], Belcourt departed from his home town on April 27 of that year a canoe of the ]. On June 17, the priest's party arrived at ], and Belcourt was assigned as one of three priests there. He was to assist the Bishop at the town's cathedral, and study the Anishinaabe language, so that he could later convert Ojibwe people to Christianity. Although the language was not yet documented in written form, Belcourt made rapid progress. Within a year he had learned enough to be considered ready to work directly with those whom he termed the "savages."<ref name=reardon/> | ||
| In 1832, Belcourt established the first native-only mission west of Saint Boniface, but ] raids forced its closure the following year. In 1834, he established a mission in ], |
In 1832, Belcourt established the first native-only mission west of Saint Boniface, but '']'' raids forced its closure the following year. In 1834, he established a mission in ], where he also began instructing the local Aboriginal population in agriculture. The priest established a log chapel there, and built smaller log cabins on the surrounding land to house the natives. The local bishop opposed his missionary work, as he believed the Aboriginal Canadians would not settle in one spot for long. Belcourt overcame this opposition, and in 1834 built a school at his mission, enlisting the assistance of a Chippewa-speaking woman to serve as a teacher. In 1836, the missionary admitted five natives to Holy Communion. He was discouraged by the Ojibwe readiness to return to their former spiritual practices after baptism.<ref name=reardon/> | ||
| In 1838, Belcourt travelled to ] to examine possible sites for a mission |
In 1838, Belcourt travelled to ] to examine possible sites for a mission. He abandoned the plan after discovering that the ] people were unwilling to give up their ] liquor to convert to Christianity, as he required. In August 1838, the priest arranged to have a dictionary of the Chippewa language published, and returned to his mission at Baie-Saint-Paul. In the winter of 1839, Belcourt carved 280 oak balusters and candlesticks for his log chapel. | ||
| In 1840, the missionary established a mission among the ] and repeated his Baie-Saint-Paul design: a log chapel at the centre surrounded by small cabins for the local population, with outlying farms. The mission closed ten years later; Belcourt blamed this on mismanagement by ]s he had entrusted with the management of the mission. In 1845, Belcourt served as the chaplain to some buffalo hunters, but returned to his first mission at Baie-Saint-Paul to teach a group of oblates the Chippewa language.<ref name=reardon/> | |||
| ⚫ | In 1846, a ] epidemic swept communities along the ] in Manitoba. On June 22 of that year, Belcourt left his mission at Baie-Saint-Paul to join a group of hunters |
||
| ⚫ | In 1846, a ] epidemic swept communities along the ] in Manitoba. On June 22 of that year, Belcourt left his mission at Baie-Saint-Paul to join a group of hunters on their journey south for the summer. The hunters carried the disease, infecting others, and 25 people died of dysentery by July 5. On the worst days, eight people had to be buried. Belcourt and six of the hunters who survived travelled south to the ] in search of medicine, as the priest's supply had quickly run out. Belcourt's medicine supplies were replenished, and the missionary headed back to the encampment of hunters before returning to his mission.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hackett|first1=Frederick|last2=Hackett|first2=Paul|title=A very remarkable sickness...|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=zzgQaw2ItRgC|page=212|accessdate=November 3, 2010|year=2002|publisher=University of Manitoba Press|location=Winnipeg|isbn=0887556590}}</ref> | ||
| == Arrival in North Dakota == | == Arrival in North Dakota == | ||
Revision as of 18:23, 27 June 2011
| Georges-Antoine Belcourt | |
|---|---|
 Belcourt c. 1860, approx. age 57 | |
| Born | (1803-04-22)April 22, 1803 Baie-du-Febvre, Quebec |
| Died | May 31, 1874(1874-05-31) (aged 71) Shediac, New Brunswick |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Other names | George Antoine Bellecourt |
| Occupation(s) | Priest and missionary |
Georges-Antoine Belcourt (April 22, 1803 – May 31, 1874), also George Antoine Bellecourt, was a Canadian Jesuit missionary and priest. Born in Baie-du-Febvre, Quebec, the young Georges-Antoine was ordained in 1827. He established missions in areas of Quebec and Manitoba. On the frontier, he became involved in a political dispute between the local First Nations population and the Hudson's Bay Company, the monopoly fur trading company.
At the urging of the Company's Governor, Belcourt was recalled to Montreal. He was next assigned to Pembina, North Dakota. He established two missions in the 1840s to convert the local Ojibwe (also called Chippewa) and Métis to Catholicism. In 1859, Belcourt left Pembina for Quebec, but was quickly redeployed to North Rustico, Prince Edward Island. He established the Farmers' Bank of Rustico (the first community-based bank in Canada).
