Cda Tribe Hosts Yearly Pilgrimage Masses, Feast Mark Cataldo Mission Trip

Fri., Aug. 12, 1994

By Richard Roesler richr@spokesman.com

Continuing a 60-year-old tradition, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe will hold its annual pilgrimage to the Cataldo Mission on Sunday and Monday.

The two-day encampment at Old Mission State Park celebrates the Aug. 15 Feast of the Assumption, in honor of the Virgin Mary, said Father Thomas Connolly, a Jesuit priest who ministers to the tribe. Most of the Coeur d’Alenes are Catholic.

The pilgrimage also symbolizes the Indians’ return to their ancestral lands, Connolly said. The tribe left the Cataldo Mission area 30 years after building it in 1848, he said, due to encroaching mine activity.

Tribal members will begin setting up camp today in the parking lot below the mission, tribal press secretary Bob Bostwick said. Events start Sunday with swimming at the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River, an 8 p.m. Catholic Mass, and Indian stick games expected to last throughout the night.

On Monday, there will be a procession to the cemetery, followed by an 11 a.m. Mass. The free feast will start at noon, with the tribe serving elk meat, venison, frybread, corn and other traditional foods.

At 2 p.m., tribal members will perform a scene from a pageant about Chief Circling Raven. In a vision, the chief foresaw the arrival of the Catholic missionaries, or “Black Robes,” with crossed sticks. Father Joseph Desmet arrived in 1842, and the tribe converted.

During the celebration, Idaho Bishop Tod Brown will conduct a blessing for the mission site cleanup. The site is contaminated with lead and other metals washed from old Silver Valley mining operations. The tribe hopes to begin cleanup this fall.

“It’s more or less a spiritual start to the cleanup,” said Bostwick.

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