L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 22 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear readers, Novem- ber, the month we cel- ebrate Thanksgiving and recall how, on a raw December day in 1620, when the ground was cov- ered with snow, and spray from the sea froze as the wind dashed it upon the shore, a small ship anchored in Plymouth Bay, on the rocky cast of New England. The little vessel, called the Mayflower, was crowded with the Pilgrims, who had come to live in the New World. It was a bad time to begin a settlement. The Pilgrims almost froze before they could build cabins to live in. Nearly a year would have to go by before they could raise grain and vegetables, and many a night they went to bed hungry. One day a Native walked into the camp and called out:"Welcome, Englishmen!" He had learned a little English from fishermen along the Massachusetts shore. A few days later Samoset returned with another Native, named Squanto. He could speak English very well. He told the Pilgrims that his chief wished to live in friendship with them and would sell them corn. Squanto's people sold the Pilgrims corn and meat and taught them how to hung and trap game. They gave the Pilgrims in Massachusetts the same sort of help that Pochaontas' father gave the Jamestown settlers in Virginia years, earlier in 1607. The first Thanksgiving. When Spring came, the worst of the troubles were over. The Pilgrims raised good crops, and, when Fall came around, their barns were full of corn, pump- kins, and beans. So they set aside a day of thanksgiving to give thanks to God for his blessings. And down to this day Americans have followed the example of the Pilgrims in giving a day once a year to thanksgiving. *** A few Italians are coming, so let us fast forward to the 1800s. In 1801-1809, our third president Thomas Jefferson, aware that US land when the War for Independence ended, extended on the West no farther than the Mississippi River, wanted to buy the land west of river from France, but Napoleon was not interested in selling. (Spain owned a narrow strip of territory along the northern shore of the Gulf or Mexico). The United States did not own one bank of the Mississippi River as far as its mouth, and the nation that owned the mouth could, at any moment, stop the Westerners from taking their goods to the Gulf. Finalmente, when Napoleon needed money and after much haggling, the price was fixed at fifteen million dollars (1803). The "Louisiana Purchase" included not only Louisiana, but eight other large states, four smaller ones and also moved the boundary of the United Staes Westward to the Rocky Mountains. Pres. Jefferson ordered the formation of the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Far West. They met many Native tribes and Jesuits brought them Christianity. *** In 1831, some thirty years after the Salish tribe, (called the Flathead Head Indians by the Lewis and Clark exploratory Far West expedition authorized by Thomas Jefferson) let it be known that they wanted the "Black Robes" (Jesuits) to be sent west to live among them and teach them "the white man's book of heaven," the Christian faith. The US' Jesuit leader at the time, Fr. DeSmet, born in Belgium and educated in theology in Maryland, was based in Missouri. The tribes' location was up near the Canadian border, in what later became Montana, near Missoula, (which later in WWII was where over 1.000 Italian Nationals had been interned, in mid 1941, and shipped by train to Fort Missoula, Montana. Most of San Francisco's internees were members of the Ex-Combattenti, Italian War Veterans in America of World War I, when Italy and America were allies and their main project was collecting funds for war win- dows and orphans in Italy). In Missouri, Father DeSmet after personally confirming the need among the Indians to learn Christianity, requested from his superiors in Europe Jesuits priests willing to come to America and teach them. Several young Jesuits from sunny Italy volunteered. These members of the Society of Jesus, founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola, dedicated their lives to "missionary work" and faced many unknown hardships and challenges in the months and years ahead. Among the Italian Volunteer "pioneers for Christianity" were Fr. Giorda, born 1823 in Piemonte, Italy, Fr. Ravalli, born in 1812 in Ferrara, and Fr. Mengarini born in 1810 in Rome. All these Jesuits priests had many special skills that helped them survive and build their missions. Fr. Giorda, from Piemonte ,was a linguist and scholar who knew several Native languages and dialects. He founded several Missions in Montana that, by 1852, were serving the Blackfoot, Nez Perce and Yakima tribes. In 1866, he reopened St.Mary's Mission to the Flathead Indians, which his predecessors had been forced to close. His last posting was as superior of the Rocky Mountain Missions. Fr. Giorda was buried 1882, in Helena, Montana. Fr. Ravalli, from Ferrara, was a physician, artist and mechanically inclined, so he was able to handle tools and implements with case. He began his missionary life in Oregon, but in 1845 was assigned to serve with Fr. Gregorio Mengarini at St. Mary's Mission in Montana. Fr. Ravalli's skills saved the mission when he built a miniature flour mill, powered by water for the purpose of using the crops (wheat and potatoes) they grew for bread making. He also built a small sawmill there and a small still to extract alcohol for medici- nal purposes. Fr. Ravalli was Montana's first physician and from his small dispensary he con- cocted powders and healing medi- cines. St. Mary's Mission was closed in 1850, but Fr. Ravalli returned in 1867 when it reopened. He died and was buried at St. Mary's in 1884. In his honor and memory, both a town and a county in Montana bear his name.

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