Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/373

 SAHARA

327

SAHARA

dians (q. v.) for missionaries, a Presbyterian mission was established (1837) among the Nez Perces at Lap- wai, near the present Lewistown, Idaho, under Rev- erend H. H. Spaulding, who, two years later, set up a printing press from which he issued several small pub- lications in the native language. Regular Catholic work in the same region began with the advent of Fathers Blanchet and Demers on the Columbia (1838) and of De Smet and the Jesuits in the Flathead coun- try (1840). The establishment of the Oregon trail through the country of the Nez Perces and allied tribes led (1849) to the introduction of an epidemic disease, by which they were terribly wasted, particu- larly the Cayuse, who, holding responsible Dr. Whit- man, in charge of the Presbyterian mission in their tribe, attacked and destroyed the mission, murdering Whitman and his wife and eleven others. The Cath- olic Bishop Brouillet, who was on his way at the time to confer with Whitman for the purchase of the mis- sion property, was not molested, but was allowed to bury the dead and then found opportunity to warn Spaulding in time for him to ntach safety. In coase- quence of these troubles all the Presbyterian missions in the Columbia region were discontinued but the work was resumed in later years and a considerable portion of the Nez Perc6s are now of that denomi- nation. In 1855 they sold by treaty a large part of their territory. In the general outbreak of 1855-6, sometimes designated as the Yakima war, the Nez Percys, almost alone, remained friendly. In the year 1863, in consequence of the discovery of gold, another treaty was negotiated by which they surren- dered all except the Lapwai reservation. Joseph, whose band held the Wallowa valley in North-East- ern Oregon, refused to be a party to the treaty, and his refusal led to the memorable Nez Perces war (1877). After successfully holding in check for some months the regular troops under General Howard and a large force of Indian scouts, Joseph conducted a masterly retreat for over a thousand miles across the mountains, but was finally intercepted by General Miles when within a short distance of the Canadian frontier. Despite the promise that he should be re- turned to his own country, Joseph and the remnant of his band were deported to Oklahoma, where they wasted away so rapidly that in ISSo the few who sur- vived were transferred, not toLai)wai, but to theCol- ville reservation in Wiushington. Throughout the en- tire retreat no outrage was committed bj^ Joseph's warriors. The main portion of the tribe took no part in the war. In 1893 those of Lapwai were given in- dividual allotments and the reservation was thrown open to white settlement. The CathoUc work in the tribe is in charge of the Jesuits, aided by the Sisters of Saint Joseph, and centring at St. Joseph's mission, Slickpoo, Idaho. For fifty years it was conducted by Fr. Joseph Cataldo, S. J., who gave attention also to the neighbouring cognate tribes. The Catholic In- dians are reported at over 500, edifying and faithful in their religious duties, in spite of the general tribal aversion to education and civilization. The material condition of the tribe, however, is not promising. While maintaining their old reputation for honesty and generosity, they are non-progressive and are rapidly withering away under consumption, which threatens their speedy extinction. Aside from the Spaulding publications already noted the most valu- able contributions to the study of the Nez Perc6 language are a grammar by Father Cataldo and a dictionary by Father Van Gorp. The most important study of a cognate language is probably the "Gram- mar and Dictionary of the Yakama Language" by the Oblate Father Pandosy (see YakimX).

Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States: I, Wild Tribes; III, Myths and Languages (San Francisco, 1886); Idem, Hist. Wash- ington, Idaho and Montana (San Francisco, 1890), Annual Re- ports of Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions (Washington); Cataldo, .4 Numipu or Nez Perci Grammar (De Smet, 1891) ;

