As was the custom in the nineteenth century, the first nations section of the cemetery was separated from the "white" section, this one at the far western edge of the cemetery. Surrounded by a wire fence on all but the est side, it blends into the rest of the cemetery's western side. There are no longer any grave markers, the originals being simple wood crosses which have long since returned to the earth from whence they came.
Today the original (contributing) components of the mission consist of the restored chapel/residence (Logs from the first mission were utilized to build the present church.), Father Ravalli's log house/pharmacy, Chief Victor's cabin, the cemetery, including Father Ravalli's grave, the Indian Burial Plot, and two trees, Father Ravalli's Crabapple Tree and Wolf River Apple Tree, as well as a stone survey marker marking the cemetery’s east boundary.
In order to preserve the original chapel a new church was built on the site in 1954. Beside it is the church's bell, hung in a stand alone bell tower. Both contribute to the historic district.
Indian Burial Plot
Indian Burial Plot (one contributing site)
A post and barbed wire fence encloses the north, south, and west sides of this cemetery that includes approximately one-half acre. The east border blends into St. Mary’s Cemetery. A rough wooden cross in the center of the south half, approximately 15 feet high, has the words “Indian Graves” carved into the crossbeam. A second large redwood marker in the north half reads: "
In Prayerful Remembrance of the Brave Hearts Sleeping in the Shadow of St. Mary’s.” The crosses were placed prior to 1973. They commemorate not only those buried in the cemetery, but those whose graves lie scattered among the surrounding mountains and foothills. Although wooden crosses once marked some of the burial places, today there are no marked graves, and grass carefully mown covers the ground. Centered against the fence on the back, west edge, is a modern granite monument listing the names of ancestors and the following words:
DEDICATED BY THE SALISH CULTURE COMMITTEE OF THE CONFEDERATED SALISH AND KOOTENAI TRIBES TO OUR SALISH ANCESOTRS WHO LIVED HUNTED FISHED AND PRAYED IN THE BITTERROOT VALLEYS AND MOUNTAINS.
From the NRHP Nomination Form
The story of St. Mary's Mission begins in 1823, when twelve Iroquois, employed as trappers by the Hudson's Bay Company, remained with the Salish through the winter of 1823-24. Exposed to Christianity 200 years previous, they told the Salish stories of Christianity and of the "Black Robes", the missionaries who taught them. The Salish proved to be an interested audience and, between 1831 and 1839 they sent four delegations to St. Louis in an attempt to obtain a Black Robe of their own.
On September 24, 1841, Father Pierre Jean DeSmet, together with his fellow Jesuit missionaries, Fathers Gregory Mengarini and Nicolas Point, and three Lay Brothers arrived in the Bitterroot valley with their belongings and supplies in three carts and a wagon, the first vehicles to enter the area. They established the first white settlement in what was to become Montana, on the east bank of the Bitterroot river, immediately west of the present town of Stevensville.
The fathers built two chapels, residences and outbuildings, and began farming, planting wheat, oats, potatoes and garden crops. From Fort Vancouver they brought into Montana the first cattle, swine and poultry. A third chapel was under construction by 1846 but soon trouble with the Blackfeet forced the closure of the mission, the entirety being sold in November 1850 to John Owen, a former army sutler, for $250.00.
It was sixteen years later (1866) when Father Joseph Giorda, Superior for the Rocky Mountain area, called back Father Ravalli and Brother William Claessens and re-established St. Mary's Mission about a mile south of Fort Owen. Brother Claessens built a little chapel, the fourth he had built for St. Mary's, to which he attached a study, dining room, kitchen and a story and a half barn. Father Giorda made the "new" St. Mary's the Jesuit mission headquarters for the Rocky Mountain province. In 1879 an addition to the front of the building doubled the size of the chapel. (The entire Mission complex has been restored to that date - the peak of its beauty.)
The mission served the Salish people until their forced removal in 1891, during that time teaching them methods of farming and gardening to aid in their survival following the demise of the buffalo.
A Visitor's Center with gift shop, research library, art gallery and museum was built on the site in 1996.
Italicized sections above are from
St. Mary's Mission, Inc.