Gu Professor Tells Remarkable Story Of Itinerant Missionary John De Smet

September 10, 1995, Book Notes column: “Father Peter John DeSmet: Jesuit in the West” was written by Robert C. Carriker, professor of history at Gonzaga University.

Robert Carricker, professor of history at Gonzaga University, is the author of three books of western history. The latest is “Father Peter John De Smet: Jesuit in the West” (Univ. Of Oklahoma Press, 266 pages, $24.95).

Carricker’s book looks at the life of a man, born in Belgium, who spent that life bringing his religion to the natives of the American West.

Born Jan. 30, 1801, De Smet was the fifth child of a prosperous businessman. Caught up by the proselytizing fervor of a Catholic missionary, De Smet volunteered to head for the United States in 1821 to work with Indians.

He eventually made his way to the Northwest, establishing several missions among such tribes as the Flatheads, Kalispels and Coeur d’Alenes.

De Smet eventually traveled some 180,000 miles in his lifetime, some by boat, some by wagon and horse, but much of it by foot. When he died on May 23, 1873, an obituary in the Missouri Republican described him as one of the “world’s most enterprising missionaries of Christian civilization.”

He was, by all accounts - and especially by Carricker’s - a remarkable man. As Richard W. Etulain wrote in the book’s preface, “Father De Smet, although embedded in his times, was no racist bigot demanding attitudes and actions that would superimpose white ways and reduce Indians to third-class peoples.”

Carricker’s book, Etulain continued, “is a full and engrossing portrait of an important westerner who did much to illuminate and shape western history for more than a generation.”

On the shelves

Author Jamil Brownson calls those forests that lay thickly on the northernmost regions of Europe, Asia and North America the “Northern Rim.” In his book “Cold Margins” (Northern Rim Press, 231 pages, $17.95 paperback), Brownson argues that the areas call for a more careful kind of development: an ecologically conscious development that allows for sustainability.

Brownson, who earned a Ph.D. from Simon Fraser University, is a research fellow at the University of Montana. Northern Rim Press is based in Missoula.

What if that nagging cold was more than just a minor ailment? What if it were a message to you from your body? A message, perhaps, about inner conflict?

“The Body Language of Illness” (Evergreen Press, 220 pages, $14.95 paperback) is Spokane resident Eleanor Limmer’s take on the symbolic meaning of illness.

“Healing an illness involves asking what that meaning is, deciphering the symbolic messages of the body, then responding to these messages by making the changes that are indicated,” Limmer writes.

Limmer, a licensed clinical counselor, will sign copies of her book at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 11 at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.

Rescheduled reading

Mona Lake Jones, a Lewis and Clark High School graduate who is now Seattle’s multicultural poet laureate, will be the keynote speaker at the YWCA World Mutual Services Luncheon at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 12. The luncheon had been scheduled for a later date.

Talking writing

Sandpoint native Marilynne Robinson, author of the critically acclaimed novel “Housekeeping,” will be a featured presenter at Boise State University’s Writers and Readers Rendezvous to be held Oct. 13-15 in McCall, Idaho.

Robinson will be joined by fellow presenters such as poet Richard Shelton, mystery writer Ridley Pearson, poet Margaret Aho and poet Rick Ardinger.

“If you need to write or love to read, the rendezvous is for you,” says coordinator Clay Morgan, a McCall novelist and author of “Santiago and the Drinking Party.” The rendezvous includes readings, a panel discussion about poetry in Idaho, workshops, sessions with publishers and other literary-minded events.

Registration fees are $100, $125 after Oct. 1. For information, call (208) 385-1709.

The reader board

Craig Lesley, author of “The Sky Fisherman” (Houghton Mifflin, 304 pages, $22.95), will read from the novel at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Auntie’s Bookstore. Lesley, who lives in The Dalles, Ore., is the author of “Winterkill” and “River Song.”

Robert Michael Pyle, author of “Where Bigfoot Lives,” will read from the book at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

, DataTimes