Belcourt retired from his post in 1869 to live out his life in New Brunswick, but was recalled in 1871, this time to the Magdalen Islands. In May 1874, Belcourt was forced to retire due to ill health. He died in Shediac, New Brunswick on May 31, 1874. He was designated a National Historic Person by the Government of Canada in 1959.
Early life
Georges-Antoine Belcourt was born on April 22, 1803 at Baie-du-Febvre, Quebec to Antoine Belcourt and Josephte Lemire, who had married on February 23, 1802. His parents, devout Roman Catholics, brought their son up in the same faith, and the young Belcourt received his first Holy Communion in 1814. His confirmation was undertaken by the Bishop of Quebec. At age 13, Belcourt enrolled in Le Petit Séminaire de Québec to undertake a philosophical course of study, which he completed in 1823. Belcourt studied to become a priest, and on March 10, 1827, Bernard-Claude Panet, the Archbishop of Quebec, performed Belcourt's ordination in the chapel at the Seminary.
Following his ordination, Belcourt was appointed as an assistant at several parishes in the area, before becoming pastor of a parish at Sainte-Martine, Quebec in 1830. As he was bilingual and spoke English as well as French, he was able to minister to his parish of mostly Irish Catholic Canadians.
Early missionary work
During his time at Sainte-Martine, the young priest aspired to do missionary work in the west of British North America and applied for such work. In 1830, Archbishop Panet requested that the young priest accompany him on a journey to Manitoba. Following an interview in February 1831, Belcourt was enlisted to go on the trip. After spending two months learning the Algonquian language, Belcourt departed from his home town on April 27 of that year a canoe of the Hudson's Bay Company. On June 17, the priest's party arrived at Saint Boniface, Manitoba, and Belcourt was assigned as one of three priests there. He was to assist the Bishop at the town's cathedral, and study the Anishinaabe language, so that he could later convert Ojibwe people to Christianity. Although the language was not yet documented in written form, Belcourt made rapid progress. Within a year he had learned enough to be considered ready to work directly with those whom he termed the "savages."
In 1832, Belcourt established the first native-only mission west of Saint Boniface, but Gros Ventre raids forced its closure the following year. In 1834, he established a mission in Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, where he also began instructing the local Aboriginal population in agriculture. The priest established a log chapel there, and built smaller log cabins on the surrounding land to house the natives. The local bishop opposed his missionary work, as he believed the Aboriginal Canadians would not settle in one spot for long. Belcourt overcame this opposition, and in 1834 built a school at his mission, enlisting the assistance of a Chippewa-speaking woman to serve as a teacher. In 1836, the missionary admitted five natives to Holy Communion. He was discouraged by the Ojibwe readiness to return to their former spiritual practices after baptism.
In 1838, Belcourt travelled to Rainy Lake to examine possible sites for a mission. He abandoned the plan after discovering that the First Nations people were unwilling to give up their Hudson's Bay Company-supplied liquor to convert to Christianity, as he required. In August 1838, the priest arranged to have a dictionary of the Chippewa language published, and returned to his mission at Baie-Saint-Paul. In the winter of 1839, Belcourt carved 280 oak balusters and candlesticks for his log chapel.
In 1840, the missionary established a mission among the Wabaseemoong Independent Nations and repeated his Baie-Saint-Paul design: a log chapel at the centre surrounded by small cabins for the local population, with outlying farms. The mission closed ten years later; Belcourt blamed this on mismanagement by oblates he had entrusted with the management of the mission. In 1845, Belcourt served as the chaplain to some buffalo hunters, but returned to his first mission at Baie-Saint-Paul to teach a group of oblates the Chippewa language.
In 1846, a dysentery epidemic swept communities along the Assiniboine River in Manitoba. On June 22 of that year, Belcourt left his mission at Baie-Saint-Paul to join a group of hunters on their journey south for the summer. The hunters carried the disease, infecting others, and 25 people died of dysentery by July 5. On the worst days, eight people had to be buried. Belcourt and six of the hunters who survived travelled south to the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in search of medicine, as the priest's supply had quickly run out. Belcourt's medicine supplies were replenished, and the missionary headed back to the encampment of hunters before returning to his mission.
