Sacred Encounters: Father De Smet and the Indians of the Rocky Mountain West [Paperback]

Jacqueline Peterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1993

For nearly 350 years after Columbus's landing, the remote Northern Rocky mountain homeland of the Flathead and Coeur d'Alene tribes remained a safe haven, virtually unmapped and unexplored by whites. But heralded by Indian prophecies and a request for missionaries, in 1841, the Belgian-born Jesuit Pierre-Jean De Smet arrived among the Flathead, or Salish, in western Montana. His dream of founding an empire of Christian Indians sparked instead a confrontation and dialogue between two sacred worlds: an invasion of the heart.

In full color, with two hundred illustrations, Sacred Encounters captures on the page the emotional tension, drama, and multiple voices of the exhibition of the same title. With the collaboration of more than one hundred Native American, Jesuit, curatorial, and academic consultants, Sacred Encounters bridges the fine arts, history, and ethnography to evoke the ongoing dialogue between Christianity and traditional Indian belief that produced new ways of life and new ways of believing for native and newcomer alike.

Among the illustrations are photographs of newly discovered drawings and watercolors by Jesuit artist Nicolas Point; maps by De Smet and Indian mapmakers; rare battle drawings by the Salish warrior Five Crows; and mid nineteenth-century Plateau and Plains Indian artifacts associated with the travels of De Smet, the Audubon expedition, fur trader Robert Campbell, and Canadian artist Paul Kane.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jacqueline Peterson is director and curator of Sacred Encounters, a multimedia traveling exhibition that opened at the Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Montana, in April 1993. She is an Associate Professor of History and Native American Studies at Washington State University, Pullman and Vancouver, and the author, with Jennifer S. H. Brown, of The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Metis in North America, and of articles about the Metis, the fur trade, and Indian women and religion. Knighted by the king of Belgium for her work on Father De Smet, she currently resides in Portland, Oregon.

Product Details

• Paperback: 194 pages
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press (November 15, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806125764
• ISBN-13: 978-0806125763
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #654,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars FATHER DE SMET AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS INDIANS, March 26, 2011

By 

Kay's Husband (Virginia, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Sacred Encounters: Father De Smet and the Indians of the Rocky Mountain West (Paperback)

If you are reading these words of mine you must have some interest in Father De Smet or the Rocky Mountains Indians, or both. Let me state that I purchased a copy of this hard-cover book as soon as it was printed and have never regretted the purchase. Having several books on the shelf from the University of Oklahoma Press on Father De Smet I relished a 'picture book' to accompany them. The authors of this book may not appreciate my calling this a 'coffee table' book of sorts, but that is just what it is for me. What a glorious coffee table book.

There may exist something, somewhere, that exceeds this book illustrating the world of Father De Smet, however, I've yet to encounter it. Other than obtaining a couple books from University of Oklahoma Press on "Belgian-born Jesuit Pierre-Jean De Smet" and his work in the American West and wanting to know more of this fascinating black-robed man and his work, I cannot say 'why' the interest is there. Being a non-Jesuit there is no religious tie in, just my interest in a historical figure, the American West, and the Rocky Mountain Indians. If you have any of those interests too, then do I have a book to suggest to you. This particular one, in fact.

Majoring in anthropology, I find this book to be chocked full of not only history, but culture and ethnology. There are photographs, maps, craft works, quill work, cradle boards, all manner of handiwork and artifacts. One could go almost forever, with so many of them in color. I find the book just simply astounding and have never tired of just browsing through it even after all these years (bought in 1993 as soon as it rolled off the press).

No words of mine could ever do this volume justice. Should you have any interest you may need to obtain a copy as I did those long years back. You probably will not regret it, I know I never have. A beautiful book. The authors have done something truly valuable bringing this to us and added greatly to that area's history.

Read on, book-a-roos.

Semper Fi.

5.0 out of 5 stars Coffee table book to be proud of, December 20, 2011

By 

MarthaK - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sacred Encounters: Father De Smet and the Indians of the Rocky Mountain West (Paperback)

Sacred encounters is an awesome book to learn about the Rocky Mountain Indians, their culture and faith. We got interested after moving to the Northwest and reading The life of Fr. DeSmet,S.J. Apostle of the Rocky Mountains, and are in awe of this Jesuit. We purchased every book we can find on the subject because we are partial to Christianity and how the Indians were Christianized by this great, holy man.