During the first part of the nineteenth century, the fur trade brought many changes to the American Indian cultures of the Columbia Plateau. The fur traders brought with them a number of Iroquois Indians who had been educated by the Catholics and these Iroquois passed on some knowledge of Catholicism to the Salish-speaking Indians of the region. As a result, the Flatheads in western Montana sent delegations to St. Louis asking that a Blackrobe (Jesuit missionary) be sent to them. In 1840, the Jesuit Pierre-Jean De Smet arrived among the Flathead and Pend d’Oreilles. In 1841, three Coeur d’Alene men travelled to see the Jesuit missionary Father De Smet. They asked him to send the Black Robes (Jesuits) to their people.
In 1842, the Jesuits sent Father Nicholas Point to establish a mission among the Coeur d’Alene. Jerry Camarillo Dunn, in his book The Smithsonian Guide to Historic America: The Rocky Mountain States, writes:
“The mission had some success, although Father Point himself was dismayed by what he saw as his flock’s dirtiness, idolatry, and ‘moral abandonment.’”
In 1843, Father Nicholas Point and the Jesuit brother Charles Huet established a mission on the St. Joe River to serve the Coeur d’Alene. At this time Father Point noted that the Coeur d’Alene were living in 27 villages around Lake Coeur d’Alene.
In 1846, Father Joseph Joset was placed in charge of the Catholic mission among the Coeur d’Alene. He moved the mission to a knoll beside the Coeur d’Alene River. Historian John Fahey, in his book Saving the Reservation: Joe Garry and the Battle to be Indian, reports:
“The Coeur d’Alenes’ Catholicism fused with their ancient practices; they blended the white religion with their native songs and ceremonies.”
In 1850, the Jesuits built a permanent church for the Coeur d’Alene. Geographer and archaeologist Donald Tuohy, in an article in Idaho Yesterdays, writes of the Cataldo Mission:
“The massive, judiciously ornate, architecture embodied in the church building is a fitting symbol of the Jesuits’ contribution to Anglo-American settlement of the Northwest.”
The Cataldo Mission, by the way, was named for Giuseppe Cataldo, a Sicilian priest.
While the mission building was designed by Italian-born Father Anthony Ravalli, the labor was provided by the Coeur d’Alene. Willard Robinson, in an article in Idaho Yesterdays, reports:
“For tools they possessed a broadaxe, an augur, ropes, and pullies. Sawing was done with an improvised whipsaw, while planing and shaping is said to have been done with a broadaxe.”
The church took three years to complete and was built without nails.