Arrival in North Dakota
In 1847, in response to perceived discrimination by the Hudson's Bay Company in regards to the fur trade, Belcourt prepared at petition to Queen Victoria to seek redress. The petition, which was signed by 977 First Nations people, was not acted on after the Colonial Secretary, Earl Grey, consulted with advisors with no sympathy for the plight of the natives. The Company did not approve of Belcourt inciting discontent among the local First Nations population, and Company administrators decided that the priest should not be allowed to remain in British North America. The missionary was arrested, but was released after the charges against him were discovered to be unfounded. At the urging of the Company's Governor, the Archbishop of Quebec asked Belcourt to return to Montreal. Belcourt did so, and upon his arrival immediately set about demanding from the Governor of the Company the retraction of the charges he was arrested on. The Governor apologised for what he described as a mistake on the part of the Company's chief Factors, and Belcourt was sent to Pembina, North Dakota to work as a missionary there.
Upon arrival at Pembina, Belcourt constructed a small log cabin of 20 feet long by 30 feet wide, which was not enough space to seat everybody in his congregation. On August 14, 1848, the missionary baptised his first person in Pembina, and held a Holy Communion class consisting of 92 Native Americans. However, Belcourt felt that he was not getting enough resources to support his mission and soon wrote to the Archbishop of Quebec requesting money for food and building supplies, as well as a Canadian priest well-versed in the Chippewa language. In November 1849, a recently ordained priest, Albert Lacombe, arrived in Pembina and immediately set about learning the Chippewa language. Despite claiming to have to resort to manual labour to pay for his food, Belcourt supported a household that included school teacher, a housekeeper, a Native American cook and several servants.
Belcourt then travelled thirty miles to the west, establishing a mission to serve as a base for further expansion towards the Canadian Rockies at Turtle Mountain. In 1853, Belcourt moved to what is now Walhalla, North Dakota, and established a school and a church there. The priest envisioned a large metropolis for the area, and began to lay out a city planned in the style of a grid, with wide streets and several open squares. Despite having ample water running through the planned city as well as fertile soil and natural resources in the area, Belcourt's plan was never realised. The town currently has 885 residents. Belcourt had always advocated prohibition, especially among Native Americans and First Nations peoples, and petitioned Congress to prevent the illicit trafficking of liquor from Canada into the United States. In March 1859, Belcourt left North Dakota for Canada.
Return to Canada
Belcourt returned to Quebec, but was quickly sent back out to serve at a parish at Rustico, Prince Edward Island. Arriving in Rustico in November 1859, the priest performed his first baptism there the following month. At Rustico, Belcourt built a parish hall out of stone (which was continued in use to the 1950s), established the Farmers' Bank of Rustico and opened a high school, where he taught himself until he managed to attract a teacher from Montreal to the island. The priest created a study group, the members of which had to be teetotalers, and established a parish library, built with the assistance of 1,000 French francs a year from Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon I. In October 1865, Belcourt resigned from his position at the parish at Rustico, and returned to Quebec for some weeks before requesting to be reassigned to Rustico. This request was granted, and the priest returned to the island in November. In 1866, Belcourt impressed local audiences by demonstrating a steam-powered vehicle, considered the first automobile to be driven in Canada.
Belcourt remained pastor of his parish at Rustico until 1869, when he retired. The priest intended to live out the rest of his life on a farm at Shediac, New Brunswick, but was called back to the Church in August 1871, when he was asked to become the pastor of a parish on the Magdalen Islands. Ill health forced his retirement from there in May 1874, and he returned to Shediac before dying on May 31, 1874. The town of Belcourt, North Dakota was named after the late priest in honour of his efforts in the region.
In 1959, Belcourt was designated a National Historic Person by the Government of Canada.
References
- ^ Morton, W. L. (2000). "Bellecourt, George-Antoine". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- ^ Reardon, James (1951). "George Anthony Belcourt: Pioneer Missionary of the Northwest". 18. Canadian Catholic Historical Association: 75–89.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Cite journal requires|journal=(help); Unknown parameter|http://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1951/Reardon.pdfjournal=ignored (help) - Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. Volume 1. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society. 1872–1920. pp. 241–244. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date format (link) - Hackett, Frederick; Hackett, Paul (2002). A very remarkable sickness... Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. p. 212. ISBN 0887556590. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- "Walhalla city, North Dakota". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
{{cite web}}: Text "04000US38" ignored (help) - "Human rights in Canada: a historical perspective". Canadian Human Rights Commission. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- "First Automobile Built in Prince Edward Island by Priest". The New Freeman. St. John. August 23, 1941. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- Federal Writers' Project (1968). North Dakota: A Guide to the Northern Prairie State. Fargo: US History Publishers. p. 236. ISBN 1603540334. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
- "Reverend Georges-Antoine Belcourt, National Historic Person". Directory of Designations of National Historic Significance of Canada. Parks Canada. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
Further reading
- Bond, John; Belcourt, Georges-Antoine; May, Letitia (1857). Minnesota and its resources. Chicago: Keen and Lee.