Confessions

Out of all the sacraments practiced by the Jesuits on the Columbia Plateau, Confession was the one which took up the most of their time. The Jesuit often spent their days hearing the confessions of white settlers as well as confessions from the Native Amercians. Many of the Native Americans did not understand the concept of this sacrament and most of them could not speak English. This image is an example of a "cheat sheet" with translations of common questions for Confession from English to Kalispel. The Jesuits would use sheets like these to ensure the Confession was done properly even with the language barrier.

This is an above ground view of the Corpus Christi procession after leaving St. Andrews Mission in Pendleton Washington. Throughout many Jesuit readings, particularly in a letter from Fr. Caruana to Fr. Cataldo sent in 1882, we see that many of the struggles the Jesuits faced in Christianizing the Native people on the Columbia Plateau came from the sheer size of the land compared to Europe, "There are only two Fathers at this missionin charge of a territory three hundred miles long by two hundred and fifty in width" (Joseph M. Caruana, "Indian Missions – The Rocky Mountains," The Woodstock Letters, Vol. 11, 1882, pg 269). Leaders of the Jesuits assumed that only a few Jesuits would be able to Christianize and perform the sacrament of Confession for eveyone in a region because there were not many people. But often times, the priests needed to travel many miles to only reach a few people at a time which made this process significantly slower. This photo provides an excellent reference for the sheer scale of the Columbia Plateau.