Evangelization to Canadian natives.

Martha McCarthy, From the Great River to the Ends of the Earth: Oblate Missions to the Dene (1847-1921), Edmonton, University of Alberta Press and Western Canada Publishers, 1995.

The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate played a vital part in the development of the northern and western regions of Canada, yet their history has been virtually unknown. Consequently, the congregation established the Western Oblate History Project in 1986 to provide funds for several anthologies and a series of critical research studies directed towards the Oblate experience in the Canadian North West. The first volume in the series, Les Oblates de Marie Immaculee dans l'Ouest et le Nord du Canada, 1847-1921, is by Martha McCarthy.

Martha McCarthy holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Manitoba where her 1981 doctoral thesis, "The Missions of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to the Athapaskans, 1846-1870," became a standard reference. Following the completion of that scholarly endeavour, McCarthy became more familiar with Native history and gained a closer, personal relationship with the people about whom she had written by visiting the Dene where they lived. These attributes made McCarthy an ideal candidate for the Western History Project. Her study provides a sensitive and significant history of the Oblates and of the part played by the Dene in the mission process in the Mackenzie Basin.

This particular work analyses various stages of Oblate-Dene interaction. The first stage focuses on the interdependence between the two disparate groups. McCarthy explains that the zeal of the Oblates stemmed from their work in home missions, established to re-orientate the people of Provence in Southern France to the Catholic religion in the aftermath of the French Revolution. This involved having to learn the Provencal language and to adopt techniques that facilitated communication with non-literate people. These were the methods the Oblates transported to evangelize the Dene of the Great River of Canada's North, mindful of the biblical reference to the River Euphrates. The Oblates intended to share their faith and to incorporate the Dene into the ages-old, hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church.

On the other hand, as McCarthy points out, the Dene, "the people," were steeped in their own traditions, "adapting their own faith and culture over thousands of years." Living a communal life, they relied upon each other and on the land and its gifts for sustenance and survival. To them the Dehcho, the Great River (named Mackenzie by the European Canadians), "was a constant part of their lives, worthy of religious esteem as the source of their existence and connection with the spirits." The Dene were convinced of the need for a balanced relationship among people, animals, plants, and spirits. Thus religion was integrated into their being by means of sacred traditions passed on through storytellers, dreams, and hunting practices.

When the Dene met the Oblates, their society had already undergone significant alteration because of their involvement in the fur trade economy, but their religion was unchanged. During the initial stages of contact, the Oblates depended upon the Dene and the Metis for the provision of food, for transportation, and for labour at the mission posts. The Oblates learned from the native people the basic elements for survival in a harsh and foreign environment: how to hunt and fish; how to build shelter; and how to use snowshoes.

Education and health care were important aspects of the second stage of Oblate/Dene interaction. McCarthy describes a progression in mission activity related to these fields. Communication techniques that appealed to the Native people and the use of Dene and Metis lay leadership assisted in the evangelization process. However, a more formal approach was required to compete with the efforts of the Anglican Church Missionary Society. The Oblates established schools in which, with the assistance of the Grey Nuns, children were taught reading, writing, and arithmetic in French or English; religion was taught in the Native language. It was in the mission schools "that the clash of cultures became much more evident."

Often the Oblates, the brothers and the sisters, worked under adverse circumstances to staff the residential schools, the funding of which drained the Church's financial resources. Infirmaries were set up to deal with sickness among the people. But communicable diseases in Dene settlements orphaned many children, who became permanent residents in the schools, adding to operational expenses. While the residential school experience was beneficial for some children, displacement from their families and traditional life-style made a return to community living problematic.

In the third or final stage of Oblate/Dene relationship, McCarthy depicts "an increasingly separate life-style." Early on, it was the intermediatory role played by the Metis and the Dene with the Hudson's Bay Company that advanced the mission status of the Oblates. But later the roles reversed. When the Hudson's Bay Company, knowledgeable in the ways of the Native peoples after centuries of trade, transferred sover-eignty over the territories to the Canadian government, it was the Oblates who interceded on behalf of the Dene with a far-removed bureaucracy.

In this study, Dr. McCarthy has contributed greatly to the writing of religious history in Canada. While she shows a depth and understanding of the Oblates' missionary work, she also presents a balanced view of the Dene response. With respect to the Catholicism preached by the Oblates to the Dene, McCarthy contends that it had a profound impact on their lives and outlook, though they were free to accept, reject or change it.