Father Pierre-Jean De Smet was a Roman Catholic priest who was active in missionary work among the Native American Indian tribes in the western US. He became known as a “Friend of Sitting Bull.”

1801
Pierre De Smet was born in Belgium.

1821
He came to America and began his novitiate near Baltimore, Maryland.

1827
Pierre De Smet attended a seminary school where he decided to become a missionary and was ordained into the Society of Jesus.

1824 – 1830
Father De Smet studied the Indian culture for some time, learning their customs and other important information about the tribes.

1839
He married Ignace Los Angeles Mousse, a young Iroquois Indian. Marrying into the Flathead tribe brought about the interest of the tribe for him to minister them.

1840
De Smet traveled to the Flathead camp in the Bitterroot Valley. The tribe welcomed him and he decided to build a permanent mission at this site. He left a month later for St. Louis to obtain the money and builders needed to erect the mission.

1841
Father De Smet returned to the Flatheads and began teaching the Indians about agriculture. St. Mary’s Mission was established.

1868
De Smet continued to work with the missions, and in this year he talked to Sitting Bull and got him to accept the Treaty of Fort Laramie.