Chittenden, American Fur Trade (New York, 1902), Annual Reports of the Commissioner Indian Affairs (Washington) ; Cox, Adventures on the Columbia (New York, 1832); De Smet, Li/e, Letters, and Travels, ed. Chittenden and Richardson (4 vols.] New York, 1905) ; Henry and Thompson, New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest, ed. Coues (3 vols., New York, 1897); Irving, Rocky Mountains (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1837); Idem, Astoria (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1836); Lewis and Clark, Original Journals (1804-6), ed. Thwaites, 7 vols, and atlas (New Ycrk, 1904-.5); McBbth, Nez Percis since Lewis and Clark (New York, 1908); Mooney, The Ghost-Dance Religion, 14th Rept. Bur. Am. Ethnology, II (Washington, 1896); Parker, Jour- nal of Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains (Auburn, 1846); Ross, Adventures on the Columbia (London, 1849), reprint in Thwaites, Early Western Travels, VII (Cleveland, 1904); Idem, Fur Hunters of the Far West (2 vols., London, 1855); Spaulding, Nez Percis First Book (Lapwai, 1839); Idem, Primer in the Nez Perces Lan- guage (Lapwai, 1840); Idem, Gospel of Matthew in Nez Percis Language (Clearwater, Lapwai, 1845); Spinden, Myths of the Nez Perce Inds. in Jour. Arri. Folk Lore, XXI (Boston, 1908); Idem, The Nez Perce Indians in Memoirs Am. Anthrop. Assn., II, pt. iii (Lancaster, 1908) ; Stevens, Report in Rept. Comsner. Ind. Affairs for 1854 (Washington, 1855); Idem, Narrative and final Report in Pacific R.R. Reports, XII, B. 1 (Washington, 1860) ; Van Gorp, Dictionary of the Numipu or Nez Perci Language (St. Ignatius, Montana, 1895); Wyeth, Correspondence and Journals, ISSl-B; Sources of the History of Oregon, 1, pts. iii-vi in Oregon Hist. Soc. (Eugene, Oregon, 1899).

James Mooney.

Sahara, Vicariate Apostolic of. — The Sahara is a vast desert of northern Africa, measuring about 932 miles from north to south and 2484 miles from east to west, and dotted with oases which are centres of pop- ulation. Eight years after the journey of the famous Duveyrier (1859-61), which had important scientific results, Pius IX (6 Aug., 1868) appointed the Arch- bishop of Algiers, Mgr Lavigerie, delegate Apostolic of the Sahara and the Sudan. In the same year the Jesuits established themselves at Laghouat, the ex- tremity occupied by French arms. In 1871 they sent to Mgr Lavigerie a long report in which they ad- vocated the establishment of dispensaries and schools. In 1872 Father Charmetant and two other White leathers (Missionary Fathers of Africa of Algi(>rs) re- placed the Jesuits at Laghouat. In 1873 the White Fathers established themselves at Biskra, Ouargla, Touggart, and Gerryville. Later a station was founded at Melili in Mzab. Two successive attempts were made by the White Fathers to reach the Sudan by crossing the Sahara, thus reaching Timbuktu, a large market for black slaves, there to join in the st niggle against slavery. The first attemi)t was made in December, 1878, by Fathers Menoret, Paulmier, and Bouchand; they were slain in April, 1876, by their Touarag guides, being the first martyrs of the Society of White Fathers, and the cause of their beatification was introduced at Rome in 1909. After this disaster the White Fathers founded two stations, not farther north in the desert, but to the north-east, at Tripoli and Ghadames. The massacre of the explorer Flat- ters and his companions (1880-81) did not discourage the White Fathers in their second attempt to cross the Sahara. In 1881 Father Richard set out from Gha- dames, having become so Arabian in speech and bear- ing that no one suspected his nationality. He in- tended to establish himself with Fathers Morat and Pouplard at Ghat in the midst of the desert, but all thr(>e were assassinated.

The White Fathers then left Ghadames. On 25 March, 1890, while the Brussels conference against slavery was being held, Mgr Lavigerie explained in a letter to Keller that to eradicate in Africa the great corporation of the Senoussi, which protected the slave-trade, the Sahara must be crossed, and he an nounced the opening at Biskra, at the entrance to the Sahara, of a house whic-h he called the House of God, intended for the formation of the "Brothers of the Sahara", or "Pioneers of the Sahara", who would be engaged in charitable works and in extending hospi- tality to travellers, the sick, and fugitive slaves. The Pioneers of the Sahara had to live as religious, but without monastic vows. As early as February, 1891, the station at Ouargla, suppressed in 1876, was re-