Oblates of Mary Immaculate

 Pioneer Missionaries in Alaska

by Fr. Louis L. Renner, S.J.

The first Catholic missionary incursions into the Alaskan mainland were made by members of the religious congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary.   The first Catholic priest to enter Alaska was the 28 year-old Father Jean Séguin, OMI.

On Sept. 23,1862, Fr. Séguin arrived at Fort Yukon - a trading post, at the time, at the confluence of the Yukon and Porcupine Rivers. He dedicated his "mission" there to his

patron saint, St. John the Evangelist. He spent a fruitless, humiliating winter there.  The chief trader at the post did not approve of Catholic activities; and, while he shared his table with the Anglican minister, he relegated the Oblate Father to the servants’ quarters for lodging and meals.   The humiliation meant nothing to Fr. Séguin personally, but the effect of this social snub on his relations with the Indians, who judged by appearances, was damaging.  He left Fort Yukon on June 3, 1863, to return to Canada.

During the summer of 1870, Fr. Emile Petitot spent some time at Fort Yukon.  H, too, met with little success in what was by now Anglican territory.  It was in response to a call for priests made by Francois Mercier – a devout French-Canadian Catholic trader from Montreal – that the Oblates first entered Alaska.  Mercier feared that Protestant missionaries would soon take over the whole Yukon River country.

On Sept. 11, 1872, two years after Fr. Petitot had returned to Canada, Oblate Bishop Isidore Clut of the Athabaska-Mackensie diocese, accompanied by future Oblate Fr. August Lecorre, set out from the mission of Good Hope in Canada for Fort Yukon.

One month later, on Oct. 13, and "extremely tired," they arrived at the fort, where they were cordially received by its officers, most of whom were Catholic. The two spent the winter at the fort, where they devoted most of their time to the study of the Native language.  Since the Indians had already been converted to the Anglican Church, there was little missionary work for them to do.

On May 15,1873, the two left Fort Yukon, with St. Michael as their ultimate destination. On May 20, they arrived at Nuklukayet, today's Tanana, where they spent two weeks instructing Indians and baptizing children. Bishop Clut reported "a great victory" there - the baptism of the children of the two most powerful ‘chiefs,’ plus that of 26 other children.

At Nuklukayet Bishop Clut celebrated the first pontifical Mass ever celebrated in Alaska.  It was celebrated, according to Mercier, "in the presence of several hundred savages, come from everywhere to sell me their furs. My house being too small to hold so many people, this beautiful ceremony took place in open air, in front of my house, on the bank of the Youkon [sic], and produced a strong impression on the spirit of the savages, who had never seen anything so beautiful.

In the company of Mercier, and on his boat, Bishop Clut and Fr. Lecorre, on June 4, left Nuklukayet for St. Michael. Along the way they baptized 116 children. On June 20, the party reached St. Michael. Here the bishop spent two weeks. After studying the situation, he concluded that St. Michael would be an excellent place for the establishment of a permanent mission in that part of Alaska. Two reasons in particular were in St. Michael's favor as a headquarters for Catholic missionary activity: there were at the time neither Russian nor Protestant ministers active in the area; and Mercier, as the newly appointed chief agent for the Alaska Commercial Company, would be making St. Michael his center of operations. Leaving Fr. Lecorre in charge at St. Michael, Bishop Clut, on July 7, 1873, departed again upriver for Canada. He was the first Catholic bishop to set foot in Alaska. At the time of his Alaskan trip, he was Auxiliary Bishop to the Vicar Apostolic of Athabaska-Mackenzie.

Fr. Lecorre - at this time still a diocesan priest - spent the winter 1873-74 at St. Michael. It is reasonably assumed that while there, he made missionary excursions to lower Yukon River and Yukon Delta villages, as well as to Unalakleet. In the summer of 1874, he received letters informing him that Alaska had been placed under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the bishop of Vancouver Island, Charles J. Seghers, and directing him to choose between serving as a priest at the disposal of Bishop Seghers or returning to his own mission. He chose the latter, and sailed for San Francisco. Some time later he joined the Oblates.

Since the time of those early-day Oblate pioneer Alaskan missionaries, other members of that congregation have served, and are serving, in Alaska. From February 1931  to January 1932, Fr. Joseph Allard,  OMI, served as pastor of Sacred Heart parish in Seward. After that he worked with the Tlingit Indian people of Sitka and Hoonah. In the early 1960's, Fr. Henk Huijbers, OMI, out of Burwash Landing, Yukon Territory, Canada, tended to St. Ann's mission in Northway on a regular basis. Over the years, other Oblate priests have served in Alaska, mostly in the panhandle and for short periods of time.

In our day there are Oblates in Alaska. Roger L. Schwietz, OMI, has been Archbishop of Anchorage since March 3,2001. He is ably assisted by his fellow Oblate, Bro. Craig Bonham. Fr. Tom Killeen is pastor of St. Joseph parish in Cordova, and Fr. Gerald Brunet is pastor of Holy Family parish in Glennallen, as well as Native Ministry Director in Anchorage. Frs. Tony Dummer and Jim Blaney are serving in the Diocese of Juneau. Fr. Dummer is pastor of the St. Paul the Apostle parish, Juneau; Fr. Blaney is pastor of the Skagway and Haines parishes.

-Fr. Renner is a member of the Jesuit Community at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA.

(Courtesy of OMI USA, vol. 5, no. 4)