Father Baraga - the snowshoe priest - Part 1

 Wednesday, February 28th, 2024
 There is a massive and impressive statue of Father Baraga at the head of Keweenaw Bay near the small town of Baraga. This statue is a fitting monument to a great priest and is well worth the effort to visit should you venture north to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

 I might add there are efforts to have Father Baraga canonized. Despite whether one believes that any man is worthy of the lofty title of saint, most will admit that Father Baraga was a gifted and tenacious soul, tromping through deep snow and ferocious cold to bring the Catholic faith to the Native Americans.

 The Snowshoe Priest also was the originator of the first Chippewa dictionary (circa July 8, 1853).

 He explored in the wild and rugged Upper Peninsula, and his efforts are well-documented. This history makes a wonderful read on a frigid night as the ice hardens and booms on Lake Superior, and as wild williwaws sweep across this magnificent inland sea.

 (Near the shores of Keweenaw Bay, Lake Superior)

 It was an unusually warm day and what a citizen of the Upper Peninsula would notice was that the ice, normally solid, was mostly devoid of the solid barrier that usually blankets the enormous Lake Superior. Arguably this may be due to climate change, but I will set that issue aside for the moment as there remains much debate in certain circles about the validity of climate change. What is not up for debate is that for centuries the Native Americans have ventured out on the ice for the elusive Lake Trout, endemic to Lake Superior and a staple of their diet.

 Father Baraga (June 29, 1797 - January 19, 1868), often referred to as the Snowshoe Priest, often ventured out on the treacherous lake, not for fish but for souls. The recorded history of this Priest is the stuff of legends regardless of your faith, or lack of it.

 Let me quote just one excerpt from the respectable Reverend Chrysostum Verwyst’s historical biography, Life and Labors of Reverend Frederic Baraga, published in 1900.

 From a Fr. Chebul note: (no date given in diary)

 “One time F[ather] Baraga was going to Ontonagon in company with an Indian half breed in the month of March or April. At that season of the year the ice, though thick, becomes honey-combed and rotten. Some say that Baraga’s companion was a man named Newagon. They went on the ice at LaPointe Island. As the walking on the beach would have been very fatiguing and long, they determined to make straight for Ontonagon over the ice, becoming detached from the shore, began drifting lakeward. After they had traveled for some time they became aware of what happened, for they could see the blue water between them and the shore. Newagon became greatly alarmed, for almost certain death stared them in the face. Had the wind continued blowing in the same direction, the ice would have been driven out into the lake and broken up into small fragments. They would surely have perished. To encourage the drooping spirit of his companion F[ather] Baraga kept telling him that they would escape all right and that they must trust in God, their loving Father and Protector. He also sang Chippewa hymns to divert Newagon’s attention and calm his excitement. Finally, the wind shifted and blew the field of ice back towards shore.

 They landed near Cadotte Pointe, near Union Bay, a short distance from Ontonagon, which they reached the same day. “See,” said the missionary to his companion, “we have traveled a great distance and worked little.” The distance from La Pointe to Ontonagon is about sixty or seventy miles by air line. Had they been obliged to walk the whole distance around the bend of the lake it would probably taken them two or three days of very hard and fatiguing traveling. So what at first seemed to threaten certain death was used by God’s fatherly providence to shorten or facilitate the saintly priest’s journey.”

 Verwyst, pp 221-22.

Note the derogatory use of “half-breed” was purposely left in this quote to keep the diary exactly as written, I apologize for this remark but consider this as accurate to both the diary and to demonstrate the prejudice of this moment in history.